Tutorial: GPS receiver architectures, front-end and baseband signal processing

This tutorial provides an overview of the hardware architectures and signal processing that form the core of satellite-based navigation receivers such as GPS. The concepts of spread spectrum and code division multiple access are introduced along with their roles in signal acquisition and tracking. The super-heterodyne front-end architecture will be described as well as the baseband architecture that utilizes in-phase and quadrature processing. Tracking loops are discussed along with measurement generation. The tutorial concludes with a brief look at so-called "modernized" satellite-based navigation signals.