Evolution of Multipath Error Reduction with Signal Processing

The described method of code and carrier multipath error reduction is a refinement of the strobe method of pseudo random noise (PRN) signal processing. This method utilizes as a correlator reference code a strobe sequence containing pulses with a specially designed shape. The method demonstrated its efficiency for reduction of the tracking error in PRN-signal digital receivers. Since the strobe method degrades signal to noise ratio, i. e., degrades the noise tracking error, a narrowing of the tracking system bandwidth is normally used to compensate for this degradation. This, in turn, could cause large dynamics errors in the measurements. However, in the present article, the strobe sequence is optimized to provide the best trade-off between multipath and noise/dynamic errors; i. e., the multipath error is reduced without a large increase of noise/dynamic error. The newly found strobe sequences are cited in the article, along with methods for their mathematical synthesis. Finally, theoretical and experimental results for noise and multipath errors are given. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.