ABSTRACT: Satellite navigation is the backbone of maritime navigation today. However, the technical vulnerability of on-board Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) receivers the satellite system greatly destabilizes maritime security due to the loss of ship’s position and accurate time. This article devoted to study an alternative method for obtaining coordinates and accurate time based on the use of automatic identification system (AIS) radio channels, so-called range mode (R-Mode). We use other AIS ship stations with reliable position data as reference stations and determine time of arrival for received AIS transmissions. To improve the accuracy of measuring signal arrival instance in the time difference of arrival (TDOA), that we utilize for trilateration, it is proposed signal oversampling and applying the fast Fourier transform (FFT) to the product of quadrature components of the baseband Gaussian minimum shift keying (GMSK) signal in the window of AIS time slot. To take into account the movement of other ships, appropriate coordinate corrections are foreseen, which can be calculated by dead reckoning or by the inertial navigation system of our ship. The proposed method is fully compatible with the existing AIS signals and may be employed in critical situations of locally limited (jamming, spoofing) GNSS abilities. It can be implemented as a separate unit, working for receiving in parallel with the mandatory AIS transponder.

KEYWORDS: Automatic Identification System (AIS), Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS), Global Positioning System (GPS), Positioning, Navigation and Timing (PNT), Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA), R-Mode, Time of Arrival (TOA), Time Difference of Arrival (TDOA)

REFERENCES