Software GPS Receiver Development

In August 1999 funding of $34,000 was granted for the establishment of a GPS Development Laboratory, jointly funded by the SNAP Lab and the School of Electrical Engineering & Telecommunications, UNSW. The Mitel Architect GPS Receiver Development Kit allows researchers to address a range of applications in satellite and pseudolite positioning, as well as unusual applications (e.g. the UNSW BLUEsat microsatellite project), by permitting the development and customisation of GPS receiver firmware. The SNAP Lab, and its collaborators, are working on a variety of GPS receiver development projects.

In mid-2002 a SDK from SigNav Pty Ltd (Canberra) - the MG5021 (below), was purchased. This SDK uses the Zarlink GP4020 chip, and could be used to modify the firmware reside in receiver boards such as the MG5001 and MG5003. As the MG5021 SDK also has weak signal tracking capability, this is useful for such signal tracking research as well as being used in the Bistatic Radar project. However, unlike the Mitel SDK, not all the source code is provided. Peter Mumford in 2003 succeeded in porting the "old" Mitel SDK to the "new" MG5001/5003 HW, permitting continued research using this relatively "open" SDK (e.g. into a spaceborne receiver for the BLUEsat).

SigNav MG5021 SDK

 

SNAP Lab now owns a variety of hardware platforms (based on the Mitel Chipset GP2010 and GP2021) for which the Mitel-based firmware can be modified.

In 2005 the MATLAB-based Data Fusion software GPS receiver toolkit was purchased.

In mid-2005 the NordNav R30 software GPS receiver system was purchased.

NordNav R30 software receiver attached to laptop

See also the FPGA-based receiver design projects.

Opensource GPS, a web site with Mitel GPS receiver software, and instructions on how to 'hack' into a Mitel-based OEM receiver.