Generalized Theory of Code Tracking with an Early-Late Discriminator Part II: Noncoherent Processing and Numerical Results

Abstract

Code tracking is an important attribute of receivers for Global Positioning System (GPS) and other global navigation satellite systems (GNSS). This paper and its antecedent provide analytical expressions for performance of code-tracking loops using early-late discriminators, under small-error conditions. Expressions are provided for output signal-to-noise-plus-interference ratio (SNIR) and code-tracking error, for arbitrary signal spectra, and Gaussian noise and interference having arbitrary spectral shapes. This second paper addresses noncoherent early-late processing (NELP) for given receiver precorrelation bandwidth and given early-late spacing, comparing the results to results for coherent early-late processing (CELP) and to a lower bound (LB) on code-tracking error. Theoretical expressions are derived and compared, and numerical results are provided to examine the effect of different modulation designs and interference conditions.