Antennas

Abstract

The basic purpose of a global navigation satellite system (GNSSglobal navigation satellite system (GNSS)) user antenna is the reception of navigation signals from all visible GNSS satellites. Transmit antennas onboard the GNSS satellites, on the other hand, are quite different and employ large antenna arrays to create high-gain global beams illuminating the entire surface of the Earth. This chapter presents different design options for GNSS antennas operating in the L-band of the radio frequency spectrum. It starts with a brief discussion of key requirements for the GNSS receiving antenna, where several design parameters are introduced and explained. Thereafter, antennas of different design technologies suitable to GNSS are explored and discussed in detail. Following the introduction of major antenna candidates, different variants for specialized requirements, such as the small form factor or multipath mitigation are presented. Complementary to receiving antennas, the design of antenna arrays for signal transmission on the GNSS satellites is presented next, along with a discussion on specific antennas employed on the Global Positioning System (GPSGlobal Positioning System (GPS)), Galileo, Global’naya Navigatsionnaya Sputnikova Sistema (GLONASSGlobal’naya Navigatsionnaya Sputnikova Sistema (Russian Global Navigation Satellite System) (GLONASS)) and BeiDou satellites. Finally, a comprehensive discussion on antenna measurements and the performance evaluation is provided.