The New L2 Civil Signal

Richard D. Fontana, Wai Cheung, Paul M. Novak and Thomas A. Stansell

Abstract:	This paper and a companion article in the September 2001 issue of GPS World Magazine(1) describe the new L2 civil signal (L2C) which will be transmitted by modernized IIR (IIR-M) and all subsequent GPS satellites. The first IIR-M satellite is scheduled to be launched in 2003. This paper covers seven main topics: the development framework, the signal description, signal acquisition and code tracking, code tracking accuracy, message sequencing options, relative signal performance, and the L2C design tradeoffs. The paper concludes with a discussion of why the two new GPS signals will affect future product design choices in significant ways, concluding that L2C could become the most widely used GPS signal of all. Both L2C and L5 recently were described at an L2/L5 Industry Day public presentation on 5/02/01 at the Aerospace Corporation in El Segundo, CA, and again at an L2/L5 Public Forum on 6/29/01 at the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in Washington, DC. The charts presented at these events and the draft signal specifications have been posted on the NAVCEN web site (www.navcen.uscg.gov) under the modernization topic and on the GPS Joint Program Office (JPO) web site (https://gps.losangeles.af.mil, under GPS Library, Public Documents, Documents).
Published in:	Proceedings of the 14th International Technical Meeting of the Satellite Division of The Institute of Navigation (ION GPS 2001) September 11 - 14, 2001 Salt Palace Convention Center Salt Lake City, UT
Pages:	617 - 631
Cite this article:	Fontana, Richard D., Cheung, Wai, Novak, Paul M., Stansell, Thomas A., "The New L2 Civil Signal," Proceedings of the 14th International Technical Meeting of the Satellite Division of The Institute of Navigation (ION GPS 2001), Salt Lake City, UT, September 2001, pp. 617-631.
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