Alternative PNT based on Iridium Next LEO Satellites Doppler/INS Integrated Navigation System

Abstract

This paper addresses an original problem of integrated navigation system based on iridium Next low Earth orbit Iridium Next satellites. In uncovered Radar areas such as oceanic regions, in the northern, southern poles, or in the desert regions, it is important that any aircraft can navigate even in denied GNSS environment. In such conditions, how to maintain tracking information of airlines especially during distress and emergency situations? to achieve that, a new design Inertial/Doppler integration design is developed and proposed. Position and speed of the aircraft are estimated based on multiple Doppler information fusion from Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites downlink signals. In this paper, Iridium Next LEO constellation is considered as an emerging technology, and privileged for search and rescue and flight safety applications. Simulations based on experimental data collected by USRP E310 demonstrated very good performances. The new navigation system represents a good alternative to GNSS Positioning, Navigation and Timing Solution (PNT). To achieve high performances, derivative free distributed nonlinear filtering algorithms based on multi variant Quadrature Kalman filters are considered and implemented. A distributed design centralized at the Iridium gateway carried out very good results to be considered as an extended solution to Radar information used to track airlines and manage airspace by its integration into the Air Traffic Management System (ATMS) in all countries.