Band-Pass Sampling in High-Order BOC Signal Acquisition

The binary offset carrier (BOC) modulation, which has been adopted in modern global navigation satellite systems (GNSS), provides a higher spectral compatibility with BPSK signals, and better tracking performance. However, the autocorrelation function (ACF) of BOC signals has multiple peaks. This feature complicates the acquisition process, since a smaller time searching step is required, which results in longer searching time or greater amounts of hardware resources. Another problem is the high Nyquist frequency, which leads to high computational complexity and power consumption. In this paper, to overcome these drawbacks, the band-pass sampling technique for multiple signals is introduced to BOC signals. The sampling frequency can be reduced significantly. Furthermore, the ACF of the sampled signal has only two secondary peaks, so that the code phase can be searched with a larger searching step. An acquisition structure base on dual-loop is proposed, to completely eliminate the ambiguity and compensate the subcarrier Doppler. The acquisition performance and the computational complexity are also analysed.