Noncoherent Channel Combining for GNSS Signal Tracking with an Adaptive Antenna Array

Abstract

Adaptive antenna arrays are widely used to protect Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) receivers from interference. However, conventional blind anti-jamming array processing methods can cause satellite signal attenuation, which reduces signal tracking precision and measurement accuracy. To alleviate this problem, this paper proposes the noncoherent channel combining method for GNSS signal tracking with an adaptive antenna array. A two-stage processing architecture is applied in the proposed method, where the first stage implements interference suppression, and the second stage achieves noncoherent channel combining. The proposed method has the advantage of blind characteristics that can be implemented without any other auxiliary information. It also reveals a unified processing architecture for anti-jamming array processing methods. Thus, a detailed comparison and analysis of the proposed method with several typical blind anti-jamming methods is performed. Simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method and its superiority over existing methods in terms of tracking performance.