Enhanced Precision Geolocation in 4G Wireless Networks

The objective of this thesis is to improve the performance of geolocation schema though estimating the speed of light via the refractive index of air, estimating the target velocity, and exercising receiver choice. A method for incorporating the speed of light into geolocation models is proposed in this thesis. A generic receiver choice algorithm is proposed with application to time-of-arrival, time-difference-of-arrival, and Doppler velocity estimation schemes. An object-oriented MATLAB package was developed to describe the environment, network, target behavior, simulate data, and conduct simulation study. Simulation results show that using an incorrect estimate of propagation velocity, when timing information is sufficiently precise, can yield position estimates that are, on average, significantly less accurate and less precise. Further, simulation results show that inclusion of choice enables large improvements in both the average error and the dispersion of the errors.