Location errors of directional emitters in AOA system for non-line-of-sight conditions

Modern military operations are increasingly conducted in urban areas. Therefore, in the upcoming communication and radio-electronics systems, it is important to allow for the propagation phenomena characteristic for these areas and to mitigate their effects. The direction-finding systems used in localization procedures for emission sources are particularly susceptible to multipath propagation. Analyzes available in the literature show that the urbanized environment contributes to the increase in dispersion of the signal reception angle, which negatively affects the accuracy of bearing methods. If the localized emission source is equipped with a directional antenna then the angular spread is strictly dependent on the width and direction of the antenna beam, which directly affects the accuracy of the tracking system. This paper presents a parameter impact analysis of the emission source antenna, environment, and spatial conditions on the bearing system location error. The presented analysis is based on simulation studies carried out using a multielliptical propagation model. The geometric structure basis of this model is the power delay profile (PDP), which represents the transmission properties of the propagation environment. In this case, PDPs based on the standard 3GPP model are used. The presented simulation results and accuracy evaluation methodology of the bearing systems can be the basis for the method development for minimizing location errors in such systems.