Modeling and performance analysis of advanced detection architectures for ADS-B signals in high interference environments

The RTCA DO-260B document has stimulated since a few years ago the adoption of novel algorithms to improve the ability of receivers to detect and decode ADS-B signals, with particular emphasis on preamble detection, declaration of bit state and confidence level, detection and correction of errors. Motivated by an industry-driven project, this paper reports on performance analysis of a set of enhanced techniques that we have developed for detection and decoding of ADS-B signals transmitted on 1090 MHz carrier frequency in high interference conditions. An extensive set of results has been derived through a specifically developed simulation environment, that is able to implement the features of both linear and logarithmic amplifier stages in the RF receiver architecture.