Patent ID: 6211811
Filing Date: 2001-04-03
Classification: G01S

Abstract:
A system for determining the line of position and identification of a mobile signal source, said system comprising:at least two ground stations, each of said at least two ground stations comprising:means for receiving signal transmissions from the mobile signal source, the means for receiving being located at known coordinates (x.sub.1,y.sub.1,z.sub.1) and (x.sub.2, y.sub.2, z.sub.2),means for measuring time of arrival of the signal transmissions,means for decoding an address contained in the signal transmission, andmeans for time synchronizing said ground stations;a data communications link, coupled to the at least two ground stations, for transmitting time of arrival and associated source signal address from each of the at least two ground stations; anda surveillance/identification processor, coupled to the data communications link, for receiving the time of arrival and associated source signal address from each of the at least two ground stations from the data communications link and computing time difference of arrival using the time of arrival and associated source signal address data received from each of the at least two ground stations, computing line of position when a signal source transmissions are received by at least two ground stations, computing two-dimensional multilateration position (x,y) when a signal source transmission is received by at least three ground stations, computing three-dimensional multilateration position (x,y,z) when a signal source transmission is received by at least four ground stations, providing identification of targets detected by any second surveillance system by correlating system measured time difference of arrival/source signal address to second surveillance system target data, and providing position aiding of any two-dimensional and three-dimensional position using system provided line of position from the signal transmissions.