Development of an Association Technique for a 3-Dimensional Minimum Configuration Multilateration System

Multilateration (MLAT) system estimates the position of an aircraft using time difference of arrival (TDOA) measurement estimated at ground receiving station (GRS) pairs with a lateration algorithm.  In multiple aircraft scenarios, multiple TDOA measurements are estimated at GRS pairs. Thus, there is a need to group and associate the TDOA measurements according to each aircraft before the position estimation (PE) process with the lateration algorithm. In this paper, a multi-reference TDOA association (M-RETA) technique based on multiple referencing approach to TDOA estimation, its zero cyclic sum property, and nearest neighbor search approach is developed for a minimum configuration 3-D MLAT system. The performance of the M-RETA technique is determined considering a five aircraft flying configuration with an aircraft pair separation of at least 5.5 km in accordance with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) standard. Simulation result shows that the M-RETA technique association accuracy depends on the TDOA estimation error and separation between the aircraft. Simulation result shows that the M-RETA technique as on an average 88% probability of correct association