Design of a Passive Ranging System Using Existing Distance Measuring Equipment (DME) Signals & Transmitters

The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is developing alternative navigation concepts to maintain operational capacity and efficiency even with the loss of Global Positioning System (GPS). One concept being studied for alternative position navigation and timing (APNT) is a ground based passive ranging system. This system has few capacity constraints and can provide other benefits. The APNT passive ranging system would use existing FAA terrestrial infrastructure, particularly distance measuring equipment (DME) ground beacons. APNT project team has developed a DME Pseudolite (PL) concept that enables a passive ranging signal on DME that is compatible with existing DME operations. It can provide additional benefits for APNT and non‐APNT users with its data transmission. This paper introduces the DME PL concept and assesses the potential performance of the system. The paper focuses on signal structure design for best data capacity. It formulates a methodology and modeling for the developing the design. Copyright © 2015 Institute of Navigation.