A wideband and multifrequency propagation channel simulation

A major source of positioning errors in challenging environments such as urban areas is related to scattering and reflections of GNSS signals in the local environment of the receiver. The corresponding multipaths become even more critical as the number of applications available in constrained environments increases as well as the need for quality of service and integrity. Many multipath mitigation techniques have been developed recently and are widely based on data processing and diversity techniques. The introduction of GALILEO and the modernization of the GPS system give rise to new opportunities for the development of mitigation techniques which take advantage of multi-frequency characteristics. Nevertheless, the definition of new algorithms using several frequencies requires a good knowledge of channel propagation parameters in order to take benefit of possible information redundancies. The objective of this preliminary study is to characterize the propagation channel through physical simulations. Results indicate that wideband propagation channels are strongly correlated on frequencies operated by GALILEO even though coherent recombinations can lead to small scale variations.