A Software-Defined Spaceborne GNSS Receiver

Abstract

This paper reports the design, proof-of-concept implementation and preliminary performance assessment of a low-cost, software-defined spaceborne GNSS receiver. The presented approach takes advantage of the flexibility of software-defined radio technology and the forthcoming availability of radiation-hardened, space-certified Systems-on-Module to implement a fully customizable receiver with the capability to process GNSS signals in real-time and to deliver GNSS products in standard formats. The core GNSS engine is based on a free and open source software implementation of a multi-band, multi-system GNSS receiver released under the General Public License v3.0 and available in a public source code repository.