European Space Agency

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ESTEC, Keplerlaan 1, 2201 AZ Noordwijk, Holland

Multipath discriminator module for a navigation system

managed by European Space Agency

TECHNOLOGY DESCRIPTION

The invention concerns a multipath discriminator module for a communication and/or navigation system using distributed spectrum modulation, comprising an input for receiving navigation signals, a sampler for supplying sampling signals at a frequency twice the apparent frequency of the code of said signals, and a sub-module for calculating an error signal ek from said sampled signals and a locally generated distribution code C/K/L. The invention is characterized in that the sub-module uses the calculation of the real part of a ratio of two correlation values early relative to the real phase value, said values being derived from a correlation between the received signal and a locally generated reference code signal.

BENEFITS

This invention provides a more effective method for compensating the multiple beam trajectories based on the sample differences of a spreading code transmission.

LIMITATIONS

This invention could be applied to any type of radiofrequency communication system which uses not very directive antennas, to improve its performance while affected by the multipath effect (very common in wireless applications). The most important applications may be both public and private mobile telephony services (both the user devices and the base stations for improving the call quality), wireless services (such as wifi, zigbee or other similar technologies where could improve the connection quality), broadcast services (only used in the receiving systems) and GNSS related services (even though the current solution is enough for its civil use, it could be interesting for military GNSS). For military tracking systems which must be precise and continuous, this invention could solve the multipath issues. It may also be used in private wireless networks such as radio links, even though it is less necessary there. The reason why it is less used in, for example, radio links, it is that they are usually well designed for avoiding, among other issues, the multipath effect. Nevertheless, sometimes the situation changes and multipath may occur; then this invention could be the solution.

APPLICATIONS

The telecom industry in general (telephony, broadcasting industries, etc.), the electronic industry and also the industries using the telecom services such as the automotive industry, the military industry and the GNSS industry (including both the receivers producers and the service providers) among others.

MATERIALS

Readiness Level (TRL)

7
system prototype demonstration in operational environment(The pie chart refers to the entire portfolio contained in the database of the helpdesk)

Technology Readiness Levels (TRL) are a method of estimating technology maturity of Critical Technology Elements (CTE) of a program during the acquisition process. The use of TRLs enables consistent, uniform, discussions of technical maturity across different types of technology.

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STATUS

Current status

Granted in Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, United Kingdom and US

AVAILABILITY

Available for

Licensing

INVENTOR / TEAM

Stefan Wallner, Thomas Wrz, Josep Rosello

GENERAL ENQUIRIES
LICENSING REQUEST

Case manager: Veronica La Regina

EU-Japan Centre
European CommissionMeti