Patent ID: 6975618

Claim:
A method of determining the position of a wireless device using a wireless network having a plurality of receiver/correlators, each receiver/correlator being positioned at a fixed location in the wireless network, the method comprising: receiving a position request from the wireless device at a first receiver/correlator and recording a receive time; receiving the same position request from the wireless device at a second receiver/correlator and recording a receive time; synchronizing all the receiver/correlators in the plurality of receiver/correlators such that an internal clock in each receiver/correlator is synchronized and syntonized to indicate a same time information, and wherein said synchronizing comprises: transmitting a first synchronization packet from the first receiver/correlator to the second receiver/correlator, the first synchronization packet having a first transmit time at which the packet was transmitted from the first/correlator; receiving the first synchronization packet at the second receiver/correlator and recording the receive time of the first synchronization packet; comparing the first transmit time of the first synchronization packet with the receive time of the first synchronization packet recorded at the second receiver/correlator; synchronizing an internal clock in the second receiver/correlator using a difference between the first transmit time and the receive time of the first synchronization packet, the known locations of the first and second receiver/correlators and a known propagation delay between the first and second receiver/correlators; using the receive time of the position request recorded at the first receiver/correlator, the receive time of the position request recorded at the second receiver/correlator, and the fixed locations of each receiver/correlator to determine the position of the wireless device; and transmitting a position information packet back to the wireless device indicating the global position of the wireless device.