ESA: Multipath discriminator module

Kurzfassung

A well-known international agency has developed a multipath discriminator module for navigation and communication systems, allowing accurate positioning determination and reducing the bit-error rate in data transmissions. The navigation system including this module is a part of the technology. The organization seeks license agreements and industrial partners.

Details

Numerous systems using distributed spectrum modulation have been developed and widely used for navigation, satellite and terrestrial communication systems, currently for third generation mobile phones (UMTS standard).

However, these systems are often not precise enough for navigation applications due to the problem of multipath signals. Compensating methods for multipath telemetry have been developed, in particular for GPS receivers. These methods are not effective for being used with CBC signals, as defined in the UMTS standard and also (potentially) in the Galileo system.

This module offers a technological solution for compensating multipath for systems using CBC signals. The multipath discriminator module includes:
o An input which receives navigation signals
o A sampler which supplies the sampling signal
o A sub-module which calculates an error signal

This module is combined with a navigation system.

Innovative Aspects:
In usual navigation systems, the measuring time of arrival is not accurate due to multipath signals. As a result:
o A decrease in localization accuracy regarding telemetry occurs.
o An increase of the error rate regarding data transmission occurs.

This module addresses these issues, in particular for CBC signals.