GPS Signal Acquisition and Tracking An Approach towards Development of Software-based GPS Receiver

Software-based GPS (SGR) Receiver helps us processing the GPS signal at the lowest level of GPS raw signal data from the antenna. A software-based GPS receiver consists of a front-end device that converts the radio frequency signal from the antenna to an intermediate frequency in digital format. The signal thus converted is processed by high level programming language to compute position and velocity. In SGR, it is possible to do acquisition and tracking using different parameters and threshold values, which give a user total flexibility of operation. This helps in processing weaker signal, multipath mitigation and simulate “what-if” scenarios. In this paper, we will discuss about GPS signal acquisition and tracking that will form a base for the development of SGR. Keyword Software GPS, Acquisition, Tracking, DLL, PLL