Design and performance evaluation of a novel ranging signal based on an LEO satellite communication constellation

ABSTRACT

Driven by improvements in satellite internet and Low Earth Orbit (LEO) navigation augmentation, the integration of communication and navigation has become increasingly common, and further improving navigation capabilities based on communication constellations has become a significant challenge. In the context of the existing Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) communication systems, this paper proposes a new ranging signal design method based on an LEO satellite communication constellation. The LEO Satellite Communication Constellation Block-type Pilot (LSCC-BPR) signal is superimposed on the communication signal in a block-type form and occupies some of the subcarriers of the OFDM signal for transmission, thus ensuring the continuity of the ranging pilot signal in the time and frequency domains. Joint estimation in the time and frequency domains is performed to obtain the relevant distance value, and the ranging accuracy and communication resource utilization rate are determined. To characterize the ranging performance, the Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) is selected as an evaluation criterion. Simulations show that when the number of pilots is 2048 and the Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR) is 0 dB, the ranging accuracy can reach 0.8 m, and the pilot occupies only 50% of the communication subcarriers, thus improving the utilization of communication resources and meeting the public demand for communication and location services.

KEYWORDS:

• Integration of communication and navigation
• LEO communication constellation
• ranging
• LEO navigation augmentation
• satellite internet

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

Additional information

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Notes on contributors

Jingfang Su

Jingfang Su is a postgraduate in Information Science and Engineering, Hebei University of Science and Technology. Her research interests are wireless communication technology, integration of communication and navigation, and LEO navigation.

Jia Su

Jia Su is an associate professor in Dept. of School of Information Science and Engineering, Hebei University of Science and Technology. She received the PhD degree from Harbin Engineering University. Her research interests are wireless communication technology, object detection, and tracking.

Qingwu Yi

Qingwu Yi is the Director of State Key Laboratory of Satellite Navigation System and Equipment Technology. His research interests are satellite navigation systems and equipment-related technologies, time-frequency technologies.

Cailun Wu

Cailun Wu is the Deputy director of the State Key Laboratory of Satellite Navigation System and Equipment Technology. He received his Ph.D. degree from the Tsinghua University. His research interests are navigation signal design and LEO navigation system design.

Weimin Hou

Weimin Hou is a professor in Dept. of School of Information Science and Engineering, Hebei University of Science and Technology. He received the PhD degree from Institute of Acoustics, Chinese Academy of Sciences. His research interests are remote sensing signal processing and artificial intelligence.