Abstract
This paper presents a universal GNSS receiver channel capable of tracking any civil GNSS signal. This fundamentally differs from dedicated channels, each customized for a given signal. A mobile device could integrate fewer universal channels to harvest all available signals. This would allow securing signal availability, while minimizing power consumption and chip size, thus maximizing battery lifetime. In fact, the universal channel allows sequential acquisition and tracking of any chipping rate, carrier frequency, FDMA channel, modulation, or constellation, and is totally configurable (any integration time, any discriminator, etc.). It can switch from one signal to another in 1.07 ms, making it possible for the receiver to rapidly adapt to its sensed environment. All this would consume 3.5 mW/channel in an ASIC implementation, i.e., with a slight overhead compared to the original GPS L1 C/A dedicated channel from which it was derived. After extensive surveys on GNSS signals and tracking channels, this paper details the implementation strategies that led to the proposed universal channel architecture. Validation is achieved using GNSS signals issued from different constellations, frequency bands, modulations and spreading code schemes. A discussion on acquisition approaches and conclusive remarks follow, which open up a new signal selection challenge, rather than satellite selection.
Highlights
Most Commercially Off The Shelf (COTS) receivers available in North America only support GPS L1 C/A, while some support GLONASS L1OF and WAAS L1 augmentation, thanks to their integration onto a single chip [1]
As new Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) are becoming available, this trend may change. Both the Chinese and Russian governments have passed laws mandating that all receivers sold in their territories be compatible with their national systems, i.e., BeiDou and GLONASS, respectively [2,3]
In order to minimize that impact, a preliminary solution based on GPS L1 C/A signals can be leveraged to reduce the search span of other signals from tracked satellites
Summary
Most Commercially Off The Shelf (COTS) receivers available in North America only support GPS L1 C/A, while some support GLONASS L1OF and WAAS L1 augmentation, thanks to their integration onto a single chip [1]. As new Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) are becoming available, this trend may change Both the Chinese and Russian governments have passed laws mandating that all receivers sold in their territories be compatible with their national systems, i.e., BeiDou and GLONASS, respectively [2,3]. Over the last decade, dedicated resources for signal-customized channels have led to receivers with more than 200 tracking channels—not to be confused with effective acquisition channels obtained through FFT-based approaches or “fast acquisition channels”—such as Javad’s [5]. These two trending markets (namely low vs high end) have conflicting development paradigms: affordable battery operated vs expensive and power-greedy devices
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