Unambiguous Tracking of BOC Signals Using Coherent Combination of Dual Sidebands

The ionospheric effect breaks the correlation of carrier phases between dual sidebands of binary offset carrier (BOC) signal. Thus, the conventional sideband processing algorithms usually perform non-coherent combination of the dual sidebands, which degrades the tracking accuracy and sensitivity. In order to improve the accuracy, this letter proposes a computationally effective tracking algorithm that involves coherent combination of BOC dual sidebands. The tracking loop of the proposed algorithm includes a novel design of a subcarrier discriminator using the differential carrier phase of dual sidebands. Simulation results show that proposed algorithm achieves simultaneous high precision and low computational complexity for high-order BOC.