International Global Navigation Satellite Systems Society

IGNSS Symposium 2009

Holiday Inn Surfers Paradise, Qld, Australia

1 – 3 December, 2009

The Galileo E5 AltBOC: Understanding the Signal

Structure

Nagaraj C Shivaramaiah
School of Surveying and Spatial Information Systems, UNSW, Australia
+61293854185(P), +61293137493(F), nagaraj@unsw.edu.au
Andrew G Dempster
School of Surveying and Spatial Information Systems, UNSW, Australia
+61293856890(P), +61293137493(F), a.dempster@unsw.edu.au

ABSTRACT

The Galileo E5 signal is by far the most sophisticated signal among all the
signals used for Global Navigation Satellite System. This tutorial paper
explains the Galileo E5 signal structure from the basics. With four codes
modulated onto the two phases of orthogonal sub-carriers, the signal
occupies a wide bandwidth of around 51 MHz (first two main lobes). The
constant envelope modulation feature makes it more different from both the
extremes of sinusoidal and binary signal types. Transmitted signal equations
in the time domain, the constant envelope AltBOC modulation, frequency
spectrum, autocorrelation function and the pre-correlation SNR details are
provided.

KEYWORDS: Galileo E5, AltBOC, power spectral density, signal structure

1. INTRODUCTION

Galileo E5 is a Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum (DS-SS) signal with Code Division
Multiple Access (CDMA). The Galileo E5 signal employs a special modulation known as
constant envelope Alternate Binary Offset Carrier (AltBOC) modulation. The sub-carrier
waveforms are chosen so as to obtain a constant envelope at the transmitter. The result of this
AltBOC modulation is a split spectrum around the center frequency as shown in Fig.1. Each
sideband comprises two pseudorandom codes modulated onto the orthogonal components.
The in-phase components E5aI and E5bI carry the data modulation. The quadrature
components E5aQ and E5bQ are pilot signals. The data modulation is 250 symbols per
second (sps) with a rate ½ and constraint length 7 convolution encoding scheme.

The salient features of the Galileo E5 signal are provided in Table 1 (OSSISICD, 2008).
 Parameter(Notation) Value / Function Units Remarks
Carrier frequency ( fc ) 1191.795 MHz E5 center frequency
Code frequency( fco ) 10.23 MHz
Sub-carrier frequency( fsc ) 15.345 MHz
Sub-carrier waveform Special See future sections
Code length 10230 chips Primary code
Modulation AltBOC(15,10) Constant envelope
Lower sideband center frequency( fa ) 1176.45 MHz E5a center frequency
Upper sideband center frequency( fb ) 1207.14 MHz E5b center frequency
Bandwidth (E5) 51.15 MHz First two main lobes
Bandwidth (E5a, E5b) 20.46 MHz
Minimum Received Power Level -155 dBW E5a / E5b

Table 1: E5 Signal Parameters

Constant Envelope
AltBOC <=> 8-PSK
20.46 MHz 20.46 MHz

E5a E5b Imaginary

I- I-
a5 b5
E E
0 1

-Q H
z
MH
z -Q Hz f Real
E5a .45M 95 E5b 40 M
117
6 1.7 7.1
119 120
-1
51.15 MHz

(a) Spectrum representation (b) Constellation diagram

Figure 1: Galileo E5 signal spectrum and 8-PSK representation

Looking at the characteristics of the signal from different points of view, the signal can be
better understood. Being an AltBOC signal, it can also be considered as a Double Sideband
Suppressed Carrier (DSB-SC) system. Because the two sidebands can be demodulated inde-
pendently, the Galileo E5 signal can also be considered as being comprised of two Quadrature
Phase Shift Keying (QPSK) systems. Finally, as stated earlier, the signal can be considered as
an 8-PSK signal.
The following parameters are of interest and will be discussed in the paper.

1. Time domain equation of the transmitted signal

2. Power Spectral Density (PSD) of the transmitted signal (i.e. the frequency domain repre-
sentation)

3. Autocorrelation function of the transmitted signal

4. Correlation functions of the components of the signal

5. Received signal power and the pre-correlation Signal-to-Noise-Ratio (SNR)

2
In literature, papers which discuss the AltBOC modulation focus more and the methods and
processes that lead to the invention of a constant envelope AltBOC modulation(Laurent Lestar-
quit and Issler, 2008), thus masking a simple and straight-forward explanation of the Galileo E5
signal structure from the basics. The treatment in this paper is such that more emphasis is given
on the understanding simplicity than on the construction of special sub-carrier waveforms.
This paper is organized as follows. Section 2 describes the transmitted signal starting with
the AltLOC modulation. Section 3 illustrates the frequency domain representation of the sig-
nal. Section 4 provides the autocorrelation function for the E5 AltBOC signal followed by the
receiver signal power discussions in section 5.

2 THE TRANSMITTED SIGNAL

This section provides the description of the signal that is transmitted by the satellite.

2.1 The transmitted signal

The Galileo E5 transmitted signal can be represented as (1)
[ ]
j(ωE5 t+φ0 )
SE5 (t) = ℜ sE5 (t) e (1)

where sE5 (t) is the baseband signal representation, ωE5 is the angular carrier frequency, φ0
is the phase at t = 0 and ℜ and ℑ (used in (2)) denote real and imaginary functions respectively.
Note that the transmitted signal is the real part of a complex signal. The suffix ‘E5’ is omitted
in future equations and used only when required. The transmitted signal can also be written as

S(t) = ℜ[s(t)] cos(ωct + φ0 ) − ℑ[s(t)] sin(ωct + φ0 ) (2)

where ωc is the central E5 carrier frequency (same as ωE5 ).

2.1.1 The baseband signal - AltLOC modulation

The baseband signal is a complex signal which comprises four codes modulated onto the or-
thogonal components of a complex subcarrier. In order to understand the basic concept of the
AltBOC modulation, it is sufficient to understand the Alternate Linear Offset Carrier (AltLOC)
equivalent, because the sub-carriers in AltLOC modulation are pure tones and hence simpler to
deal with than AltBOC. Therefore the AltLOC modulation is dealt first and then AltBOC. Also,
without loss of generality, it is assumed that the phase at t = 0 is φ0 = 0.
The baseband signal in AltLOC can be expressed as (CAL = CosAltLOC)

sCAL (t) = sb (t) e jωsct + sa (t) e− jωsct

= sbI (t) + jsbQ (t) e jωsct + (saI (t) + jsaQ (t)) e− jωsct
( )
π π
= sbI (t) e jωsct + saI (t) e− jωsct + sbQ (t) e j(ωsct+ 2 ) + saQ (t) e− j(ωsct− 2 ) (3)

where
ωsc is the angular frequency of the subcarrier,
sbI (t) = dbI (t) cbI (t) is the E5bI signal component (i.e. E5b data signal),
saI (t) = daI (t) caI (t) is the E5aI signal component (i.e. E5a data signal),
sbQ (t) = cbQ (t) is the E5bQ signal component (i.e. E5b pilot signal),

3
 saI (t) = caQ (t) is the E5aQ signal component (i.e. E5a pilot signal),
dbI (t) and daI (t) are the data bit modulations of E5b and E5a respectively,
cx (t) is the tiered spreading code, x denoting the corresponding signal.
The generation of the baseband signal is illustrated in Fig. 2.

caI saI

daI
caQ saQ sE5
AltLOC / AltBOC
Mux
cbI sbI

dbI
cbQ sbQ

Figure 2: AltLOC / AltBOC illustration

The definitions of the individual components of the baseband signal are provided in equation
form below:
+∞ [ ]
saI (t) = ∑ caI,∣i∣L daI,[i]D rectTc (t − i ⋅ Tc ) (4)
aI aI
i=−∞
+∞ [ ]
saQ (t) = ∑ caQ,∣i∣L rectTc (t − i ⋅ Tc )
aQ
i=−∞
+∞ [ ]
sbI (t) = ∑ cbI,∣i∣L dbI,[i]D rectTc (t − i ⋅ Tc )
bI bI
i=−∞
+∞ [ ]
sbQ (t) = ∑ cbQ,∣i∣L rectTc (t − i ⋅ Tc )
bQ
i=−∞

where Tc is the code chip duration, Lx is the code length of the corresponding code, Dx is
the data bit duration in terms of number of chips.
The modulated signal can thus be represented as
π π
SCAL (t) = ℜ[(sbI (t) e jωsct + saI (t) e− jωsct + sbQ (t) e j(ωsct+ 2 ) + saQ (t) e− j(ωsct− 2 ) ) e jωct ] (5)
j((ωc +ωsc )t+ π2 ) π
= ℜ[sbI (t) e j(ωc +ωsc )t + saI (t) e j(ωc −ωsc )t + sbQ (t) e + saQ (t) e j((ωc −ωsc )t+ 2 ) ]
= sbI (t) cos((ωc + ωsc )t) + saI (t) cos((ωc − ωsc )t) − sbQ (t) sin((ωc + ωsc )t)
− saQ (t) sin((ωc − ωsc )t) (6)
= sbI (t) cos(ωbt) − sbQ (t) sin(ωbt) + saI (t) cos(ωat) − saQ (t) sin(ωat) (7)

where ωb = (ωc +ωs ) and ωa = (ωc −ωs ) are the E5b and E5a center frequencies (see Table
(1)) respectively.
From the above equation it can be inferred that the transmitted signal spectrum is real and
has two lobes centered at ωb and ωa . A pictorial representation of this equation is shown in Fig.
3. Also note (through (6)) how the spreading code (with data) phase modulates the sum and
difference carriers.
Note that because the baseband complex signal is formulated by addition of two exponen-
tials, this modulation is infact Cosine-AltLOC. If the baseband complex signal is formulated by

4
 I- I- I- I-
5a 5b 5a 5b
E E E E

-ωs ωc +ω
s
0 -ωs ωc +ω
s
ω
-ωc ωc
-
-ωc ωc
-Q -Q -Q -Q
E5a E5b E5a E5b

Figure 3: Spectrum of the Cosine AltLOC

the difference of two exponentials, then the modulation will be SineAltLOC. The equation for
the SineAltLOC (SAL) is then

sSAL (t) = − j ⋅ sb (t) e jωsct − sa (t) e− jωsct

( )
π (
e− j 2 ⋅ sb (t) e jωsct − sa (t) e− jωsct
)
= (8)
) j(ω t− π ) π
sbI (t) + jsbQ (t) e sc 2 − (saI (t) + jsaQ (t)) e− j(ωsct+ 2 )
(
=
π π
= sbI (t) e j(ωsct− 2 ) − saI (t) e− j(ωsct+ 2 ) + sbQ (t) e jωsct − saQ (t) e− jωsct (9)

The corresponding transmitted signal becomes

π π
SSAL (t) = ℜ[(sbI (t) e j(ωsct− 2 ) − saI (t) e− j(ωsct+ 2 ) + sbQ (t) e jωsct − saQ (t) e− jωsct ) e jωct ] (10)
j((ωc +ωsc )t− π2 ) j((ωc −ωsc )t− π2 )
= ℜ[sbI (t) e − saI (t) e + sbQ (t) e j(ωc +ωsc )t − saQ (t) e j(ωc −ωsc )t ]
= sbI (t) sin((ωc + ωsc )t) − saI (t) sin((ωc − ωsc )t) + sbQ (t) cos((ωc + ωsc )t)
− saQ (t) cos((ωc − ωsc )t) (11)
= sbI (t) sin(ωbt) + sbQ (t) cos(ωbt) − saI (t) sin(ωat) − saQ (t) cos(ωat) (12)

The spectrum representation of SineAltLOC is shown in Fig. 4. The spectrum is similar to

that of the Cosine AltLOC except that the baseband components occupy different phases of the
carrier.

-Q
b5
E
-I -I
E5a E5a

-ωs -ωc +ω
s
0 -ωs ωc +ω
s
ω
-ωc -ωc 5b-I ωc ωc 5b-I
E E
Q Q
a-5 a-5
E E

Figure 4: Spectrum of the Sine AltLOC

2.1.2 The baseband signal - AltBOC modulation

In this section we discuss the principles of AltBOC modulation. The subcarrier in the case of
AltBOC modulation is a complex square wave, unlike the pure tone used for AltLOC. Using the
square wave instead of a pure tone greatly reduces the burden on the subcarrier generation hard-
ware (or software). Mathematically, the square wave is obtained by passing the corresponding

5
exponential through the signum function. Thus the baseband signal in the case of AltBOC can
be represented as follows (CABN = CosAltBOC-Non Constant Envelope):

1[ π
sCABN (t) = sbI (t) sgn(e jωsct ) + saI (t) sgn(e− jωsct ) + sbQ (t) sgn(e j(ωsct+ 2 ) )
2 ]
π
+saQ (t) sgn(e− j(ωsct− 2 ) ) (13)

Following steps similar to the AltLOC case, we can write the expression for the transmitted
signal as
{
1[
SCABN (t) = ℜ sbI (t) (sgn(cos(ωsct) + j sin(ωsct))) + sbQ (t) (sgn(cos(ωsct) − j sin(ωsct))) (14)
2
+saI (t) (sgn(− sin(ωsct) + j cos(ωsct))) + saQ (t) (sgn(sin(ωsct) + j cos(ωbt)))] e jωct
}
{
1[
= ℜ (sbI (t) + sbQ (t)) sgn(cos(ωsct)) + j(sbI (t) − sbQ (t)) sgn(sin(ωsct))
2
+ (saQ (t) − saI (t)) sgn(sin(ωsct)) + j(saQ (t) + saI (t)) sgn(cos(ωsct))] e jωct
}
(15)

In the above equation, the subcarrier is a square wave of angular frequency ωs . Sine terms
can be replaced by time delayed versions of the cosine terms. Let Ts = f1s be the period of the
square wave. Then (15) can be written as
{
1[
SCABN (t) = ℜ (sbI (t) + sbQ (t)) sgn(cos(ωsct)) + j(sbI (t) − sbQ (t)) sgn(cos(ωsct − T4s ))
2
+ (saQ (t) − saI (t)) sgn(cos(ωsct − T4s )) + j(saQ (t) + saI (t)) sgn(cos(ωsct)) e jωct
] }
(16)
{
1[
=ℜ (sbI (t) + sbQ (t)) sc (t) + j(sbI (t) − sbQ (t)) sc (t − T4s )
2
+ (saQ (t) − saI (t)) sc (t − T4s )) + j(saQ (t) + saI (t)) sc (t) e jωct
] }
(17)

where sc (t) = sgn(cos(ωsct)) is the subcarrier component. As an example, a single cycle of

the subcarrier waveform for AltBOC(15,10) which has fs =15.345 MHz and the code frequency
fc =10.23 MHz is shown in Fig. 5.

sc (t)
1.5 sc (t − Ts
4 )

0.5
Amplitude

−0.5

−1

−1.5

−2
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1
t
Ts

Figure 5: Subcarrier in non constant envelope AltBOC

6
 Note that the complex baseband signal may take the values of sum and difference of {−1, 0, 1}.
In the complex domain this gives the values {−1, 1, 0, j, − j, 12 + j 21 , 12 − j 12 , − 12 + j 12 , − 12 − j 12 }.
The constellation diagram of the baseband signal is shown in Fig. 6. The magnitude of these
values is not constant. This modulation is known as “non-constant envelope AltBOC modula-
tion”.

-1 0 1

-j

Figure 6: Non-constant envelope AltBOC modulation : Constellation diagram

When this baseband signal is used to modulate the carrier at the transmitter, the amplifier has
to cater to varying amplitudes of the signal. Also there is a zero in the baseband signal which
results in no energy transmitted. Such an amplifier design will be inefficient and also non-
linearities creep in during the modulation. For this reason, the non constant envelope AltBOC
modulation is not used in practice.

2.1.3 The baseband signal - Constant Envelope AltBOC modulation

In order to avoid the issue of the non-constant envelope, Ries L (2003) have proposed a method
wherein the subcarrier waveforms are modified to obtain a constant envelope. In this case the
sub-carriers are chosen such that the sum and difference of complex values always lie on the
unit circle in complex plane.
The baseband signal can be represented as follows (CAB = CosAltBOC-Constant Envelope)
1 [
√ (saI (t) + j ⋅ saQ (t)) scs (t) − j ⋅ scs (t − T4s ) +
( )
sCAB (t) =
2 2
sbI (t) + j ⋅ sbQ (t) scs (t) + j ⋅ scs (t − T4s ) +
( )( )

(s̄aI (t) + j ⋅ s̄aQ (t)) sc p (t) − j ⋅ sc p (t − T4s ) +

( )
)]
s̄bI (t) + j ⋅ s̄bQ (t) sc p (t) + j ⋅ sc p (t − T4s )
( )(
(18)

where the dashed signal components are the product signals according to the following
equations

s̄aI (t) = saQ (t) ⋅ sbI (t) ⋅ sbQ (t) (19)

s̄aQ (t) = saI (t) ⋅ sbI (t) ⋅ sbQ (t) (20)
s̄bI (t) = saI (t) ⋅ saQ (t) ⋅ sbQ (t) (21)
s̄bQ (t) = saI (t) ⋅ saQ (t) ⋅ sbI (t) (22)

The parameters scs (t) and sc p (t) are the “single” and “product” components of the four-
level subcarrier which is used to generate the constant envelope. They are represented as in (23)

7
and (24).
+∞
scs (t) = ∑ AS∣i∣8 rect Ts (t − i ⋅ T8s ) (23)
8
i=−∞
+∞
sc p (t) = ∑ AP∣i∣8 rect Ts (t − i ⋅ T8s ) (24)
8
i=−∞

where the coefficients are according to Table 2.

i 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
√ √ √ √
2+1 1 −1 − 2−1 − 2−1 −1 1 2+1
ASi
√2 2 2 √2 √2 2 2 √2
− 2+1 1 −1 2−1 2−1 −1 1 − 2+1
APi
2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2
Table 2: AltBOC Subcarrier coefficients

The subcarrier waveform for a duration of one cycle is shown in Fig. 7.

1.5
√
2+1 scs (t)
2
1 scp (t)

0.5
Amplitude

√
2−1
2
0
√
− 2+1
2

−0.5

−1
√
− 2−1
2

−1.5
0 0.125 0.25 0.375 0.5 0.625 0.75 0.875 1
t
Ts

Figure 7: AltBOC subcarrier waveforms

The constellation diagram of the constant envelope AltBOC signal is shown in Fig.8. A great
advantage of the 8-PSK type of representation is that the modulation (and demodulation) can
be realized using a look-up-table (OSSISICD, 2008). The Galileo E5 signal uses this constant
envelope AltBOC(15,10) with a subcarrier frequency of 15.345 MHz and code chipping rate of
10.23 MHz.
The transmitted signal can be written as

SCAB (t) = ℜ sCAB (t) e jωct

{ }
(25)

2.1.4 Tiered Codes

All the four primary codes in the Galileo E5 signal have a length of 10230 chips. On top of
the primary codes, secondary codes are used to obtain the tiered codes. Secondary codes are
much shorter in length (say up to 100) and much slower (say one chip per one code period of
the primary code). These tiered codes possess very good auto-correlation and cross-correlation

8
 j

0 1
-1

-j

Figure 8: Constellation diagram of the constant envelope AltBOC signal

properties compared to the primary codes. The primary codes can be either memory codes or
generated through Linear Feedback Shift Registers (LFSRs). The secondary codes are memory
codes. The code generation method has been explained in OSSISICD (2008). More detailed
information on the secondary codes and their properties can be found in Shivaramaiah and
Dempster (2008b).

3 THE POWER SPECTRAL DENSITY (PSD)

In order to represent the signal in the frequency domain, it is required to obtain the power
spectral density of the signal. Deriving the power spectral density for the AltBOC signal is not
straightforward. This section will consider the frequency domain representation of the signal.
The psd of an non-constant envelope AltBOC signal is derived in Rebeyrol and Macabiau (2005)
With n representing the number of sub-carrier periods in one chip period,
sin2 (π f Tc )
( ( ))
8 Tc
GAltBOC−NCE ( f ) = ) 1 − cos π f , n even (26)
Tc π 2 f 2 cos2 π f Tnc
(
n

cos2 (π f Tc )
( ( ))
8 Tc
GAltBOC−NCE ( f ) = ) 1 − cos π f , n odd (27)
Tc π 2 f 2 cos2 π f Tnc
(
n
The psd of a constant envelope AltBOC signal is not straightforward to derive since it in-
volves computing the Fourier transform of individual pieces of the sub-carrier waveform. From
Rebeyrol and Macabiau (2005),

4 cos2 (π f Tc )
GAltBOC ( f ) =
Tc π 2 f 2 cos2 π f Tnc
( )
[ ( ) ( ) ( ) ( ) ]
2 Ts Ts Ts Ts
cos π f − cos π f − 2cos π f cos π f + 2 , n odd (28)
2 2 2 4
Equations (27) and (28) are plotted in Fig. 9.

3.1 Significance of the product sub-carrier waveform

It is observed that in order to make the envelope constant, two special sub-carrier waveforms
were chosen. Of these two waveforms, the product sub-carrier waveform sc p carries the product

9
 −60
AltBOC − Non Const. Env.
AltBOC − Const. Env.
−65

−70

−75

Amplitude (dBW)
−80

−85

−90

−95

−100

−105

−110
−6 −4 −2 0 2 4 6
frequency (Hz) x 10
7

Figure 9: Power Spectral Density of the non constant envelope AltBOC(15,10)

codes. The power spectral density for an extended frequency range is shown in Fig.10. It can
be seen that the effect of product sub-carrier is to re-arrange the signal into slightly different
frequency ranges (Laurent Lestarquit and Issler, 2008). The two main lobes remain almost the
same. This is due to the fact that the product sub-carrier has its center frequency component at
±45 MHz (six zero crossings instead of two of the single subcarrier). The effect of this on the
auto-correlation function is discussed later in the paper.

−60
AltBOC − Non Const. Env.
AltBOC − Const. Env.
−65

−70

−75
Amplitude (dBW)

−80

−85

−90

−95

−100

−105

−110
−1 −0.5 0 0.5 1
Frequency (Hz) x 10
8

Figure 10: Power Spectral Density of the non constant envelope AltBOC(15,10) in a wider
frequency range

4 THE AUTOCORRELATION FUNCTION

The autocorrelation function of the E5 AltBOC(15,10) signal can be found by taking the inverse
Fourier transform of (28). Approximated theoretical solutions are provided in Lohan et al.
(2006). This section provides correlation function of the E5 signal as generated from the E5
codes used for the GIOVE-A signal.

10
4.1 Autocorrelation function of the wideband E5 signal
Fig. 11 shows the autocorrelation plot of the wideband E5 signal for different front-end filter
bandwidths.Observe that even for a 50 MHz filter, the plot is not degraded due to the fact that
the energy in the two main lobes is still captured with this bandwidth.

1
Infinite BW
90 MHz
0.8 70 MHz
Normalized autocorrelation value

50 MHz
0.6

0.4

0.2

−0.2

−0.4

−0.6

−0.8
−1.5 −1 −0.5 0 0.5 1 1.5
Time delay (chips)

Figure 11: Autocorrelation of the GIOVE-A Wideband E5 signal

4.2 Correlation function of the components of the E5 signal

In the receiver signal processing, there may be situations when only a component of the signal is
used(Shivaramaiah and Dempster, 2008a). For example, a typical tracking algorithm uses only
the pilot signal or a receiver employing a front-end for GPS L5 may use only E5a component
(Shivaramaiah and Dempster, 2009). Fig. 12 shows the correlation functions of the important
components of the E5 signal. Observe that the E5 pilot and the E5 data signals result in sim-
ilar correlation waveforms as for the wideband signal (but the relative power will be halved).
The separate E5a and E5b signals being free from the effect sub-carriers result in a triangular
correlation function.

E5 Pilot E5 Data
1 1

0.5 0.5
Normalized correlation value

0 0

−0.5 −0.5

−1.5 −1 −0.5 0 0.5 1 1.5 −1.5 −1 −0.5 0 0.5 1 1.5

E5a E5b
1 1

0.5 0.5

0 0

−0.5 −0.5

−1.5 −1 −0.5 0 0.5 1 1.5 −1.5 −1 −0.5 0 0.5 1 1.5

Time delay (chips)

Figure 12: Correlation functions of different components of the E5 signal

11
4.3 Significance of the product sub-carrier waveform
The product subcarrier has a very interesting role to play in the total signal, apart from that of
helping to produce a constant envelope modulation (Shivaramaiah and Dempster, 2009). It can
be summarized as follows.
∙ The inter-modulation product carries around 15% of the total power.

∙ The inter-modulation product helps in sharpening the autocorrelation function of the

wideband E5 signal, but only if the front-end filter covers the spectrum of the product
sub-carrier, i.e. the product signal is of significance only for filter bandwidths >90 MHz.

∙ For typical receiver bandwidths, the product sub-carrier can be safely neglected (from the
local replica generation).

5 RECEIVED SIGNAL POWER AND THE PRE-CORRELATION SNR

Since the minimum received signal power for E5a and E5b is -155 dBW, the minimum re-
ceived signal power for the wideband E5 will be -152 dBm. Typical wideband receiver front-
end bandwidth can be considered as 50 MHz. Hence, the noise within this 50 MHz will be
−201.5 − (−77) = −124.5dBW. In addition, the 50 MHz filtering will introduce about 1.5 dB
loss compared to the signal power in an infinite bandwidth. Therefore the pre-correlation SNR
for the wideband E5 signal is

SNR pre = −153.5 − (−124.5) = −29 dB (29)

6 CONCLUSION

This paper provides detailed insight into various aspects of the Galileo E5 AltBOC signal start-
ing from its AltLOC counter-part. The constant envelope modulation is explained and the signal
structure is discussed both in the frequency domain and the time domain. The autocorrelation
function of the wideband E5 signal along with the correlation functions of different components
of the signal are explained. Finally a brief note on the pre-correlation SNR is provided.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The authors would like to acknowledge that this research work has been carried out under the
Australian Research Council (ARC) Discovery Project DP0556848.

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