Survey on Signal Processing Techniques for GNSS Ionospheric Scintillation Mitigation

António Negrinho, Pedro Boto, Marta Cueto, Mikael Mabilleau, Claudia Paparini, Ettore Canestri

Peer Reviewed

Abstract:	The objective of the present paper is to provide a survey on GNSS receiver architectures with emphasis in new carrier-tracking techniques for mitigating the adverse effect of ionospheric scintillation within the context of civil aviation. This survey is complemented by results gathered from simulations on the impact of ionospheric scintillation in conventional receiver architectures. Firstly a state of the art review on scintillation mitigation techniques is carried out, covering several “technique families”, highlighting their potential for performance improvement, as well as their shortcomings and challenges in implementation. Afterwards, a semi-analytical simulation campaign is carried out for different modulations: L1, L5 for GPS, and E1, E5a for GALILEO; where the performance of a standard receiver tracking a set of GPS and Galileo satellites affected by ionospheric scintillation is subject to analysis, with the aim of pinpointing existing vulnerabilities to this effect. It is observed from the obtained simulation results that ionospheric scintillations are responsible for large variations in carrier-to-noise-ratio, which in turn can be responsible for losses of lock, and for large phase variations, increasing phase RMSE and in some cases leading to cycle slips of the phase estimation. Thus, the adopted solution must be robust to signal power fluctuations, occurrence of cycle slips and able maintain to maintain phase lock. Finally, the information obtained from the mitigation techniques’ state of the art review and the simulation campaign carried out is combined in a trade-off study. This study will match the vulnerabilities detected in standard receiver functioning through the simulation campaign with the best mitigation techniques, highlighted in the state-of-the-art review, culminating in the production of valuable inputs for the standardization of next-generation aviation GNSS receivers’ architectures, with the aim of mitigating the effect of ionospheric scintillation. A comprehensive cost-benefit comparison between the selected mitigation techniques is then provided, with different possible solutions highlighted.
Published in:	Proceedings of the 35th International Technical Meeting of the Satellite Division of The Institute of Navigation (ION GNSS+ 2022) September 19 - 23, 2022 Hyatt Regency Denver Denver, Colorado
Pages:	3112 - 3126
Cite this article:	Negrinho, António, Boto, Pedro, Cueto, Marta, Mabilleau, Mikael, Paparini, Claudia, Canestri, Ettore, "Survey on Signal Processing Techniques for GNSS Ionospheric Scintillation Mitigation," Proceedings of the 35th International Technical Meeting of the Satellite Division of The Institute of Navigation (ION GNSS+ 2022), Denver, Colorado, September 2022, pp. 3112-3126. https://doi.org/10.33012/2022.18353
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