Coverage simulation principles

INVOLI helps its customers to select the emplacement and simulate the coverage of G-1090 receiver(s). To do this, we have to analyse customer’s needs and intent. The form on the first page collects information to make the most accurate coverage simulation.

The number of required receivers will depend on the use case described by the customer. The number of necessary receivers will increase by lowering the minimum detection level, asking for MLAT position validation, or increasing the update probability.

The easiest to detect are the ADS-B transmissions, which require only one receiver, as the position is included in the message. The positioning using MLAT algorithm is much more complex and requires shorter receiver-to-receiver distance, as the coverage from 4 or more receivers must overlap to produce reliable results.

Due to the Earth's curvature, the receiver height above the ground level should be as high as possible. The same is true with the transmitter altitude -  the high-flying transmitters are easy to detect by many receivers, but only a few receivers will spot the ones flying low.

 For the multilateration algorithm, it is required to have signals from 4-5 receivers simultaneously to calculate the position with acceptable accuracy. This means, that the receiver-to-receiver distance needs to be much shorter compared to ADS-B signal detection. The picture below shows the situation for receivers placed at 30m AGL, where the distance to the horizon is around 20km. The area for MLAT detection for 5 receivers is smaller than ADS-B coverage of one single cell. Smart placement of the receivers on the top of the hills or very high masts can extend the coverage, but it’s impossible in all cases.

Disclaimer: The simulations are done for information only and there is no guarantee of the correctness of the provided results. The implementation can vary a lot from simulation due to imprecisions in our models, and the final installation (particularly the obstructions near the antenna can have a major impact and are not possible to model exactly).

Please fill in the form given below to request the simulation for your use case:

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