Patent ID: 7853252

Claim:
A system for determining locations of mobile units including a cellular transceiver and a global positioning receiver used to determine the location of said mobile units using local positioning information using local position correction techniques, said system comprising: a) a communications path comprising at least two layers comprising a control layer and a signaling layer, said communications path further comprising a special signaling layer that can be unmetered and continuous, and said special signaling layer is characterized by one of (1) said special signaling layer resides entirely within said control layer, and (2) said special signaling layer is interleaved across said control layer and said signaling layer, and b) at least one base station configured to: i. receive a local position correction information signal from a local positioning information source, located at a known physical location, wherein the local position correction information signal is based on correcting position information derived from satellite signals; ii. transmit over the special signaling layer said local position correction information signal to said mobile units to enable a respective one of the mobile units to determine the location of said respective mobile unit using the local position correction information signal in conjunction with signals received from satellites by said respective mobile unit; and iii. receive, upon request, over the special signaling layer, from the respective mobile unit, mobile unit position information determined by the respective mobile unit based at least on a signal from the global positioning receiver, and mobile unit identity information; wherein said communications path comprises a dedicated channel that corresponds to a part of the special signaling layer, wherein the at least one base station is configured to both transmit the local position correction information to said mobile units over the dedicated channel, and to receive the mobile position information and the mobile unit identity information from said respective mobile unit over the dedicated channel.