Modeling multifrequency GPS multipath fading in land vehicle environments

Abstract

The reliability and performance of GPS receivers depend on the quality of the signal received, which can be largely affected by the interference caused by buildings, trees, and other obstacles. Since obstacles are always present in practical applications, several statistical representations have been developed along the years to measure, predict, and compensate errors induced by interferences. Two of the most used models to characterize GPS signal fading are the Nakagami-m and Rice, but in this work, we present evidence that supports the κ–μ distribution as the best fit to deal with multifrequency GPS multipath channels inside urban, rural, and forest areas. A synthetic signal simulator was developed to create propagation cases involving scattering clusters and specular reflections. Additionally, experimental measurements are presented to confirm the κ–μ distribution as the best distribution to characterize different situations on the available three GPS frequencies. We then present typical values of fading coefficients in L1, L2C, and L5 signals, for cases involving urban canyons, regular urban, rural, and dense vegetation areas. These coefficients can also be used to evaluate the receiver performance under similar cases or may be applied in weights measurement methods for positioning computation improvement.