Direct-Y: Fast Acquisition of the GPS PPS Signal

O.M. Namoos, R.S. DiEsposti

Abstract: The NAVSTAR Global Positioning System (GPS) provides positioning and time information to military users via the Precise Positioning Service (PPS), which typically allows users a significant margin of precision over the commercially available Standard Positioning Service (SPS). Military sets that rely on first acquiring the SPS Coarse Acquisition (C/A) code, read from the data message the handover word (HOW) that provides the time-of-signal transmission needed to acquire and lock onto the PPS Y-code. Under extreme battlefield conditions, the use of GPS would be denied to the warfighter who cannot pick up the un-encrypted C/A code. Studies are underway at the GPS Joint Program Office (JPO) at the Space and Missile Center, Los Angeles Air Force Base that are aimed at developing the capability to directly acquire Y-Code without first acquiring C/A code. This paper briefly outlines current efforts to develop "direct-Y" acquisition, and various approaches to solving this problem. The potential ramifications of direct-Y to military users are also discussed.
Published in: Proceedings of the 27th Annual Precise Time and Time Interval Systems and Applications Meeting
November 29 - 1, 1995
The Doubletree Hotel at Horton Plaza
San Diego, California
Pages: 419 - 432
Cite this article: Namoos, O.M., DiEsposti, R.S., "Direct-Y: Fast Acquisition of the GPS PPS Signal," Proceedings of the 27th Annual Precise Time and Time Interval Systems and Applications Meeting, San Diego, California, November 1995, pp. 419-432.
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