MULTI-CHANNEL GNSS-RECEIVER FOR BOC-MODULATED SIGNALS --CONCEPTION OF COMBINED GALILEO GPS RECEIVERS-Manfred Zimmer GNSS-Receiver Technology Pappelauer Weg

25, D-89077 Ulm, Germany Phone: +49 731 381928, Email: m.c.zimmer@t-online.de

INTRODUCTION The GALILEO-signals and the newcoming GPS-signals in space will be "Binary Offset Carrier (BOC)"-modulated signals. Consequently several different signals have to be transmitted in adjacent frequency-bands, eg. E1-L1-E2 band or E5a-L2E5b band. In this event they require principly multi-channel receivers, respectively specific broad-band receivers. In this paper I propose a low-cost conception for receiving and evaluating simultaneously GALILEO-signals in combination of GPS-signals (also of GLONASS-signals is possible) for all satellites in view. In contrast to the common "Direct Conversion Receivers (DCR)" [1], which use well-known correlator-circuits in the "Delay Lock Loops (DLL)" for the "Direct Sequence Codes (DSC)" correlation, this conception has the great advantage of (nearly) perfect code-correlation. The ambiguity (side-slope maxima) in the correlator response will be here completely avoided. It represents a modified "Superheterodyn Receiver", with digital downconverting the analogue IF- signals to the complex baseband allocation (spectral zero position, ZIF). This method is giving an offset-error free downconversion with an automatical BOCmodulation compensation.

BOC-MODULATION CHARACTERISTICS A BOC-signal s(t) is usually generated in baseband and then modulates a RF carrier. Basicly the BOC-modulation represents the product of the DSC-signal c(t) with a square sub-carrier m(t) of frequency fm.

s( t ) c( t ) . sign sin 2. . f m

(1)

In the spectrum S(f) it delivers dual coherent slopes, but they could include different data informations, respectively different pseudo random noise codes (PRN-codes).

S( f ) . C( f ) . x .

fm

fm

(2)

(Hereby is .x. the convolution- and the Dirac-operator.) The non-causal power density spectrum for a computed example of BOC-modulation of a 6 bit PRN sequence with the generator polynom: G(x)=1+x5+x6 in the baseband is shown in Fig.1. Hereby the BOC sub-carrier clock is performing four times of the chip-rate of the PRN-signal.
Power Density Spectrum (dBW/Step)

BOC-Modulation Spectrum
0 Nb j 50 252 756 22 36.2

200

400

600

800

1000

j Frequency Step (normalized)

Fig.1 Non-causal Power Density Spectrum of an ALT-BOC-modulated signal for 6 bit Direct Sequence Code

For GALILEO- and GPS-signals the BOC(m,n) is defined [2] by the sub-carrier frequency of m*1.023MHz with the chiprate of n*1.023MHz. On this base there are possible many variations of BOC-modulations [3] (ALT-BOC, complex BOC with constant or non-constant envelopes, etc.) as functions of the applied "Phase Shift Keying" (PSK) modulators. If the GALILEO E1- and E2-band signals superimpose the L1-band of GPS in such a manner, that it is shown for a modulation of BOC(10,2) in Fig.2, the GALILEO receiver design will be simple. To minimize the influence of the frequency bands among themselves (inter-system interference, intra-system interference) they should be orthogonal, but that isn't shown in the diagram below.

GALILEO-GPS-L1-Band Spectrum
Power Density Spectrum [dBW/Hz] N1 k N2 k N3 k 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 110 120 130 140 1559 1565.19 1585.65

1563

1567

1571

1575

1579

1583

1587

1591

f k Frequency [MHz]

Spur 1 GPS C/A-Code Spur 2 GPS P/Y-Code Spur 3 GALILEO E1+E2 (BOC(10,2))
Fig.2 Example for an optima superposition of GALILEO E1-E2 bands over GPS L1 band with a BOC(10,2)

TRANSFERFUNCTION OF BOC-CORRELATORS The core of all Delay Lock Loops (DLL) represents the DSC-correlators & dumps. The standard BOC tracking loops (BOCDLL) are derived from typical DLLs used to track classical BPSK signals. Difference between BPSK-DLL and BOC-DLL is that local early/prompt/late code replicas are also modulated by early/prompt/late square sub-carriers, so that DLL works on the main peak of the BOC correlator function. As an illustration, Fig.3 shows the normalized transfer response of conventional correlators for the BOC(10,2) example. For the simulation the equal 6 bit PRN-code sequence of Fig.1 was used. Therefore it yields the magnitude of the correlator coefficients for this PRN-code sequence.

Conventional BOC-Correlation Response

Correlation-Coeff. 100 Cv 0.2 j 0 51.2 100 0.2 64

0.5

0 j Chip-Delay Sp

0.5

Fig.3 Ambiguous transfer response of conventional BOC-correlators for BOC(10,2) But the proposed novel receiver conception [4] avoids this disadvantage of ambiguous correlator function. With a specific digital conversion down from high or medium intermediate frequency (MIF) to the complex zero intermediate frequency (ZIF) of the receiving signal the BOC-modulation will be here compensated. Therefore the succeeding code correlation can be carry out with slightly modified standard DLLs for classical BPSK-signals, which deliver only a single peak in the correlator response. That is illustrated in Fig.4 .

Improved BOC-Correlation Response

100 Correlation-Coeff. Cv 50 0 50 1 64 1 2

0.5

0 Sp j Chip-Delay

0.5

Fig.4 Perfect transfer response of the BOC-correlator as a result of the novel receiver conception Consequently the correlators work only on single channel baseband signals in specific "BOC Delay LockLoops". In the following sections I will describe more details of this method.

ARCHITECTURE OF THE GNSS-RECEIVER In this or similar cases the combined GALILEO-GPS-FRONTEND essentially consists of only two parts: an analogue RFFRONTEND Modul and a DDC-CORRELATOR Modul. The Navigation-Processor for controlling the signal tracking moduls (software loops), for evaluating the position solutions and the data handling is succeeding as a third part of the receiver. The receiver conception is depicted in Fig.5 as an over-all block diagram.

Fig.5 Generic block diagram of combined GALILEO-GPS receivers (Example for E1-L1-E2 band) In the most applications one can use for the Navigation-Processor standard signal-processors, they are on the market in great quantities and with low prices. Therefore the description will be confined to proposals only for the design of receiver front ends [5], i.e. without the Navigation-Processor. In Fig.6 the FRONTEND of the receiver is carrying out a 2-stage down conversion of the antenna signal.

Fig.6 Block diagram of proposed multi-channel GNSS-Receiver FRONTEND with Digital Downconverter (DDC) The first down conversion stage of the RF-FRONTEND Modul is realized with analogue mixing stage and analogue filters, e.g. SAW-filters. This modul is also including a broadband A/D-converter of low resolution (2 - 4 bit). However, in the

complete FRONTEND the final down conversion-stage for separating several different receiving channels and for the BOCcompensation is realized by a specific multi-channel Digital Downconverter Modul, which is connected with the Correlator & Tracking Modul. It was chosen this method, because it gives an optimum of interferences resistance of adjacent communication channel-emissions (spectral spill-over of signal-parts) in relation to good navigation results and small technical expense.

BOC-COMPENSATION AND PRE-PROCESSING WITH THE DIGITAL DOWNCONVERTER The down-conversion of the IF-signals to the complex" spectral zero-frequency position (ZIF)", channel-splitting simultaneously into GALILEO- and GPS-channels, BOC-compensation of the GALILEO-signals and sampling rate decimation to the sampling rates of the succeeding correlator and signal tracking moduls, all these signal processings will be done with the specific multi-channel Digital Downconverter (DDC), that is the input-part of the DDC Correlator Modul of Fig.5 . Refering to the block diagram on channel-processing with the DDC, Fig.6 and 7, the down-conversion of the IFsignal and channel-selection for all GALILEO- and GPS-signals are separetely executed within "Quadratur-Systems [6].

Fig.7 Block diagram of the specific Digital Downconverter with BOC-Compensation, embedded into the DDC-Correlator Modul When for the GALILEO E1/E2- or E5/E6-band a Binary Offset Carrier modulation BOC(m,n) is used, in the GALILEO DDC arm, the adaptive and exact compensation of the BPSK-modulation of the BOC will be performed by an appropriately delayed Reference-BOC clock (BOC-Shift) in the first DDC quadratur mixer. This proposed BOC Delay Lock Loop is derived from typical delay lock loops (DLL) [3], but it is adapted in the complete structure of the DDC-Correlator Modul including the Navigation-Processor. According to this the two spectral channels, E1-E2 or E5a-E5b of GALILEO are found in this manner together in a single coherent baseband channel, i.e. for the post-processing only a single signal for a GALILEO satellite is to handle in form of a duplexed complex baseband channel. Naturally the following process with correlators and signal tracking moduls must have the twice processing bandwidth of the decimated sampling rate fc. It is shown in Fig.8 for an example of 70 MHz IF-signal downconverting from the E1-L1-E2 band.

Fig.8

Frequency plan of a specific digital downconversion: Channel-selection and BOC-compensation

THE DDC-CORRELATOR MODUL DESIGN For an economic design of the DDC-Correlator Modul one will prefer to embedde the DDC directly in the appropriate correlator input arm. That is simply possible, because both systems, DDC and correlator, are quadratur systems and handle with the same complex signal spectrum [6]. Beside that, the DDC and correlator operate in closed "Software Loops" with

the Navigation-Processor as a BOC-DLL. In Fig.9 it is illustrated an example of such a complex GALILEO-GPS correlator arm with embedded DDC.

Fig.9

Example for a complex GALILEO-GPS correlator arm with embedded Digital Downconverter (DDC)

The principle is depicted in Fig.10 for hardware realization of a DDC arm for only a single selected channel down conversion to complex "zero-intermediate frequency band (ZIF.

Fig.10 Generic block diagram of the specific Digital Downconverter for a single selected lowpass channel with Sampling Rate Decimation The DDC arm consists essentially of four parts: the input quadratur-mixer with the Channel DCO [7], then the IntegratorFilter with 2nd to 4th order of transfer function , in the middle of the filter structure the sampling switches for sampling rate decimation, so-called Decimator and at the output port the Differentiator-Filter with also 2nd to 4th order of transfer function. The Integrator with the Differentiator form a specific Frequency-Sampling Filter, so-called sin(x) divided by x lowpass filter (in german language "Spalttiefpass" [8]). In Fig.11 one give an example for technical realization of such a DDC with a specific lowpass filter of 2nd order transfer function , that was well-realized in the combined "GPS-GLONASS Receiver ASN-22" [9]. This receiver was developed for some years ago by Daimler-Benz Aerospace, NFS - now E.A.D.S in Ulm, Germany.

Fig.11 Example of such a realized Digital Downconverter arm (ASN-22), that also be sigthly modified for combined Galileo-GPS receivers The principle of this DDC circuit will be also suitable for combined GALILEO-GPS Receivers. However for the here proposed GALILEO-GPS recivers the second mixing-stage at the DDC output isn't necessary for making the ZIF-signal to a real representation, because the post-processing with the correlators works also on the same complex signals. I.e. the output signals of the lowpass filters will be directly fed to the appropriated arm of the I-Q-Correlator.

THE SPECIFIC DDC-FILTERS The the necessary digital lowpass filtering (band restriction, constant group delay, etc.) of the I-Q-mixer outputs will be performed with a lowpass filter of a specific structure for square impuls-functions of order n in the time domain (sinn(x)/(x)n in the frequency domain), that is particulary optimized for processing "Spread Spectrum Signals" [6] with constant group delay, especially for processing of combined GALILEO-GPS (or GLONASS) signals. A very important item for stable signal processing within the DDC-filters, Fig.10 and 11, is the binary coding in the single sections of the filter paths. All internal arithmetical operations [4] must be executed in 2-er-Complement coding without value overflow (Modulo-2-er-Complement Code, Stibitz Code). Therefore the dynamic range d in bit of the coding in the filter path, as a function of the filter input range c and the filter processing gain G, must be exceeded to

d (1

ld( G ) )

(3)

Only in this case of coding and ranging the Differentiator part of the filter, Fig.10, compensates completely the oscillating step response of the Integrator part. Consequently all filter operations are fully stable! As a result of the extreme increasing of the filter-word length by the processing gain for the following DSP with correlator and Navigation-Processor, it must be reduced to appropriate amount of bit. This will then be carried out with specific word-length limitation circuits. Examples for these word-limitation circuits you can find in literature [8]. . For the most GNSS-applications it be sufficient to use DDC-Lowpass filter of 2nd transfer function, that is depicted in Fig.12 .

Fig.12 Functional diagram of the DDC-Lowpass filter with 2nd oder transfer function. Hereby the symbols represent for T = signal delay for one time clock period and R = decimation factor of the sampling rate for the post-processing circuits. Then the z-transform equation of the transfer function for this 2nd order filter yields:
4. R 2 1 ) . 2. . f

. . z H 2( z) .R 1 2 8 ( 4. R) z (z

1 1)
2

Gain:

G 2 ( 4. R)

Phase:

2 e

j . ( 8. R

(4)

In Fig. 13 the amplitude response and phase response of this filter for a sampling decimation factor R = 7 is shown.

Amplitude Response of 2nd order filter

10 0 G T ( ) 10 0.0357 20 30 40 50 60 0 0.1 Magnitude (dB) Phase Angle (rad) 3.14 26.5

Phase Response of 2nd filter

T( )
1.57 0.0357 0

1.57 3.14 0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5

0.2

0.3

0.4

0.5

f t f/fa [normalized frequency]

f t f/fa [normalized frequency]

Fig.13 Transfer function characteristics of the second order DDC-Lowpass filter For the completenes of the filter design one will give the expressions and diagrams of filter responses for 3rd order and 4th order DDC-Lowpass filters with the sampling decimation factor R = 3 e.g. R = 2:

Fig.14 Functional diagram of the DDC-Lowpass filter with third order transfer function The expression for the 3rd order transfer function is:
8. R 3 1) . 2 . . f

. . z H 3( z) .R 1 3 24 (z ( 8. R) z

1 1)
3

Gain:

G 3 ( 8. R)

Phase:

3 e

j . ( 24 . R

(5)

Phase Response of 3rd order filter

10 0 10 20 0.0417 G T ( ) 30 39.6 40 50 60 70 80 90 0 0.05 0.1 0.15 0.2 0.25 0.3 0.35 0.4 0.45 0.5 f t f/fa [normalized frequency]

Phase Angle (rad)

Amplitude Response of 3rd order filter

Magnitude (dB)

3.14

T( )

1.57 0 1.57 3.14

0.0417

0.1

0.2

0.3

0.4

0.5

f t f/fa [normalized frequency]

Fig.15 Transfer function characteristics of the third order DDC-Lowpass filter The diagrams and expressions for the 4th order transfer function are:

Fig.16 Functional diagram of the DDC-Lowpass filter with fourth order transfer function

. . z H 4( z) 4 64 . R 1 ( 16. R) z (z

16 . R

1 1)
4

Gain: G

. 4 ( 16 R)

Phase:

4 e

j . ( 64 . R

1) . 2 . . f

(6)

Amplitude Response of 4th order filter

Magnitude (dB) G T( )
Phase Angle (rad)

Phase Response of 4th order filter

3.14

20 0 20 0.03125 40 60 80 100 120

52.9

T( )

1.57 0

0.0312

1.57 3.14 0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5

0 0.05 0.1 0.15 0.2 0.25 0.3 0.35 0.4 0.45 0.5 f t f/fa [normalized frequency]

f t f/fa [normalized frequency]

Fig.17 Transfer function characteristics of the fourth order DDC-Lowpass filter

CONCLUSIONS This receiver conception is also applicable for other wireless services, likewise for UMTS, GSM, MSS, etc, which all work also on "Spread Spectrum Signals". It has some advantages over standard receiver methods. Particularly the use of a single, analogue RF-FRONTEND for receiving combined GALILEO-GPS and other GNSS signals in a broad frequency band as well as the RF-processing with the specific Digital Downconverter for frequency channel selection and simple BOCcompensation make today posible an low-cost and accurate GNSS receiver design. A especial feature of this design is that the PRN-code correlation in the DLLs will be done excatly, i.e. without any ambiguity in the correlator response. As the single side-band mixing of RF-signals down to "zero-intermediate frequencies (ZIF)" is executed in the DDC, the requirements of IF-filtering are strongly reduced to simple lowpass filtering, that performed by specific digital filters (square impulse-function of second order or higher). Consequently the technical and economical expense and the requirements, respectively processing bandwidth, clock rates, signal access times, power consumptions etc. will be reduced extremely in comparison to standard methods. Therefore already today it can be realized a low-cost and combined GALILEO-GPS Receiver as a single or dual "Chip-System".

REFERENCES [1] B. Razavi, "RF-Microelectronics" Prenice Hall, Upper Saddle River, New Jersey, 1998. [2] G.W. Hein, et al, "The GALILEO Frequency Structure and Signal Design" Proceedings of ION GPS 2003, Portland, September 2003. [3] L. Ries, et al, "Software Simulation Tools for GNSS BOC Signal Analysis", Proceedings of ION GPS 2002, Portland, September 2002. [4] M. Zimmer, "New Hardware Platform for GNSS Software Radios", Proceedings of GNSS 2003, Graz, April 2003. [5] M. Zimmer, "Neues Konzept fr ein GNSS Software Radio", Elektronik 11, part 1, pp. 60-65 and Elektronik 12, part 2, pp. 74-79, May/June 2002. [6] L.R. Rabiner, B. Gold, "Theory and application of digital signal processing", AT&T, Prentice-Hall, Inc., Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, 1975. [7] M. Zimmer, "Neues DDS-Verfahren: Hchstfrequenz przise erzeugt", Elektronik 11, part 1, pp. 66-72 and Elektronik 12, part 2, pp.98-102, May/June, 1998. [8] M. Zimmer, "Zwischenfrequenz-Empfnger fr die Satelliten-Navigation" Elektronik 14, part 1, pp. 58-67 and Elektronik 16, part 2, pp. 38-43, July/August 2001. [9] T. Felhauer, et al, "ASN-22. The 12/6 (12) channel GPS/GLONASS Engine Board", Proceedings of International Conference on Differential Satellite Navigation Systems (DSNS), pp. 860-866, St. Petersburg, Russia, May 1996.