Height dependent TOA ranging error model for near ground localization applications

Near ground localization is a special type of localization scenario that is widely considered in both academic and industry. A proper way to describe time-of-arrival (TOA) ranging error for near ground localization applications has been in a strong demand since early 2010s. In this paper, we proposed a mathematical model for near ground TOA ranging error based on empirical measurement. According to investigation and analysis on the empirical data, the TOA ranging error can be modeled as a Gaussian random variable and its mean and variance depends on both the antenna height and the distance between reference node and target node. To further emphasize the value of this model, Cramer-Rao Lower Bound for two dimensional (2D) near ground localization has been calculate using the proposed error model as a typical case study. It is shown that the near ground TOA ranging error model is essential for algorithm design and system performance evaluation.