Ch 14. GNSS Receivers: An Overview

Chapter Overview: This chapter covers fundamentals of GNSS receiver architecture in the next decade and beyond. The technology evolution of satellite navigation and timing receivers over the past five decades since the first GPS sets were developed is truly remarkable. Compared to the handful of early GPS receiver types classified as either military or civilian, with form factors comprising stationary reference, geodetic, aviation or portable, today’s receivers span a large set of market segments and an uncountable number of applications. As multiple GNSSs and signals come online, market segments begin to blur, the need for adaptability to new signals and new situations grows, and energy efficiency is at the forefront rather than an afterthought. This chapter will start with an overview of the anatomy of a GNSS receiver and descriptions of the functionalities and inter-relationship among the various components. Signal generation, transmission, and signal models at the satellite transmission, receiver antennas, and at various stages of the receiver RF front end are presented. RF front-end functionalities, components, performance metrics, and architecture are analyzed from both a fundamental and practical perspective. A central operation in a GNSS receiver is correlation regardless of the application or specific implementations of a receiver. The chapter will devote an entire section on correlation operation outputs model and correlation at hardware and software levels. A quick overview of a receiver channel control state machine is provided without dwelling on the details of the state machine implementations as they are topics of other chapters (Chapter 15, 17, and 18). The generation and relationship among the various timing bases in a GNSS receiver, and future outlook of GNSS receiver trends wrap up this chapter.

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