Hardware Design of Receivers for Combined Localization and Wireless Synchronization

Inhalt:
The most promising ways of bringing localization services to GPS denied areas is the use of wireless sensor networks. For sophisticated methods of localization like Time Difference of Arrival (TDoA), a precise synchronization between the wireless sensor nodes is required to prevent a degradation of the achievable accuracy. In this paper a new concept of frequency synchronization for localization applications is introduced. This concept bases on the use of Signals of Opportunity as a reference source of synchronization. After a brief discussion of different realization concepts, the design process of the wireless sensor node hardware is explained. This hardware demonstrator is afterwards used for measurements to show the achievable performance of the wireless frequency synchronization. The Time Deviation (TDEV) is used as a metric for the synchronization performance.