A Preventative Approach to Mitigating CW Interference in GPS Receivers

Abstract

In the Global Positioning System (GPS), Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) signals are used. Because of the known spectral characteristics of the CDMA signal, Continuous Wave (CW) interference has a predictable effect on the different Pseudo Random Noise (PRN) spreading codes (unique to each satellite) depending on the Doppler frequency of the signal. The Doppler frequency for each signal is also predictable once the receiver position is known. As different satellite signals have different Doppler frequencies, the effect on the signal quality is also different. In this paper first the effect is studied analytically. The concept of an 'exclusion zone' is defined and analyzed for each satellite. This exclusion zone, where that satellite should not be used due to interference degradation, is shown to be predictable for each satellite as a function of time. Using this prediction, the CW interference effect on the positioning quality of the receiver can be mitigated by ignoring the affected satellites within exclusion zones when performing position evaluation. The threshold beyond which a satellite should be excluded is then derived by studying the mutual effects of the geometry and the signal quality of that satellite on the positioning quality.