Extended Double-Delta Correlator Technique for GNSS Multipath Mitigation

Multipath is one of the main error sources in the global navigation satellite system (GNSS). Many multipath mitigation methods have been proposed, such as the narrow correlator technique and the double-delta (DD) correlator technique. In light of the binary phase shift keying (BPSK) modulated signals used in many GNSS, an extended DD (EDD) correlator technique expanding from the DD correlator, which uses multiple pairs of correlators with more general spacing and weight, is proposed in this article. Furthermore, the article provides the discriminator structure, the closed-form expressions for multipath error envelope under infinite bandwidth, and the closed-form expressions for the relationship between multipath error, thermal noise performance, and design parameters of the discriminator. Based on the explicit performance expressions, the appropriate selection principles of parameters are given and verified by theoretical analysis and simulation. The results show that the proposed method can improve the performance optimization freedom of the DD technique without significantly increasing the design complexity. Moreover, the multipath performance is better than DD under infinite bandwidth and has great adaptability to limited bandwidth and the next-generation GNSS signals, such as binary offset carrier (BOC) and multiplexed BOC (MBOC). The EDD technique can also be utilized as a noncoherent discriminator and has better antimultipath performance. Furthermore, the EDD technique can achieve a balance between multipath mitigation performance and thermal noise performance by adjusting correlator spacing and weight and can be self-adaptive to multipath relative amplitude in the environment.