IMPROVED DGPS DATA RELIABILITY THROUGH THE USE OF ADVANCED SIGNAL PROCESSING TECHNIQUES

THE OBJECTIVE OF THIS RESEARCH IS TO DEVELOP AND TEST TECHNIQUES WHICH COMBAT ATMOSPHERIC NOISE AND CONSEQUENTLY INCREASE THE RELIABLE RANGE OF THE DGPS/RADIOBEACON LINK. THE FOLLOWING IDEAS WILL BE EXPLORED AND TESTED: 1) WIDEBAND NOIS CLIPPING, LIMITING OR BLANKING OF NOISE IMPLUSES TO IMPROVE THE SIGNAL TO NOISE RATIO. 2) THE USE OF SIDE INFORMATION TO INFORM A FORWARD ERROR CORRECTING DECODER WHEN A NOISE BURST OCCURS. 3) THE OPTIMIZATION OF CODE INTERLEAVING 4) THE USE OF DIRECTIONAL ANTENNAS TO REJECT NOISE ON SPATIAL CONSIDERATIONS. AN EXISTING TEST BED BE USED TO EVALUATE THE FIRST THREE IDEAS LISTED ABOVE. THE POSSIBLE ADVANTAGES OF A DIRECTIONAL ANTENNA WILL BE DETERMINED THROUGH A REVIEW OF EXISTING NOISE STUDIES, IN THE LIGHT OF KNOWN MSK DATA LINK CHARACTERISTICS. SUCCESSFUL COMPLETION OF PHASE I WILL PROVIDE DESIGN GUIDE LINES FOR THE INCLUSION OF CODING AND ADVANCED SIGNAL PROCESSING TECHNIQUES IN FUTURE DGPS DATA RECEIVER DESIGNS.