A $2q$-Order Difference-Set Approach to Eliminate Phase Ambiguity of a Single-Frequency Signal

Abstract

The resolution of the integer phase ambiguity among a group of spatially separated sensors is considered, where the smallest inter-sensor spacing exceeds half wavelength ( $\lambda /2$ ) of a single-frequency signal. The sufficient condition that the integer phase ambiguities can be unambiguously determined is derived and verified numerically. The traditional receiver of a triplet is identified as a particular example of this general framework. An efficient strategy for averaging redundant virtual observations is outlined. The performance in terms of the success rate of ambiguity resolution is significantly improved due to the averaging process.