Stand-alone GNSS time synchronization architecture

Abstract

It is well known property of the GNSS systems that they are able to deliver very precise Position, Velocity and Time information to the user. In this paper we introduce a GNSS receiver architecture, which is able to synchronize its operations to the GNSS signals it processes, be it live satellite signals or simulator signals, without the need of external synchronization equipment. This capability is useful for testing the receiver with GNSS simulators, and can also be used for synchronizing a set of GNSS receivers. Since the architecture does not need any external synchronization signals, it is convenient to move the GNSS receiver between testing premises. Most commercially available GNSS simulators can output some format of scenario information, and this scenario information is by default bound to be ticked on exact full second intervals according to the simulator clock. Having a receiver capable of doing the synchronization to the same time allows the receiver output its own measurements at the same time instants, making the comparisons extremely useful.