Methodology for comparing two carrier phase tracking techniques

The carrier phase tracking loop is the primary focus of the current work. In particular, two carrier phase tracking techniques are compared, the standard phase tracking loop, i.e., the phase lock loop (PLL), and the extended Kalman filter (EKF) tracking loop. In order to compare these two different techniques and taking into consideration the different models adopted in each, it is important to bring them to one common ground. In order to accomplish this, the equivalent PLL for a given EKF has to be determined in terms of steady-state response to both thermal noise and signal dynamics. A novel method for experimentally calculating the equivalent bandwidth of the EKF is presented and used to evaluate the performance of the equivalent PLL. Results are shown for both the L1 and L5 signals. Even though the two loops are designed to track equivalent dynamics and to have equivalent carrier phase standard deviations, the EKF outperforms the equivalent PLL in terms of both the transient response and sensitivity.     

电离层闪烁对接收机的影响

导航信号经过电子密度不均匀的电离层时,信号的幅度和相位会产生快速随机起伏,即为电离层闪烁。电离层闪烁对接收机信号捕获跟踪以及解调定位都有一定的影响,本文采用理论和仿真的方法分析了电离层闪烁对I,Q支路以及跟踪环路的影响。结果表明:相位闪烁对信号I,Q支路均有影响,幅度闪烁对I支路的影响比较大,在相位闪烁比较强或者幅度闪烁比较强的区域,信号更难跟踪处理。弱闪烁时锁相环(PLL)的跟踪门限约29 dBHz,延迟锁定环路(DLL)的跟踪门限约为20.2 dBHz,强闪烁时PLL跟踪门限约为32 dBHz,DLL的跟踪门限约为22 dBHz。相比而言,载波跟踪环路更加脆弱。同时得到,闪烁越强,载波发生周跳的概率越大,载噪比越高,抗闪烁能力越强。      

Combined L1/L2 Kalman filter-based tracking scheme for weak signal environments

A Kalman filter-based method combining the energy of both L1 C/A and L2C GPS signals in a combined tracking loop method to enhance performance under adverse conditions is developed. Standard tracking methods and the ionospheric effect on GPS signals are reviewed and compared to a new Kalman filter that simultaneously estimates delay, phase and total electron content by combining L1 C/A and L2C code and phase discriminator outputs. The new filter is tested and compared to standard methods for tracking L1 C/A and L2C using both simulated and real data. The new method is found to have improved sensitivity of 3 dB compared to standard L1 tracking and 4.5 dB compared to standard L2C tracking while at the same time providing an accurate estimate of the total electron content along the signal path.     

On the accuracy of the GPS L2 observable for ionospheric monitoring

The introduction of the unencrypted global positioning system (GPS) L2 civil (L2C) signal has the potential to improve measurements made with the L2 frequency, an important observable in GPS-based ionospheric research and monitoring. Recent work has shown significant differences between the legacy L2P(Y) and L2C-derived total electron content rate of change index (ROTI). This difference is observed between L2P(Y) and L2C-derived ROTI with certain receiver models and between zero-baseline receiver pairs. We discuss the likely cause for these differences: L1-aided tracking used to track both the L2P(Y) and L2C signals. We also present L2C data that are confirmed to be from tracking independent of L1. Using the ionospheric-free linear combination, we show that the independently tracked carrier phase dynamics are significantly more accurate than the L1-aided observables. This result is confirmed by comparing the behavior of the L2C and L2P(Y) carrier phase observables upon a sudden antenna rotation.     

Different mechanisms of the ionospheric influence on GPS occultation signals

A local mechanism for strong ionospheric effects on radio occultation (RO) global positioning satellite system (GPS) signals is described. Peculiar zones centered at the critical points (the tangent points) in the ionosphere, where the gradient of the electron density is perpendicular to the RO ray trajectory, strongly influence the amplitude and phase of RO signals. It follows from the analytical model of local ionospheric effects that the positions of the critical points depend on the RO geometry and the structure of the ionospheric disturbances. Centers of strong ionospheric influence on RO signals can exist, for example, in the sporadic E-layers, which are inclined by 3–6° relative to the local horizontal direction. Also, intense F2 layer irregularities can contribute to the RO signal variations. A classification of the ionospheric influence on the GPS RO signals is introduced using the amplitude data, which indicates different mechanisms (local, diffraction, etc.) for radio waves propagation. The existence of regular mechanisms (e.g., local mechanism) indicates a potential for separating the regular and random parts in the ionospheric influence on the RO signals.     

Performance of the L2C civil GPS signal under various ionospheric scintillation effects

As GPS is modernizing, there are currently fourteen satellites transmitting L2C civil code and seven satellites transmitting L5 signal. While the GPS observables are subject to several sources of errors, the ionosphere is one of the largest error sources affecting GPS signals. Small irregularities in the electrons density along the GPS radio signal propagation path cause ionospheric scintillation that is characterized by rapid fluctuations in the signal amplitude and phase. The ionospheric scintillation effects are stronger in equatorial and high-latitude geomagnetic latitude regions and occur mainly due to equatorial anomaly and solar storms. Several researchers have analyzed the L2C signal quality since becoming available in December, 2005. We analyze the performance of L2C using GPS data from stations in the equatorial region of Brazil, which is subject of weak, moderate and strong ionospheric scintillation conditions. The GPS data were collected by Septentrio PolaRxS–PRO receivers as part of the CIGALA/CALIBRA network. The analysis was performed as a function of scintillations indexes S4 and Phi60, lock time (time interval in seconds that the carrier phase is tracked continuously without cycle slips), multipath RMS and position variation of precise point positioning solutions. The analysis shows that L2C code solutions are less affected by multipath effects than that of P2 when data are collected under weak ionospheric scintillation effects. In terms of analysis of positions, the kinematic PPP results using L2C instead P2 codes show accuracy improvements up to 33 % in periods of weak or strong ionospheric scintillation. When combining phase and code collected under weak scintillation effects, the results by applying L2C against P2 provide improvement in accuracy up to 59 %. However, for data under strong scintillation effects, the use of L2C for PPP with code and phase does not provide improvements in the positioning accuracy.     

Use of a reduced IMU to aid a GPS receiver with adaptive tracking loops for land vehicle navigation

A reduced inertial measurement unit (IMU) consisting of only one vertical gyro and two horizontal accelerometers or three orthogonal accelerometers can be used in land vehicle navigation systems to reduce volume and cost. In this paper, a reduced IMU is integrated with a Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver whose phase lock loops (PLLs) are aided with the Doppler shift from the integrated system. This approach is called tight integration with loop aiding (TLA). With Doppler aiding, the noise bandwidth of the PLL loop filters can be narrowed more than in the GPS-only case, which results in improved noise suppression within the receiver. In this paper, first the formulae to calculate the PLL noise bandwidth in a TLA GPS/reduced IMU are derived and used to design an adaptive PLL loop filter. Using a series of vehicle tests, results show that the noise bandwidth calculation formulae are valid and the adaptive loop filter can improve the performance of the TLA GPS/reduced IMU in both navigation performance and PLL tracking ability.     

An all-pass filter for compensation of ionospheric dispersion effects on wideband GNSS signals

Compared with the traditional GPS L1 C/A BPSK-R(1) signal, wideband global navigation satellite system (GNSS) signals suffer more severe distortion due to ionospheric dispersion. Ionospheric dispersion inevitably introduces additional errors in pseudorange and carrier phase observations that cannot be readily eliminated by traditional methods. Researchers have reported power losses, waveform ripples, correlation peak asymmetries, and carrier phase shifts caused by ionospheric dispersion. We analyze the code tracking bias induced by ionospheric dispersion and propose an efficient all-pass filter to compensate the corresponding nonlinear group delay over the signal bandwidth. The filter is constructed in a cascaded biquad form based on the estimated total electron content (TEC). The effects of TEC accuracy, filter order, and fraction parameter on the filter fitting error are explored. Taking the AltBOC(15,10) signal as an example, we compare the time domain signal waveforms, correlation peaks, code tracking biases, and carrier phase biases with and without this all-pass filter and demonstrate that the proposed delay-equalization all-pass filter is a potential solution to ionospheric dispersion compensation and mitigation of observation biases for wideband GNSS signals.     

Metop-GRAS in-orbit instrument performance

The GRAS instrument on the Metop-A satellite provides more than 600 radio occultation measurement profiles per day. The instrument is characterized by its wide antenna coverage, high signal-to-noise ratio and an ultra-stable clock reference. The conventional dual-frequency tracking of GPS signals is under dynamic atmosphere conditions complemented by open loop tracking with sampling of the signal at a 1 kHz rate, providing an unprecedented view of the signal spectral environment. This paper presents the instrument performance as derived from analysis of in-orbit measurement data. We show that the noise figure is low enough to enable mapping of external radio noise variations over the earth’s surface. An error propagation model is presented to relate instrument characteristics to bending angle performance. This model is also used to illustrate the relation between filter bandwidth, resolution and measurement noise. The Doppler model, guiding open loop measurements, is found to be accurate to better than 20 Hz with a possibility for improvement to 10 Hz. The high performance at low altitudes enables the presence of surface reflections at the −20-dB level to be identified in more than 50% of the occultations. The potential performance improvements for next generation receivers are discussed.     

高动态载波锁相环设计和性能分析

常规的二阶载波跟踪环路由于环路带宽的限制,无法满足接收机高动态条件下的环路跟踪,为了解决环路的高动态应力引起的噪声响应对环路带宽的要求,需要合并动态应力到误差跟踪控制信号才能满足高动态的性能要求。本文从载波跟踪二阶环路的结构入手,对利用外界速度辅助的三阶环路进行动态稳定性和稳定误差性能进行仿真计算和性能分析,结果表明这种有外界速度辅助的三阶载波锁相环路可以改善信号跟踪环路的动态应力性能。     

Precision spacecraft navigation using a low-cost GPS receiver

Within the PROBA-2 microsatellite mission, a miniaturized single-frequency GPS receiver based on commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) technology is employed for onboard navigation and timing. A rapid electronic fuse protects against destructive single-event latch-ups (SEL) and enables a quasi-continuous receiver operation despite the inherent sensitivity to space radiation. While limited to single-frequency C/A-code tracking with a narrow-band frontend, the receiver is able to provide precision navigation services through processing of raw GPS measurements on ground as well as a built-in real-time navigation system. In both cases, ionospheric path delays are eliminated through a combination of L1 pseudorange and carrier phase measurements, which also offers a factor-of-two noise reduction relative to code-only processing. By comparison with satellite laser ranging (SLR) measurements, a 0.3-m (3D rms) accuracy is demonstrated for the PROBA-2 reduced dynamic orbit determinations using post-processed GPS orbit and clock products. Furthermore, the experimental onboard navigation system is shown to provide real-time position information with a 3D rms accuracy of about 1?m, which notably outperforms the specification of the Standard Positioning Service (SPS). In view of their lower hardware complexity, mass budget and power requirements as well as the reduced interference susceptibility, legacy C/A-code receivers can thus provide an attractive alternative to dual-frequency receivers even for demanding navigation applications in low Earth orbit.     

基于等效噪声模型的数字锁相环环路参数确定方法

理想情况下,数字锁相环(DPLL)的环路参数可以通过直接计算输入原子钟与压控振荡器(VCO)的相位噪声功率谱交点来确定.但该方法不能考虑到锁相环(PLL)其他模块的噪声,这会导致输出性能恶化.针对这一问题,文中从PLL模型出发,基于PLL环路传递函数和幂律谱模型,提出PLL模块噪声的等效方法.该方法将PLL各模块噪声分...     

PLL Tracking Performance in the Presence of Oscillator Phase Noise

The tracking performance of a Phase Lock Loop (PLL) is affected by the influence of several error sources. In addition to thermal noise and dynamic stress error, oscillator phase noise can cause significant phase jitter which degrades the tracking performance. Oscillator phase noise is usually caused by two different effects: Allan deviation phase noise is caused by frequency instabilities of the receiver's reference oscillator and the satellite's frequency standard. It can be termed as system-inherent phase noise and is relevant for both static and dynamic applications. “External” phase noise, however, is caused by vibration and is a major problem for dynamic applications. In the context of this paper, both types of phase noise will be modeled and the resulting integrals will be evaluated for PLLs up to the third order. Besides, phase jitter induced by thermal noise and signal dynamics will also be discussed, thus providing all necessary formulas for analyzing the performance of a phase lock loop in case of different forms of stress. Since the main focus is centered on the effects of oscillator phase noise, the overall PLL performance is graphically illustrated with and without consideration of oscillator phase noise. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

基于EKF的北斗B1C信号数据/导频联合跟踪方法

针对北斗B1C信号在低载噪比情况下跟踪精度低的问题,提出一种基于扩展卡尔曼滤波（EKF）的北斗B1C信号数据/导频联合跟踪方法.通过构建数据/导频双通道联合跟踪模型,增加对B1C信号利用率,并在联合跟踪模型的基础上引入扩展卡尔曼滤波器,削弱传统跟踪环路中鉴别器和环路滤波器带来的跟踪误差,进一步提高跟踪环路对低载噪比信号的跟踪性能.仿真结果验证:在低载噪比情况下,相比于传统单导频通道跟踪、单导频扩展卡尔曼跟踪和联合跟踪,该方法可以有效提高跟踪精度.      

Choosing the coherent integration time for Kalman filter-based carrier-phase tracking of GNSS signals

Carrier phase–based positioning using Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) signals can provide centimeter-level accuracy; however, to do so requires robust, continuous tracking of the phase of the received signal. The phase-locked loop is typically the weakest link in GNSS signal processing, with frequent cycle slips and loss of lock occurring at lower signal-to-noise ratios. One way to improve the signal-to-noise ratio is to increase the coherent integration time; however doing so reduces the loop update rate, thereby degrading performance. This paper investigates this trade-off between sensitivity and loop update rate by investigation of the Kalman filter-based tracking loop. It is shown that it is possible to choose an optimal integration time for a given application. A relatively straightforward procedure is given to determine this optimal value. The results are confirmed through real-time kinematic processing of live satellite signals.     

Stability analysis of GPS carrier tracking loops by phase margin approach

Stability, which is significantly related to the loop parameters, is an important factor in the traditional GPS tracking loop design. Through the analysis of phase margin values in the discrete GPS PLL tacking loop, we are able to theoretically reveal the relationship between loop stability, equivalent noise bandwidth B _n , predetection integration time T, and loop parameters. We calculate the theoretical limitations for B _n T, that is, the product of equivalent noise bandwidth multiplied by predetection integration time, for second- and third-order phase-locked loop, respectively. The results are verified by actual data from GPS receivers.     

Design of an adaptive GPS vector tracking loop with the detection and isolation of contaminated channels

GPS Solutions - In vector tracking loop (VTL), the relativity among received signals is exploited to deeply integrate the entire information within signal processing channels. However, the tracking...     

基于矢量跟踪的GNSS／SINS相干深组合系统研究

为满足组合导航系统在高动态环境下的性能要求,设计基于矢量跟踪的GNSS／SINS相干深组合导航方法。利用矢量跟踪环路将所有可视卫星的跟踪和导航解算融为一体,增强通道间的辅助;高动态对载波跟踪影响更大,在通道预滤波中将码环载波环分别用独立的滤波器处理,组合滤波中采用通道间差分降低滤波状态维数,提高计算效率。引入惯导的加速度辅助本地信号参数预测,较精确地测量卫星视线方向的加速度,减小接收机在高动态时段的剩余动态,提高本地信号参数的预测精度。基于矢量跟踪软件接收机搭建相干深组合仿真系统,实验表明该方法在高动态等环境下能提高信号跟踪性能,改善系统的精度、可靠性。      

L2C码与L2载波数据质量分析

基于IGS的L2C信号跟踪站数据验证了具有L2C码的卫星的L2载波的信噪比高于没有L2C码的卫星的L2载波的信噪比,L2载波恢复的数据质量更好.针对不同的接收机,对比分析了C/A码和L2C码多路径效应及观测噪声水平,发现对TRIMBLE NETRS接收机,L2C码误差水平明显高于C/A码,与期望结果相反.