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Procedia Engineering 104 (2015) 9 – 14

Scientific and Technological Experiments on Automatic Space Vehicles and Small Satellites

Software defined GNSS Receiver

Kai Borrea, Ilya Kudryavtseva
a
Samara State Aerospace University, 34, Moskovskoye Shosse, Samara, Russia, 443086

Abstract

This paper describes the main ideas of a GNSS SDR receiver and its implementation. Aims of the development,
advantages, and some specific details are discussed. Particular attention is paid to the issue of security in GNSS receivers used
for special purposes and some strategies of tracking. The idea of a snapshot receiver is briefly mentioned.

© 2015
© 2014The TheAuthors.
Authors. Published
Published by Elsevier
by Elsevier Ltd.is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
Ltd. This
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
Peer-review under responsibility of organizing committee of the Scientific and Technological Experiments on Automatic Space
Peer-review under responsibility of organizing committee of the Scientific and Technological Experiments on Automatic Space
Vehicles and Small Satellites (SPEXP2014).
Vehicles and Small Satellites (SPEXP2014)

Keywords: GNSS; GPS; Galileo; SDR; vector processing; SBAS; LNA; IF; jamming; spoofing; authentication.

The Global Positioning System (GPS) has been operational for 20 years and serves approximately 2.5 billion
users. At present, the signals broadcast from the GPS satellites are being modernized. The current GPS signal for
civilians occupies 2MHz of bandwidth centered on a single radio frequency. The new civil signals will occupy
24MHz of bandwidth spread over three radio frequencies. In addition, new Global Navigation Satellite Systems
(GNSS) are being deployed worldwide to complement and compete with GPS. The Russian Federation is
rejuvenating their GLONASS system, and China is moving quickly on their worldwide system, called COMPASS.
Europe is planning the Galileo system that will place some 27 satellites in orbits similar to GPS. Regional systems
are being developed in Japan and India. With all of these systems, the number of navigation satellites could increase
from today’s 60 to 120 satellites or more.
Importantly, all of these new satellites will broadcast civil signals at a multiplicity of frequencies. New satellites
will provide geometric diversity and the new signals will provide frequency diversity. Over the next decade, satellite
navigation will enjoy the benefits of the geometric and frequency diversity described above. These technical
advantages will improve the accuracy of standalone GNSS from 10 meters to 1 meter.

* Corresponding author. Tel.: +7-267-43-29;

E-mail address: rtf@ssau.ru

1877-7058 © 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
Peer-review under responsibility of organizing committee of the Scientific and Technological Experiments on Automatic Space Vehicles and Small Satellites
(SPEXP2014)
doi:10.1016/j.proeng.2015.04.090
10 Kai Borre and Ilya Kudryavtsev / Procedia Engineering 104 (2015) 9 – 14

More importantly, these changes will extend the coverage of satellite navigation to include indoor and urban
environments. Diversity will also help mitigate the deleterious effects of radio frequency interference (RFI).
However, new vector algorithms are needed to maximize the performance improvements and benefit to society.
These algorithms would be placed in the receivers carried by our citizens. The GPS receivers of today process the
signals from each GPS satellite separately. More specifically, each receiver has a tracking algorithm to estimate the
signal travel delay from each satellite to the receiver. We call this a federated strategy, because the tracker for any
given satellite does not interact with the tracker for any other satellite. These individual trackers are comprised of
correlators, which are known to be optimum for tracking one satellite. In addition, the federated strategy is
reasonably simple to implement using today’s processors. However, the federated strategy is far from optimum
when multiple satellites are in view. We propose vector processors to aggregate the information from each satellite
and share this information. If the signal from one satellite is weakened or blocked by foliage or buildings, then the
vector of information from all the satellites is used to continue the tracking of the weakened satellite. This sharing
does not occur in today’s federated architecture. In essence, sharing is possible because all of the satellite signals are
shifted in time by the position and motion of the person carrying the receiver. This common information is called the
user state. Vector processors will use the information from all of the satellites in view to improve the estimate of the
user state. This common information will then be used to update and refine the tracking estimates of the individual
satellites. This strategy differs sharply from the federated architectures where the individual estimators must act by
themselves.
Vector processing will help to enable a new set of valuable applications. For example, they will help with safety
critical applications in terrestrial environments. So far, the only widespread use of satellite navigation for safety of
life applications is aviation, where the GPS antennas are mounted on top of the aircraft free from the effects of
reflected signals. We feel that vector processing, along with the improvements in the GNSS constellations, will
bring these applications indoors and to cities.

1. Software Defined GNSS Receivers

Software defined receivers are needed to maximize the benefit from this heterogeneous and dynamic signal
environment. Indeed, most GPS receivers are currently implemented using application specific integrated circuits
(ASICs), but these receivers require 24 or more months of development time even with a dedicated and experienced
engineering team. We seek a receiver that can accommodate and evaluate the new satellites and signals within
weeks, including adaptation to a given platform (processor).
Such a receiver would have high value to GNSS researchers in academia and university laboratories. It would
also have high value to industry, because it would enable the rapid evaluation of new signals and signal processing
techniques. In other words, it would significantly shorten the design cycle.
Vector processors, based on the SDR approach, can be utilized as the core engine of high, medium, and low
accurate receivers, see [1] and [2]. The market for the high end receivers is limited, but the markets for the medium
and low accurate receivers are nearly unlimited.
The area of applications for the high accurate receiver is land surveying, docking of ships in harbors, surveillance
of huge man-made constructions (bridges, tall buildings, nuclear power plants), monitoring of the earth’s crust in
tectonic active areas, precision farming, and robotic guidance. The medium accurate receiver is ideal for intelligent
transport systems, automatic payment of parking charge, surveillance of livestock, tracking of animals, and
surveillance at protected homes. The low accurate receiver will typically be used in cellular phones, for car
guidance, tracking of items, leisure boats, geocaching, and tracking of items that are likely to be stolen.
In short, there is a huge potential in changing the way GNSS receivers are manufactured and a great potential for
many more future applications. We plan to bring the receiver technology a step further for the benefit of society and
human beings.
Any GNSS is composed of three parts: The space segment (satellites), the control segment (tracking facilities at
several spots and a main computational facility), and the user segment. This threefold split makes it possible to
manufacture cheap user units, also called receivers. Traditionally GNSS receivers are manufactured as hardware.
This means once a receiver is manufactured, it becomes difficult to modify.
 Kai Borre and Ilya Kudryavtsev / Procedia Engineering 104 (2015) 9 – 14 11

2. Details of the Software Receivers

Conceptually this situation changed in 1997 when Dennis Akos introduced the concept of software defined radio
(SDR) for GPS. At that time the technological facilities were not ready for actual implementation. This happened
ten years later. In 2007 a group at Aalborg University and Dennis Akos published a dedicated textbook, which
included a DVD containing code for a GPS software defined receiver. The programming language was Matlab. That
book had a tremendous impact on the profession.
Suddenly many developments in academia started using the software concept. SDR is a rapidly evolving
technology that is getting enormous recognition and is generating widespread interest in the receiver industry. SDR
technology aims at a flexible open-architecture receiver, which helps in building reconfigurable SDRs where
dynamic selection of parameters for individual modules is possible. The receiver employs a wideband analog-to-
digital (A/D) converter that captures all channels of the software radio node. The receiver then extracts,
downconverts, and demodulates the channel waveform using software on a general-purpose processor. The idea is to
position a wideband A/D converter as close to an antenna as is convenient, transfer those samples into a
programmable element, and apply digital signal processing techniques to obtain the desired result. An SDR is an
ideal platform for development, testing of algorithms, and possible integration of other devices.
An SDR tries to identify the signals present in the collected data sets. This acquisition happens by using serial or
parallel search methods. After a GNSS signal is acquired, the code and carrier tracking and data demodulation
follows. Various delay lock loops (DLL) discriminators are used for this purpose. A phase lock loop (PLL) and a
frequency lock loop (FLL) are often used to track a carrier wave signal. These elements are critical to refining the
precise observations provided in GNSS. We recover the navigation data and convert them to ephemerides. An
ephemeris makes the basis for computing a satellite position. Next we need to estimate the raw and fine parts of the
transmit time. With these combined data we introduce a computational model that delivers the receiver position. Fig.
1 represents a hardware board, which was used to develop and test main algorithms.

Fig. 1. The DGC receiver

A software defined receiver is typically composed of 12 channels. A hardware or software receiver using GPS
the C/A code on L1 yields position accuracy better than 10 meters. If a user wants a better accuracy, he may start by
eliminating the ionospheric delay. This is accomplished by using a dual frequency receiver as the ionospheric delay
is frequency dependent. This receiver also eliminates orbital and clock errors. In addition to L1, GPS transmits
signals on L2 and in near future even on L5. All these signals become available for civil users. That is, we have a
12 Kai Borre and Ilya Kudryavtsev / Procedia Engineering 104 (2015) 9 – 14

possibility of building a triple frequency receiver.

An alternative procedure for eliminating the ionospheric delay is to exploit a satellite based augmentation system
(SBAS) such as the European Geostationary Navigation Overlay System (EGNOS), Wide Area Augmentation
System (WAAS), or the Russian System for Differential Correction and Monitoring (SDCM). In addition one gets
integrity information.
A further augmentation is to establish a multi-system SDR. Today the commercial hardware market offers
combined GPS and GLONASS receivers. Our long-term project will prepare for GPS, GLONASS, Galileo, and
COMPASS. So the path from a single channel to a single frequency receiver (12 channels) to dual/triple frequency
receiver (24/36 channels) to a multi-system receiver (more than 100 channels) is long and complicated. In the future
it is likely that the market rather than asking for a 100 channel receiver asks for a receiver based on a combination of
a few of the most relevant signals for a particular task. So the future receiver most likely is dedicated to a specific
task rather than being a standard one. This again asks for flexibility and modularity in the receiver architecture. Here
the SDR concept is eminent.

Fig. 2. Radio Frequency (RF) and Intermediate Frequency (IF) signals, Low Noise Amplifier (LNA),
Analog-to-digital (A/D) converter, and processing platform

3. The Snap-shot Receiver

The proposed receiver will use so called snap-shot technique. As described in the Figure 2, the complete receiver
consists of antenna, front-end, and processing platform. In several applications it is tempting to move the processing
platform to a common server and let this server do most of the signal processing and final position computation.
This comes with the price that we need to transmit the digital data from the front-end to the server. The obvious gain
is that the physical part becomes smaller and cheaper and in fact the position computation at the server delivers
more accurate, more reliable and authenticated results. These benefits are so great that they outperform the
difficulties and costs by using a real time transmission. The transmission can happen either as an SMS or better, and
more flexible, by using a portable internet connection.
In case such a connection can not be established, the data must be kept on a non-volatile storage and transmitted
later on.
Using these necessary units, the security problems are moved from the vehicle to the reliable authentication
server. This strategy reduces costs and moves the fragile part from all users to the few distributed servers.
In the vicinity of each server a complete dual frequency receiver, including SBAS, must operate. This provides
position, time, estimation of ionospheric delay, a necessary part of the authentication procedure, etc.
This splitting of the complete receiver into two parts is named snap-shot technique. We do not transmit the total
 Kai Borre and Ilya Kudryavtsev / Procedia Engineering 104 (2015) 9 – 14 13

sequence of digitized signals, but only short selected periods of these, typically 20ms. Only these short cuts of the
signals are packed and transmitted to the server. A 20 ms sequence typically is a few kilobytes of data for one
GNSS.
Development of this new GNSS receiver is planned to continue in research laboratory, which is being created in
SSAU. Till the end of the year we are coding a Matlab model of the receiver, using the opportunities of the
supercomputer Sergey Korolyov. In 2015 creation of an FPGA based prototype is expected.

4. Characteristics of a Modern Receiver

Contemporary GNSS receivers are very different from the early ones. Improvements in technology, changes in
observational methods and algorithms have contributed to this. We start by collecting the characteristics which a
modern receiver must be able to handle:
1. The ionospheric delay I can be provided from SBAS. The delay depends on the signal frequency. Hence I can
be computed from a dual frequency receiver. In that case we do not need SBAS.
2. Missing signal. The most effective known means against this phenomenon is to use a vector processor, see [2].
3. Signal authentication. A GPS-based authentication answers the questions: How do you know you are where
you think you are? How do I know you are where you say you are? For one aspect of authentication see [4].
Ideally the civilian parts of the GNSS would have some security built-in. Like for the internet the original idea
was not considered for the civil parts of GNSS. The Galileo system possibly will offer such a feature which has to
be paid by consumer. The option is still years ahead.
4. Spoofing is the situation where a person tries to cheat the user to believe that his position is different from his
true position and the user is not aware of this situation. He is spoofed!
By hacking the satellite-to-receiver signals, GNSS is opened up for the same type of attack as the ones that is a
daily plague for laptops, main frames, and the internet.
This threat against security of the positioning raises the following dual concerns:
1) When I process signals that I receive myself, how can I guarantee their authenticity? And
2) When I receive a confirmation from another part about the signals he receives how do I ensure of the validity
of their assertion?
The technical description of the proposed authentication procedure can be found in [4]. The authors have
developed and checked a signal authenticity technology, which does not exploit predictable characteristics of GPS
signals, but rather makes use of hidden characteristics that can be cross-compared between receivers to ensure the
validity of the signals that are received and the position solution derived from these signals.
The final architecture is tremendously useful for many security related issues and the described version can be
established for low costs. These include not only current high-value applications such as valuables and asset
tracking, fleet management and vehicles that shall pay road tolling.
5. SBAS transmits integrity parameters which tell if the system works correctly and properly. Possible problems
are reported within a time delay of at most 6s. Also remember that SBAS transmits information about I.
6. Multipath is a local phenomenon related to the individual receiver. The deteriorating effects can apparently be
limited by using excellent antennas. Alternative procedures are to track signals with wide bandwidth and by using
sophisticated signal processing in the receiver proper. Larger bandwidth leads to more computational efforts and
hence larger power consumption. Today you may use for example a seven element antenna (array antenna) for
demanding tasks.
7. Jamming. The future GNSS signals are designed to be as jamming resistant as possible. The topic is
technically difficult and is under constant investigation.
14 Kai Borre and Ilya Kudryavtsev / Procedia Engineering 104 (2015) 9 – 14

Fig. 3. Simulation of the tracking system

Figures 3a and 3c show the behavior of federated tracking when the signal power from one satellite is rapidly
decreased. We activate a momentary blockage of the signal and the correlation power amplitude virtually drops to
zero. The federated DLL fails to reacquire the signal when it reappears after 10s. The right panel shows results from
the vector processor. When the C/N0 falls below a certain threshold, the diagonal terms of the noise covariance
matrix ¦e are inflated and the vector processor algorithm starts ignoring the observations. During the signal
attenuation period the vector processor ignores the code phase observations from the satellite and it uses its own
estimates of code phase error. The output of the code discriminator is dominated by noise during the attenuation
period. After the signal returns the code discriminator shows valuable output. We also see that the vector processor
recovers the correlation power instantly as compared to the federated DLL. The vertical axes in the figures 3a and
3b indicate correlation power to be multiplied with 106. Figures 3c and 3d show code tracking error in chips. Figures
3a-3d are copied from [3].

Acknowledgements

Parts of the present work were discussed with prof. Per Enge (Stanford University). We are most grateful for this
contribution. The whole work was supported by the ministry of education and science of the Russian Federation.
References

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