Importance

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Abstract

A vehicle locating system (VLS) comprises a large number, for example, several million, vehicle-mounted transmitters and several benchmark transmitters; first, second and third signal relay stations and a central processing station at which the transmitter locations are determined, the central station being connected by conventional links to subscriber stations. One hundred microsecond-long RF signals are transmitted by each transmitter in a non-synchronized, mutually random manner. Each signal comprises a 20 microsecond synchronization symbol followed by six, four bit transmitter indentification symbols, each of ten microseconds length. Following the indentification symbols are 10 microsecond message and processing symbols. The control station includes correlation means for correlating the synchronization symbols on each relayed signal against stored data to identify the beginnings of the signals. Identification symbols of each signal are then decoded by correlation means to establish transmitter identification, a combination of 16.sup.6 possible identifications being provided. Signals arriving in the central station are time-tagged upon arrival and the time differences of arrival (TDOA) are used to compute transmitter location. Benchmark transmitter computed locations are used to calibrate the VLS. Means may be provided on the vehicle transmitters to enable the rate of transmissions to be varied, to thereby enable encoding preselected messages relating, for example, to vehicle motion, vehicle crashes and vehicle intrusion/theft, responsive to associated sensors. Alternatively, or in addition, specific, prestored messages may be encoded into the transmitted signals manually or automatically in response to sensor input.

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First Claim