GPS SIGNAL STRUCTURE

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OUTLINE
• Signal Structure
• PRN Codes
• Navigation Message
• GPS Signal Processing

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GPS Signals

 GPS satellites broadcast radio signals to enable GPS receivers on

or near the Earth’s surface to determine location and synchronize
time.

 GPS signals include ranging signals, used to measure distance to

the satellite, and navigation messages.

 Navigation messages include ephemeris data, used to calculate

the position of each satellite in orbit, and information about the
time and status of the entire satellite constellation, called the
almanac.

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Signal Structure

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Carrier Waves and Frequency/
Code Modulators
 Two sinusoidal L-band carriers (L1 & L2) are derived from an
on-board oscillator

 C/A- code: coarse acquisition code available to civilian users

 P-code: precise code restricted to military users

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Carrier Waves and Frequency/
Code Modulators
• The L1 and L2 carriers are modulated with the pseudo-random
noise (PRN) codes
• The C/A-code is modulated only onto the L1 carrier
• The P-code is modulated onto both L1 and L2
• Both PRN codes consist of a seemingly random sequence of
zeroes and ones hence pseudo-random noise (PRN)
• The codes provide the basis of unique satellite identification and
real-time range measurements to the satellites

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Carrier Waves and Frequency/
Code Modulators
The Standard Positioning Services (SPS):
•Based on the use of the C/A-code

•Intended for civilian users (non-restricted access)

•Each satellite has its own C/A-code to allow unique, rapid satellite

identification
•The code repeats itself every millisecond and has an effective
wavelength of about 300 m

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Carrier Waves and Frequency/
Code Modulators
The Precise Positioning Services (PPS):
• Based on the use of the P-code
• Intended for military users
• The code repeats itself every 266 days and has an effective
wavelength of about 30 m
• The P-code is encrypted to prevent unauthorized access - anti-
spoofing (AS)
• The encrypted P-code is the Y-code

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PRN Codes
 PRN = Pseudo Random Noise
 Codes have random noise characteristics but are precisely defined
 A sequence of zeros and ones, each zero or one are referred to as a
“chip”
 Called a chip because they carry no data
 Three types are used by GPS
 C/A, P and Y

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PRN Codes First 100 bits of PRN1 and PRN22

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Satellite Message
 Also called navigation message because it contains orbital data
for computing the positions of all satellites
 A complete message consists of 25 frames (1500 bits / frame).
 Each frame is subdivided into 5 300-bit subframes, and each
subframe consists of 10 words of 30 bits each
 At the 50 bps rate, it takes
 6 seconds to transmit a subframe
 30 seconds to complete a frame
 12.5 minutes for one complete transmission of a navigation message

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Satellite Message

• Frame (30 seconds, 1500 bits)

Sub-Frame 1 Sub-Frame 2 Sub-Frame 3 Sub-Frame 4 Sub-Frame 5

DATABLOCK I
• Sub-Frame 1: Clock coefficients, Health, User Range Accuracy
Repeats after 30
DATABLOCK II seconds
• Sub-Frame 2: Broadcast Ephemeris
• Sub-Frame 3: Broadcast Ephemeris
DATABLOCK III 25 frames
• Sub-Frame 4: Message, Ionospheric Parameters, UTC-GPS requires 12.5
min to receive
• Sub-Frame 5: Almanacs, Clock Parameters, Health
all data

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Satellite Message
The Satellite Message:
• Satellite clock correction parameters: Allow the satellite clock to be
adjusted to GPS time. They are the parameters of a 2nd order
polynomial (Dt = ao + a1t + a2t2)
• Ionospheric model parameters: For single frequency users to apply a
correction for ionospheric delay
• Broadcast ephemeris: A set of 16 parameters allowing precise SV
location to be computed as a function of time
• Almanac: Parameters for computation of approximate position of all
other satellites and the approximate clock correction parameters for
these satellites

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GPS SIGNAL PROCESSING
• There are several classes of signal processing techniques that can be employed to
make pseudo-range or carrier phase observations, as well as several proprietary
implementations of tracking technologies.

• The two most commonly used signal processing techniques: "code-correlating"

and "codeless" approaches

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GPS SIGNAL PROCESSING
CODE-CORRELATING APPROACH
• Code-correlating receivers employ
tracking loops to extract the necessary
measurements and Navigation Message
data from the beat signal.
• The delay-lock loop is used to align the
PRN code sequence (C/A or P code)
contained in the signal from a satellite
with an identical PRN code generated
within the receiver. Received Code
from Satellite
• A correlator in the delay-lock loop
continuously cross-correlates the two
code streams, time shifting the receiver
Generated
generated stream until alignment is Code from
Receiver
achieved.
r = c (T)
• The time shift is then the pseudo-
range observation.
T
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GPS SIGNAL PROCESSING

CODE-CORRELATING APPROACH
•Once the code-tracking loop is
aligned, the PRN code can be removed
from the satellite signal.
•The stripped signal then passes to the
phase-lock loop where the satellite
message is extracted. Once the local
oscillator is locked onto the satellite
signal it will continue to follow the
variations in the phase of the carrier as
the satellite-receiver distance changes.

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GPS SIGNAL PROCESSING
CODELESS (SQUARING) APPROACH
• The basic "codeless" or "squaring" technique takes the incoming signal and
multiplies it by a copy of itself.

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GPS SIGNAL PROCESSING
There are several advantages and disadvantages to GPS code-correlating and
codeless receivers:

• Only code-correlating receivers have access to the satellite Navigation

Message

• Codeless receivers must be synchronised with each other and UTC (or
GPS Time) before observations begin.

• Codeless receivers can access both the L1 and L2 frequencies without

knowledge of the PRN codes. This is particularly important under the Anti-
Spoofing regime that exists at present, unless special tracking techniques are
developed to overcome this handicap.

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