Design Paradigms for Multi-Constellation Multi-Frequency Software GNSS Receivers

This study addresses the challenges of designing a tracking architecture for a multi-constellation, multi-frequency GNSS receiver. Using a C++ software defined receiver platform, the design of a receiver which operates on the BeiDou, Galileo, GLONASS and GPS civil signals is explored and a modular, reconfigurable GNSS tracking architecture is presented. The component parts of this architecture are tested in a pedestrian navigation scenario examining a range of different code and carrier tracking algorithms. The challenges of developing of a flexible, universal design is addressed while also highlighting some of the benefits of signal and application specific designs. In particular, the improvements in both performance and reliability that can be leveraged by the use of dedicated multi-signal tracking strategies when operating under certain challenging conditions, is shown. Results illustrate the various trade-offs that can be made between performance and receiver flexibility when applied to a diverse set of GNSS signals.