Handheld terminal positioning in DVB-H networks

In DVB-H networks, the availability of the terminal position information can facilitate the deployment of applications such as location-aided handover and location-aware routing. The challenges of positioning in a DVB-H network lie in the fact that the network is of unidirectional nature and lacks uplink channels. We propose to exploit the phase shifting technology to extract the time difference of arrival (TDOA) of downlink signals from multiple base stations. The obtained TDOA measurements are then fed into existing localization algorithms to find the terminal position. Our scheme achieves the mobile-centric positioning without requiring adding new devices or uplink channels into the existing network structure.