Performance of fixed and variable step methods in determining unknown source position using TDOA techniques

Determination of real time position information is one of the primary concerns of modern Electronic Warfare systems. The time difference of arrival (TDOA) techniques used for location determination make use of the method of hyperbolic multilateration. The techniques which are analyzed in this paper vary in the step length that they use. Two iterative methods are considered for the purpose of study. While one is a fixed step method, the other makes use of variable step length. This paper discusses the performance of both the techniques on the basis of their computation time which is reflected in the number of iterations needed for simulation. An error analysis is also carried out for various combinations of errors in TDOA values.