Clock Synchronization in Passive Localization Systems using ADS-B Signals
Van Long Do, The Anh Luong, Anh Hung Hoang, Minh Tung Duong, Thai Binh Nguyen, Manh Linh Nguyen · 2021
Passive localization using Time Difference of Arrival (TDOA) principle plays an essential role in both military and civilian domains. Current TDOA-based localization methods depend heavily on Global Positioning System (GPS) signals for the synchronization between receivers. However, the GPS signals transmitted from satellites are extremely vulnerable to multiple types of jamming attacks. The deception or disruption of GPS signals may lead to enormous localization errors. For this reason, it is required to develop a method for the synchronization between receivers without using GPS receivers. In this paper, we propose a simple and efficient method for synchronizing between receivers using Automatic Dependent Surveillance–Broadcast (ADS-B) signals broadcasting from civilian airplanes. This method exploits the redundancy between the position of ADS-B targets and the estimated TDOAs between receivers for calculating synchronization errors. The effectiveness of the proposed method has been validated with real ADS-B signals transmitted from multiple civilian airplanes.