Methods and systems for detection and location of multiple emitters
First Claim
1. A method of locating one or more emitters that are emitting multiple sequential radio frequency (RF) signals on a common frequency, said method comprising:
- providing multiple collection nodes, each of said multiple collection nodes being spaced apart from the other of said multiple collection nodes;
collecting said multiple sequential RF signals at each of said multiple collection nodes, each of said sequential emitted RF signals being collected at each of said multiple collection nodes as a cluster of data blocks;
determining a first group of multiple geolocation solutions based on a first one of said multiple clusters of data blocks by measuring at least one of time difference of arrival (TDOA) information or frequency difference of arrival (FDOA) information for said multiple sequential RF signals between at least two of said multiple collection nodes;
determining a second group of multiple geolocation solutions based on a second one of said multiple clusters of data blocks by measuring at least one of TDOA information or FDOA information for said multiple sequential RF signals between at least two of said multiple collection nodes;
determining a first geographic area corresponding to said first one of said multiple cluster of data blocks, said first geographic area including at least a portion of said first group of multiple geolocations, and determining a second geographic area corresponding to said second one of said multiple cluster of data blocks, said second geographic area including at least a portion of said second group of multiple geolocations; and
comparing said first determined geographic area with said second determined geographic area to determine whether or not said first determined geographic area correlates to the same emitter geolocation as said second determined geographic area.
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Abstract
Systems and methods for detection and geolocation of multiple emitters that are emitting RF signal energy on a common frequency, and that may be implemented to separate, geolocate, and/or determine the number of emitters (e.g., radio users) emitting on a common RF frequency. Real-time signal qualification processing may be employed to continuously monitor and collect incoming receiver tuner data for signal activity and ignore irrelevant noise data. Each set of data blocks from an emitter transmission signal may be defined as an emission cluster, and a set of time difference of arrival (TDOA)/frequency difference of arrival (FDOA) pairs may be computed for each emission cluster with each TDOA/FDOA pair yielding a geolocation result. A statistical qualification method may be used to produce a final geolocation answer from each set of emission cluster geolocation results, and a geolocation error ellipse computed for the final geolocation answer of each emission cluster. The final geolocation answer of each emission cluster may be run through a correlation and fusion algorithm.
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Citations
25 Claims
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1. A method of locating one or more emitters that are emitting multiple sequential radio frequency (RF) signals on a common frequency, said method comprising:
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providing multiple collection nodes, each of said multiple collection nodes being spaced apart from the other of said multiple collection nodes; collecting said multiple sequential RF signals at each of said multiple collection nodes, each of said sequential emitted RF signals being collected at each of said multiple collection nodes as a cluster of data blocks; determining a first group of multiple geolocation solutions based on a first one of said multiple clusters of data blocks by measuring at least one of time difference of arrival (TDOA) information or frequency difference of arrival (FDOA) information for said multiple sequential RF signals between at least two of said multiple collection nodes; determining a second group of multiple geolocation solutions based on a second one of said multiple clusters of data blocks by measuring at least one of TDOA information or FDOA information for said multiple sequential RF signals between at least two of said multiple collection nodes; determining a first geographic area corresponding to said first one of said multiple cluster of data blocks, said first geographic area including at least a portion of said first group of multiple geolocations, and determining a second geographic area corresponding to said second one of said multiple cluster of data blocks, said second geographic area including at least a portion of said second group of multiple geolocations; and comparing said first determined geographic area with said second determined geographic area to determine whether or not said first determined geographic area correlates to the same emitter geolocation as said second determined geographic area. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11)
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12. An emitter location system, comprising:
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a first collection node configured to receive radio frequency (RF) signals, said first collection node comprising a first sensing platform and signal processing circuitry configured to process RF signals received at said first sensing platform on a time and frequency basis; a second collection node configured to receive radio frequency (RF) signals, said second collection node comprising a second sensing platform and signal processing circuitry configured to process RF signals received at said second sensing platform on a time and frequency basis; and a processing node comprising processing circuitry configured to communicate with said signal processing circuitry of said first collection node and said signal processing circuitry of said second collection node; wherein said processing circuitry of said processing node is configured to; receive radio frequency (RF) emission cluster data from each of said first and second collection nodes, said RF emission cluster data being produced by one or more RF emitters on a common frequency and comprising at least two different clusters of data blocks, perform at least one of time difference of arrival (TDOA)/frequency difference of arrival (FDOA), TDOA/TDOA, or FDOA/FDOA processing on said RF emission cluster data to produce at least two geolocation areas that each correspond to a respective different one of said clusters of data blocks, and compare a first one of said geographic areas with a second and different one of said geographic areas to determine whether or not said first geographic area correlates to the same emitter geolocation as said second determined geographic area. - View Dependent Claims (13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18)
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19. A system for processing collected clusters of data blocks to locate one or more emitters that are emitting multiple sequential radio frequency (RF) signals on a common frequency, said system comprising:
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one or more processing components configured to receive collected clusters of data blocks from each of multiple collection nodes, each of said collected clusters of datablocks collected from a corresponding sequential emitted RF signal; wherein said one or more processing components is further configured to; determine a first group of multiple geolocation solutions based on a first one of said multiple clusters of data blocks by measuring at least one of time difference of arrival (TDOA) information or frequency difference of arrival (FDOA) information for said multiple sequential RF signals between at least two of said multiple collection nodes, determine a second group of multiple geolocation solutions based on a second one of said multiple clusters of data blocks by measuring at least one of TDOA information or FDOA information for said multiple sequential RF signals between at least two of said multiple collection nodes, determine a first geographic area corresponding to said first one of said multiple cluster of data blocks, said first geographic area including at least a portion of said first group of multiple geolocations, determine a second geographic area corresponding to said second one of said multiple cluster of data blocks, said second geographic area including at least a portion of said second group of multiple geolocations, compare said first determined geographic area with said second determined geographic area to determine whether or not said first determined geographic area correlates to the same emitter geolocation as said second determined geographic area, fuse together said first and second determined geographic areas into a single fused geographic area if said first and second determined geographic areas are determined to correlate to the same emitter location, said single fused geographic area including a location of at least one of said emitters, and output emitter geolocation information based on said single fused geographic area. - View Dependent Claims (20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25)
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Specification