An Efficient Acquisition Scheme for a High Sensitivity Assisted GPS Receiver

Automatic location identification is required for emergency calls in Japan and many other countries. However, promptly providing a reliable position is a problem in places where the global positioning system (GPS) signal is extremely weak. We propose an acquisition scheme for the assisted GPS (AGPS) architecture based on a timing-synchronized mobile network. System errors as well as code uncertainty range and frequency uncertainty range are discussed. With this method, the acquisition search range is significantly reduced, and a long-time coherent correlation is made possible. Simulations and experiments prove that the method is fast, efficient and power-saving for the user handset. Furthermore, the AGPS receiver can perform a short TTFF (Time To First Fix) start even with no ephemeris kept in the handset.