Requirements analysis for bit synchronization and decoding in a standalone high-sensitivity GNSS receiver

In weak GNSS signal environments, extending integration time is paramount to improving the GNSS receiver's sensitivity. Furthermore, sufficient coherent integration can help to separate the line-of-sight (LOS) and non LOS (NLOS) signals - primarily in the Doppler domain - for multipath mitigation. However, extending integration time is limited by the presence of the navigation message data bits. The Maximum-Likelihood (ML) estimation method has been shown as the most effective way to estimate the navigation bit boundary locations (i.e., bit synchronization) and subsequently estimate the data bit values (i.e., bit decoding) in the presence of noise alone. This paper further analyzes the performance of ML estimation method as a function of various other parameters by using the successful synchronization rate (SSR) and successful decoding rate (SDR) as the criteria. The parameters considered include the number of data bits required (i.e., integration time) and the Doppler frequency error, and both are evaluated under different signal strength scenarios. The requirements for bit synchronization are analyzed under three SSRs, which are 85%, 90% and 95%. Results indicate that, under the SSR of 90% and the SDR of 90%, bit synchronization and bit decoding are valid for signal strengths of 15 dB-Hz and 20 dB-Hz respectively, and the Doppler frequency errors should not be larger than 24 Hz and 11 Hz respectively.