Composite GNSS Signal Acquisition over Multiple Code Periods

The new signals employed by modern global navigation satellite system (GNSS) will be characterized by a data/pilot structure and by the presence of secondary codes. These innovations require special acquisition techniques for efficiently recovering all the transmitted power and dealing with the problem of sign transitions. In this paper three integration strategies, noncoherent, semi-coherent, and differentially coherent integrations, are analyzed for the joint acquisition of data and pilot signals over multiple primary code periods. Each strategy is statistically characterized and false alarm and detection probabilities are provided. To the best of our knowledge the characterization and comparison of these algorithms are new. Monte Carlo simulations and real data analysis demonstrate the accuracy of the proposed model.