# US 7,613,258 B2 · Apparatus and method for determining GPS tracking loop parameter based on SNR estimation

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- Number: US 7,613,258 B2
- Document ID: US7613258B2
- Status: Granted
- Kind: B2
- Application number: 11/364,768
- Filed: 2006-02-28
- Published: 2007-08-30
- Granted: 2009-11-03
- Earliest claimed: 2006-02-28
- Assignees: O2Micro International Limited
- Inventors: Bo Yu; Jianhui Hou; ShiJie Li; MingQiang Cheng
- Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US7613258B2

## CPC

- H04B 1/7097: Interference-related aspects
- G01S 19/29: carrier {including Doppler,} related {(G01S19/246 takes precedence)}
- H04B: TRANSMISSION
- G01S: RADIO DIRECTION-FINDING; RADIO NAVIGATION; DETERMINING DISTANCE OR VELOCITY BY USE OF RADIO WAVES; LOCATING OR PRESENCE-DETECTING BY USE OF THE REFLECTION OR RERADIATION OF RADIO WAVES; ANALOGOUS ARRANGEMENTS USING OTHER WAVES

## Abstract

A method for estimating signal quality of a spread spectrum signal is provided. The method includes squaring a plurality of in-phase correlation results and a plurality of quadrature correlation results, summing each squared in-phase correlation result and the corresponding correlation result to obtain a plurality of sum-of-square values, detecting a peak value among the plurality of sum-of-square results, calculating an average of non-peak values among the plurality of sum-of-square results. The peak value is regarded as a signal power value, while the averaged non-peak values are regarded as an average noise power value. A signal-to-noise ratio is then calculated based on the signal power value and the average noise power value. A method for determining the parameters for the tracking loop is also provided. The method includes estimating the signal-to-noise ratio of the spread spectrum signal, and determining the tracking loop parameters based on the signal-to-noise ratio.

## Claims

### Claim 1

A method for estimating a signal-to-noise ratio of a spread spectrum signal, the spread spectrum signal being digitized at a predetermined frequency, the method comprising:
receiving the spread spectrum signal in a receiver, the spread spectrum signal having an in-phase component and a quadrature component;
receiving a predetermined pseudorandom code from a code generator;
determining an in-phase correlation result based on the in-phase component and a predetermined pseudorandom code over a time period;
determining a quadrature correlation result based on the quadrature component and the predetermined pseudorandom code over the time period;
determining a signal power value based on the in-phase correlation result and the quadrature correlation result;
determining an average noise power value based on the in-phase component and the quadrature component, wherein the in-phase component being a digital signal having a plurality of data points within the time period, the quadrature component being a digital signal having a plurality of data points within the time period, the average noise power value being determined by
squaring each data point of the in-phase component;
calculating a first mean among the squared data points of in-phase component;
squaring each data point of the quadradure component;
calculating a second mean among the squared data points of quadrature component; and
summing the first mean and the second mean to obtain the average noise power value; and
determining in a SNR estimation module the signal-to-noise ratio based at least on the signal power value and the average noise power value.

### Claim 2 (depends on 1)

The method of claim 1, wherein the step of determining the signal power value comprising:
squaring the in-phase correlation result and the quadrature correlation result; and
summing the squared value of in-phase correlation result and the squared value of quadrature correlation result to obtain a signal power value.

### Claim 3 (depends on 1)

The method of claim 1, wherein the step of determining the signal-to-noise ratio further comprising:
multiplying the average noise power value and a number of data points within the time period to obtain a total average noise power value over the time period;
subtracting the total average noise power value from the signal power value to obtain a desired signal power value; and
dividing the desired signal power value by the total average noise power value to obtain the signal-to-noise ratio.

### Claim 4 (depends on 1)

The method of claim 1, wherein the predetermined pseudorandom code having substantially the same phase shift with a pseudorandom code spreading the spread spectrum signal.

### Claim 5 (depends on 1)

The method of claim 1, wherein the predetermined pseudorandom code being a prompt pseudorandom code generated by a code generator in a code tracking loop during tracking stage in spread spectrum signal processing.

### Claim 6 (depends on 1)

The method of claim 1, further comprising filtering the signal-to-noise ratio to obtain a smooth signal-to-noise ratio.

### Claim 7 (depends on 6)

The method of claim 6, wherein the filtering further comprising providing a Kalman filter to perform the filtering.