UNIT – VI

Satellite Navigation and GPS

Contents
1. Principles and Operation of a GNSS
1.1 Principle of Operation of a GNSS
1.1.1 Triangulation principle
1.2 Architecture of GNSS
1.2.1 Space Segment
1.2.2 Control Segment
1.2.3 User segment
1.3 Operation of GNSS
1.4 Different GNSS
1.5 GPS (Global Positioning System)
1.6 COMPASS
1.7 GALILEO
1.8 Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS)
1.8.1 Architecture
1.8.2 Service Area
1.8.3 IRNSS Service accuracy
1.8.4 Space Segment
1.8.5 Ground Segment
1.8.6 Navigation Payload
1.8.7 Navigation Software
1.8.8 Critical Technologies
1.8.9 GNSS Coordination
1.8.10 IRNSS Signals
1.9 QZSS
1.10 Comparison of Independent GNSS systems
1.11 Challenges in development of GNSS and its applications
2. GNSS Signal Structures
2.1 Common components of any GNSS Signal
2.2 Modulation Techniques
2.3 Multiple Accessing Techniques
2.3.1 CDMA-Code Division Multiple Access
2.3.2 FDMA-Frequency Division Multiple Access
2.4 Signal structure of different GNSS systems
2.4.1 GPS
3. GNSS Receivers
3.1 Introduction
3.2 Traditional GPS Hardware Receiver
3.3 GNSS Software Receiver
3.3.1 Architecture
3.4 GNSS Antennas and Front ends
3.5 GPS receiver Algorithm
REFERENCES
 1 Principles and Operation of a GNSS
1.1 Principle of Operation of a GNSS
1.1.1 Triangulation principle
The basic principle of any GNSS is triangulation. Any independent GNSS system will
work based on Triangulation principle. If we know the distances from three known points for a
unknown point, we can find out the position of the unknown point by triangulation principle. In
2-D space if the distances from two known points or locations to the third point are known, the
third point will be one of the two points where the two circles will intersect as shown in
figure.1.1. Let the coordinated of the A and B are given by (x1, y1) and (x2, y2), and the distance
to the third point from A and B is d1 and d2 respectively. Then if the coordinated of the third
point are (x, y), then

If we solve these two equations for x and y, we will get two solutions i.e. C and D in the
above figure.

Figure.1.1: Two dimensional spaces

 Figure.1.2: Triangulation Principle - dimensional spaces

Similarly if we know the distance from the three known points or locations to unknown
point, the unknown point will one of the two points, which is the intersection of three spheres as
shown in figure.1.2.

Solving three equations for finding (x, y, z) is known as triangulation principle. Of course
out of the two solutions obtained by solving these equations, one of them is not a practically
feasible solution.
Now according to the triangulation principle, to find the location of an unknown point in
the three dimensional space, we need three points or locations with known coordinates of them
and the distances to unknown point from these known points.
In GNSS, position (coordinates) of the satellite can computed easily using the ephemeris
and Keppler’s laws for the given time. Therefore the position of the satellites is known. Now we
need the distance from the satellites to receiver. In GNSS, all satellites will transmit a signal at
same time, and it will reach with different timings to the receiver due to difference in distances.
Therefore if the time difference between the transmitted time from satellite and received time by
the receiver is known, then we can find out the distance to the satellite and receiver using
equation.
 Distance = Travel time x velocity of light.
Here we are assuming that electromagnetic waves or signals are travelling with velocity
of light. Then, to find out the travel time we need transmitted and received time. The atomic
clocks at satellites are synchronized in nanoseconds and all satellites will give the information
about transmitted time. Therefore now we need arrival time. Arrival time can be computed using
the correlation properties of the binary pseudorandom noise. However the clocks at satellites and
the clock at receiver are not synchronized. Also the accuracy of the clock at normal GNSS
receiver is not accurate like the clock at satellites. Therefore there will be some bias in the
measured timings due to non-synchronization of clocks at satellites and receiver. However the
bias in travel time for all satellites with respect to receiver is same because the clocks at satellites
are synchronized. Therefore the equations will become

Now the total unknowns are (x,y,z) and b, where b is bias. Therefore we need one more
equation. i.e. fourth satellite.

Here the known points are the satellites. Satellites are revolving around the earth based
on the Keppler’s rules. Therefore we can find out the position of the satellite for any given time
using Keppler’s laws. We can find out the distance to the known point to unknown point with the
first assumption that EM waves travel with the velocity of light. The distance to the known point
can be computed using the formula travel time X velocity of light. Travel time can be computed
using the auto correlation and cross correlation properties of pseudo random noise codes. The
principle operation of GNSS system has been explained and the next chapter will give brief
explanation or description of GNSS signal structure.
1.2 Architecture of GNSS
Any GNSS system has Three Segments. They are:
1. The Space Segment
2. The Control Segment
3. User Segment
1.2.1 Space Segment
The Space Segment constitutes of 31 satellites as shown in Figure 1.3 at an altitude of
about 20,150 km above the Earth’s surface. These satellites are arranged as 8 each in three
circular orbital planes, but this was modified to 6 planes with 4 satellites each. The orbital planes
are centered on the Earth, not rotating with respect to the distant stars. These orbital planes are
inclined to the Earth’s equatorial plane at an angle of 55o (tilt relative to Earth's equator) and are
separated by 60° right ascension of the ascending node (angle along the equator from a reference
point to the orbit's intersection). The orbits are arranged so that at least six satellites are always
within line of sight from almost everywhere on Earth's surface. The orbital plane locations are
defined by the longitude of the ascending node while the satellite location by the mean anomaly.
These satellites are at such a height and in such orbits such that there are at-least four satellites
visible to a user at any location and at any given time. At a time one can however receive signals
from 7 to 9 satellites.

Figure 1.3 GPS Segments

 The Satellite Vehicles (SVs) will travel at a velocity of 3.9km/s. They orbit at altitudes of
about 20,150kms from surface of earth and 11hours 58 minutes 2.01seconds to orbit one time
(Leick, 2004). The advantage of greater altitude is that the orbits will be less affected by the
irregularities caused by unequal distribution of mass of the earth. The satellites continuously
orient themselves to ensure that their solar panels stay pointed towards the sun, and their
antennas point toward the earth (Parkinson and Spilker, 1996). The transmitted signals are
controlled by highly accurate atomic clocks.

1.2.2 Control Segment

The Control segment consists of Master Control Station (MCS) at Colorado Springs, five
Monitor Stations located around the world at Hawaii, Kwajalein, Ascension Island, Diego Garcia
and Colorado Springs, Colorado, along with monitor stations operated by the National
Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) ensure maximum satellite coverage and ground antennas
[3]. The tracking information is sent to the Air Force Space Command’s master control station at
Schriever Air Force Base in Colorado Springs, which is operated by the 2nd Space Operations
Squadron (2 SOPS) of the United States Air Force (USAF). These 2 SOPS contacts each GPS
satellite regularly with a navigational update (using the ground antennas at Ascension Island,
Diego Garcia, Kwajalein, and Colorado Springs).

Figure 1.4 GPS Satellite Constellations

 These update and synchronize the atomic clocks on board satellites to within a few
nanoseconds of each other, and adjust the ephemeris of each satellite's internal orbital model.
The updates are created by a Kalman filter which uses inputs from the ground monitoring
stations, space weather information, and various other inputs.
The functions of the Operations Control Segment include maintaining the satellite orbital
position, and monitoring the health of the satellite constellation. The health includes parameters
like the power, fuel levels among others. The ground stations make pseudo range measurements
by passively tracking the satellites. This updated information is called TT&C (Telemetry,
Tracking and Command) data. This information for each satellite is uploaded by a ground up link
antenna when that particular satellite is in view of this antenna.

1.2.3 User segment

GPS receivers are composed of an antenna, tuned to the frequencies transmitted by the
satellites, receiver-processors, and a highly-stable clock (often a crystal oscillator). They may
also include a display for providing location and speed information to the user. A receiver is
often described by its number of channels; this signifies the number of satellites it can monitor
simultaneously. Originally limited to four or five, this has progressively increased over the years
so that, as of 2006, receivers typically have between twelve and 76 channels to receive satellite
signals and estimate the distance from satellite. Front end antenna and RF unit receives the signal
and after sufficient level of amplification, it will be digitized, (Parkinson and Spilker, 1996). The
digital GPS receiver applies DSSS correlation technique and extracts the base band data. GPS
processor uses minimum four such channels data and calculates its location. Since the location of
each GPS satellite is known, the receiver's location can be determined by "triangulating" the
distances from several satellites[3].

1.3 Operation of GNSS

Any GNSS Control Segment (also referred to as Ground Segment or Operational Control
System) is the responsible for the proper operation of the GNSS system. Like in GPS, the
GLONASS Control Segment monitors the status of satellites, determines the ephemerides and
satellite clock offsets and, twice a day uploads the navigation data to the satellites.
 The control segment includes the System Control Center and the network of the
Command and Tracking Stations that are located throughout the territory of Russia [24]. The
control segment provides monitoring of GLONASS constellation status, correction to the orbital
parameters and navigation data uploading.

GLONASS Control segment consists of

 System Control Centre
The System Control Center (SCC) is responsible for satellite constellation control and
management of GLONASS satellites.

 Telemetry, Tracking and Command centers (TT&C)

Telemetry, Tracking and Control (TT&C) stations distributed throughout the Russian
territory. These can track the GLONASS satellites in view and accumulate ranging data
and telemetry from the satellites signals. The information from TT&Cs is processed at
the SCC to determine satellite clock and orbit states and to update the navigation
message of each satellite. This updated information is transmitted to the satellites via the
Upload Stations, which are also used for the transmission of control information.

 Central Clock
The Central Synchronizer implements the GLONASS system time scale by means of a
high-precise hydrogen atomic clock.

 Laser Ranging Stations

 Monitoring and Measuring Stations

 Additional Monitoring and Measuring Stations.

Like this the operations of control segment include maintaining satellite orbital position, and
monitoring the health of the satellite constellation. The health includes parameters like the
power, fuel levels among others. The ground stations make pseudo range measurements by
passively tracking the satellites. This data is used by the master control station to update the
navigation message with ephemeris data, corrections and almanac data. This updated information
called TT&C (Telemetry, Tracking and Command) data. This information for each satellite is
uploaded by a ground uplink antenna when that particular satellite is in view of the antenna.

1.4 Different GNSS

Satellite navigation system is a system of satellites that provide autonomous geo-spatial
positioning with global coverage. It allows small electronic receivers to determine their location
(longitude, latitude, and altitude) to within a few meters using time signals transmitted along a
line-of-sight by radio from satellites. Receivers calculate the precise time as well as position,
which can be used as a reference for scientific experiments. A satellite navigation system with
global coverage may be termed a global navigation satellite system or GNSS.
As of September 2013, only the United States NAVSTAR Global Positioning System
(GPS) and the Russian GLONASS are global operational GNSSs. China is in the process of
expanding its regional Beidou navigation system into the global Compass navigation system by
2020. The European Union's Galileo positioning system is a GNSS in initial deployment phase,
scheduled to be fully operational by 2020 at the earliest. France, India and Japan are in the
process of developing regional navigation systems.

1.5 GPS (Global Positioning System)

Global Positioning System is a space based satellite based Navigation system developed
by US Department of Defense in 1970s and maintained by the US government, which provides
location and time information in all weather conditions, anywhere on or near the Earth where
there is an unobstructed line of sight to four or more GPS satellites. GPS was originally found for
military use, later it served even for civilian applications such as surveying and navigation. The
United States' Global Positioning System (GPS) consists of up to 32 medium Earth orbit
satellites in six different orbital planes, with the exact number of satellites varying as older
satellites are retired and replaced. Operational since 1978 and globally available since 1994, GPS
is currently the world's most utilized satellite navigation system; it is freely accessible to anyone
with a GPS receiver.
1.6 COMPASS
China has indicated they intend to expand their regional navigation system called Beidou
or Big Dipper, into a global navigation system by 2020 a program that has been called Compass
in China's official news agency Xinhua. The Compass system is proposed to utilize 30 medium
Earth orbit satellites and five geostationary satellites [23]. A 12-satellite regional version is
expected to be completed by 2012.

1.7 GALILEO
The European Union and European Space Agency agreed in March 2002 to introduce
their own alternative to GPS, called the Galileo positioning system. At an estimated cost of EUR
3.0 billion, the system of 30 MEO satellites was originally scheduled to be operational in 2010.
The estimated year to become operational is 2014. The first experimental satellite was launched
on 28 December 2005. Galileo is expected to be compatible with the modernized GPS system.
The receivers will be able to combine the signals from both Galileo and GPS satellites to greatly
increase the accuracy. Galileo is now not expected to be in full service until 2020 at the earliest
and at a substantially higher cost [23].

1.8 Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS)

IRNSS is a regional navigation system independent of GPS, GALILEO, COMPASS and
GLONASS with a constellation of GEO and GSO satellites and a ground network spread across
the country as shown in below figure 1.5. India has initiated the implementation of a dedicated
navigational system of satellites to enable civilians and military establishments with navigation
in and around India. IRNSS, as the Indian space program calls it, is a regional navigational
system, meaning it would only cover India and surrounding regions. This system is quite
different from the global navigational systems that are capable of locating any point on planet
earth.
It consists of a constellation of 7 navigational satellites. All the 7 satellites are placed in
the Geostationary orbit (GEO) to have a larger signal footprint and lower number of satellites to
map the region. It is intended to provide an all-weather absolute position accuracy of better than
7.6 meters throughout India and within a region extending approximately 1,500 km around it. A
goal of complete Indian control has been stated, with the space segment, ground segment and
user receivers all being built in India.
According to the official releases, the satellites are supposed to be lined along 34°, 55°,
83°, 111.5° and 131.5° East longitudes. 4 of the7 satellites would be in geosynchronous orbits
while the remaining three would be geostationary. The inclination for the geosynchronous orbits
as per official release is 29°.

Figure 1.5: IRNSS Architecture

1.8.1 Architecture
IRNSS system mainly consists of:
• Space Segment
Spacecraft Bus Elements and Navigation Payload.
 • Ground Segment
Control centre, Timing Centre, Monitoring stations, Ranging Stations, TTC stations and
COM links.

• User Segment
Single and Dual Frequency Receivers for SPS and RS operating in L5 and S Bands.

1.8.2 Service Area

The intended service area for IRNSS is primarily the Indian land mass. More specifically
the coverage shall include the Indian geo-political boundary and a region extending to about
1500 km around it.

1.8.3 IRNSS Service accuracy:

IRNSS system provides the dual frequency user with targeted position accuracy less than
20 meters CEP in the entire service area.

1.8.4 Space Segment

The space segment consists of a constellation of seven GEO satellites. Three Satellites
will be located in Geo-Stationary orbit at 32.5°, 83° and 131.5° East and the remaining four will
be located in GEO Synchronous orbit with an inclination of 29° and Longitude crossing at 55°
and 111.5° East in two different planes. All the satellites of the constellation are being
configured identically. The spacecraft is configured with I-1K Bus to be compatible for launch
onboard PSLV.

1.8.5 Ground Segment

Ground Segment is responsible for the maintenance and operation of the IRNSS constellation.
The Ground segment comprises of:
• IRNSS Satellite Control Facility ( IRSCF )
• IRNSS Range and Integrity Monitoring Stations ( IRIMS )
• IRNSS Navigation Centre ( INC )
• IRNSS Network Timing Centre ( IRNWT )
 • IRNSS CDMA Ranging Stations ( IRCDR )
• IRNSS Laser Ranging Service ( ILRS )
• IRNSS Data Communication Network ( IRDCN )

1.8.6 Navigation Payload

The Navigation Payload is composed of the Following Major Subsystems:
• Navigation Signal Generation Unit
• L5 and S Band Antenna System
• Local Oscillator for Up conversion
• BPSK and BOC Modulators
• L5 and S Band TWTA s
• Rubidium Atomic Frequency Standards
• Atomic Clock Monitoring Units

1.8.7 Navigation Software

• Analysis of CDMA Ranging data for OD
• Message Generation for NSGU software
• Orbit estimation, clock bias computation and iono parameters estimation using one way
code and carrier measurements data.
• Estimation of orbit using LASER ranging data
• Network time synchronization
• Onboard clock characterization
• Uplinking of primary and secondary navigation parameters.

1.8.8 Critical Technologies

• Realization of SPS and RS PRN codes
• Encryption Scheme and Distribution of keys
• Development of FPGA based User receiver
• Development of Atomic Frequency Standards
• Development of IRNSS simulator
1.8.9 GNSS Coordination
• Bilateral discussions with GPS , GALILEO and COMPASS teams have been conducted
to resolve compatibility and interoperability issues
• Frequency Filings for IRNSS TT&C and RNSS frequencies has been carried out.

1.8.10 IRNSS Signals

The basic services offered by IRNSS are:
• Standard Position Services (SPS)
• Restricted Service (RS) with encryption

Both services will be carried on L5 (1176.45 MHz) and S band (2492.028 MHz). The SPS
signal will be modulated by a 1 MHz BPSK signal. The Restricted Service will use BOC(5,2)
modulation.

1.8.10.1 Data Structure

The IRNSS data structure is unique which adopts a hybrid of fixed and message type
frames. The IRNSS Master Frame is of 2400 symbols long made of four sub frames. Each sub
frame is 600 symbols long. Sub frames 1 and 2 transmit fixed primary navigation parameters.
Sub frames 3 and 4 transmit secondary navigation parameters in the form of messages.
IRNSS which operates in L5 band (1176.45 MHz) and S band (2492.028 MHz). An
optimized I-1K bus structure with a power handling capability of around 1600 watts is used and
is designed for a ten-year mission. The satellite was launched on-board PSLV-C22 on 1 July
2013 from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota, while the full constellation is planned
to be placed in orbit by 2015.
The IRNSS civilian signal will be modulated by a 1 MHz BPSK signal. The Precision
Service will use BOC (5, 2). The navigation signals themselves would be transmitted in the S-
band frequency (2–4 GHz) and broadcast through a phased array antenna to maintain required
coverage and signal strength. The IRNSS system is intended to provide an absolute position
accuracy of better than 10 meters throughout Indian landmass and better than 20 meters in the
Indian Ocean as well as a region extending approximately 1,500 km around India.
1.9 QZSS
The Quasi-Zenith Satellite System (QZSS) is a proposed three-satellite regional time transfer
system and enhancement for GPS covering Japan. The first demonstration satellite was launched
in September 2010 [23].

1.10 Comparison of Independent GNSS systems

System GPS GLONASS COMPASS Galileo IRNSS

Political United States Russian China European India
entity Federation Union
Coding CDMA FDMA/CDMA CDMA CDMA CDMA
Orbital height 20,180 km 19,130 km 21,150 km 23,220 km 36,000 km
(12,540 mi) (11,890 mi) (13,140 mi) (14,430 mi) (22,000 mi)
Period 11.97 hours 11.26 hours 12.63 hours 14.08 hours N/A
(11 h 58 m) (11 h 16 m) (12 h 38 m) (14 h 5 m)
Evolution per 2 17/8 17/10 17/10 N/A
sidereal day (geostationar
y)
Number of At least 24 31, including geostationar 4 test bed 7
satellites 24 operational y orbit satellites in geostationary
1 in (GEO) orbit, 22 orbit (GEO)
preparation 2 satellites, 30 operational satellites
on medium satellites
maintenance 3 Earth orbit budgeted
reserve 1 on (MEO)
tests[6] satellites

Frequency 1.57542 GHz Around 1.602 1.561098 1.164–1.215 N/A

 (L1 signal) GHz (SP) GHz (B1) GHz (E5a
1.2276 GHz Around 1.246 1.589742 and E5b)
(L2 signal) GHz (SP) GHz (B1-2) 1.260–1.300
1.20714 GHz (E6)
GHz (B2) 1.559–1.592
1.26852 GHz (E2-L1-
GHz (B3) E11)

Status Operational Operational, 15 satellites In preparation In preparation

CDMA in operational,
preparation 20
additional
satellites
planned

1.11 Challenges in development of GNSS and its applications

Although the underlying basic principles of GNSS are simple, the technical
implementation, and ensuring the accuracy, availability, and integrity of the service is a great
challenge. Many environmental effects such as atmospheric disturbances, low visibility
conditions, reflection of signals, interference threaten the service quality and require mitigation
by complex technical solutions and augmentation systems. While mass market consumer GNSS
applications such as car navigation systems and smart phones are very well known, there are
many public transport and industrial applications such aviation, intelligent traffic systems,
maritime, railway, oil platforms, logistics, dangerous goods transport which require much higher
reliability, availability, and integrity or trustworthiness of the GNSS services to meet safety of
life and liability critical requirements. Mitigation of threats on GNSS services such as receiver-
autonomous integrity monitoring, ground-based, space-based monitoring and augmentation
systems, and issues associated with the increasing number of global satellite navigation and local
augmentation systems, such as multi-constellation, multi-frequency, interoperability,
standardization are the issues to be addressed in near future.
 2. GNSS Signal Structures
2.1 Common components of any GNSS Signal
In order to understand GNSS Software receiver, it is necessary to know the
characteristics of the signal structure and data transmitted from the GNSS satellites and received
by the GNSS receiver antenna. In order to determine user position on the earth, at least three
satellites required. The satellites transmitted information is used to calculate and know the
position of the satellites and similarly pseudo ranges transmitted by the satellites must be
measured to find out the receiver position. However so many parameters required calculating the
position of the satellites and they are transmitted in the GNSS signals.
The generated signals from each satellite of any GNSS system consists majorly three
components those are:
1. Navigation data
2. Pseudo Random Noise code (PRN)
3. Carrier

Navigation data
Generally navigation data bits are contains the information of satellite clocks and orbital
information. The bit rates of navigation data for GPS and GLONASS having 50 bits/second.
These data bits are modulo two additions with pseudo random noise code. The combined signal
is modulate with carrier by using different modulation techniques.
The navigation data contains information of regarding satellite orbits. This information is
uploaded to all satellites from the ground stations in the GLONASS Control Segment. The
navigation data have a bit rate of 50 bps. The navigation message includes immediate and non-
immediate data. The immediate data relate to the satellite, which transmits given navigation
signal. The non-immediate data (GLONASS almanac) relate to all satellites within GLONASS
constellation. Navigation data can be classified in to two types that are: Immediate data, non
immediate data [1][2].
The immediate data related to the GLONASS satellite which broadcasts given RF
navigation signal and includes:
• Enumeration of the satellite time marks.
 • Difference between onboard time scale of the satellite and GLONASS time.
• Relative difference between carrier frequency of satellite and its nominal value.
• Ephemeris parameters and the other parameters.

The Non immediate data (GLONASS almanac) relate all satellites within GLONASS
constellation.
The digital data can be transmitted at 50 bits per second.

PRN (Pseudo Random Noise) Codes

Pseudo random Noise code is random binary sequence 0’s and 1’s have special
properties. The ranging code can be used to find out the range or distance between satellite and
receiver, these ranging codes having noise like properties so that it can also called as Pseudo
Random Noise codes which are having deterministic properties mean it can be generated
mathematically using linear feedback shift register. In GNSS the GPS and GLONASS are
generates two types ranging codes which are explained in the following sections. There are
basically two types of standard ranging signals are generated by GPS and GLONASS [1][2]
satellites that are:
• Precision Code (P-code) (or) High accuracy signal.
• Coarse (or Clear) Acquisition code (C/A-code) (or) Standard accuracy signal

 Each satellite has two unique spreading sequences or ranging codes. The first one is the
coarse acquisition code (C/A), and the other one is the encrypted precision code (P(Y)).
The C/A code is a sequence of 1023chips for GPS and 511 chips for GLONASS. The
code is repeated every 1ms giving a chipping rate of 1.023MHz, 0.511MHz for GPS and
GLONASS respectively. The P code is a longer code with a chipping rate of 10.23MHz
for GPS and 5.11MHz for GLONASS. In GLONASS, it repeats itself each week starting
at the beginning of the GLONASS week which is at Saturday/Sunday midnight. The C/A
code is only modulated onto the L1 carrier while the P(Y) code is modulated onto both
the L1 and the L2 carrier.
  The carrier signal can be modulated by C/A spreading code and data message at
transmitter side, at receiver side the C/A code can be removed by generating local C/A
code and similarly carrier can be removed by generating same carrier signal.

These three components are included in any GNSS system. To understand GNSS software
receiver, the signal structure of GPS and GLONASS briefly explained in the following sections.

Carrier
In telecommunications or communications, a carrier signal , or just a carrier, is a
waveform (usually sinusoidal) that is modulated (modified) with an input signal for the purpose
of conveying information. This carrier wave is usually a much higher frequency than the input
signal. The main purpose of the carrier is usually either to transmit the information through space
as an electromagnetic wave (as in radio communication), or to allow several carriers at different
frequencies to share a common physical transmission medium by frequency division
multiplexing. The term is also used for an unmodulated emission in the absence of any
modulating signal. Frequency modulation (FM) and amplitude modulation (AM) are common
modes of modulating the carrier.
The GNSS signals are transmitted on two radio frequencies in the UHF band. The UHF
band covers frequency band from 500MHz to 3 GHz. These frequencies are referred to as L1
(Link1) band and L2 (Link2) band, L3 (Link3) band.
 The carrier signal with frequency FL1 or FL2 sub band is modulated by the Modulo-2
addition of the following signals:
• Pseudorandom (Ranging code)
• Digital data of navigation message
 The carrier of L2 sub band is modulated by Modulo-2 addition of the following signals:
• Pseudo Random (ranging code).
 The GPS uses the carrier frequency in the range of 1575.42 MHz of L1 band frequency
and 1227.80MHz of L2 band frequency. In GLONASS, carrier frequencies in the range of
1602.0 MHz of zero channel for L1 band and 1246.0 MHz of L2 band frequency of zero channel.
These carrier signals modulated using Binary Phase Shift Keying (BPSK) modulation technique
in GPs and GLONASS but in Galileo the advanced modulation technique that is BOC (Binary
Offset Carrier) modulation.
Carrier Frequencies of GNSS
GPS L1 [21]
• Center Frequency 1575.42MHz
• 19cm wavelength (7.48in)
• L1 C/A-Code (Coarse/Acquisition) or SPS (Standards Positioning Services)
• C/A-Code chipping rate of 1.023 Mbps with code period of 1 ms
• C/A-Code bandwidth +/-1.023MHz (to 1st sinc nulls)
• L1 P-Code or Y-Code PPS (Precise Positioning Service)
• P-Code chipping rate of 10.23 Mbps with code period of 1 ms
• P-Code bandwidth +/-10.23MHz (to 1st sinc nulls)
• Bandwidth +/-12MHz (ITU International Telecommunications Union authorized)

GPS L2
• L2 P-Code or Y-Code PPS (Precise Positioning Service)
• Center Frequency 1227.60MHz
• 24.4cm wavelength (9.61in)
• Bandwidth +/-10.23MHz (to 1st sinc nulls)
• Bandwidth +/-12MHz (ITU authorized)
• Chipping rate of 10.23 Mbps with code period of 7 days
• 267 day pseudo random code generator (divided into 37-7 day segments)
GPS L5
• L5 uses codes in-phase (I) and quadrature (Q) I has data message Q does not
 • Center Frequency 1176.45MHz
• Bandwidth +/-10.23MHz (to 1st sinc nulls)
• Bandwidth +/-12MHz (ITU International Telecommunications Union authorized)
• Chipping rate of 10.23 Mbps with code period of 1 ms

GPS M-CODE
• M-Code is a split spectrum signal with a 30MHz bandwidth to 1st nulls
• Center of split spectrum signals are at L1 & L2 band centers

WAAS/EGNOS
• 1575.42MHz

ILAA RTCM Radio Beacons (USCG type Beacons)

• 283.5-325.0 KHz

GLONASS
• L1 1597-1605MHz SPS: bandwidth ~1.022MHz to 1st sinc nulls, centered at each
GLONASS L1 SV frequency.
• L2 1240-1260MHz PPS (on L1 & L2) bandwidth 10.22MHz centered at each GLONASS
L2 SV frequency.

2.2 Modulation Techniques

Modulation Techniques used in GNSS systems are: BPSK, BOC.
BPSK is the best digital modulation technique with least probability error. So it is the
most preferred technique in communication systems.
Generation of BPSK signal

Figure 2.1: Block Diagram for Generation of BPSK Signal

The binary data is first level shifted using level shifter so that it contains positive and
negative amplitudes and the resultant output is modulated using carrier signal to obtain the
required BPSK signal.

Demodulation of BPSK signal:

Figure 2.2: Block diagram for Demodulation

The received BPSK signal is multiplied with the carrier having same phase and frequency
as of the transmitter. The resultant output is passed through an integrator and to a threshold
detector to obtain our binary data that is modulated.

2.3 Multiple Accessing Techniques

Multiple access techniques are used to allow a large number of mobile users to share the
allocated spectrum in the most efficient manner. As the spectrum is limited, so the sharing is
required to increase the capacity of cell or over a geographical area by allowing the available
bandwidth to be used at the same time by different users. And this must be done in a way such
that the quality of service doesn’t degrade within the existing users. Different multiple access
schemes used in GNSS are FDMA and CDMA.
 The GNSS concept consists in having Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) satellites transmitting
navigation data simultaneously over the same channel (air). In order to process these signals, the
receiver must be able to distinguish them and therefore requires a multiple access technique.
Although most GNSS nowadays envisage using Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA),
GLONASS legacy signals still use a Frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA) technique,
mainly for historical reasons.
Multiple access techniques are employed in a communication system whenever several
users need to share the same medium of transmission. In GNSS, satellites transmit their signals
over the same physical medium in L-band.

2.3.1 CDMA-Code Division Multiple Access

Why do we need to provide multiple access? Let us consider a room (channel) in which
different people wish to share their ideas simultaneously. If all of them speak at the same time no
information is shared between them due to the disturbance created by cross talk. To avoid cross
talk people in room can take turns in speaking (Time division), speak at different pitches
(frequency), and speak in different languages (Code).In CDMA technique each user is given a
different code and all the codes given to different users are orthogonal.
Consider two receivers; receiver1 and receiver2 are given codes C1 and C2 respectively.
The base station (Transmitter antenna) transmits a signal that contains these codes with some
unwanted information (due to cross talk).

In CDMA, as the Codes given to the receivers are orthogonal, at the moment the
receiver1 receives the composite signal from transmitter it is multiplied with the code given to it
internally and the information sent to the receiver1 is extracted, same is done by receiver2.This
technique mainly used in Global positioning satellite (GPS).
 Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) technique allows several signals to be
transmitted simultaneously over the same frequency. For that purpose, each satellite is assigned
with a dedicated Pseudo-Random Noise (PRN) code chosen for its low cross-correlation
properties with the PRN codes transmitted by the other satellites.
Although there are different families of PRN codes, the main objective when designing
such codes is to guarantee high auto-correlations and low cross-correlations properties. In fact,
the receiver correlates the incoming signal with the desired PRN code in order to de-spread the
signal and to recover its original version. Low cross-correlation properties guarantee that the
recovered signal has not suffered interference from the signals transmitted by the other satellites.
In CDMA techniques, the number of users is limited by the selection of the PRN codes
and their low cross-correlation properties – this fact does not affect GNSS which include only a
few tens of satellites. Another aspect in CDMA techniques refers to the near far effect that can be
felt when the receiver is much closer to an emitter than to another. In general, this does not affect
terrestrial GNSS receivers since all satellites are far by the same order of magnitude, and hence
this problem is mostly felt in indoors (or weak signal) environments where signals from different
satellites suffer different attenuations. Another case of near far effect is when GNSS space
signals are combined with GNSS ground-base pseudolites. In this case, special techniques need
to be implemented to resolve the near-far effects.

2.3.2 FDMA-Frequency Division Multiple Access

Frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA) techniques consist in assigning each
satellite with a specific carrier frequency. The main advantage of FDMA when compared to
CDMA is that it guarantees signal separation since each signal is transmitted in a different
frequency.
On the other hand, it requires a higher complexity (and cost) regarding antenna and
receiver design, related to the implementation of the different band-pass filters and calibration.
FDMA is used only by the legacy GLONASS signals, mainly for historical reasons. Although
the legacy GLONASS uses FDMA, there are already plans to include a CDMA signal in the
modernized GLONASS. In fact, the first reception of GLONASS CDMA signal was announced
in 2011. In this technique different users are allocated different frequency bands. FDMA
Receiver must have accurate band pass filter characteristics. No need of synchronization and
switching circuits Transmission problems may occur due to cross talk unless a specific guard
band is allocated while transmitting which increases the bandwidth of system. It is used in
GLONASS navigation system.

2.4 Signal structure of different GNSS systems

2.4.1 GPS
The GPS signals are transmitted on two different frequencies, which are L1 and L2
carrier sub-bands. These satellite generated carrier frequency of L1 and L2 sub bands are
modulated by the modulo-2 addition of pseudo random noise code, navigation data using Binary
Phase Shift Keying (BPSK) modulation technique. GPS satellite broadcasted signals include
ranging signals, used to measure the distance to the satellite, and navigation messages. In GPS
however, each satellite transmits different ranging code signal on different carrier frequencies
using Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) technique. GPS signal provides two services
which are:
1. Standard Positioning Services (SPS) for civilians
2. Precise Positioning Services (PPS) for DoD authorized users

SPS signals can also called Coarse Acquisition (C/A) code and similarly PPS signals
called as Precision code or encrypted code (P(Y) code).

Figure 2.3: Fundamental block of ranging codes

 The L-band covers the frequency range from 1GHz to 2 GHz and it is a subset of Ultra-
High Frequency band (UHF). The L-band frequencies L1 and L2 are 1575.42 MHz and 1227.60
MHz respectively. These signals chosen because of at these microwave frequencies the signals
are highly directional, so easily blocked and as well as reflected.

The GPS Satellite Signals consists of three components

1. Navigation Data Message
2. Ranging code (C/A code)
3. Carrier
The mathematical equation of GPS satellites transmitted civilian signal (C/A code) on
L1, L2 band has the following structure

Where: Sn = GPS Broadcast on nth satellite signal

n = Indicates the satellite PRN number
Pc, PPL1 , PPL2 = Signal Power of carrier, L1 band and L2 band
PRN = C/A code or PRN code (1023kcps)
Pn(t) = Precision code on L1 and L2 band
Dn = Navigation Data for the nth satellite
FL1 FL2 = GPS L1 and L2 frequencies.

GPS Navigation Data Message

In order to determine the user position a navigation message is transmitted on both L-
band frequencies. The GPS navigation data message contains the following information :
1. Predicts the Satellite ephemerides
2. Predicts the Satellite Clock Corrections
3. GPS system status information like health
 4. The GPS system Ionospheric model
This information is uplink by the control segment (upload station) to all Satellites. The
GPS navigation data message is in a binary form but its sequence is not random. The navigation
message is transmitted at a rate of one bit per every twenty repetitions of ranging code (C/A
code). GPS satellite transmits navigation data message at 50 bits per second, each bit takes 20
milliseconds time. The navigation data message formatted into frames of 1500 bits, it takes 30
seconds time to transmit a single frame. Each frame can be divided in to five sub frames, these
each sub frame takes six milliseconds time and each sub frame contains 300 bit words.

Figure 2.4: GPS navigation Super frame structure

 Figure 2.5: Navigation message data structure
The contents of navigation message, and the frames, data blocks arranged in a manner as
explained in above diagram. The sub frames 1 to 3 repeats the same information from frame to
frame, it contains clock corrections, health, accuracy and ephemeris parameters of Satellite. The
sub frame 4 and 5 are used to transmission deferent pages of system data, it contains almanac.
The sub frames 1,2 and 3 repeat every 0.5 minutes and these are specific to satellites. The sub
frames 4 and 5 repeats every 12.5 minutes and these are common to all satellites [3].
The information content of the various sub frames is as fallows
• Sub frame 1 contains the GPS date and time, plus satellite status and health.
• Sub frames 2 and 3, when combined; contain the transmitting satellite’s ephemeris data.
• Sub frames 4 and 5, when combined, contain 1/25th of the almanac; meaning 25 whole
frames worth of data are required to complete the 15,000 bit almanac message. At this
rate, 12.5 minutes are requires to receive an entire almanac from a single satellite.

2.4.1.1 GPS Ranging Code (C/A code)

Each satellite has two unique spreading sequences or codes. The first one is the coarse
acquisition code (C/A), and the other one is the encrypted precision code (P(Y)). The C/A code
is a sequence of 1023 chips. The code is repeated each one millisecond giving a chipping rate of
1.023 MHz. The P code is a longer code with a chipping rate of 10.23 MHz . It repeats itself each
week starting at the beginning of the GPS week which is at Saturday/Sunday midnight. The C/A
code is only modulated onto the L1 carrier while the P(Y) code is modulated onto both the L1
and the L2 carrier.
2.4.1.2 Generation of GPS C/ A Code
The C/A code referred as Coarse/Acquisition or Clear/Access. The GPS C/A code signals
belong to the family of pseudorandom noise (PRN) codes known as the Gold codes [3][5][9].
The signals are generated from the product of two 1,023-bit PRN sequence G1 and G2. Both G1
and G2 are generated by a maximum-length linear shift register of 10 stages and are operated by
a 1.023 MHz clock
A maximum-length sequence (MLS) generator can be made from a shift register with
proper feedback. If the shift register has n bits, the length of the sequence generated is 2n-1. Both
shift generators in G1 and G2 have 10 bits, and then the sequence length is 1,023 (210-1). The
feedback circuit is obtained through modulo-2 adders. The operating rule of the modulo-2 adder
is when the two inputs are the same the output is 0, otherwise it is 1. The positions of the
feedback circuit determine the output pattern of the sequence. The corresponding polynomial can
be written as G1: 1+x3+x10. The feedback of G2 is from bits 2, 3, 6, 8, 9, and the corresponding
polynomial is G2: 1+x2+x3+x6+x8+x9+x10.
The output from the last bit of the G1 shift register is the output of the sequence. Let us
refer to this output as the MLS output. However, the G2 generator does not use the MLS output
as the output. The output is generated from two bits which are referred to as the code phase
selections through another modulo-2 adder. This G2 output is a delayed version of the MLS
output. The delay time is determined by the positions of the two output points selected.
 Figure 2.6: G1, G2 maximum-length sequence generators.

Table 2.1: Modulo-2 Addition

Another modulo-2 adder is used to generate the C/ A code, which uses the outputs from
G1 and G2 as inputs. The initial values of the two shift registers G1 and G2 are all 1’s and they
must be loaded in the registers first. The satellite identification is determined by the two output
positions of the G2 generator. There are 37 unique output positions. Among these 37 outputs, 32
are utilized for the C/ A codes of 32 satellites, but only 24 satellites are in orbit. The other five
outputs are reserved for other applications such as ground transmission.
 Figure 2.7: GPS C/ A code generator

The outputs from the C/ A code generator must be 1 and −1, rather than 1 and 0. By using
normal multiplication instead of XOR operation, it gives less multiplication than XOR operation,
so replacing the -1 and1 instead of 0 and 1.

Normal Multiplication
 The Code phase assignment table 2.2, there are five columns and the first column gives
the satellite ID number, which is from 1 to 32 [3]. The second column gives the PRN signal
number; and it is from 1 to 37. It should be noted that the C/ A codes of PRN signal numbers 34
and 37 are the same. The third column provides the code phase selections that are used to form
the output of the G2 generator.
Table 2.2: Code Phase Assignments
Satellite GPS PRN Code phase
ID number signal number Selection
1 1 2 XOR 6
2 2 3 XOR 7
3 3 4 XOR 8
4 4 5 XOR 9
5 5 1 XOR 9
6 6 2 XOR 10
7 7 1 XOR 8
8 8 2 XOR 9
9 9 3 XOR 10
10 10 2 XOR 3
11 11 3 XOR 4
12 12 5 XOR 6
13 13 6 XOR 7
14 14 7 XOR 8
15 15 8 XOR 9
16 16 9 XOR 10
17 17 1 XOR 4
 18 18 2 XOR 5
19 19 3 XOR 6
20 20 4 XOR 7
21 21 5 XOR 8
22 22 6 XOR 9
23 23 1 XOR 3
24 24 4 XOR 6
25 25 5 XOR 7
26 26 6 XOR 8
27 27 7 XOR 9
28 28 8 XOR 10
29 29 1 XOR 6
30 30 2 XOR 7
31 31 3 XOR 8
32 32 4 XOR 9
** 33 5 XOR 10
** 34* 4 XOR 10
** 35 1 XOR 7
** 36 2 XOR 8
** 37* 4 XOR 10

The fourth column provides the code delay measured in chips. This delay is the
difference between the MLS output and the G2 output. The last column provides the first 10 bits
of the C/A code generated for each satellite. These values can be used to check whether the
generated code is wrong. This number is in an octal format.

Carrier
In GPS system all satellites are having same frequency which is 1575.42 MHz for L1 band and
similarly L2 band having 1227.80MHz. These carrier frequencies are modulated with data signal
and C/A code using BPSK modulation.
In receiver segment the received signal having very high frequency so it is very difficult to signal
processing due to complexity of the signal. In order to achieve this we need down conversion of
the signal from higher carrier frequency to intermediate frequency.
 3. GNSS Software Receivers
3.1 Introduction
Software Defined Radios (SDRs), which are highly flexible digital communication
receivers, have been around for more than a decade. Presently this is a rapidly evolving
technology that is getting enormous recognition and is generating widespread interest in the
receiver industry, particularly for mobile wireless transmission via hand-held devices. Size and
cost competitiveness has set the limitations, when trying to implement systems compatible with
multiple standards that exist presently and the upcoming standards, which will overlap with
existing ones for a significant interim period. Similarly, reconfiguring a device near-
instantaneously is desirable if the required throughput over a wireless link varies between such
extremes as voice transmission or down-loading a large image. This has motivated the concept of
a software defined radio (SDR), whereby the digital-to analog and analog-to-digital conversion
are performed as close as possible to the radio frequency.
The aim of extending the digital domain is to implement modulation, demodulation, and
channel coding and other required processing (functional) tasks in software. Because the
functionality is defined in software, a new technology can easily be implemented in a software
radio with a software upgrade. Therefore, users, service providers, and manufacturers become
more independent of the realization of a specific data transmission standard, since by down-
loading appropriate software code, a different functionality can be adopted by the
communications system. SDR technology aims at a flexible open-architecture receiver, which
helps in building reconfigurable SDRs, where dynamic selection of parameters for individual
modules is possible.
Whereas many standards are coming in the wireless communications, Global
Navigational Satellite Systems (GNSS) are also becoming so popular that presently existing
Global Positioning System (GPS) receivers are used in many applications, from cellular phones
to aircraft navigation for strategic defense applications. GPS, which is in existence for over a
quarter century, refers specifically to the global navigation system using satellites provided by
the USA Defense. It was developed basically for military applications, but subsequently released
with some restrictions for civilian use for world wide. GPS is going through a modernization
program in four phases, which will finally result in five GPS code signals, as against the two
existing frequencies. GLONASS is another satellite based navigation system under operation,
developed by Russia.
However, user countries all over the world which have been extensively using the GPS or
GLONASS for civilian applications have strongly felt the need to develop and launch their own
regional/global navigation systems along with augmentation systems so that they may operate
with or without collaboration from GPS or GLONASS. This has lead to the evolution of Global
Navigation Satellite System that will have universal accessibility. GNSS, thus refers not only to
GPS, GLONASS, Galileo (of Europe), COMPASS (of China), QZSS (of Japan) and INRSS (of
India) along with their respective augmentation systems. The presently available traditional
GNSS receivers are hardware based and available for GPS and GLONASS. Hardware based
receivers are not flexible and cannot be easily upgraded to acquire the signals from other GNSS
systems like Galileo and Compass. The receiver complexity also increases because of the new
signals structures and algorithms, introduced to improve the performance. Besides the new
challenges of having the capability to receive and process the signals of many GNSS systems,
some old challenges of GNSS like multipath still exist. Multipath are still one of the most
dominant errors in the positioning and the research in field of multipath navigation is active and
providing new receiver algorithms. From these reasons, flexibility is seen as an asset for a
receiver. Therefore, a concept like SDR, a GNSS software receiver (SR) approach is emerged to
have a single receiver for all the GNSS constituents. The technological evolutions in
microelectronic RF asics, Digital Signal Processing and Software-radio techniques, enable the
design of a future GNSS receiver with very promising physical and functional characteristics.
Further in order to use other satellite navigation systems like Galileo of Europe, and
GAGAN of India (referred by the common term GNSS), we should focus on development of a
software receiver as a common platform for two or more of these systems. Using GNSS-SDR we
can easily integrate the navigation solution with other modules of the defense applications. The
present trend is system-on-chip solution for complex problems to make the equipment or product
as small as possible in size to use in missiles, aircrafts, and helicopters. Therefore India should
have indigenous technology to develop software based receivers to have flexibility and
reliability. It is essential to know the basics of GNSS software receivers.
Therefore, this lecture will cover the brief review of signal structure of GPS and other
GNSS systems, traditional GPS/GNSS receiver, and software receivers. Later we will cover in
brief the architecture and algorithms required in the software receiver. Finally we will conclude
it by explaining the status and presently existing challenges in design and development of GNSS
software receiver.

3.2 Traditional GPS Hardware Receiver

This architecture consists of three distinct stages as shown in figure 6. First is the analog
RF front end which consists of an antenna, Low Noise Amplifier, Mixer and ADC. The output is
an IF carrier BPSK modulated with C/A and Navigation message signals from a minimum of
four visible satellites. The second performs correlation of the received signal with a locally
generated IF carrier which is BPSK modulated with a C/A code and once correlated with a
specific satellite it recovers the navigation message. The navigation message contains ephemeris
data, clock signal data etc., of the satellite acquired and also of the other adjacent satellites. In the
final stage the programmable processor performs decoding of the navigation data and
computation of pseudo ranges of four satellites and the receiver clock offset (bias) time and
finally computing the position of the receiver in x, y, z coordinates of WGS 84 system. In
practice these three stages are in the form of application specific integrated circuits (ASICs) and
hence they are called “hardware receivers”. Users have limited access to change the parameters
or install new algorithms. The proposed GNSS receiver may be required to receive three
additional frequencies at 1602,1191.75 and 1275.78 MHz , L5 and S bands, in addition to the
1577.42 MHz of GPS. The GNSS receiver is also required to correlate more number of C/A
codes and demodulate navigation messages of different bit sequences and bit rates. Therefore
hardware receivers are not suitable for research and development of GNSS receivers. Thus it is
necessary to have Software-based receivers with appropriate architecture to meet the above
requirements and challenges.
3.3 GNSS Software Receiver
3.3.1 Architecture
In this design, the analog RF front end remains the same while the digital signal
processing and computation of position are all performed in a programmable microprocessor
using high level programming language like C/C++, Assembly as shown in figure 3.1. In such a
design, the GPS hardware development can be more focused only on getting a wide band ADC
as close to the antenna as is convenient, while the programmable processor has a much wider
scope for research, development and implementation of algorithms to meet the requirements of a
flexible GNSS receiver such as acquisition and tracking using different parameters and threshold
values from four satellites of different constellations of GNSS, processing weak signals and
signals from DGPS, multipath effects, propagation delays satellites selection and any other ideas.

Figure. 3.1. GNSS Hardware Receiver

We still need RF front-end since the present capacity of CPU is still not able to process
the signal directly from the antenna at 1.5GHz.
A hardware-based receiver is fastest in signal processing however whereas a software-
based receiver has the highest level of flexibility but is the slowest in processing speed. There are
FPGA-based receivers which are a compromise between the two.
 Many basic parameters can be changed by a user in SR for various types of signal
processing and simulation. They are Intermediate frequency (IF), sampling frequency, Doppler
frequency range, chip rate, chip delay, threshold for acquisition, noise bandwidth, damping
factor, signal tracking duration etc., This flexibility is achieved by digital signal processing
techniques.

Figure.3.2. GNSS Software Receiver

3.4 GNSS Antennas and Front ends

These are not part of the algorithm for software receiver. However it is important to know
about it, because it is the source for signals to be processed by the algorithms of the software
receiver. Here we will focus only on the narrowband GNSS L1 signals, primarily on the GPS
C/A code and interested people can refer literature for more details of other GNSS systems and
signals to be captured by GNSS Antenna and front end part[…].
The process begins with the GNSS signal, propagating through space, which is incident
on a user’s GNSS antenna. Thus in turn, induces a voltage within the element. The voltage is
extremely weak, corresponding to a guaranteed signal power of -160dBW, in the case of GPS,
and has a carrier frequency of 1575.42GHz. Considering a bandwidth of 2MHz, the received
GPS signal power is below that of the thermal noise floor. This is quite unique in the field of
radio transmission. If we search for the presence of GPS signal at antenna by spectrum analyzer,
then any such characteristics of the signal would be hidden as the observation would be
dominated by the thermal noise. This is a feature of the CDMA spread spectrum signal and
requires the appropriate signal processing to acquire and process the signal. Thus the voltage
induced within the GNSS antenna elements is the sum of GPS and thermal noise (which is more
dominating) signals. Given that the L1 GNSS band is designated Aeronautical Radio Navigation
Service frequency band, no other signals should be present within the frequency span.
The analog voltage that results from the incident GPS signal and the thermal noise
remains much too weak and at too high a frequency for most ADCs to operate. In order to
overcome this, the front end will utilize a combination of amplifiers, mixers, filters and its own
oscillator to condition the incident voltage on the antenna before converting them to the samples
as shown in figure 3.3. Please refer for clarity of figure borrowed from [2].

Figure.3.3 GPS L1 Front end

3.5 GPS Receiver Algorithms
A GPS software receiver algorithm has to carry out the following steps.
1. Acquisition
2. Tracking
3. Navigation Data extraction
4. Computation of Satellite Position
5. Pseudorange Computation and
6. Position Computation

3.5.1 Acquisition:
The signal processing for a satellite navigation system is based on a channelized structure
for both GPS and Galileo. Before a channel is allocated to a satellite, the receiver must know
which satellites are currently visible. There are two common methods of finding the initially
visible satellites called: Warm start, the receiver combines the information in the stored
almanac data and the last position computed by the receiver. Cold start, the receiver does not
rely on any stored information. Instead it starts from scratch searching for visible satellites. The
method of searching referred as acquisition. Therefore the purpose of acquisition is to identify all
visible satellites to the user. If a satellite is visible, the acquisition must also determine the
frequency and code phase of the signal. The frequency of the signal from a specific satellite can
differ from its normal value due to down converting it into IF and due to Doppler frequency
shift. The code phase denotes the point in the current data block where the C/A code begins.
These acquisition algorithms are based on GPS signal properties like correlation and DFT.

3.5.2 Tracking
The main purpose of tracking is to refine the coarse values of code phases and frequency
and to keep track of these as signal properties change over time. The accuracy of the final value
of the code phase is connected to the accuracy of the pseudorange computed later on. The
tracking contains two parts: code tracking and carrier/phase tracking. The tracking is running
continuously to follow the changes in frequency as a function of time. If the receiver loses track
of a satellite, a new acquisition must be performed for that particular satellite.
3.5.3 Navigation Data extraction
When the signals are properly locked/tracked, then the C/A code and the carrier wave can
be removed from the signal, only leaving the navigation data bits.

3.5.4 Computation of satellite position

The value of a data bit is found by integrating over a navigation bit period of 20ms. After
reading about 30s of data, the beginning of a subframe must be found in order to find the time
when the data was transmitted from the satellite. When the time transmission is found, the
ephemeris data for the satellite must be decoded. This is used later on to compute the position of
the satellite at the time of transmission.

3.5.5 Pseudorange Computation

The last thing to do before making position computations is to compute pseudoranges.
The pseudoranges are computed based on the time of transmission from the satellite and the time
of arrival at the receiver. The time of arrival is based on the beginning of the subframe.

3.5.6 Computation of Position

The final task of the receiver is, computation of the user position. To compute the user
position we need the position of the satellites and the corresponding pseudoranges. Position of
the satellites is computed using the ephemeris. Then we can compute the position using
pseudoranges and position of the satellites.
 References
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Software Receiver” Position, Location and Navigation (PLAN) Group, Department of
Geomatics Engineering, Schulich School of Engineering, University of Calgary. ION
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