A modular architecture for the real-time reconfigurability of GNSS receivers

The increased interest for the design of 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 indispensible 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. From this standpoint, 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 the real-time reconfigurability, based on a set of software-designed functionalities. In particular, the reconfigurable module for multipath mitigation in the tracking phase will be discussed as an example of adaptability of the receiver to the operating environment.