N-FUELS and SOPRANO: Educational tools for simulation, analysis and processing of satellite navigation signals

In recent years, research activities in the field of Satellite Navigation have boosted worldwide. At the same time, it has become evident that few educational opportunities in the field were available for students and there was a need to develop dedicated tools for hands-on sessions. To partially answer this need, the NavSAS Group has developed N-FUELS and SOPRANO. N-FUELS, a MATLAB^®-based signal simulator, allows students to understand the physical layer of the Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) signals and to learn how to manipulate them via software. SOPRANO, a collection of ANSI C language routines, implements the whole chain of GNSS signal elaboration in post-processing and enables testing and validation of new GNSS signal processing algorithms and architectures. Both tools are used in post-graduate courses at Politecnico di Torino with a high degree of internationalization, which opens interesting points of discussion concerning the introduction of novel educational tools able to meet the demand and the learning styles of students with different educational backgrounds and cultures.