An Open Source Tool For Researchers and Developers

Carles Fernndez-Prades, Javier Arribas, Pau Closas, Carlos Avils, Luis Esteve
Centre Tecnolgic de Telecomunicacions de Catalunya (CTTC)

Outline
MoEvaEon Philosophy SoIware Architecture Development Ecosystem Conclusions

Motivation

 LocaEon has become an embedded feature in electronic devices (phones, digital cameras, portable gaming consoles). This massive deployment of GNSS receivers requires a high level of integraEon, low cost, small size and low power consumpEon. GPS integrated circuit (IC) manufacturers oer single-chip solu5ons easy to integrate in mulE-funcEon devices. This approach is very convenient for locaEon based services and applicaEons, since users and developers are interested in using the locaEon informaEon but not in how the posiEon has been obtained. Example: Androids API. It provides a locaEon package that contains classes with methods such as getLaEtude(), getLongitude(), getAlEtude(), getSpeed(), getAccuracy() and so on.

 LocaEon has become an embedded feature in electronic devices (phones, digital cameras, portable gaming consoles). This massive deployment of GNSS receivers requires a high level of integraEon, low cost, small size and low power consumpEon. GPS integrated circuit (IC) manufacturers oer single-chip solu5ons easy to integrate in mulE-funcEon devices. This approach is very convenient for locaEon based services and applicaEons, since users and developers are interested in using the locaEon informaEon but not in how the posiEon has been obtained. Example: Androids API. It provides a locaEon package that contains classes with methods such as getLaEtude(), getLongitude(), getAlEtude(), getSpeed(), getAccuracy() and so on.

 LocaEon has become an embedded feature in electronic devices (phones, digital cameras, portable gaming consoles). This massive deployment of GNSS receivers requires a high level of integraEon, low cost, small size and low power consumpEon. GPS integrated circuit (IC) manufacturers oer single-chip solu5ons easy to integrate in mulE-funcEon devices. This approach is very convenient for locaEon based services and applicaEons, since users and developers are interested in using the locaEon informaEon but not in how the posiEon has been obtained. Example: Androids API. It provides a locaEon package that contains classes with methods such as getLaEtude(), getLongitude(), getAlEtude(), getSpeed(), getAccuracy() and so on.

Wha t if y ou w your ant t own o tes algo rithm t ?

Wish list for a GNSS soIware receiver

Philosophy

Design principles
Do not reinvent the wheel. Follow design paXerns. Follow a clean coding style. Follow standards. Try to produce a well-wri-en soIware. Test-driven development approach.

Design paXerns
SoIware design paXerns are descrip5ons of solu5ons to common so6ware problems arising in dierent contexts, capturing recurring structures and dynamics among soIware parEcipants to facilitate reuse of successful, thoughYully proven designs. They generally codify expert knowledge of design strategies, constraints and best pracEces. Following a paXern helps to resolve key design forces such as exibility, extensibility, dependability, predictability, scalability, and eciency. They are not code recipes but generalized solu5ons to commonly occurring problems

Test-driven development

TesEng

Coding style
Following programming guidelines and code convenEons not only helps to avoid introducing errors, but cuts maintenance costs and favors eecEve code reuse. The following rules capture the most important aspects of coding style: All should be as understandable as possible. All should be as readable as possible, except when it would conict with the previous rule. All should be as simple as possible, except when it would conict with the previous rules. Any violaEon to the guide is allowed if it enhances readability.

Introducing GNSS-SDR
The acronym stands for Global Naviga5on Satellite System So6ware Dened Receiver. It is a tool for researchers, specially focused in signal processing. Flexible, fully congurable, easily extendible. Testbed for GNSS synchronizaEon algorithms. Programmed in C++. Portable (currently builds in Linux and MacOS operaEng systems. The execuEon in embedded processors in FPGA devices or ARM processors is foreseen.) Open Source: free as in free beer and as in free speech. Released under GPLv3.

Software architecture

Signal Processing in SoIware Radio

GNU Radio is a free soIware toolkit for building soIware radios. hXp://gnuradio.org/redmine/wiki/gnuradio The programmer builds a radio by creaEng a graph where the nodes are signal processing blocks and the lines represent the data ow between them. Conceptually, blocks process innite streams of data owing from their input ports to their output ports. The signal processing blocks are implemented in C++.

gr_basic_block std::string name() gr_io_signature_sptr input_signature() gr_io_signature_sptr output_signature()

gr_hier_block2 connect(gr_basic_block_sptr block) disconnect(gr_basic_block_sptr block) virtual lock() virtual unlock()

The C++ class gr_block gr_block is the virtual general_work() base of all signal processing blocks in GNU Radio. Your signal processing blocks here general_work() general_work() does the actual signal processing

gr_top_block run() start() stop() wait() virtual lock() virtual unlock() dump()

Your owgraph here

GNSSBlockInterface

Acquisi5on Interface

TrackingInterface

ChannelInterface TelemetryDecoder Interface

Observables Interface

adapter

AcqA

adapter

AcqB

adapter

AcqC

gr_block

adapter

Trk1

adapter

Trk2

adapter

Trk3

GNURadio block

Trk3

Dierent implementaEons, same interface

GNSSBlockInterface Strategy GNSSBlockFactory Client

Strategy PaXern

Acquisi5on Interface

adapter

AcqA

adapter

AcqB

adapter

AcqC

GNURadio block

AcqC

Concrete Concrete Concrete Strategy Strategy Strategy

Reuse of exisEng GNURadio blocks

GNSSBlockInterface Target GNSSBlockFactory Client

Adapter PaXern

Acquisi5on Interface

adapter

AcqA

adapter

AcqB

adapter

AcqC

GNURadio block

AcqC

Adaptee

Adapter

gr_top_block

AcquisiEon
Top-level hierarchical block represenEng a owgraph. It denes GNURadio runEme funcEons used during the execuEon of the program: run(), start(), stop(), wait(), etc.

GNSSBlockInterface
virtual

gr_block Acquisi5onInterface
virtual

adapter

AcqA

GNURadio block

AcqA

adapter

AcqB

GNURadio block

AcqB

gr_top_block

AcquisiEon
Common interface for all the GNSS-SDR modules

GNSSBlockInterface
virtual

gr_block Acquisi5onInterface
virtual

adapter

AcqA

GNURadio block

AcqA

adapter

AcqB

GNURadio block

AcqB

gr_top_block

AcquisiEon
Common interface for all the AcquisiEon implementaEons

GNSSBlockInterface
virtual

gr_block Acquisi5onInterface
virtual

adapter

AcqA

GNURadio block

AcqA

adapter

AcqB

GNURadio block

AcqB

gr_top_block

AcquisiEon
This is the abstract base class for all the processing blocks. A signal processing ow is constructed by creaEng a tree of hierarchical blocks, which at any level may also contain terminal nodes that actually implement signal processing funcEons. This is the base class for all such nodes.

GNSSBlockInterface
virtual

gr_block Acquisi5onInterface
virtual

adapter

AcqA

GNURadio block

AcqA

adapter

AcqB

GNURadio block

AcqB

gr_top_block

AcquisiEon

GNSSBlockInterface
virtual

gr_block Acquisi5onInterface
virtual

adapter

AcqA

GNURadio block

AcqA

adapter

AcqB

GNURadio block

AcqB

These are dierent implementaEons of acquisiEon. Actual signal processing is done here. You can use exisEng GNURadio blocks or implement a new one by yourself.

gr_top_block

AcquisiEon
These classes adapt your custom acquisiEon block to the common interface expected by AcquisiEonInterface gr_block Acquisi5onInterface

GNSSBlockInterface
virtual

virtual

adapter

AcqA

GNURadio block

AcqA

adapter

AcqB

GNURadio block

AcqB

Development ecosystem

www.gnss-sdr.org

 Infrastructure for project management, code development and ecient communicaEon among users and developers is a key aspect in soIware projects. The website should be well designed in terms of usability, funcEonality and extendability, ensuring an enjoyable and appealing user experience. For the source code, we used the service provided by SourceForge, which allows access to the code using two major revision control systems such as Subversion and git. Documenta5on is of paramount importance for users, developers, testers, soIware architects and students. We used Doxygen (HTML, LATEX, RTF or XML output formats). The project web page provides with detailed instrucEons about the installaEon, usage, coding style and general informaEon about the program.

 The build process should be easily maintained and highly portable. We used Boost.Build, a tool that takes care about compiling the sources with the right opEons. Regarding the compiler, we used the GNU Compiler CollecEon (gcc). We suggest a testdriven development approach. This methodology facilitates change, simplies integraEon, automaEzes documentaEon, helps to separate the interface from the implementa5on, increases developers producEvity, and plays a central role in the soIware quality assurance process. For unit tesEng, we found the Google C++ Tes5ng Framework (gtest) useful and lightweight. Logging is important for debugging and tracing purposes. In GNSS-SDR, logging is handled by Google Logging Library (google-glog), a library that implements applicaEon-level logging.

Conclusions

 The proposed soIware receiver targets mul5-constella5on / mul5-frequency architectures. Goals: eciency, modularity, interoperability and exibility demanded by user domains that require non-standard features. The source code was released under the GNU General Public License (GPL), thus ensuring the freedom of modifying, sharing, and using the code for any purpose. This secures pracEcal usability, inspecEon, and conEnuous improvement by the research community, allowing the discussion based on tangible code and the analysis of results obtained with real signals. It is also intended to be a framework for algorithm tesEng and an educa5onal tool.

Thanks for your attention

gnss-sdr.org