Advanced processing techniques for navigation signals

One of the main challenges for GNSS  receivers is the ability to provide suitable availability, accuracy and robustness in difficult environments, for example with strong receiver dynamics or multiple reflected signals. GNSS receiver technologies are of paramount importance in providing the best solution possible for the different applications and requirements in these situations. 

On the strength of GMV’s solid track record and recognized expertise in the field of receiver technologies, two GMV-led consortiums were awarded in 2012 a contract with the European Space Agency (ESA) under the ROCAT and FASTTTFFix projects, which aim to investigate new signal design and tracking technologies applicable to current and future GNSS signals (GPS, Galileo, GLONASS and COMPASS), ensuring they can cope with the abovementioned difficult environments.

GMV is continuously striving to improve the performance of GNSS receiver signal processing algorithms. As fruit of this effort it won the ADAPT contract in 2013, another ESA initiative to study receiver signal tracking techniques by implementing adaptive techniques. At the moment these adaptive techniques are typically used in communications receivers to cope with different signal and channel impairments, like multipath, fading, shadowing, or interference.

However, they have seldom been used in GNSS receivers, basically reduced to automatic gain control, adaptive threshold-level detection, or Kalman filtering. ADAPT’s goal is therefore to provide a platform for the integration and study of different techniques that are able to adaptively control different receiver parameters.

For both ROCAT and ADAPT activities project GMV has chosen both low level simulators and semi-analytical approaches, as well as integrating several different channel models and standards (e.g. the ITU recommendation for ionosphere scintillation modelling, GISM), to ensure that both ROCAT and ADAPT are powerful and flexible platforms for the integration, study and analysis of GNSS signal tracking techniques. These new activities enhance GMV’s knowhow and expertise while also reinforcing its position in GNSS receiver technology.