GPS SIGNAL

(CIVILIAN PERSPECTIVE)
DR JAYANTA KUMAR GHOSH
CIVIL ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT

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 Contents
GPS Signal
• Carrier Waves
• Ranging Codes
• Data

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 INTRODUCTION
• User segment receives broadcast signals from
GPS SVs.
• These GPS signals contain wealth of
information.
• To extract necessary data and desired
parameters, users need to make use of
particular portion of the GPS signal
• Thus, it is important for users to know &
understand the contents of a GPS signal.
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 COMPONENTS OF GPS SIGNAL
GPS signals contain navigational data, code and carrier
radio-waves. Data and code are put together first and
then get modulated to carrier frequency.

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 CARRIER WAVES
• Required for safe transmission of GPS signal from SVs to user and
for precise measurement of time.
• From the beginning, SVs transmit GPS signal containing two
carrier waves in radio-range: Link1 or L1 and Link2 or L2.
• IIR/IIR(M) SVs transmit an additional component with L2 carrier,
for civilians, known as L2C signal.
• The block IIF SVs provide one more carrier L5 containing one full
component for civil users.
• Thus, at present, three full civil signals are available from GPS
constellation.

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 LINK1(L1) Carrier Wave
• Frequency 1575.42 MHz or 154f0 MHz;
• Contains two types of codes
- P(Y)-code in phase and
- C/A-code in quadrature phase.
• Both the codes are modulated to navigation data through
modulo-2 addition.
• The peak power spectral density of the C/A signal exceeds
that of the P code L1 signal.

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 LINK2(L2) Carrier Wave
• Frequency 1227.60 MHz or 120f0 MHz carrier
• contents depend on the SVs from which it is being transmitted.
• In phase modulated with P(Y)-code with or without navigation
data or C/A-code with navigation data.
• Quadrature phase - modulation in Block IIR(M)/IIF SVs with any
one of the three bit trains:
– C/A code with or without navigation data or
– multiplex combination of CM code with navigation data and
– CL code with no data.
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 LINK2(L2C) Carrier Wave
• L2C Civil Signal
• The Quadrature phase of the L2 carrier
• Has higher effective power than L1 C/A signal and thus, available
more under trees.
• Can be acquired faster with higher reliability and has greater
operating range.
• L2C signal alone provides 65% more uncertainty in position than
that of L1 C/A signal alone.
• Availability of two civilian signals help in directly measure, and
subsequently to remove ionospheric error.

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 LINK5(L5) Carrier frequency
• Frequency - 115f0 or 1176.45 MHz carrier
• contents depend on the SVs from which it is being transmitted.
• In phase modulated with I5-code, NAV data and synchronization
sequence.
• Quadrature phase - modulation of Q5-code with different
synchronization sequence.
• Higher transmission power than L1 C/A or L2C signal, wider
bandwidth, longer spreading codes etc.
• L5 is the most advanced of the three Civilian GPS signals.

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 CIVIL SIGNALS
• In combination with L1 C/A and L2C, L5 provides a highly robust
service for civilian users.
• Each of the three civil GPS signals has one or more key
advantages.
- L1 C/A has the lowest ionospheric error
- L2C has the best cross-correlation performance and
- L5 has the highest power and lies in ARNS (Aeronautical
Radio Navigation Service) band.
Thus, each signal will be prevalent in its domain of strength.

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 RANGING CODES
• Provide identification of received signals and transmission time.
• GPS signal contains
- Precision [P/P(Y) (for unauthorized user)] code as the principal
navigation
- Coarse-Acquisition (C/A) PRN Code for acquisition of the precision
code.
- L2 Civil-Moderate (L2 CM) code
- L2 Civil-Long (L2 CL) code
- I5 and Q5 codes (with L5)

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 Precision (P)-code
•Precision (P)-code is the principal code of a GPS signal modulated to
both L1 and L2 carriers.
•It has chipping rate 10.23 MHz (f0) and of chip length 29.3 meter.
•Period: 7 days and unique to each satellite.
•Satellite gets identified by its PRN week number.
•In order to restrict its accessibility to authorized users, P code gets
encrypted with W code, a secret code of 20 bps, by modulo-2
addition. This results in a code is termed as P(Y) code.
•It is primarily deployed to obtain precise position by US military and
its allies.

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 Coarse-Acquisition (C/A) Code
• Chipping rate: 1.023 MHz (1023 Mbits)
• Chip length: 293m
• Period: 1 millisecond
• Each satellite transmits a different set of C/A-
code.

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 Civil Codes
L2 CM & L2CL
• With L2 carrier in phase quadrature
• Chipping rate: 511.5 KHz (f0/20)
L2CM
• Consists of a stream of 10230 chips
• Period: 20 milliseconds.
• Modulated to CNAV data.
• Provides PNT accuracy equivalent to that provided by the P-code for civil users.
L2CL
• Consists of a stream of 767250 chips
• Period: 1.5 seconds.
• No navigation data gets modulated with it.

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 I5 and Q5 Codes
I5 & Q5
• Available in L5 carrier of GPS signal
•Chipping rate of 10.23 MHz (f0)
•Period : 1 millisec
•Contains PRN code sequence of 10,230 chips.
I5 (In-phase)
•Contains modulated PRN codes with 10-bit Neuman-Hoffman code having chip rate
of 1 kHz and NAV data
Q5 (In Quadrature phase)
•contains only modulated PRN codes with 20-bit Neuman-Hoffman code at 1 kHz.
Short synchronized Neuman-Hoffman codes are provided for better spectral
separation, bit synchronization and protection from narrowband interference.

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 NAVIGATIONAL DATA
• GPS signal contain downlink system data, popularly known as
navigational message or NAV data.
• C/A and P (or P(Y)) codes are modulated to legacy navigation
(LNAV) data, D(t);
• L2 CM codes are modulated to civil navigation (CNAV) data, DC(t);
• L5 I5 codes modulated to CNAV data of D5(t) variety.
• navigation messages broadly contain SV ephemeris data, SV clock
correction parameters, SV health data, information for authorized
users, epoch of observation, time, user range accuracy index,
signal delay information, atmospheric correction terms, UTC
conversion parameter values etc.

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 Summary of Today’s Class
•GPS users makes use of GPS signal broadcast by SVs.
•GPS signal contains navigational data, PRN codes and carrier radio-waves.
•GPS signal may contain three types of carrier waves- L1, L2 & L5; different PRN
codes (C/A, P/P(Y), CM, CL, I5, Q5) and different navigational messages [Legacy
navigation (LNAV) data with C/A and P (or P(Y)), Civil Navigation (CNAV) data, DC(t)
with CM and D5(t) with I5].
•At present, three full civil signals are available from GPS constellation - L1 [C/A], L2C
[CL or CM or C/A] and L5 [I5 & Q5].
•Combinations of L1 C/A, L2C and L5 provide a robust civilian service.
•Individually, L1 C/A has the lowest ionospheric error; L2C has the best cross-
correlation performance and L5 has the highest power and lies in ARNS.

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Further reading:
• A Text Book on GPS Surveying by Jayanta Kumar Ghosh,
CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform (An Amazon
Company), US [www.amazon.com/dp/1522952748].

Meet You Next Class on “GPS RECEIVER”

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Thanking You