GALANT - Galileo Antenna and Receiver Demonstrator for Safety Critical Applications

Abstract

Future navigation services and performance limits provided by the upcoming Galileo satellite system will require corresponding improvements of the user navigation receiving systems. Therefore, the Institute of Communciations and Navigation of the German Aerospace Center originated the development of a Galileo Receiver Demonstrator (GALANT). The aim is to develop a complete Safety-of-Life (SoL) Galileo receiver system. For SoL applications, interference and multipath signals can cause serious performance degradations, which cannot be tolerated. Advanced signal-processing algorithms including antenna array techniques like digital beam-forming will contribute to overcome this problem by suppressing interference and multipath signals and improving the reception of useful line-ofsight satellite signals and thus enable a more accurate and reliable positioning. The first part of this paper describes the antenna array and the basic design issues. The second part is a short discussion of the front end concept utilized for the demonstrator. Subsequently, the basic digital receiver design is discussed. Finally, a brief overview of the digital beam-forming and direction finding techniques used for the demonstrator is given.