摘要 |
The present invention discloses a positioning system and method for locating a roving position receiver (708) within a location network. The positioning system comprises at least one specialised transceiver, termed a positioning-unit device (703, 704, 706), that receives one or more reference positioning signals (705) from at least one reference transmitter (701). Each positioning-unit device (703, 704, 706) generates, in response to the received reference positioning signals (705), a unique positioning signal (709) chronologically synchronised to the reference positioning signals (705). Once a positioning-unit device (703) is chronologically synchronised to a reference transmitter (701), other positioning-unit devices (706) can use its unique positioning signal (707) as a reference positioning signal. The geographical distribution of these chronologically synchronised positioning-unit devices (703, 704, 706) creates a time-coherent network of positioning signals (709) that propagate a reference timebase over a substantial area. The positioning system also includes a roving position receiver (708) which receives the chronologically synchronised positioning signals (709) and calculates its own position without the requirement of differential corrections. |