Development of a Positioning Method for Unknown Radio Sources Using the Temporal Characteristics of TDOA and FDOA

Hirofumi Fukushima, Yuki Takabayashi

Peer Reviewed

Abstract:	When using sensors mounted on low-orbit satellites to estimate the position of unknown radio wave sources, if the target was a radar source emitting pulse waves, multiple peaks appeared as ambiguities in addition to the peak corresponding to the true Time Difference of Arrival (TDOA) and Frequency Difference of Arrival (FDOA) after correlation processing. This resulted in positioning difficulties. This paper proposes a method to eliminate ambiguities at the TDOA/FDOA stage—before converting to position information—by utilizing the characteristic that observed TDOA/FDOA values change distinctly depending on the radio source's position. Using this method eliminates the need for positioning processing of ambiguity components that ultimately become unnecessary, enabling a dramatic reduction in computational load. Evaluation using numerical simulations confirmed that the proposed method can reduce the computational load required for positioning by approximately 98% compared to conventional methods.
Published in:	Proceedings of the 2026 International Technical Meeting of The Institute of Navigation January 26 - 29, 2026 Hyatt Regency Orange County Anaheim, California
Pages:	602 - 613
Cite this article:	Fukushima, Hirofumi, Takabayashi, Yuki, "Development of a Positioning Method for Unknown Radio Sources Using the Temporal Characteristics of TDOA and FDOA," Proceedings of the 2026 International Technical Meeting of The Institute of Navigation, Anaheim, California, January 2026, pp. 602-613. https://doi.org/10.33012/2026.20560
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