Patent ID: 7565147

Claim:
A method for installing a positioning system, the positioning system comprising two or more base stations the method comprising the steps of: (a) prior to positioning the two or more base stations to their operational positions within a selected environment, symmetrically docking together said two or more base stations at a single symmetrically docketed position, (b) quantifying and recording clock offset information between each of said two or more docked base stations with respect to a center reference base station at said single docked position, (c) relocating one or more of the base stations from said single docketed position to their fixed, operational positions, (d) measuring the time of flight of a signal from each of the relocated base stations to at least one other base station, (e) determining, at said center reference base station from the recorded clock offset information time of flight and the quantified and recorded clock offset a relative separation of the base stations and hence the configuration of the installed positioning system, (f) recording at said center reference base station the configuration of the installed positioning system, and (g) storing the configuration data at each base station.