Software radio global navigation satellite system (GNSS) receiver front-end design: sampling and jitter considerations

Abstract

This thesis examines the sampling and jitter specifications and considerations for Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) software receivers. Software Radio (SWR) technologies are being used in the implementation of communication receivers in general and GNSS receivers in particular. With the advent of new GPS signals, and a range of new Galileo and GLONASS signals soon becoming available, GNSS is an application where SWR and software-defined radio (SDR) are likely to have an impact. The sampling process is critical for SWR receivers where it occurs as close to the antenna as possible. One way to achieve this is by BandPass Sampling (BPS), which is an undersampling technique that exploits aliasing to perform downconversion. In this thesis, the allowable sampling frequencies are calculated and analyzed for the multiple frequency BPS software radio GNSS receivers. The SNR degradation due to jitter is calculated and the required jitter standard deviation allowable for wach GNSS band of interest is evaluated and a basic jitter budget is calculated that could assist in the design of multiple frequency SWR GNSS receivers. Analysis shows that psec-level jitter specifications are required in order to keep jitter noise well below the thermal noise for software radio satellite navigation receivers. However, analysis of a BPSK system shows that large errors occur if the jittered sample crosses a data bit boundary. However, the signal processing techniques required to process the BOC modulation are much more challenging than those for traditional BPSK. BOC and AltBOC have more transitions per chip of spreading code and hence jitter creates greater SNR degradation. This work derives expressions for noise due to jitter taking into account the transition probability in QPSK, BOC, AltBOC systems. Both simulations and analysis are used to give a better understanding of jitter effects on Software Radio GNSS receivers.