Software-Defined Radio Technologies for GNSS Receivers: A Tutorial Approach to a Simple Design and Implementation

Abstract

The field of satellite navigation has witnessed the advent of a number of new systems and technologies: after the landmark design and development of the Global Positioning System (GPS), a number of new independent Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSSs) were or are being developed all over the world: Russia's GLONASS, Europe's GALILEO, and China's BEIDOU-2, to mention a few. In this ever-changing context, the availability of reliable and flexible receivers is becoming a priority for a host of applications, including research, commercial, civil, and military. Flexible means here both easily upgradeable for future needs and/or on-the-fly reprogrammable to adapt to different signal formats. An effective approach to meet these design goals is the software-defined radio (SDR) paradigm. In the last few years, the availability of new processors with high computational power enabled the development of (fully) software receivers whose performance is comparable to or better than that of conventional hardware devices, while providing all the advantages of a flexible and fully configurable architecture. The aim of this tutorial paper is surveying the issue of the general architecture and design rules of a GNSS software receiver, through a comprehensive discussion of some techniques and algorithms, typically applied in simple PC-based receiver implementations.

Smart constellation selection for precise vehicle positioning in urban canyons using a software-defined receiver solution

“…It extends well beyond the simple configuration of air interface parameters to cover the whole system from the network to service creation and application development [1]. Thereby, the key idea of the SDR design paradigm can be described by three main advantages: Reconfigurability, Updatability and Flexibility [13].…”

Evaluation of Performance of Software GPS Receiver Using Sub-Sampling and Thresholding

“…Software module offers many advantages over hardware module by allowing different algorithms implementation and simulating them to improve the overall performance of SGR [4], [5]. Base band processing of GPS signal is done in main building blocks of Software GPS receiver named as acquisition, pull in frequency and tracking [6]. Implementation of SGR is achievable in highly programming languages such as C/C++, python, LabVIEW, R and Simulink.…”

I Hear, Therefore I Know Where I Am: Compensating for GNSS Limitations with Cellular Signals

“…Until recently, GNSS SDRs were limited to postprocessing applications operating on raw samples recorded from an RF front end. However, with modern DSPs, real-time GNSS SDRs are becoming more prevalent [16], [17]. Such SDRs are typically implemented in high-level, textual-based languages, such as C/C++.…”