Improved Sensing and Positioning via 5G and mmWave radar for Airport Surveillance

TL;DR

This paper presents an integrated 5G and mmWave radar system with novel methods for enhanced airport surveillance and accurate non-cooperative aircraft positioning, combining AI, signal processing, and spectrum sensing.

Contribution

It introduces a new integrated sensing and positioning approach using 3D vector antennas, novel time-of-arrival and angle-of-arrival estimation, and AI-based target tracking for airport security.

Findings

Enhanced aircraft detection accuracy demonstrated

Effective fusion of 5G imaging and mmWave radar shown

Improved non-cooperative surveillance capabilities validated

Abstract

This paper explores an integrated approach for improved sensing and positioning with applications in air traffic management (ATM) and in the Advanced Surface Movement Guidance and Control System (A-SMGCS). The integrated approach includes the synergy of 3D Vector Antenna with the novel time-of-arrival and angle-of-arrival estimate methods for accurate positioning, combining the sensing on the sub-6GHz and mmWave spectrum for the enhanced non-cooperative surveillance. For the positioning scope, both uplink and downlink 5G reference signals are investigated and their performance is evaluated. For the non-cooperative sensing scope, a novel 5G-signal-based imaging function is proposed and verified with realistic airport radio-propagation modelling and the AI-based targets tracking-and-motion recognition are investigated. The 5G-based imaging and mmWave radar based detection can be potentially fused to enhance surveillance in the airport. The work is being done within the European-funded project NewSense and it delves into the 5G, Vector Antennas, and mmWave capabilities for future ATM solutions.