Remote Sensing (Mar 2022)

Method for Estimating the Optimal Coefficient of L1C/B1C Signal Correlator Joint Receiving

  • Yao Guo,
  • Decai Zou,
  • Xue Wang,
  • Yongnan Rao,
  • Peng Shang,
  • Ziyue Chu,
  • Xiaochun Lu

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3390/rs14061401
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 14, no. 6
p. 1401

Abstract

Read online

The design of a modern Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) has been exceptionally valued by the military and civilians of various countries. The inclusion of the pilot channel in addition to the navigation data channel is considered one of the major changes in GNSS modernization. Schemes of an equal weight combination (1:1 combination) and power ratio combination for data and pilot are primarily adopted by traditional receivers. With the emergence of the new data and pilot modulation signals with unequal power, such as L1C at Global Positioning System (GPS) L1 frequency and B1C at BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS) B1 frequency, the traditional combination coefficient cannot achieve optimal reception performance. Considering the influence of the combination coefficient on the reception performance, the optimal coefficient of the correlator joint is estimated in this paper. The entire architecture of the data/pilot correlator joint tracking and positioning with unequal power is given. Based on the equivalence principle of the correlator joint and the discriminator joint, the optimal coefficient of the carrier loop is determined. A mathematical model of joint code tracking accuracy is established, and the optimal coefficient of the code loop is determined. The real-life satellite signal and simulation results show that the amplitude–ratio combined scheme is the best for receiving of correlator joints, followed by the power–ratio combination scheme and, finally, the 1:1 combination scheme. It is worth mentioning that the positioning accuracy of the amplitude–ratio combination is improved by 2% compared to the 1:1 combination, and by 1.3% compared to the power–ratio combination for B1C signal. The positioning accuracy of the amplitude–ratio combination is improved by 2.37% compared to the 1:1 combination, and by 1.6% compared to the power–ratio combination for L1C signal. The conclusions of this paper are validated for the traditional data/pilot with an equal power allocation. The techniques and test results provide technical support for GNSS high-precision-user receivers.

Keywords