Novel Frequency-Efficient Communication-Positioning Integrated Signal and Ranging Methodology for Future Aviation

Song, Tianzhu and Yin, Lu and Zhu, Deming and Sun, Yuan and Ni, Qiang (2025) Novel Frequency-Efficient Communication-Positioning Integrated Signal and Ranging Methodology for Future Aviation. IEEE Wireless Communications Letters. ISSN 2162-2337

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Abstract

The future of aviation is characterized by the fusion of digital technologies, data-driven decision-making, and seamless connectivity. Accurate and reliable positioning plays a pivotal role in the future aviation technologies such as autonomous flight, advanced air traffic management (ATM) systems, and augmented reality (AR) for pilot assistance. In case of global navigation satellite system (GNSS) failure, the alternative positioning, navigation, and timing (APNT) system is needed. Current methods for aviation positioning either lack the accuracy, reliability or the capacity for future air traffic development because their signal designs are outdated or not optimal for positioning. To tackle this problem, a novel communication-positioning integrated signal is designed. A continuous positioning signal is superposed onto the L-band digital aeronautical communication system (L-DACS) signal using non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) principle to fully utilize the frequency resources and minimize its interference to communication. A novel cross channel measuring (CCM) algorithm is proposed to measure pseudorange when the positioning signal is spread across multiple L-DACS1 channels for improved ranging accuracy. Simulation results show the novel communication-positioning integrated signal and its measuring method outperforms the existing L-DACS1 method, almost achieving meter-level ranging accuracy. And the positioning signal causes minimal interference to communication.