Code and Phase Tracking of Generic PRN Signals with Sub-Nyquist Sample Rates

Thomas Pany and Bernd Eissfeller

Peer Reviewed

Abstract:	This paper addresses tracking of navigation signals, focusing on a genuine global navigation satellite system (GNSS) software correlator (SWC) receiver.Within a genuine SWC receiver, all signal processing after analog-to-digital conversion (ADC), especially correlation with reference signals, is performed by a multipurpose processor. We show how high-bandwidth GNSS signals can be tracked. Because of performance limitations, this is possible in real time only if the Nyquist criterion is not fulfilled, which means that the ADC sample rate is lower than two times the dual-sided bandwidth of the signal. The effect of this undersampling on code- and phase-tracking pseudorange error variances due to thermal noise is calculated analytically and verified by a Monte Carlo simulation for a selection of GPS and Galileo signals.A generalized noncoherent dot-product code correlator is used, which is adapted to a so-called Cramer-Rao correlator having optimal thermal noise performance.
Published in:	NAVIGATION: Journal of the Institute of Navigation, Volume 51, Number 2
Pages:	143 - 160
Cite this article:	Pany, Thomas, Eissfeller, Bernd, "Code and Phase Tracking of Generic PRN Signals with Sub-Nyquist Sample Rates", NAVIGATION: Journal of The Institute of Navigation, Vol. 51, No. 2, Summer 2004, pp. 143-160.
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