Performance-Based Multi-DME Station Selection

While the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) has established as the predominant source for delivering high-precision and high-integrity services in numerous aeronautical applications, its susceptibility to interference due to the low signal strength has necessitated the development of alternative positioning, navigation, and timing (A-PNT). Multiple distance measuring equipment (multi-DME) navigation emerges as a promising candidate for A-PNT. Station selection should be considered for multi-DME-based A-PNT, due to the limited channel recourses, and the constrained processing capability of the onboard devices. It is also beneficial to limit DME interference to GNSS L5/E5a. However, signal sources decreasing may degrade the navigation performance. Station selection is to make a tradeoff between the number of selected stations, interference on GNSS signals, and performance of navigation. We propose a performance-based method to address this problem. The proposed performance-based method for multi-DME is based on the gradient boosting machinealgorithm. The comparison with the widely used quasi-smallest position dilution of precision method shows that the proposed method can achieve the required navigation performance (RNP) 1 requirement with fewer DME stations and less GNSS L5/E5a signal degradation.