Receiving and Assessing L1C Signal for In-Orbit GPS III and QZSS Transmissions Using a Software-Defined Receiver

Abstract

To avoid signal interference in L1 frequency and provide various services, GPS has updated a modern signal, called L1C, which has been tested with three QZSS satellites launched in 2017. In December 2018, the first GPS III satellite was launched, which implies improved joint positioning using GPS and QZSS L1C signal. The L1C signal offers a series of advanced designs in signal modulation, message structure and coding. We present complete methodologies for joint L1C signal receiving and processing. For the transmitted signals, we present a methodology and results from collecting and assessing Binary Offset Carrier (BOC) modulation and time-multiplexed BOC (TMBOC) modulation used in the L1C signal. Using the same omnidirectional antenna and test equipment, we collected the L1C signal in Xi’an and Sanya, China, respectively. The experiments in Xi’an verify the joint positioning method to complement the GPS III and QZSS satellite constellations. Our methodology evaluates the ranging difference and positioning error of BOC and TMBOC modulation under the same environment and satellite constellation configuration in Sanya. It is also verified that the joint positioning error is less than the QZSS-only positioning due to the optimization of the satellite constellation.