Weighted discriminators for GNSS BOC signal tracking

Modern Global Navigation Satellite System including Galileo and GPS III will employ multiplexed binary offset carrier (MBOC) modulation to achieve spectrum separation and enhanced tracking performance. A challenge of the MBOC or BOC signal tracking is the presence of ambiguities due to multiple sidepeaks of the autocorrelation functions. Several different techniques including multi-correlator and double estimator schemes have been proposed to address the ambiguity issue. We propose a class of ambiguity-free code tracking techniques by exploiting the unique features of the BOC modulation. In the proposed architecture, the incoming BOC-modulated signals are correlated with BOC-modulated replica and the spreading codes, respectively. Through a multiplicative combination strategy of the two correlator outputs, a noncoherent weighted discriminator is formed and shown to possess the ambiguity-free property. The multipath effect is assessed and compared with existing early-minus-late power and autocorrelation sidepeak cancellation technique discriminators. The noise effects of the theory and simulation are also discussed. In order to further verify the proposed scheme, a set of field data of a Galileo in-orbit validation satellite is collected and processed. It is demonstrated that the proposed method is simple to implement, free from ambiguities, and yields acceptable performance in the presence of multipath and noise.