A goal in the software radio design philosophy is to place the analog-to-digital converter as near the antenna as possible. This objective has been demonstrated for the case of a single input signal. Bandpass sampling has been applied to downconvert, or intentionally alias, the information bandwidth of a radio frequency (RF) signal to a desired intermediate frequency. The design of the software radio becomes more interesting when two or more distinct signals are received. The traditional approach for multiple signals would be to bandpass sample a continuous span of spectrum containing all the desired signals. The disadvantage with this approach is that the sampling rate and associated discrete processing rate are based on the span of spectrum as opposed to the information bandwidths of the signals of interest. Proposed here is a technique to determine the absolute minimum sampling frequency for direct digitization of multiple, nonadjacent, frequency bands. The entire process is based on the calculation of a single parameter-the sampling frequency. The result is a simple, yet elegant, front-end design for the reception and bandpass sampling of multiple RF signals. Experimental results using RF transmissions from the US Global Positioning System-Standard Position Service (GPS-SPS) and the Russian Global Navigation Satellite System (GLONASS) are used to illustrate and verify the theory.

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Direct bandpass sampling of multiple distinct RF signals

Conventional software radios take advantage of vastly improved analog to digital converters (ADCs) and digital signal processing (DSP) hardware. Our approach, which we refer to as virtual radios, also depends upon high performance ADCs. However, rather than use DSPs, we have chosen to ride the curve of rapidly improving workstation hardware. We use wideband digitization and then perform all of the digital signal processing in user space on a general purpose workstation. This approach allows us to experiment with new approaches to signal processing that exploit the hardware and software resources of the workstation. Furthermore, it allows us to experiment with different ways of structuring systems in which the radio component of communication devices is integrated with higher-level applications. This paper describes the design and performance of an environment we have constructed that facilitates building virtual radios and of two applications built using that environment. The environment consists of an input/output (I/O) subsystem that provides high bandwidth low latency user-level access to digitized signals and a programming environment that provides an infrastructure for building applications. The applications, which exemplify some of the benefits of virtual radios, are a software cellular receiver and a novel wireless network interface.

http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/iel4/49/16463/00761038.pdf

Virtual radios

A direct digitization approach greatly reduces the hardware requirements in traditional front end design. Further, the hardware that has been eliminated is typically the source of a number of potential difficulties including age-based, temperature-based, and/or nonlinear performance. This paper presents a case study on the design and implementation of direct digitization Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver front end. First, sensitivity and dynamic range issues for a generic front end are discussed with particular attention given to the unique requirements in the direct digitization approach. Second, two GPS front end implementations are compared. The first is the direct digitization of the input signal at radio frequency (RF) as is the case in the true digital receiver or software radio. The second uses a more standard approach of downconverting the input signal to an intermediate frequency (IF) for further processing of digitization. Experimental data is presented which characterizes the relative signal-to-noise ratio for both implementations as well as the results of initial acquisition processing of true GPS data.

Design and implementation of a direct digitization GPS receiver front end

A waveform reconstruction circuit receives an rf signal from an antenna, digitizes it, and then generates an undistorted reconstructed waveform. The reconstructed waveform can then be conventionally mixed and demodulated to extract useful signal information with enhanced receiver fidelity and sensitivity.

System and method for radio signal reconstruction using signal processor

A low-cost, solid-state position sensor system suitable for making precise code and carrier phase measurements in the L1 and L2 bands of GPS uses an ordinary, low-cost OEM card single-frequency carrier phase tracking C/A code receiver and includes low-cost hardware for sensing the L1 and L2 components of GPS carrier phase. Such measurements are suitable for general use in a variety of fields, including surveying. They are also of sufficient quality to be used in controlling heavy machinery, such as aircraft, farm tractors, and construction and mining equipment. A C/A code continuous tracking GPS receiver is used to produce GPS positioning fixes and real-time L1 carrier phase measurements. This C/A code receiver generates timing and reference information for a digital sampling component. This sampling component processes the L1 and L2 signals from the GPS signals in view. A digital signal processing component coupled to this sampling component processes the raw samples in synchronous, batch form including a step to precisely unwrap the P(Y) carrier phase to baseband. The receiver outputs synchronous, carrier phase measurements associated with each ranging source and signal observable. The synchronous raw carrier phase measurements from the continuous tracking C/A code receiver and the digital sampling component may be used to resolve the cycle ambiguities to each ranging source with respect to a reference station at a known location. Within a short interval typically tens of seconds from initial turn on, continuous, synchronous raw measurements are provided by the GPS receiver and processed into precise position fixes.

Low cost system and method for making dual band GPS measurements

This paper describes the architecture of a fully digital receiver well suited for Global Positioning System (GPS) satellite radio-navigation and other spread-spectrum applications. The unique design of this receiver allows phase coherent measurements to be made across a broad range of frequencies, enabling optimal combination of a set of measurements from signals on different frequencies, for example GPS L1, L2, and L3, GLONASS or ground-based pseudolites. The receiver methodology provides precise absolute positioning measurements by maintaining phase coherency between frequencies of interest by direct L-band digital sampling. A one-bit sampler head is discussed that is suitable for navigation and digital communications applications. Surveillance applications can be accommodated with an expanded, multi-bit sampler. The design is particularly suited for chip set integration leading to a miniaturized and low cost receiver. Design of the receiver's digital front-end provides coherency between the code and carrier phase of the measurements across a 400 MHz bandwidth with down-conversion effected by digital techniques. In addition, it features a software configurable topology that enables filter parameters to be loaded dynamically, allowing rapid change of tracking frequency. The flexible "software receiver" architecture has been developed to allow the receiver to be dynamically reconfigured for different applications. This allows the receiver channels to be used for GPS navigation, ionospheric calibration, attitude determination, or even GLONASS navigation simply through software commands. Sampler performance criteria are discussed as well as test data demonstrating the effect of sampler performance on the receiver correlation loss. >

B. Wolt

Papers

Digital L-band receiver architecture with direct RF sampling