Christopher J. Hegarty

Evolution of the Global Navigation SatelliteSystem (GNSS)

The Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) is the worldwide set of satellite navigation constellations, civil aviation augmentations, and user equipment. This paper reviews the current status and future plans of the elements of GNSS as it pertains to civil aviation. The paper addresses the following satellite navigation systems: the U.S. Global Positioning System (GPS), Russian GLONASS, European Galileo, Chinese Compass, Japanese Quasi Zenith Satellite System, and Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System. The paper also describes aviation augmentations including aircraft-based, satellite-based, ground-based, and ground-based regional augmentation systems defined by the International Civil Aviation Organization. Lastly, this paper details typical user equipment configurations and civil aviation applications of GNSS including navigation, automatic dependent surveillance, terrain awareness warning systems, and timing.

Scintillation modeling for GPS‐Wide Area Augmentation System receivers

A scintillation signal model and a Global Positioning System (GPS)-Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS) receiver model are developed. The scintillation signal model is based on a Nakagami-m distribution for intensity and a Gaussian distribution with zero mean for phase. The GPS-WAAS receiver model includes Link 1 (L1) GPS and WAAS carrier-and C/A-code-tracking loops, as well as semicodeless Link 2 (L2) carrier and Y-code tracking capabilities. The results show that noncoherent delay locked loops (DLLs) typically used for code tracking are very robust to both amplitude and phase scintillation. Carrier-phase-tracking loops are much more susceptible to scintillation, and the signal-to-noise threshold for reliable carrier tracking is very dependent on the scintillation strength. Fortunately, it appears that the worst case scintillation encountered at midlatitudes, including the United States, does not significantly impact L1 carrier-tracking performance. Semicodeless tracking of the L2 carrier is shown to be very fragile. Even weak scintillation can cause loss of L2 carrier lock for low-elevation satellites.

Noncoherent multistage multiuser detection of M-ary orthogonal signals

In recent years, a great deal of research has been performed on methods of alleviating the performance degradations suffered by code division multiple access (CDMA) systems due to multiple access interference. In this paper, we consider a multistage detector for noncoherent CDMA using M-ary orthogonal signals. Using a decorrelating detector as its first stage, the detector iteratively estimates the multiple access interference affecting the desired signal, subtracts the estimated interference, and forms symbol estimates for each of K users. Through numerical examples, the bit error performance of the proposed detector is demonstrated to be superior to that of previous detectors for the same signalling scheme.

Recommendations on digital distortion requirements for the civil GPS signals

Rise-/fall-time asymmetries of up to 5 ns in the generation of the baseband C/A code signal onboard the GPS satellites have been inferred and noted to be a source of positioning errors, particularly in differential GPS applications. Such asymmetries have been dubbed ldquodigital distortionrdquo in previous literature. Digital distortion, if present, would have different effects for user equipment tracking the new GPS civil signals with their differing modulation characteristics. This paper analyzes the potential effects of digital distortion on user equipment for the new civil GPS signals and provides recommendations on requirements to control this distortion within the civil signal interface specifications.