ARGUS 6 Future Trends

R&S® ARGUS 6
Future trends
Contents
l TDOA
l 24/7 monitoring
l Central Database
l Automated evaluation
5 – 2013 | ARGUS 6 Future trends | 2

TDOA
Basic principle
l TDOA is an old (>50 years) approach to locating
transmitters
l Throughout the decades various phases with changing

success and interest
l In recent years increased interest

TDOA
Basic principle
l Numerous receivers are positioned around transmitter to be
located
l Due to the spatial distribution of the receivers the same signal

reaches them at slightly different times
l From these relative time differences the

location of the transmitter can be calculated
t3
t2
t1

TDOA
Basic principle
l The mathematically possible transmitter locations based on the
time difference of two receivers lie on a hyperbola (trace of
equal runtime difference)
l Combining the results (hyperbolas) of multiple receiver pairs

leads to the location
TDOA
Receiver 4 Receiver 3
Receiver 1
Receiver 2

TDOA
Basic principle
l Two receivers
l one hyperbola
l graphical display
l Three receivers
l three hyperbolas
l graphical display

TDOA
Basic principle
l Four receivers
l six hyperbolas
l graphical display
l numerical solution (linear approach)
l More than 4 receivers

l increased accuracy
l eventually (> ~6 receivers) no improvement in accuracy but dramatic
increase in calculation time

TDOA
Basic principle
Time travel
l Electro-magnetic waves propagate at ~ 300.000 km/s
Distance Travel time

Sun – Earth 8 min
Moon – Earth 1,3 sec
Airport - downtown 1/10.000 sec
10 m 30 ns, 3x10-8s

TDOA
Basic principle
l When does a signal arrive?
-function, exists only in textbooks
t0 time
The real world

TDOA
Basic principle
l Standard procedure: correlate I/Q data
Rx 1
t
Rx 2
t

TDOA
Basic principle
l Standard procedure: correlate I/Q data
Rx 1
t
Rx 2
t


TDOA
Basic principle Correlogram
l When does a signal arrive? 1
0,8
0,6
Rx 1
t 0,4
0,2
Rx 2 0
0 1 2 3 4 5
 t
 t

t
TDOA
Basic principle
l Correlation
l Physics + Mathematics =
l Decreasing signal widths

l Wider correlation peaks
l Less accurate time shift measurement
l Lower location accuracy
l Consequence: The TDOA principle has limits to process

narrowband signals

TDOA
Basic principle
l Correlation
Narrowband signal
Spectrum f Cross correlation function t

narrowband signals

TDOA
Basic principle
l Correlograms
DVB-T, 5 MHz bandwidth QPSK signal, 200 kHz bandwidth
DAB, 1 MHz bandwidth TETRA, 25 kHz bandwidth

TDOA
Basic principle
l Correlation
l It is important to distinguish between signal bandwidth and

receiver bandwidth
l Mathematical correlation works better with wide signals
l The bandwidth of the receiver does not need to be the width of the
signal
l For correlation no modulation or content information required
l E.g. a 8 MHz wide signal can be located via a 500 kHz wide fraction

TDOA
Basic principle
l Correlation
l Problem: continuous wave, unmodulated carrier
 t
 t
CW signals

TDOA
Basic principle
l Correlation
l Decreasing signal / noise

l Stronger influence of the noise
l Less accurate time shift measurement
l Lower location accuracy

weak or low S/N signals

TDOA
Basic principle
l Coverage area
l Range where TDOA can deliver locations is limited to area covered

by stations (in-field)
l Outside the area covered by the TDOA receiving stations only a
LOB is possible.
Rx 2
Rx 1
Rx 3

TDOA
Basic principle
l Coverage area
Source: ITU Spectrum Monitoring Handbook 2012

TDOA
Basic principle
l Example of outfield location
l Airport Surveillance Radar

(ASR) signal at 2800 MHz
l Located 25 km NE in the
out-field of the TDOA system
l Hyperbolas form a DF-line

that points towards the
location of the signal source
l Receiver bandwidth: 2 MHz

TDOA
Basic principle Bearing
l Multipath propagation
TDOA
Tx location
by TDOA
DF + TDOA
Bearing
DF + TDOA

TDOA
Basic principle
l Proximity gain
l Large number of stations

l Dense network of receivers
l Receiver are closer to the transmitter
l Low power transmitter can be detected

TDOA
Basic principle - Summary
l Robust location results (only) within receiver geometry
l TDOA algorithms allow to process out some multipath effects
l Reception of weak signals possible, due to proximity of sensors
l Unobtrusive RF sensors
l Usually easy installation on roof tops or wall panels

TDOA
Basic principle - Summary
l Large number of stations required
l 3 - 4 Receivers are minimum for a location
l Not all signals can be processed (narrowband, CW, ATC, DSSS,
etc.)
l RF performance of cheap sensors
l Time resolution and synchronicity of RF sensors needed, at
least 100 ns (= 30 m)
l High data link bandwidth required
l Dependency of IT network

TDOA
The Ofcom Experience
l Ofcom, the UK regulator hosts the first European TDOA network
l 70 sensors deployed in greater London area
l Frequency range 50 – 500 MHz

and 700 – 3000 MHz

TDOA
l Systems used during 2012 Olympic Games
l 67 fixed TDOA sensors for locating modulate wideband signals
l 9 Mobile DF systems, relocated if necessary, for locating narrowband
and unmodulated signals

TDOA
l TDOA is used for FM/DAB, DVB-T, taxi radios,
wireless cameras, PMR
l The system is used in manual operation and

the calculation of results will be offline
l “Rough” location estimation with

TDOA, exact location with mobile
or portable device

TDOA
l Ofcom conclusions:
l TDOA is complementary to conventional AOA methods
l More than 5 sensors do not increase accuracy
l Sensor geometry is the key for geo-location results
l Wideband signals preferred
l FM signals without content can not be processed
l Indoor use is not easy employable

TDOA
The R&S way
l Based on these technical constraints and experiences R&S has
decided to:
l Develop a TDOA solution
l Implement TDOA as add-on for existing receiver and direction finder
l Benefits:
l High-quality and ITU compliant equipment provides higher location
accuracy
l Combination of TDOA and DF
l When no location task, equipment available for ITU measurements
l Current systems and infrastructure can be used

TDOA
The R&S way
l Supported hardware
ESMD – TDOA ready DDF255 – TDOA ready

r
D
R
F DDF205 – TDOA ready
EB500 – TDOA ready
X
EM100 – TDOA ready

TDOA
The R&S way
l Supported hardware
UMS170 UMS200 UMS300

TDOA ready TDOA ready TDOA under
soon soon development

TDOA
The R&S way
l ARGUS extensions:
l Support of all relevant devices
l TDOA option for BMM, IMM, AMM
l Possibility to select TDOA stations via MapView
l Possibility to display TDOA results as hyperbolas and heat map

TDOA
The R&S way
l Benefits:
l High-quality and ITU compliant equipment provides higher location
accuracy
l Correlating spectra, (i.e. the fundamental principle of TDOA) leads to

better results when using signals with higher S/N
l The high sensitivity and the low phase noise of R&S devices will locate
even weak signals

TDOA
The R&S way
l Benefits:
l The signal’s Signal Processing Time Delay R&S Monitoring Receiver
propagation time
from the antenna
A
to the signal Preselector
Down-
converter D
Signal
processing unit is Processing
Processor
Frontpanel
taken into account
resulting in a much Synthesizer
higher time Timestamp Ethernet
Generation Switch
accuracy, thus a
much higher
location accuracy internal
GPS
l This also allows to Ethernet Interfaces

use different external
Command / Data
equipment GPS

TDOA
The R&S way
l Benefits:
l Combination of TDOA and DF
l Depending on the task at hand the same device can be used for
standard DF, TDOA or a combination of both
l Examples:
– Use DF for narrowband or CW signals
– Use TDOA for wideband signals
– Superimpose line of bearing with TDOA hyperbolas on map in order to increase
TDOA accuracy

TDOA
The R&S way
l Benefits:
l When no location task, equipment available for ITU measurements
l Experience shows that locating transmitters occupies only a short

fraction of regulator’s daily routine
l For the remaining time the same equipment can be used for all other
tasks since the R&S devices are fully ITU compliant

TDOA
The R&S way
l Benefits:
l Current systems and infrastructure can be
used
l While dedicated TDOA sensors are usually

small and unobtrusive they still require power
and broadband network connections
l Also, a large number of these sensor have to
be deployed
l When adding TDOA capability to existing
monitoring sites no additional infrastructure
requirements have to be considered,
reducing initial costs as well as lifetime
expenses
Ofcom TDOA system attached to
R&S DDF255 trailer

TDOA
The R&S way
l QPSK modulated signal
at 201 MHz
l Located in the in-field

of the TDOA system
l Crossings of the Hyper-

bolas represent an
estimate of the signal
source location
l Receiver bandwidth:
200 kHz

TDOA
The R&S way
l TETRA signal at 425 MHz
l Located on the edge

between in-field and out-
field of the TDOA system
l Crossings of the Hyper-

bolas represent an
source location
25 kHz

Results: Edge Location, 25 kHz
l TETRA signal at 425 MHz
l Heat map represents an

source location
25 kHz

24/7 monitoring
l Features:
l Continuous monitoring 24/7 multiple frequency bands
l Similar measurements for large number of devices (>100)
l Noise level measurements
l Data reduction on site
l Automated transfers to central database

Central database
l Features:
l Central storage of all measurement results
l Handling of data streams from large number of devices (>100)
l Provide basis for (automated) evaluation

Automated evaluation
l Features:
l Automatic analysis of results
l Automatic creation of transmitter lists
l Comparison of results with spectrum management database
l Display of results from multiple stations (>100) on map
l Automatic data compression depending on age

ARGUS 6 Future Trends

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R&S® ARGUS 6

5 – 2013 | ARGUS 6 Future trends | 2

l Throughout the decades various phases with changing

l In recent years increased interest

5 – 2013 | ARGUS 6 Future trends | 3

l Due to the spatial distribution of the receivers the same signal

l From these relative time differences the

5 – 2013 | ARGUS 6 Future trends | 4

l Combining the results (hyperbolas) of multiple receiver pairs

5 – 2013 | ARGUS 6 Future trends | 5

5 – 2013 | ARGUS 6 Future trends | 6

l More than 4 receivers

5 – 2013 | ARGUS 6 Future trends | 7

l Electro-magnetic waves propagate at ~ 300.000 km/s

Distance Travel time

5 – 2013 | ARGUS 6 Future trends | 8

-function, exists only in textbooks

The real world

5 – 2013 | ARGUS 6 Future trends | 9

l Standard procedure: correlate I/Q data

5 – 2013 | ARGUS 6 Future trends | 10

l Standard procedure: correlate I/Q data

5 – 2013 | ARGUS 6 Future trends | 11

l When does a signal arrive? 1

l Decreasing signal widths

l Consequence: The TDOA principle has limits to process

5 – 2013 | ARGUS 6 Future trends | 13

Spectrum f Cross correlation function t

l Consequence: The TDOA principle has limits to process

5 – 2013 | ARGUS 6 Future trends | 14

DAB, 1 MHz bandwidth TETRA, 25 kHz bandwidth

5 – 2013 | ARGUS 6 Future trends | 15

l It is important to distinguish between signal bandwidth and

l Mathematical correlation works better with wide signals

l For correlation no modulation or content information required

5 – 2013 | ARGUS 6 Future trends | 16

5 – 2013 | ARGUS 6 Future trends | 17

l Decreasing signal / noise

l Consequence: The TDOA principle has limits to process

5 – 2013 | ARGUS 6 Future trends | 18

l Range where TDOA can deliver locations is limited to area covered

5 – 2013 | ARGUS 6 Future trends | 19

Source: ITU Spectrum Monitoring Handbook 2012

5 – 2013 | ARGUS 6 Future trends | 20

l Airport Surveillance Radar

l Hyperbolas form a DF-line

l Receiver bandwidth: 2 MHz

5 – 2013 | ARGUS 6 Future trends | 21

5 – 2013 | ARGUS 6 Future trends | 22

l Large number of stations

5 – 2013 | ARGUS 6 Future trends | 23

5 – 2013 | ARGUS 6 Future trends | 24

5 – 2013 | ARGUS 6 Future trends | 25

l 70 sensors deployed in greater London area

l Frequency range 50 – 500 MHz

5 – 2013 | ARGUS 6 Future trends | 26

5 – 2013 | ARGUS 6 Future trends | 27

l The system is used in manual operation and

l “Rough” location estimation with

5 – 2013 | ARGUS 6 Future trends | 28

5 – 2013 | ARGUS 6 Future trends | 29

5 – 2013 | ARGUS 6 Future trends | 30

ESMD – TDOA ready DDF255 – TDOA ready

EM100 – TDOA ready