Flexible hardware implementation of collaborative GNSS tracking channel

The most of the upcoming global satellite navigation system (GNSS) signals will be composite type. Composite satellite signals have unique spreading codes both for data channel and dataless (pilot) channel. The combination allows both data extraction for navigation and longer integration of pilot for better timing and thus positioning accuracy. The non-coherent and coherent collaborative tracking algorithms are presented in literature. In this paper we present our work on flexible hardware implementation, capable for both types of collaborative tracking. The implementation is done with FPGA based TUTGNSS receiver platform, and synthesis results for implementation are presented. From results it can be seen that the logic consumption overhead for 16-channel collaborative tracking unit is 56.9% with full hardware support and 26.6% with optimized hardware support when compared to design without the presented structure.