Patent ID: 7030812

Claim:
A method for synchronizing internal clocks of a first pair of first and second receiving stations A and B of a system, comprising the steps of: transmitting a series of reference data packets from a beacon at a known position proximate to a geographical center point of a first pair of first and second receiving stations A and B; assuming that the beacon is at the geographical center point; correlating first arrival times t A , and second arrival times t A , by plotting times t A and t B against each other for the series of reference data packets, a first arrival time t A being a time of reception of a particular reference data packet by receiving station A, a corresponding second arrival time t B being a time of reception of the particular reference data packet by receiving station B; computing a linear polynomial fit t B =m t A +b, where slope m is function of the difference in the frequencies of the internal clocks of the receiving stations A and B and y-intercept b is the offset due to different start times of the internal clocks of the receiving stations A and B; determining a bias for the internal clocks using known difference in distance between the beacon and the receiving stations A and B, synchronizing the internal clocks of the receiving stations A and B according to the slope m, the offset b and the bias.