Introduction - Fundamentals of Global Positioning System Receivers: A Software Approach - page 1

CHAPTERONE

Introduction

1.1 INTRODUCTION ( 1-13 )

This topic presents detailed information in a compact form about the global
positioning system (GPS) coarse/acquisition (C/A) code receiver. Using the C/A
code to find the user location is referred to as the standard position service (SPS).
Most of the information can be found in references 1 through 13. However, there
is much more information in the references than the basics required to understand
a GPS receiver. Therefore, one must study the proper subjects and put them
together. This is a tedious and cumbersome task. This topic does this job for
the reader.
This topic not only introduces the information available from the references, it
emphasizes its applications. Software programs are provided to help understand
some of the concepts. These programs are also useful in designing GPS receivers.
In addition, various techniques to perform acquisition and tracking on the GPS
signals are included.
This topic concentrates only on the very basic concepts of the C/A code GPS
receiver. Any subject not directly related to the basic receiver (even if it is of
general interest, i.e., differential GPS receiver and GPS receiver with carrier-
aided tracking capacity) will not be included in this topic. These other subjects
can be found in reference 1.

1.2 HISTORY OF GPS DEVELOPMENT ( 1,5,12 )

The discovery of navigation seems to have occurred early in human history.
According to Chinese storytelling, the compass was discovered and used in wars