Efficient GNSS Signal Acquisition Method for GNSS/GNSS-R Software-Defined Receivers

This thesis presents a novel acquisition algorithm for Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) that can be efficiently implemented on small digital devices such as software defined radios (SDRs) field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs). The algorithm is designed to improve the performance of GNSS signal acquisition for applications in GNSS reflectometry (GNSS-R), a remote sensing technique that uses GNSS signals as a source of information. Using pre-acquisition processing and partial correlation, the proposed algorithm reduces the computational complexity of conventional GNSS acquisition methods by ~ 27 times, making it suitable for such low-cost devices. The thesis begins by introducing the GNSS technology and its spectrum, followed by a review of existing acquisition algorithms and their application in GNSS reflectometry. The novel acquisition strategy is developed, and its performance discussed, along with opportunities for future work.