This paper studies the dynamic estimation problem for multitarget tracking. A novel gating strategy that is based on the measurement likelihood of the target state space is proposed to improve the overall effectiveness of the probability hypothesis density(PHD) filter. Firstly, a measurement-driven mechanism based on this gating technique is designed to classify the measurements. In this mechanism, only the measurements for the existing targets are considered in the update step of the existing targets while the measurements of newborn targets are used for exploring newborn targets. Secondly, the gating strategy enables the development of a heuristic state estimation algorithm when sequential Monte Carlo(SMC) implementation of the PHD filter is investigated, where the measurements are used to drive the particle clustering within the space gate.The resulting PHD filter can achieve a more robust and accurate estimation of the existing targets by reducing the interference from clutter. Moreover, the target birth intensity can be adaptive to detect newborn targets, which is in accordance with the birth measurements. Simulation results demonstrate the computational efficiency and tracking performance of the proposed algorithm. This paper studies the dynamic estimation problem for multitarget tracking. A novel gating strategy that is based on the measurement likelihood of the target state space is to improve the overall effectiveness of the probability hypothesis density (PHD) filter. mechanism based on this gating technique is designed to classify the measurements. only this measurements, only the measurements for the existing targets are considered in the update step of the existing targets are the measurements of newborn targets are gating strategy enables the development of a heuristic state estimation algorithm when sequential Monte Carlo (SMC) implementation of the PHD filter is investigated, where the measurements are used to drive the particle clustering within the space gate. and accurate estimation of the existing targets by reducing the interference from clutter. Mor The target birth intensity can be adaptive to detect newborn targets, which is in accordance with the birth measurements. Simulation results demonstrate the computational efficiency and tracking performance of the proposed algorithm.