Power-Based RFI Localization Using a Network of Unmodified COTS GNSS Receivers

Argyris Kriezis, Juan Blanch, Yu-Hsuan Chen, Dennis Akos, Sherman Lo, Todd Walter

Peer Reviewed

Abstract:	The rising incidence of Radio Frequency Interference (RFI) affecting the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) presents a significant risk to civilian, safety-critical infrastructure. While prior studies have shown that low-cost Commercial Off-TheShelf (COTS) GNSS receivers can reliably detect interference, scalable low-cost methods for localizing RFI sources remain limited. This paper presents a power-based localization framework that enables networks of unmodified COTS GNSS receivers to progress from detection to source localization. The proposed approach is based on a Power Difference of Arrival (PDOA) formulation, in which relative received power measurements across a distributed receiver network are used to infer the probable location of an emitter with unknown transmit power. A grid-based maximum likelihood algorithm is developed, incorporating a hardware-specific error model, chi-squared consistency testing, and an iterative receiver rejection process to improve robustness under non-ideal deployment conditions. To better reflect real-world environments, topographic data are integrated to refine slant-range calculations and antenna gain compensation. The proposed method is developed using data from the 2024 Norway Jammer Test and validated with an independent dataset from the 2025 Norway Jammer Tests. The evaluated scenarios encompass jamming, meaconing, and spoofing events under non-ideal receiver network geometries. The results demonstrate that the system consistently estimates the true RFI source location within the derived predicted region, indicating that networks of low-cost GNSS receivers can provide a scalable and practical solution for RFI localization.
Published in:	Proceedings of the ION 2026 Pacific PNT Meeting April 13 - 16, 2026 Hilton Waikiki Beach Honolulu, Hawaii
Pages:	744 - 755
Cite this article:	Kriezis, Argyris, Blanch, Juan, Chen, Yu-Hsuan, Akos, Dennis, Lo, Sherman, Walter, Todd, "Power-Based RFI Localization Using a Network of Unmodified COTS GNSS Receivers," Proceedings of the ION 2026 Pacific PNT Meeting, Honolulu, Hawaii, April 2026, pp. 744-755. https://doi.org/10.33012/2026.20602
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