System and method for blind differential time-of-arrival estimation

A method for determining a geographical position of a transmitting device, comprising:

• receiving, with a concentrator device, a first demodulated sequence from a first sensor, wherein the first demodulated sequence is generated based on an emitter signal received by the first sensor from the transmitting device;
• receiving, with the concentrator device, a first TOA estimate from the first sensor, wherein the first TOA estimate (TOA1) is based on the emitter signal and the first demodulated sequence;
• receiving, with the concentrator device, a second demodulated sequence from a second sensor, wherein the second demodulated sequence is generated based on the emitter signal received by the second sensor from the transmitting device, the first sensor and the second sensor communicatively coupled to the concentrator device, wherein each of the first sensor and the second sensor includes a communication interface configured to receive the emitter signal from the transmitting device and a controller communicatively coupled to the communication interface;
• receiving, with the concentrator device, a second TOA estimate (TOA2) from the second sensor, wherein the second TOA estimate (TOA1) is based on the emitter signal and the second demodulated sequence;
• determining, by the concentrator device, a first arbitrary timing offset (ATO1) between the first demodulated sequence and the second demodulated sequence;
• determining, by the concentrator device, a first differential TOA estimate (TOADiff1) between the first sensor and the second sensor based on the first TOA estimate (TOA1), the second TOA estimate (TOA2), and the first arbitrary timing offset (ATO1);
• and
• determining, by the concentrator device, a geographical position estimate of the transmitting device based at least on the first differential TOA estimate (TOADiff1).