GPS Receiver Almanac Acquisition via Intermittent Signal Discrimination
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Solution Overview
Problem
GPS receivers face high power consumption when continuously receiving GPS signals, which limits their battery life, and existing solutions that reduce power consumption by receiving almanac pages over multiple days can render data invalid if the user travels significantly during this time.
Innovation Solution
A positioning device that continuously receives all pages of the almanac data while reducing power consumption by intermittently receiving data blocks using a signal discrimination unit to identify and synchronize with unique C/A codes, allowing for precise timing and efficient capture of almanac data without constant reception.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If the GPS receiver continuously receives all almanac pages to ensure data accuracy, then the positioning reliability is improved, but the power consumption increases and battery life decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the almanac data reception process into two phases: an initial continuous reception phase to acquire all almanac pages, and a subsequent intermittent reception phase where only essential data blocks are received. This segmentation allows the system to balance between acquiring complete positioning data and reducing power consumption during normal operation.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent performs preliminary action by receiving all almanac pages continuously during an initialization phase before switching to intermittent reception. This ensures that the positioning system has complete almanac data available before the user begins normal use, preventing positioning failures that would occur if almanac data were incomplete.
2Use of energy by moving object
If the GPS receiver receives almanac pages over multiple days to reduce power consumption, then the power consumption is reduced, but the data may become invalid if the user travels significant distances
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies preliminary action by receiving all almanac pages continuously during an initialization phase before the user travels. This ensures that complete and valid almanac data is acquired and stored in the memory before any travel occurs, preventing the problem where data becomes invalid due to travel during multi-day reception.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent maintains continuity of useful action by ensuring that all almanac data acquisition is completed continuously during the initialization phase, rather than interrupting the process. This continuous acquisition ensures data completeness and validity before the device is put into intermittent reception mode for normal operation.
3Use of energy by moving object
If the GPS receiver receives only essential data blocks to reduce power consumption, then the power consumption is reduced, but the positioning precision may deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the data reception process into essential and non-essential data blocks. The essential blocks include almanac data and ephemeris information necessary for positioning, while non-essential blocks can be omitted during intermittent reception. This segmentation allows the system to maintain positioning precision by receiving only the critical data needed for accurate location determination.
Data Source
AI summary
A positioning device has a reception unit for receiving navigation messages transmitted continuously in a time series from positioning information satellites orbiting the Earth and determines the location of the positioning device based on the navigation messages received by the transmission unit. Each navigation message is segmented into a plurality of data transmission blocks that are transmitted sequentially, a portion of the data transmission blocks carry almanac data containing orbital information for all positioning information satellites including the positioning information satellite transmitting the received navigation message, and the data transmission blocks carrying the almanac data are transmitted non-contiguously. The positioning device also has signal discrimination unit for identifying the start of receiving a data transmission block containing the non-contiguously transmitted almanac data, and identifying the end of receiving the data transmission block containing the almanac data. The reception unit intermittently receives the signals of the data transmission blocks containing the almanac data by receiving the navigation messages in the reception time of the data transmission blocks containing the almanac data identified by the signal discrimination unit.