Emitter locating performance analysis for multilateration system

Abstract

Multilateration or time-delay of arrival estimation can provide three dimensional (3D) emitter locating suitable for airborne targets. This is an advantage over AOA based methods which could provide only two dimensional (2D) emitter locating. The performance of the multilateration for 3D emitter locating depends on the distance and the arrangement of the receivers that constitutes the multilateration system. This project investigates on the minimum possible arrangement for the receivers suitable for a 3D multilateration system and evaluates the accuracy for two emitter operating frequencies (1090 MHz and 10 GHz). The variability in the location estimation will be evaluated for different signal-to-noise ratios and compared with the international civil aviation organization (ICAO) vertical and Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) horizontal minimal separation. The evaluation shows that the requirement for horizontal and vertical separations is met at maximum range of 200 km and at a maximum altitude of 15 km