Patent ID: 6891500

Claim:
For a transmitting unit transmitting a signal, a method for determining the time difference of arrival of the a signal received at two or more receiving sites, said method comprising: (a) for the signal received at the two or more receiving sites, determining a frequency domain representation of the signal, wherein the frequency domain representation comprises a two dimensional number for each of a plurality of frequencies, wherein the two dimensional number comprises a phase and a magnitude; (b) determining the time difference of arrival using the two-dimensional numbers for like-frequency component pairs from at least two frequency domain representations; and (c) generating a phase angle versus like-frequency function and determining the time difference of arrival from a slope of the function; (d) determining the location of the transmitting unit from the determined time difference of arrival, wherein a y-intercept of the function represents a frequency offset between the signal received by at least two of the plurality of receiving sites; and (e) for a plurality of transmitting units, determining the transmitting unit of interest using radio frequency signature parameters including the frequency offset.