GPS World, March 2015

Antenna Array and Receiver Testing With a Multi RF Output GNSS Simulator This article discusses the GALANT adaptively steered antenna array and receiver demonstrating the test scenarios generated with the GNSS simulator Exemplary results of different static and dynamic test scenarios are presented validating the attitude determination capabilities as well as the interference detection and mitigation capabilities Thorsten Lück Günter Heinrichs IFEN GmbH and Achim Hornbostel German Aerospace Center T he vulnerability of GNSS to radio frequency interference and spoofing has become more and more of a concern for navigation applications requiring a high level of accuracy and reliability for example safety of life applications in aviation railway and maritime environments In addition to pure power jamming with continuous wave CW noise or chirp signals cases of intentional or unintentional spoofing with wrong GNSS signals have also been reported Hardware simulations with GNSS constellation signal generators enable the investigation of the impact of radio interference and spoofing on GNSS receivers in a systematic parameterized and repeatable way The behavior of different receivers and receiver algorithms for detection and mitigation can be analyzed in dependence on interference power distance of spoofers and other parameters This article gives examples of realistic and advanced simulation scenarios set up for simulation of several user antennas simultaneously The professional grade high end satellite navigation testing and R D device used here is powerful easy to use and fully capable of multi constellation multifrequency GNSS simulations for safety of life spatial and professional applications It provides all L band frequencies for GPS GLONASS Galileo BeiDou QZSS SBAS and beyond in one box simultaneously It avoids the extra complexity and cost of using additional signal generators or intricate architectures involving several hardware boxes and offers full control of scenario generation A multi RF capable version provides up to four independent RF outputs and a master RF output that combines the RF signal of each of the up to four individual RF outputs Each individual RF output is connected to one or more Merlin modules the core signal generator module for one single carrier allowing simulation of up to 12 satellites per module Because of the flexible design of the Merlin module each one can be configured to any of the supported L band frequencies As one chassis supports up to nine individual Merlin GPS World March 2015 www gpsworld com 18