Low-Power, Software Defined Global Positioning System (GPS) Receiver

Under contract to the Air Force, NAVSYS has developed a low-power Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) software-defined radio (SDR) to demonstrate readiness of SDR technology for application as a navigation receiver. The SDR Testbed uses a reconfigurable FPGA and custom RF front end to allow processing of the GPS civilian and military signals and also the international GNSS signals. The use of the SDR technology provides the ability to easily adapt the signal processing algorithms to add enhanced signal processing or upgrade to using future GPS signals without changing or modifying the hardware of the receiver. This is particularly relevant for future embedded GPS applications within military software defined radios, such as the Joint Tactical Radio System, and space missions allowing upgrades to be performed, following equipment fielding to take advantage of future modernized GPS signals. Under this proposed effort, we will extend this low power GNSS SDR technology to include anti-jam signal processing to meet military requirements for assured access to GPS. The NAVSYS GNSS SDR Testbed will be used to demonstrate these key innovations using a combination of simulated GPS and jammer signals and also testing with GPS satellite and jammer signals collected at White Sands Missile Range.