Experimental measurement of time difference of arrival

Abstract

In this paper is described an experimental passive localization system based on SDR (Software Defined Radio) components. This system is designed to measure Time Differences of Arrival (TDOA) of radar pulses between two platforms. For a TDOA system, time error between the two receivers must be kept very low, which requires a very accurate way to synchronize the time bases. In this purpose, a custom offline synchronization method is proposed. The overall performances of the system are analyzed. In a small scale outdoor experiment, it has been shown to perform TDOA measurements accurately. The performances measured during this experiment are then extrapolated to a more realistic electronic warfare scenario.