Patent ID: 7307666

Claim:
A method of identifying a transmitter in a distributed digital television transmission network, including a plurality of transmitters and a plurality of receivers, comprising the steps of: a) providing a signal to be transmitted to each transmitter; b) embedding an identification sequence into the signal, indicative of the transmitter of origin, forming a combined transmission; c) transmitting the combined transmission from each transmitter; d) receiving a transmitted signal, including direct combined transmissions from each transmitter, reflected combined transmissions from each transmitter, and noise, at a reception site; and e) determining the transmitter of origin for at least one of the direct and reflected combined transmissions from the transmitted signals; repeating step e) to determine cross-correlation functions with impulses indicative of direct combined transmissions from at least three transmitters; f) determining differential time delays between the direct combined transmissions from the at least three transmitters; and g) determining a geographic location of the reception site based on known geographic locations of the at least three transmitters; wherein step g) includes subtracting any offset time delays between transmitter transmission times.