ADS-B overlapping signals separation based on minimum dispersion criterion

Abstract

As a new generation of air traffic management (ATM) monitoring system, the airborne automatic dependent surveillance-broadcast (ADS-B) transmitters will broadcast their position, speed, and other information to enhance the efficiency and safety of air traffic. However, due to the asynchronous nature of ADS-B transmitters broadcasting their information on the same frequency, it is inevitable for multiple ADS-B signals from different aircraft to overlap. This paper proposes an ADS-B signal separation algorithm based on the minimum dispersion criterion (MD), which takes advantage of the non-Gaussian distribution properties exhibited by ADS-B signals. Firstly, the non-Gaussian distribution properties of overlapping ADS-B signals are illustrated by analyzing their probability density distribution and kurtosis. Secondly, the separation problem is formulated as a non-convex optimization problem based on the minimum dispersion criterion. Finally, the alternating direction method of multipliers (ADMM) is employed to tackle the formulated optimization problem. Simulations will demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm.