Benefits of a Reconfigurable Software GNSS Receiver in Multipath Environment

The increased interest for applications based on both navigation and communication systems, represents an important driver for the design and implementation of innovative receivers architectures. The realization of civil GPS applications, the advent of the European navigation system Galileo, and the integration of localization services in communication network make the reconfigurability an indispensable requirement for the development of innovative Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) platforms. In addition, it must be pointed out that several problem as indoor positioning and multipath recovery, are pushing the research activity in order to provide users of flexible devices able to adapt their functionalities according to the environment. Considering this complex scenario, the Software Defined Radio (SDR) approach constitutes an interesting perspective to develop modular architectures. In this paper, the implementation of a reconfigurable user terminal integrating both navigation and communication capabilities will be discussed. The work will be presented focusing the attention on software-designed functionalities and the Navigation Unit will be analyzed and tested. An example of adaptability of the receiver to the operating environment will be presented. The reconfigurable module for multipath mitigation in the tracking phase will be described with particular attention to the implementation aspect, and some simulation results will be presented.