Advanced Algorithmic and Architecture Designs for Future Satellite Navigation Receivers

The use of global navigation satellite system (GNSS) receivers for navigation still presents many challenges, in particular in urban canyon and indoor environments where satellite availability is reduced and received signals are usually much atten- uated. In addition, the reception of additional signal replicas due to reflections on the surrounding environment, i.e. multipath, introduces biases in the pseudorange measurements, which in turn lead to extra positioning errors. The navigation per- formance of a GNSS receiver depends greatly on the behavior of the phase lock loop (PLL) and the delay lock loop (DLL). To maintain the robustness of these loops in such conditions, several enhancement methods can be implemented to improve upon standard stand-alone mass market receivers. For instance, well-known techniques include the use of multi-constellations to improve the availability of visible satellites, take advantage of the potential multipath mitigation of the new GNSS signals, and an increase of the integration time combined with a decrease of the PLL and DLL filters bandwidths to improve sensitivity. Moreover, external aiding in the form of time, Doppler, position, or almanac that can be provided through coupling with other sensors can also contribute substantially in improving navigation performance in challenging environments. The aim of this dissertation is to address the challenges of satellite based naviga- tion in demanding environments in order to improve the navigation performance of the future GNSS receivers. Within this context, two research directions are adopted in this thesis. The first is to explore the performance and advantages of the upcoming Galileo signals and in particular the E5 Alternate Binary Offset Carrier AltBOC(15,10), and the second is to investigate the potential of low-cost micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) based inertial sensors to complement GNSS receivers. In the first research direction, we present investigations of the processing of Galileo E5ab in a full band or of only one of its components, i.e. either E5a or E5b. More specifically, a new acquisition algorithm is proposed for wiping off the secondary code and thereby increase the coherent integration time while requiring a reasonable implementation complexity as compared to other architectures. Moreover, an archi- tecture for tracking the E5 pilot channel as an AltBOC(15,10) or BPSK(10) modulation is introduced, and the performance of well-known discriminator types is analyzed using analytical derivations and simulations of linearity and stability regions, thermal noise tracking errors, multipath error envelopes and tracking thresholds. Different parameters, such as the front-end filter bandwidth, the early/late chip spacing, un- normalized and normalized discriminators, are taken into consideration. The results we obtain are used to illustrate the main advantages and drawbacks of using the E5 signal in demanding environments as well as to help defining the main tracking loop parameters for an enhanced performance. In the second research direction, we consider the coupling of a global positioning system (GPS) receiver with an inertial navigation system (INS) based on MEMS sen- sors. In the past, one of the main constraints holding back the proliferation of such hybrid systems was the price of the inertial sensors, but with the widespread dissemi- nation of MEMS-based sensors this is no longer the case. Therefore, a GPS/INS Tightly Coupled Assisted PLL (TCAPLL) architecture is proposed in this dissertation, and most of the associated challenges that need to be addressed when dealing with very- low-performance MEMS inertial sensors are presented. The architecture includes a data monitoring system responsible for checking the quality of the measurement flow to maintain robust tracking and accurate navigation. The implementation of the TCAPLL is discussed in detail, and its performance under different scenarios is assessed. Finally the proposed architecture is evaluated through a test campaign using a vehicle that is driven in urban environments, with the purpose of highlighting the pros and cons of combining MEMS inertial sensors with GPS over GPS alone.