GNSS software-defined receiver: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 06:35, 17 January 2024

Revision as of 11:38, 21 November 2024

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A GNSS receiver, in general, is an electronic device that receives and digitally processes the signals from a navigation satellite constellation in order to provide position, velocity and time (of the receiver).

GNSS receivers have been traditionally implemented in hardware: a ''hardware GNSS receiver'' is conceived as a dedicated chip that havehas been designed and built (from the very beginning) with the only purpose of being a GNSS receiver.

In a software GNSS receiver, all digital processing is performed by a general purpose [[microprocessor]]. In this approach, a small amount of inexpensive hardware is still needed, known as the ''[[RF front end|frontend]]'', that digitizes the signal from the satellites. The microprocessor can then work on this ''raw'' digital stream to implement the GNSS functionality.