A REPORT ON DME - DISTANCE

MEASURING EQUIPMENT
Operating Principle, Description and Error Analysis

Warsaw University of Technology

Faculty of Power and Aeronautical Engineering
ANS637 Attitude and Navigation System DME, its principle of operation, description of selected type
and error analysis

DME (Distance Measuring Equipment) – Principle of operation,

description of selected type and error analysis

Course Title -
ANS647 - Attitude and Navigation System

Report submission by –
Sultan Mahmood Mukut
Index: 302613, Semester II, Winter 2018, MEiL, WUT

Submitted to –
Janusz Gajda
Senior Lecturer, Department of Automation and Aeronautical Systems, MEiL
Warsaw University of Technology

Warsaw, 18th January, 2019

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ANS637 Attitude and Navigation System DME, its principle of operation, description of selected type
and error analysis

List of Symbols and Derivations

DME Distance Measuring Equipment

GPS Global Positioning System
ARNS Aeronautical Radio Navigation System
ATC Air Traffic Control
VHF Very-High Frequency
UHF Ultra-High Frequency
FIR Flight Information Region
INS Inertial Navigation System
NAVAID Navigational Aid
ICAO International Civil Aviation Organization
TACAN Tactical Air Navigation
IFF Identification friend or foe
VOR VHF Omnidirectional Range
ADF Automatic Direction Finding
ILS Instrument Landing System
SSR Secondary Surveillance Radar
FAA Federal Aviation Administration
VFR Visual Flight Rules
IFR Instrument Flight Rules
VOR/DME VHF Omnidirectional Range and Distance Measuring Equipment
VORTAC VHF Omnidirectional Range and Tactical air navigation system
ILS/DME Instrument Landing System and Distance Measuring Equipment
LOC/DME Localizer and Distance Measuring Equipment
LORAN Long Range Navigation
MHz Megahertz

≤ less or equal
± plus-minus
ε Epsilon
Σ Sigma
𝜃 Theta

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ANS637 Attitude and Navigation System DME, its principle of operation, description of selected type
and error analysis

TABLE OF CONTENTS

TITLE PAGE

Chapter 1 Introduction 4
Introducing DME 4
Background and Early Development 5
Installation and components of DME 6

Chapter 2 Principle of Operation of DME 8

Working Principle of DME 8

Chapter 3 Description and selected type of DME 11

Interrogator - DME Onboard Aircraft 11
Transponder - DME installed on Ground Station 12

Chapter 4 Discussion of Error Analysis 14

Assumption of the problem and best approximation 14

Chapter 5 Concluding Remarks 16

List of References 17

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ANS637 Attitude and Navigation System DME, its principle of operation, description of selected type
and error analysis

Chapter 1: Introduction

Introducing DME

In the last hundred years for the first time in the history of mankind we observed the
technological advancement at a rate so fast that is unprecedented and exemplary compared to
the progress of previous centuries. The most vital tool of any civilization, communication has
existed since the very beginning of human history but it was not until the last century that
scientists and engineers began to study the science behind it.

Development of navigation system, information theory, mass communication

progressed enormously as people started commuting and travelling more from one place of
earth to another. As with the advancement of respective fields of technology we saw the
fascinating development in the field of radio navigation technology as well. Today a world so
connected and alert is quite unthinkable without air transportation system. As the science and
engineering of aeronautics and aerospace progressed so did the advancements of avionics and
space communication system. GPS, and satellite communication revolutionized the mode of
technology.

Today we see the rapid growth of privatization, commercialization and militarization

of Aircrafts and Spacecrafts. And with this increasing number it is inevitably crucial to know
the position, location and orientation of each and every flying machine functioning in the world
continuously. And to do that it is fundamental to measure and calculate the distance between
the traffic controller station and the moving object, basically all the time. Luckily, we have
developed the technology to do that instantly.

This brings us to the topic of our report that is, DME. The full meaning of DME stands
for Distance Measuring Equipment. From the elaboration of the abbreviation we get the
general sense about the device. DME is a form of radar used by all kinds of aircrafts and is
extensively used for navigation purposes. Basically, DME is an Aeronautical Radio Navigation
System, which helps to determine the distance between an airplane and a ground station. In
other word DME is like a secondary radar system that provides an aircraft’s flight crew with
direct, continuous visual indication of distance from a selected ground station, which is situated
at a known geographical location.

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ANS637 Attitude and Navigation System DME, its principle of operation, description of selected type
and error analysis

DME system is based on the communication between two components, one installed
on board of the airplane (interrogator) and another one placed on the ground (transponder).
Later the components and uses of DME will be discussed. Where there is a connection between
a ground station and an airplane, whether they are manned or unmanned, installation of DME
in both the hosts, is a must.

This report is divided into five chapters. In the first chapter along with the introduction
we shed some light on DME introduction, background, early development information and the
use of DME system. In this report we tried to focus only on DME system, and on later chapters
we discuss the operating principle, description and error analysis of aircraft DME systems.

Background and Early Development

Aviation engineers have worked tirelessly year

after year, to improve flight technology solely bearing in
mind the aviation safety. The first DME, reportedly was
developed in Australia. In mid 1940s, one such pioneering
aviation engineer, James Hamilton Gerrand or James
"Gerry" Gerrand, under the supervision of physicist
Edward George "Taffy" Bowen, designed prototype
equipment, which happens to some of the first distance
measuring equipment, that measured an airplane’s distance
from a target airdrome (a location from which aircraft
flight operations take place).

Later in the 1950s, other versions of DME system

were developed, which operated in the 200 MHz VHF band. Figure 1 Typical DME installation,
External view
The Australian domestic version was referred to as DME(D)
or DME(A), whereas later in the 1960s, the international version was adopted as DME(I)
system by ICAO, which operated approximately at 1000 MHz band.

The identification system IFF was designed for command and control, and it is used to
identify aircrafts or vehicles. IFF is used by both civil and military air traffic control
interrogation systems. And the DME system was a post second world war development of the
IFF systems.

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ANS637 Attitude and Navigation System DME, its principle of operation, description of selected type
and error analysis

Installation and components of DME

For air navigation the most basic requirement is the knowledge of an aircraft’s position,
and this requirement is fulfilled by providing the pilot with bearing and distance information.
Bearing information is generally derived via VOR or ADF systems, whereas distance
information is derived by DME.

DME complies with the standards prescribed by the ICAO and is installed at all
international airports, at all capital city airports and many regional airports along international
flight routes. DME was developed from a composite distance and bearing facility known as
TACAN which was designed in the USA as an aid to military aircraft. As VOR fulfills the
bearing requirements for civil aviation navigation, thus this component of the TACAN system
is not used to assist civil air operations. A combined VOR/TACAN installation is commonly
referred to as ‘VORTAC’. Where TACAN is not installed for military purposes then a DME,
manufactured to the same specifications as the DME portion of TACAN, is installed. This is
referred to as VOR/DME.

DME Components:

An aircraft uses DME to determine its distance from a ground-based DME

(transponder) by sending and receiving pulse pairs – two pulses of fixed duration and
separation. The ground stations are typically equipped with VORs or ILS systems. Usually
sometimes VOR/DME refers to combined radio navigation station for an aircraft, which
consists of two radio beacons, placed together that is a VOR and a DME.

Other navigation systems established by the FAA are more of a combined system like,
VOR/DME, ILS/DME, LOC/DME, VORTAC, which under a frequency pairing plan, also
provides course and distance information from collocated components. DME usually operates
on frequencies in the UHF spectrum between 960 MHz and 1215 MHz band.

Figure 2 Showing a
CONHAM ATC-DME
Antenna

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ANS637 Attitude and Navigation System DME, its principle of operation, description of selected type
and error analysis

Figure 3 DME in the aircraft

measures the time difference
between transmission (1) and
reception (2) and uses this to
calculate the distance

The receiving equipment onboard aircraft provides for automatic DME selection and assures
azimuth (an angular measurement in a spherical coordinate system) and distance information
reception from a common source when designated VOR/DME, ILS/DME, LOC/DME,
VORTAC, are selected. Some aircraft have separate VOR and DME receivers, each of which
must be tuned according to the appropriate navigation facility. The airborne equipment
basically includes an antenna and a receiver.
DME airborne components -
• Antenna and receiver
The aviator-controllable features of the DME receiver onboard the aircraft includes:
• Channel (frequency) selector – enables the pilot to select which VHF radio is
channeling the DME, and having its own frequency selector DME, use the frequency
of the associated VOR/DME or VORTAC station
• On/Off/Volume switch
• Mode switch (distance, groundspeed or time to station may be selected)
• Hold function - holds current DME channel (useful for ILS approach when DME is
nearby but not collocated)
• Altitude - some DME correct for slant-range error

Figure 3 Showing an
onboard aircraft DME
instrument

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ANS637 Attitude and Navigation System DME, its principle of operation, description of selected type
and error analysis

Chapter 2: Principle of Operation of DME

Working Principle of DME

In the DME system the interrogating equipment, known as the ‘Interrogator’, is
installed in the aircraft and the target, located on the ground, is referred to as the ‘Transponder’
or ‘Ground Beacon’.

A complete DME system loop requires both aircraft-installed and ground-based

equipment for the exchange of information. The ground-based equipment is normally co-
located with a VOR or ILS which provides the pilot with the slant-range distance to the DME
transmitter. In radar terminology the definition of slant range (Fig 5) is the line-of-sight
distance along a slant direction between two points which are not at the same level relative to
a specific datum. Datum or a geodetic datum is basically a coordinate system and a set of
reference points used for locating places on Earth. As the slant range distance also includes the
aircraft’s height above the ground-based station, it will always be slightly greater than the flight
planned distance to a DME station. For example, in Fig 4, the DME display in an aircraft 6,000
feet directly above a DME transmitter will read one nautical mile, so in this case 12,000 feet
equals to two nautical miles.

Figure 4 DME operating principle, elaborated

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ANS637 Attitude and Navigation System DME, its principle of operation, description of selected type
and error analysis

Figure 5 Slant range distance demonstration

Although DME operates in a separate frequency band, its frequencies are paired with a
VOR, ILS, or localizer (LOC) frequency. When the pilot of a DME-equipped aircraft tunes the
frequency of a VOR or ILS with DME, the frequency of the co-located DME is automatically
tuned. The aircraft interrogates the DME ground station with a pulsed signal, and the station
replies. Aircraft equipment measures the time between transmission and reception to determine
the distance; from that, groundspeed and time to station can also be derived.

The basic components inside an interrogator and a transponder are as follows:

The airborne DME (interrogator) includes:
• UHF Transmitter / Receiver
• Timing circuits
• Distance indicator
The ground-based DME (transponder) includes:
• UHF Receiver / Transmitter
• Decoder-encoder computer-time delay

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ANS637 Attitude and Navigation System DME, its principle of operation, description of selected type
and error analysis

Figure 6 Principle of Operation of DME

The interrogator sends request to the DME ground stations broadcasting in all the
direction towards the ground a pulse pair sequence; the ground beacons reply to the received
pulse pair sequence with the same pulse pair sequence delayed of 50 µs in all the directions
towards the sky, thus allowing the on board DME receiver to compute the range measurement
based on a round trip time measurement.
The most absolute thing would be to find the most accurate location of an aircraft using
information from beacons, that is from ground-based station. This is basically the same
problem a GPS system or a cellular phone has to solve on a daily basis. It should be noted that,
distance given between the aircraft and the transmitter of DME, is the oblique angle and not
the actual distance between the aircraft and DME. As mentioned before, DME works in the
frequency range UHF 960 - 1215 MHz, where the beam does not depend on weather conditions
and the transmission pattern by line of sight.
We have already been familiarized with the information that DME on the aircraft
consists of a UHF transmitter and receiver called interrogator and the DME at a ground-based
station called transponder. We will discuss more about the two components in the next chapter.

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ANS637 Attitude and Navigation System DME, its principle of operation, description of selected type
and error analysis

Chapter 3: Description and selected type of DME

Generally, to determine the distance from a ground transponder to an aircraft

interrogator a DME system loop is used. Compared to other VHF/UHF NAVAIDs, a DME is
very accurate and precise. The distance information can be used to determine the aircraft
position or flying a track that is a constant distance from the station, and this is actually referred
to as a DME Arc which we will discuss briefly later on.

Conventional DME system loop consists of two physically separated sub-systems, an

airborne interrogator and a ground transponder. Paired pulses, at a specific spacing, are sent
out from the interrogator and are received at the transponder. The ground station (transponder)
then transmits paired pulses back to the aircraft at the same pulse spacing, but on a different
frequency. In this chapter, descriptions of interrogator and transponder are discussed in brief.

Interrogator - DME Onboard Aircraft

An interrogator is a radar transmitter that sends pairs of pulses (interrogation pulses) and
triggers a transponder, to response. This system is usually combined in one unit with an
answering device, which receives a reply signal from the transponder and produces the
appropriate output. This is also called interrogator-transmitter.

Figure 8
Showing a
cockpit
display-
instrument

Figure 7 Showing an interrogator

instrument (Collins 339F-12)
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ANS637 Attitude and Navigation System DME, its principle of operation, description of selected type
and error analysis

Transponder - DME installed on Ground Station

A ground station based DME system or in short, a transponder (short for transmitter-
responder), serves as a detector for signals which are received from an aircraft interrogator.
The signal from the aircraft propagates towards the transponder as interrogation pulses.
Received signal is then encoded and processed as the transponder has a series of encoding and
decoding procedures. The transponders can only be triggered by a pair of received pulses that
have the same duration and pause (match) with the frequency of the signal from the
interrogator. After that the response is emitted again as an answer signal to the interrogator.
The ground equipment consists basically of a high-powered transponder beacon, with
accessory equipment in the form of an aerial array, and test equipment.

A transponder (also abbreviated sometimes to TP, XPDR, XPNDR or TPDR) produces

response upon receiving a radio-frequency interrogation. The transponder receives
interrogation from the Secondary Surveillance Radar (SSR) on 1030 MHz and replies on 1090
MHz. SSR is referred to as "secondary", to distinguish it from the "primary radar" that works
by passively reflecting a radio signal off the skin of the aircraft. Primary radar determines range
and bearing to a target with reasonably high fidelity, but it cannot determine target elevation
(altitude) reliably except at close range. SSR uses an active transponder (beacon) to transmit a
response to an interrogation by a secondary radar. This response most often includes the
aircraft's pressure altitude and a 4-digit octal identifier.

Figure 9 Showing a
ground DME system
(SKYNAV N9000)

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ANS637 Attitude and Navigation System DME, its principle of operation, description of selected type
and error analysis

Transponder codes are 4-digit numbers transmitted by an aircraft transponder in

response to a secondary surveillance radar interrogation signal to assist air traffic controllers
or ATC with traffic separation. A discrete transponder code (often called a squawk code) is
assigned by the ATC to identify an aircraft uniquely in a flight information region (FIR). This
allows easy identification of aircraft on radar.

Air traffic control units use the term "squawk" when they are assigning an aircraft a
transponder code. Squawk basically means "select transponder code". A pilot may be requested
to squawk a given code by an air traffic controller, over the radio. The pilot then selects the
desired code on their transponder and the track on the air traffic controller's radar screen then
becomes correctly associated with their identity.

We can point out the basic processes carried out on a ground-based transponder:

• Signal identification -this signal usually transmitted via Morse code serves to provide
airport location information to the aircraft.
• Replying signal – this signal is transmitted by the transponder to the aircraft when it
receives interrogation signal in the same mode but with different frequency, which is
based on the DME transponder working frequency; the length of time between the
interrogator signal and the signal reply is (delay time) usually of 50 µs.
• Signal squitter - Pulses carry reply pulses and will still be transmitted randomly even
though when the transponder does not receive interrogation pulses and is not emitting
ident pulses.

Figure 10 Showing a ground DME system (TAJ Systems)

Figure 11 Transponder in a
private aircraft

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ANS637 Attitude and Navigation System DME, its principle of operation, description of selected type
and error analysis

Chapter 4 Discussion of Error Analysis

DME system error is made up of components in the airborne equipment, the signal
propagation path and the ground station. Since DME is based upon timing the reply to a pulse
pair interrogation of a ground station by the airborne equipment, so any unaccounted delay will
cause an error. There are four principle sources of error –

• Bias errors in the ground station

• Bias errors in the airborne equipment
• Noise in the airborne equipment, and
• Noise in the ground station

However, in this report, we will not focus on the coding and software analysis of the whole
error analysis process rather we will only discuss an assumed problem regarding DMEs in
brief. In this particular chapter, at first the problem is described below.

Assumption of the problem and best approximation

Figure 12 shows a simplified typical situation of navigation with a modern aircraft. The
assumed airplane receives signals from various beacons and is in an unknown position where
every signal from the beacons is assumed to contain some error. The main goal of this problem
is to develop a method for computing the most likely position of the aircraft based on all the
information available.

We distinguish two kinds of beacons: very high frequency omnirange, VOR and
distance measuring equipment, DME.

The VOR beacons (Fig 12: VOR1, VOR2, VOR3) let the airplane to read the angles,
𝜃1 , 𝜃2 and 𝜃3 (known to the aircraft; standard measure of angles in aviation is clockwise from
North in degrees) from which the signal is coming. The DME beacon, using a signal that is
sent and bounced back, allows the distance from the aircraft to the beacon to be measured. In
this example of Fig 12, the assumed distance is 864.3 km± 2.0 km.

Each of the measurements is given with an estimate of its error. The standard notation
for measurements and errors is m ± n. This means that the true value being measured lies
between m − n and m + n.

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ANS637 Attitude and Navigation System DME, its principle of operation, description of selected type
and error analysis

As the problem is merely a geometrical problem, thus the problem is simplified by

considering it in two dimensions (2D) only. That is, the altitude is not considered, which could
be read from other instruments and would unnecessarily complicates this example. Unknown
coordinates of the aircraft are denoted by x and y (Fig 12). It is to be observed that unless we
are in a pathological situation, any pair of two VOR/DME readings give enough information
to compute x and y.

Figure 12 Example of an aircraft and four beacons

Ultimately after calculation we get the aircraft position (x, y) and some mathematical
operations are done to minimize the norm of total error (usual Euclidean norm ‖𝜀‖2 ; ‖𝜀‖2 : =
4
√∑ 𝜀 2,
𝑖=1 𝑖
or ‖𝜀‖𝑚𝑎𝑥 ≔ 𝑚𝑎𝑥(|𝜀𝑖 |)) and the method of least squares (LS) is used as well.

After that modelling of the problem mathematically is done, then it is solved analytically. Then
finally, analyzing the solution i.e. the error analysis is done.

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ANS637 Attitude and Navigation System DME, its principle of operation, description of selected type
and error analysis

Chapter 5: Concluding Remarks

For any flying machines whether it’s an aircraft or a spacecraft, ensuring its safe
guidance and exact position, and positioning of air traffic is very important and crucial. So, the
use and installation of respective ILS, DME systems are must. Along with ILS alarm system,
the DME system contribute to an aircraft’s overall avionics system, ensuring that accurate
guidance information is provided and maintained.

The two physically separated sub-systems, the airborne interrogator and the ground
transponder completes the DME system loop and ensures uninterrupted communication
between the aviator and the ATC. Without distance measuring equipment any flight is simply
impossible as DME data are used to update position, velocity, and wind measurements form
inertial navigation system (INS) measurements.

In modern DME systems, the principle error involves only the measurement of time,
and can easily be calibrated. However, the main source of error is the effect of terrain on radio-
wave propagation, which can be neglected under most conditions where the aircraft is ≤ 100
km from the station.

Figure 13 DME principle

A DME system is almost universally available, reliable and very accurate even though
it is limited to land-based navigation. LORAN, Omega and GPS are all inherently more
accurate, but not always reliable and available, thus the advanced method of using Kalman
filtering is developed to determine INS error from simple DME equipment.

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ANS637 Attitude and Navigation System DME, its principle of operation, description of selected type
and error analysis

List of References

[1] Gaston H. Gonnet, Ralf Scholl - “Determination of the accurate location of an aircraft”,
Scientific Computation, 2009.

[2] Alfred R. Rodi, James C. Fankhauser, Robin L, Vaughan - “Use of distance measuring
equipment (DME) for correcting error in position, velocity and wind measurements from
aircraft INS” - December 1991.

[3] "Engineer exploded myths in many fields" – via The Sydney Morning Herald; 9th Jan, 2013.

[4] “Operational Notes on Distance Measuring Equipment” – booklet published by Civil

Aviation Authority Australia.

[5] Luciano Musumeci, Jaron Samson, Fabio Dovis - “Experimental assessment of Distance
Measuring Equipment and Tactical Air Navigation interference on GPS L5 and Galileo E5a
frequency bands”, Conference paper, Jan, 2012.

[6] Sherman Lo, Yu Hsuan Chen, Robert Erikson, Robert Lilley - “Distance Measuring
Equipment Accuracy Performance Today and for Future Alternative Position Navigation and
Timing (APNT)”, Aviation Management Associates, 2013.

[7] Mike Collins – “How It Works: Distance Measuring Equipment GPS Is Pushing This
Technology to Pasture”, Dec, 2017.

[8] Instrument Flying Handbook, FAA-H-8083-15, 1999

[9] R. W. Latham, R. S. Towness – “DME Errors”, Navigation – Journal of the Institute of

Navigation, Vol.24, 1975-76.

[10] Websites – www.en.wikipedia.org

www.airwaysmuseum.com
www.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
www.greggordon.org/flying
www.flightlearnings.com

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