Abstract: Methods and apparatus for determining mobile station position in a wireless communication system are disclosed. A mobile station of the wireless system includes a silent echo generation circuit which receives a transmit time stamp transmitted in a sync channel from a base station, and processes the transmit time stamp to generate a receive time stamp. The silent echo generation circuit transmits the receive time stamp back to the base station on a spurious-like echo carrier which is offset from a data carrier of the wireless system. The base station processes the transmit and receive time stamps to compute a first ranging value, receives corresponding second and third ranging values computed by two other system base stations which receive the echo carrier and its time stamp, and processes the first, second and third ranging values to determine a position vector indicative of the position of the mobile station.

Abstract: A passive locator and method for a wireless communication system. The locator (56) at base station (12) determines the position and trajectory of wireless terminal (22). The passive locator (56) adjusts azimuthal and elevational angles of a directional antenna (58) until a relative maximum power is detected in the signal transmitted from the wireless terminal (22). A processing circuit (60) determines the trajectory of the wireless terminal (22) by generating and analyzing data that represents the Doppler effect on the signal from the wireless terminal (22).