Clock tuning technique for a disciplined high medium–long-stability GNSS oscillator with precise clock drifts for LEO users

Abstract

A crucial issue of low earth orbit (LEO) navigation augmentation satellite constellation is to obtain a satellite clock of high medium–long stability (i.e., averaging time of 10–10,000 s) using a disciplined oscillator to reduce satellite size, weight, power consumption and cost, instead of using a large, heavy and expensive space atomic clock. To resolve this difficulty, we propose a new global navigation satellite system (GNSS) clock discipline technique via a stand-alone GNSS receiver. Consequently, high medium–long stability can be attained with the disciplined receiver oscillator. Based on the Doppler measurements calculated from carrier phases, precise clock drifts of the receiver oscillator are derived. According to the motion state of the LEO GNSS receiver, a precise clock drift estimation model is chosen to have good adaptability to the receiver's high dynamic movement. Then, the receiver oscillator is properly tuned to its nominal frequency at each epoch without loss of lock. An automatic closed-loop frequency control system using a third-order frequency-locked loop filter is proposed to periodically compensate the instantaneous frequency offsets of the user clock with respect to its nominal frequency. A nonlinear frequency steering method is proposed to overcome the receiver lost lock problem during the oscillator discipline process. The correctness and effectiveness of the proposed clock tuning technique were numerically verified with MATLAB first. Then, the oscillator discipline performances were tested with a VCH-1008 passive hydrogen maser, a LEO GNSS receiver and a PicoTime clock stability analyzer. With static real GPS data of a static receiver as well as with hardware simulated data of a LEO receiver, both the medium-term and long-term frequency stabilities of the disciplined oscillator were confirmed. Finally, the proposed oscillator discipline technique was implemented in a self-developed LEO GNSS receiver. A high-quality voltage-controlled crystal oscillator mounted on an onboard LEO receiver was used for our test both in a static situation and in a LEO dynamic environment. The experiment results show that the overlapping Allan deviation of the disciplined GNSS oscillator could be less than 7E-12 over periods of 1 to 4,000 s in both the static situation and the LEO moving situation for a 1070 km orbit with 1 Hz epoch sampling rate at the testing stage.