High precision record & playback system for the analysis of wide-band GNSS signals

The new GALILEO wide-band signals can greatly increase the performance of GNSS receivers, but pose a significant challenge when their testing in the development phase is addressed, or when possible interference hazards in the new GNSS bands have to be analyzed. A new record and replay system, exploiting innovative design solutions in digital signal processing to ensure maximum linearity across the GNSS spectrum and 8-bit quantization depth of four 50-MHz bandwidth channels, has been optimized for recording GNSS signals in outdoor environment and synthesizing later a precise copy of them, to be used as input to a receiver under development in the lab, or for highly demanding applications in the domain of research on jamming and other malicious attacks. As an experimental verification of the instrument capability to process several wide-band channels, a thorough comparison of the results obtained when position is calculated (by PPP and RTK algorithms) by a professional geodetic receiver from live signals and from recorded signals is presented. Such a campaign of measurements has shown that no significant differences between the two cases can be appreciated. The outcome of the tests is commented, with particular reference to GALILEO-related applications.