SFOL Pulse: A High Accuracy DME Pulse for Alternative Aircraft Position and Navigation

Abstract

In the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) performance based navigation strategy announced in 2016, the FAA stated that it would retain and expand the Distance Measuring Equipment (DME) infrastructure to ensure resilient aircraft navigation capability during the event of a Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) outage. However, the main drawback of the DME as a GNSS back up system is that it requires a significant expansion of the current DME ground infrastructure due to its poor distance measuring accuracy over 100 m. The paper introduces a method to improve DME distance measuring accuracy by using a new DME pulse shape. The proposed pulse shape was developed by using Genetic Algorithms and is less susceptible to multipath effects so that the ranging error reduces by 36.0–77.3% when compared to the Gaussian and Smoothed Concave Polygon DME pulses, depending on noise environment.

Selected Aspects of Navigation System Synthesis for Increased Flight Safety, Protection of Human Lives, and Health

“…Modeling confirmed that changing the ρ in intervals of 2 to 12 changes the potential accuracy of DME. Distance errors varied between 0.3 and −0.13 m. Work [13] deals with a high accuracy DME pulse for alternative aircraft position and navigation. The paper introduces a method to improve DME distance measuring accuracy by using a new DME pulse shape.…”

“…The DME system has some drawbacks-including low resistance to interference [4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15]. Therefore, it is of practical importance that the task of optimizing the receiver of a DME system that operates under wide-band fluctuation interference conditions be addressed.…”

“…Several analyses performed on radio navigation systems [4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15] conclude that they operate under conditions of interference. The most typical forms of interference affecting its operation are termed as the wide-band fluctuation interference, narrow-band interference, and chaotic pulse interference.…”

“…The paper [13] deals with a high accuracy DME pulse for alternative aircraft position and navigation. In the Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA), the FAA stated that it would retain and expand the DME infrastructure to ensure resilient aircraft navigation capability during the event of a global navigation satellite system (GNSS) outage.…”

Characterization and Mitigation of Multipath for Terrestrial based Aviation Radionavigation

“…Versions of this design have been developed that meet ICAO DME requirements while also reducing multipath induced errors. Analysis has shown it to reduce ranging errors by 36–77% .…”