1.5 - Testing Telemetry Systems, which use GNSS Satellite Navigation Systems Achieving Reliable and accurate Results with RF Simulation of GNSS Signals
- Event
- etc2016 - 36. European Telemetry and Test Conference
2016-05-10 - 2016-05-12
Nürnberg, Germany - Chapter
- 1. Positioning & Timing
- Author(s)
- K. von Hünerbein, W. Lange - Lange-Electronic GmbH, Gernlinden (Germany)
- Pages
- 40 - 46
- DOI
- 10.5162/etc2016/1.5
- ISBN
- 978-3-9816876-2-0
- Price
- free
Abstract
Positioning, timing and navigation (PNT) with Satellite Navigation Systems like GPS, GLONASS, Beidou and Galileo are more and more widespread and used in very different types of applications including core telemetry applications. Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) receivers in Safety Critical Applications such as landing airplanes, Critical Infrastructure or Remote Sensing missions e.g. Earth Observing Satellites need to be very robust and reliable under a variety of environmental conditions, sometimes very harsh ones outside the atmosphere. Timing is critical in communication between satellite ground stations and the satellites, e.g. telemetry tracking and command, or communication protocols using Time Division Multiple Access.
Thus, it is crucial to test GNSS receivers thoroughly under a variety of different conditions, also extreme conditions like very high dynamics or unhealthy GNSS satellites.
For this purpose GNSS RF signal simulators are a versatile and flexible tool. The tests can be repeated as many times as necessary with identical conditions. Besides this a simulator offers complete control across the scenario, every single detail can be controlled and changed. In RF simulators comprehensive error models are available for satellite signals and clocks, satellite orbits and health flags, obscuration and multipath, atmospheric conditions, antenna characteristics, vehicle dynamics, leap seconds, jamming and aiding Inertial sensors. Each of them can be controlled individually. For some tests, like unhealthy satellites or future constellations RF, simulators are the only way for testing, as future signals, for example, are not available in live sky test.
In this paper, we will introduce the capabilities of GNSS simulators with a wide range of different error conditions and show several telemetry use cases.