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Software Receiver
Per-Ludvig Normark, Christian Sthlberg
NordNav Technologies
BIOGRAPHY INTRODUCTION
Per-Ludvig Normark is Chief Technical Officer at Software defined radio (SDR) is a concept for
NordNav Technologies. He received his M.Sc. in transceivers in which the signal processing is
Computer Science from Lule University of Technology. accomplished via a programmable general-purpose
And he has been working as a research engineer at the microprocessor or digital signal processor (DSP), as
Stanford University GPS laboratory. His interest is opposed to an application-specific integrated circuit
focused on software receivers and high accuracy/integrity (ASIC).
GNSS implementations.
A fully software Global Navigation Satellite System
Christian Sthlberg, Signal Processing Engineer at (GNSS) receiver implementation holds many advantages
NordNav Technologies, has received a M.Sc. in over traditional receiver designs. The most significant of
Computer Science from Lule University of Technology. these advantages include the ability to do dynamic
He is focusing on baseband processing of new GNSS reconfiguration; the ability to reuse hardware in system
signals, efficient implementations and mapping of design; and rapid design and prototyping cycles. The
algorithms onto programmable processors. complete list is quite extensive, and is an important factor
in light of upcoming expansions in GNSS service,
including not only Galileo but also the forthcoming
ABSTRACT modernized GPS signals (Block IIR-M) and the Quasi-
Galileo is designed to be interoperable but independent Zenith Satellite System (QZSS).
from GPS. Interoperability means that user receiver
equipment should be able to take advantage of both Software GNSS receivers are a reality today and are
systems to increase accuracy, integrity, and overall receiving market acceptance as a feasible alternative to
performance. Compatibility, on the other hand, implies traditional hardware designs in certain applications. The
that the two systems should operate concurrently but authors demonstrated one of the first fully real-time
independently, with as little impact on each other as software GPS receivers in 2000 [2] and have continued to
possible. The inclusion of Galileo should not degrade develop software receiver technology further at NordNav
GPS standalone performance, and conversely GPS should Technologies. At present, a handful of research institutes
not impact Galileo processing. The interoperability, are developing real-time software receivers [4,5], with
despite frequency overlap, is accomplished through the efforts concentrating on multiple frequencies and wide
use of different signal structures and codes. The bandwidth processing. Many are using software receivers
frequency overlap, or essentially using the same carrier as core tools in their research [7,8].
frequency, greatly simplifies the radio frequency (RF)
design and reduces the cost for hybrid receivers; the same
antenna and front end can be used to receive signals from GALILEO AND GPS
both systems. The digital signal processing of the signals Galileo and GPS interoperability means that hybrid
will, however, differ. receivers will offer improved performance in several
ways compared to GPS- or Galileo-only receivers. The
This paper presents the design and implementation of a availability of satellites (29 GPS and 27 Galileo) will
hybrid software GPS/Galileo receiver, together with offer significant improvements in acquisition and tracking
testing and performance results using a GPS/Galileo in demanding environments such as cities, where satellites
software intermediate frequency (IF) simulator. are often blocked by buildings. Additionally, hybrid
receivers can select those subsets of visible satellites that
improve multipath performance for a given antenna
location. Integrity performance will also benefit from the
presence of the two independent systems.
Since GNSS signals are band limited, a traditional down
conversion front end can be used together with a proper
GPS antenna this essentially overcomes the shortcomings in
GPS
Galileo the current state-of-the-art antenna and ADC technology
for software receivers. Ideally, the chosen downconverter
has the ability to select which RF band to translate (L1,
L2 or L5) and what bandwidth to capture (2-50 MHz).
Todays processing elements are capable of real-time
GPS/GNSS processing. A realizable software receiver for
GNSS signals with todays technology is illustrated in
Figure 3. This architecture is compatible with all known
front end architectures.
Figure 1 GPS and Galileo illustration in city Antenna Microprocessor/DSP
Analog RF Front End
The civil GPS and Galileo L1 Open Service will operate AGC
N
Hard Drive
Raw Signal Output Complete Signal Output
Multibit
User Rx
Tracking Loop API
Receiver processing
Front End
Hard
App API Datadecode Measurement
All signal processing takes place on the PC processor.
Multibit
drives Navigation
API Navigation The receiver has a very modular and flexible design and
Front End
SBAS Clock has support for a configurable sampling frequency of up
Multibit Rangecodes
Channel
Control
to 40 MHz and 16 bit IF samples (it can be extended to
Front End support higher sampling frequencies).
Multibit Misc Tools
Front End
Receiver GUI The receiver includes a GUI and also a well-documented
API for users who wish to integrate the receiver with
Figure 7 NordNav R30 Architecture other applications.
While processing data in real time, the R30 can also be Tracking
configured to continuously record multibit samples to the The correlator engine takes as input raw IF samples, a
hard drive for post-processing. File sizes are limited only code vector, code frequency, code phase, carrier
by available hard disk space. For example, using 4 bit frequency and carrier phase. It outputs I and Q
samples and a 16.3676 MHz sampling frequency results accumulations for each correlator and code period
in a data storage rate of ~8 MByte/s (1 minute of data is (typically 1 ms for C/A). The standard correlator is a
about 470 MByte) which most PC hard drives and early-late-prompt configuration, where the user can select
external firewire drives can handle continuously. The R30 among predefined early-late chip spacings. It is also
can also can be set up for Triggered Recording, in possible to use multiple correlators: up to 32 correlator
which data logging begins when a predetermined event pairs (I and Q) can be used per channel, and the spacing
occurs. Examples include a new satellite rising in the sky, for each correlator can be set by the user.
or the detection of an anomalous condition using
conventional signal quality monitoring (SQM) events The tracking loops consist of a delay lock loop (DLL) for
flagged by one or more correlator outputs. In any event, tracking the code and a phase lock loop (PLL) to track the
carrier. The user can configure the loop bandwidth,
integration time, and what correlator pair to use for GPS Signal
20
January 22-24, 2001, pp. 809-816.
15
[3] Normark, P-L., MacGougan, G., Stahlberg, C.,
10 GNSS Software Receivers a Disruptive
Technology, Proceedings of GNSS Symposium
5
2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
2004, Tokyo, Japan, November 19, 2004.
filter bandwidth (MHz)
Figure 19 R30 software correlator tracking Galileo [4] Pany, T., Frster, F., Eissfeller, B., Real-Time
signals versus different filter bandwidths. Processing and Multipath Mitigation of High-
Bandwidth L1/L2 GPS Signals with a PC-based
Software Receiver, Proceedings of ION GNSS
CONCLUSIONS 2004, Long Beach, CA, September 21-24, 2004.
Software GNSS receivers offer significant advantages
over traditional hardware designs due to their inherent [5] Ledvina, B., Psiaki, M., Sheinfeld, D., Cerruti, A.,
architectural flexibility. This paper describes a fully Powell, S., Kinter, P., A Real-Time GPS Civilian
software hybrid GNSS receiver capable of real time L1/L2 Software Receiver, Proceedings of ION
acquisition and tracking of GPS C/A and Galileo GNSS 2004, Long Beach, CA, September 21-24,
BOC(1,1) data channel and pilot channel. 2004.
In conjunction with the receiver, a software IF simulator [6] Normark, P.-L., Sthlberg, C., Seco, G., Interference
is also presented. This device simulates the GPS L1 Study Processing Live GPS L1 Data with Injected
constellation (C/A code) and Galileo L1 Open Service Galileo L1 Data in a High-Performance GNSS
signals, and is used together with live GPS data to verify Software Receiver, ION GPS 2003, Portland, OR,
receiver performance in a hybrid signal environment. The September 9-12, 2003.
simulator enables full bit-true validation of the receiver's
Galileo Open Service performance even though no [7] Manandhar, D., Shibasaki, R., Normark, P.-L., GPS
Galileo satellites have yet been launched. The simulation Signal Analysis Using LHCP/RHCP Antenna and
shows that software receivers are a feasible choice for Software GPS Receiver, Proceedings of ION GNSS
hybrid GPS/Galileo L1 applications. 2004, Long Beach, CA, September 21-24, 2004.
GNSS software receivers are an emerging technology [8] Chiou, T.-Y., Alban, S., Atwater, S., Gautier J.,
enabling the creation of new applications. The continued Pullen, S., Enge, P., Akos, D., Gebre-Egziabher, D.,
demand for more information and modernized radio and Pervan, B., Performance Analysis and
navigation systems, combined with the exponential Experimental Validation of a Deeply Integrated
evolution of processing power may well see the extinction GPS/INS Receiver for JPALS Applications,
of some application specific integrated circuits. Proceedings of ION GNSS 2004, Long Beach, CA,
September 21-24, 2004.