Patent ID: 8063744

Claim:
A method DME aided multilateration, the method comprising: transmitting interrogation pulses from at least one DME interrogator that are received by at least one DME transponder; transmitting reply pulses from at least one DME transponder in response to the interrogation pulses received from the at least one DME interrogator; providing at least one DME listener for receiving and demodulating the interrogation pulses transmitted by the at least one DME interrogator and the reply pulses transmitted by the at least one DME transponder, cross correlating the received interrogation pulses and reply pulses and determining a cross correlation output; determining an interrogation pattern of the received interrogation pulses and reply pulses by selecting overlapping pulses of the received interrogation pulses and reply pulses when a maximum peak for cross correlation occurs in the cross correlation output, determining a time difference of arrival (TDOA) for the associated interrogation pulses and reply pulses using the position of the maximum peak of cross correlation, known time delay of the DME transponder and known distance between the at least one DME transponder and the at least DME listener, transmitting at least the determined TDOA, interrogation pattern information, and the ID of the DME listener to a central computer; wherein the central computer receives at least the determined TDOA interrogation pattern information, and DME listener ID from the at least one DME listener, associates the determined TDOA to a specific transmission of interrogation pulses from the at least one DME interrogator using the interrogation pattern information to form a DOA cluster, and determines a position for the at least one DME interrogator when three or more TDOAs are clustered.