Research on performance of phase discriminator in code tracking loop inside spaceborne distance measurement transceiver

To completely compare the performance of some widely used discriminators in code tracking loop, working range, discriminate gain, noise performance, tracking accuracy and computational load were considered. Three common discriminate formulas were derived based on DLL (delay lock loop), and then detailed analyses of performance were done. The results of simulation show that the working range and discriminate gain both decrease when the CNR (carrier to noise ratio) decreases, while the working range increases with the early-to-late correlator space increases, and the tracking accuracy decreases first and then increase when the early-to-late correlator space decreases. The conclusions drawn from this paper can be used to design the discriminator of transceiver.