Patent ID: 8775078

Claim:
A method for navigation of a vehicle using cellular networks, the method comprising: transmitting, with a transmit antenna associated with the vehicle, a transmit signal to a cellular tower; receiving, with a receive antenna associated with the vehicle, a receive signal from the cellular tower containing a cell identification (CID) of the cellular tower; determining, with at least one computer, a location of the cellular tower by looking up the CID of the cellular tower in a lookup table; determining, with the at least one computer, a difference in time from a time the transmit signal was sent by the transmit antenna to a time the receive signal was received by the receive antenna; calculating, with the at least one computer, a distance from the vehicle to the cellular tower by using the difference in time; and refining, with the at least one computer, an estimate of a location of the vehicle by using the location of the cellular tower, the distance from the vehicle to the cellular tower, and an angle of the transmit antenna and the receive antenna such that they are both pointed towards the cellular tower.