Carrier synchronization is of paramount importance in any communications or positioning system. Mass-market Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) receivers typically implement traditional carrier tracking techniques based on well-established phase-locked loop architectures, which are only reliable in quite benign propagation conditions. Under nonnominal harsh propagation conditions, the signal may be affected by shadowing, strong fading, multipath or severe ionospheric scintillation, and thus, traditional architectures are not valid anymore and there exists an actual need for robust tracking solutions. Several approaches to overcome the conventional PLL limitations have appeared during the last decade, being the Kalman filter (KF) based architectures the most promising research line. The main drawback of standard KFs is the assumption of perfectly known process and measurement noise statistics, a knowledge that is always constrained by the system model accuracy. Beyond heuristic solutions, a general framework for the design of adaptive KFs correctly dealing with both process and measurement noises, that would be of capital importance for the practitioner, has not been established. The main goal of this contribution is to provide a clear answer to this fundamental question. It is shown that the main driver on the KF performance is not the adjustment of the measurement noise but the adequate tuning of the process noise statistics. Within this framework, a comprehensive discussion is given for the correct design of adaptive KF architectures for robust carrier tracking applications, where the key idea is to use two independent noise statistics estimation strategies to sequentially adapt both parameters. The design choice is supported by a discussion on the identifiability of the noise statistics' parameters. Simulation results are provided showing the need of fully adaptive solutions, and the achieved performance gain of KF-based architectures when compared to traditional tracking loops.


    Access

    Check access

    Check availability in my library

    Order at Subito €


    Export, share and cite



    Title :

    On the identifiability of noise statistics and adaptive KF design for robust GNSS carrier tracking


    Contributors:


    Publication date :

    2015-03-01


    Size :

    1594550 byte




    Type of media :

    Conference paper


    Type of material :

    Electronic Resource


    Language :

    English



    On Robust Statistics for GNSS Single Point Positioning

    Medina, Daniel / Li, Haoqing / Vila-Valls, Jordi et al. | IEEE | 2019


    Energy Frequency Discriminator for GNSS Carrier Tracking

    Zhang, Yanbin / Yu, Dunshan / Lu, Weijun | British Library Conference Proceedings | 2015



    Impact of Future GNSS Signals on Carrier-Phase Tracking

    Julien, O. / Cannon, M. E. / Lachapelle, G. et al. | British Library Conference Proceedings | 2005


    Generalized GNSS Signal Carrier Tracking: Part I—Modeling and Analysis

    Rong Yang, / Keck-Voon Ling, / Eng-Kee Poh, et al. | IEEE | 2017