Cognitive Acquisition, Tracking, and Positioning with Xona PULSAR X1 Signals

Sharbel Kozhaya, Zaher M. Kassas

Peer Reviewed

Abstract:	The first opportunistic positioning with Xona PULSAR X1 signals is demonstrated. First, a cognitive beacon estimation framework is applied to real Xona PULSAR in-orbit validation (IOV) satellite’s X1 signal, resulting in successful estimation of two quadrature phase-shift keying (QPSK) pseudo-random noise (PRN) sequences, revealing their interleaved structure and phase shift. Second, the paper shows successful acquisition and tracking of two PULSAR satellite passes, presenting estimated carrier-to-noise density ratio (C/N0) reaching 70 dB-Hz at peak elevation, carrier phase, Doppler shift, and pseudoranges. Third, the paper presents the first experimental results of opportunistic positioning with Xona PULSAR X1 signals. Starting from an initial estimate 200 km away, using a batch weighted nonlinear least-squares (BWNLS) estimator that fused carrier phase measurements from two Xona PULSAR satellite passes, a final two-dimensional (2D) positioning error of 6.1 m was achieved.
Published in:	Proceedings of the 2026 International Technical Meeting of The Institute of Navigation January 26 - 29, 2026 Hyatt Regency Orange County Anaheim, California
Pages:	772 - 778
Cite this article:	Kozhaya, Sharbel, Kassas, Zaher M., "Cognitive Acquisition, Tracking, and Positioning with Xona PULSAR X1 Signals," Proceedings of the 2026 International Technical Meeting of The Institute of Navigation, Anaheim, California, January 2026, pp. 772-778. https://doi.org/10.33012/2026.20564
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