On the performance of wireless source-location using TDOA measurements under poor geometry

Abstract

Booming wireless connectivity has boosted the interest of source-location in various types of network. The existing performance evaluations of source-location algorithms infrequently focus on the geometry issue, which also has considerable impact on the accuracy of source-location. This paper presents analysis and illustrations of the geometry issue for the time-difference-of-arrival (TDOA) method. Several common source-location algorithms are reviewed, followed by the simulation tests of positioning performance under variants of geometry and different measurement errors. Results indicate that positioning algorithms also work under the examined cases of poor geometry, and an RMSE of below 0.3m can be achieved, which implies that the deviation of time-difference measurement error should be no greater than 33 ps.