<1 second GPS hot-start TTF below -150dBm without A-GPS
David Tester, Senior Member IEEE
Air Semiconductor
Cherry Orchard North, Kembrey Park
Swindon, Wiltshire, SN2 8UH, UK
david.tester@air-semi.com
Abstract—Minimization of TTFF has driven the architecture for
GPS receivers, being motivated by the historical navigation
paradigm with more recent cellphone activity and applications.
Existing solutions minimize TTFF through use of assist
information, eliminating any requirement to collect the live
satellite ephemeris and minimize acquisition time using
maximum effective correlators. Cellular solutions obtain
information through A-GPS assistance. In-car solutions use
local or remote calculated extended ephemeris. Recent receiver
solutions deliver ‘continuous location awareness’ [1] [2]. The
emergence of this new category of GPS receivers supporting
proactive rather than reactive operation of LBS services raises
additional system level trade-offs, some conflicting with TTFF.
Receivers optimized for TTFF can be adapted for pseudo-
proactive GPS functionality. However improved performance
can be delivered through use of an architecture not explicitly
optimized for TTFF. The impact of local reference frequency
error for these ‘dual mode’ GNSS receivers is examined. The
different receiver architectures capable of delivering continuous
location awareness are compared.
I. INTRODUCTION
Location has emerged as core functionality for consumer
devices such as mobile phones and digital cameras.
GPS enabled mobile phones offer navigation capabilities and
other location based services. GPS enabled digital cameras
can location-stamp photographs (often called “geotagging”).
This paper outlines the performance required by the emerging
generation of proactive location-aware end-user applications.
Alternative architecture options to deliver proactive GPS are
considered and the relative strengths of each are compared.
The paper concludes with details of the architecture capable
of providing continuous GPS operation in this new paradigm.
II. SUMMARY OF THE PAPER
Sections III and IV outline details of the GPS and A-GPS
systems. Section V describes the performance needed for
various location based service (LBS) applications. Section
VII details the constraints for minimization of time-to-first-
fix (TTFF) and time-to-fix (TTF). Section VIII investigates
architecture options for TTF rather than TTFF optimization.
Finally, section IX compares the performance of the proposed
approach with alternative architectures based around A-GPS.
III. SUMMARY OF GPS SYSTEM PERFORMANCE
The GPS air interface is defined in [3]. Additional details
on system design and operation can be found in [4] and [5].
Each satellite transmits a CDMA signal at 154x the system
frequency of 10.23MHz at 1.58GHz. The C/A signal at L1 is
spread using Gold codes [6]. Worst case cross-correlation
between the 1023 chip codes used for L1 GPS is 21.6dB.
Unobstructed receive power is no less than -130dBm over the
satellite lifetime with a spread of 6dB due to satellite age.
Observed power in a typical environment can be 30dB less!
Each satellite transmits a 37,500 bit navigation message
through a 25 frame TDMA protocol. Each frame contains
1,500 bits of data and is comprised of 5 sub-frames each
lasting 6 seconds containing ten 30 bit words. The entire
message provides both satellite (ephemeris) and constellation
(almanac) information. Ephemeris transmission requires 30s.
IV. SUMMARY OF A-GPS NETWORK ASSISTANCE
A-GPS is an enhancement to GPS. Aiding information is
provided to the receiver by a cellular network. Satellite data
relating to orbits (ephemeris), coarse receiver location and
system time are provided. Minimum performance
requirements for assisted GPS are defined for both 2G and 3G
cellphone networks by various standardization bodies such as
3GPP, TIA and OMA [7], [8], [9], [10] and [11].
Various assistance scenarios are defined [7] and minimum
receiver time-to-fix (TTF) and location accuracy performance
is specified. Scenarios correspond to coarse-time assistance,
fine-time assistance, dynamic, open-sky and urban operation.
The open-sky coarse-time sensitivity scenario operates with
eight satellites, HDOP range 1.1 to 1.6 and time assistance of
±2s. Receive power for all satellites is -130dBm and the
minimum requirement for CEP95 position error is 30m (2D
position error to 95% probability) within a TTF of 20 seconds.
The urban coarse-time sensitivity scenario operates with eight
satellites, HDOP range 1.1 to 1.6 and time assistance of ±2s.
Receive power for one satellite is -142dBm with the other
seven satellites receive power of -147dBm. The minimum
requirement for CEP95 error is 100m within a TTF of 20s.
The fine-time sensitivity scenario operates with eight
satellites, HDOP range 1.1 to 1.6 and time assistance of ±10µs
with receive power for all satellites at -147dBm. Minimum
requirement for CEP95 error is 100m with TTF of 20 seconds.
The second coarse-time dynamic scenario operates with six
satellites, HDOP range 1.4 to 2.1 and time assistance of ±2s.
Receive power for one satellites is -129dBm, one satellite at -
135dBm, one satellite at -141dBm and three satellites at -
147dBm. Maximum CEP95 error is 100m with 20s TTF.
Coarse-time multipath performance scenario operates with
five satellites, HDOP range 1.8 to 2.5 and time assistance of
±2µs. Receive power for two satellites is -130dBm with the
remaining three satellites direct receiver power of -130dBm
with each of these three satellites also providing a multipath
signal at -136dBm. CEP95 error is 100m with a TTF of 20s.
The final dynamic scenario operates with five satellites,
HDOP range 1.8 to 2.5, time assistance of ±2s with all
satellites at -130dBm. Requirement for CEP95 position error
is 100m with an position update rate of 2s.
TTF in all cases is 20s. Required position accuracy is 30m
in open-sky static conditions and 100m in all other scenarios.
V. DISCUSSION OF LBS APPLICATION REQUIREMENTS
The killer application for GPS today is point-to-point
navigation. Initially used only for in-car navigation this has
become widely used with many cellphones [12]. As location
becomes available for mobile devices, further services become
available [13] along with additional privacy concerns [14].
Navigation demands a positioning solution capable of
providing maximum accuracy with the maximum practical
update rate and minimum time-to-first-fix (TTFF). Target
performance is 1Hz update rate with <1m position error.
Early cellphone applications for GPS assumed location would
be required infrequently and that power consumption of the
GPS solution would, as a result, not impact the power budget
for the cellphone. Weak signal GPS operation and TTFF was
a major concern. Target performance is weak signal TTFF not
exceeding 20s with position accuracy better than 100m [7].
Emerging LBS applications require a positioning sub-system
which is capable of continuous background operation. When
the receiver moves into or close to a geographic area of
significance the GPS sub-system triggers the LBS application.
Continuous background operation of the GPS receiver enables
proactive operation of the LBS application. The user is
automatically alerted rather than enabling the GPS to
determine if desired services are available in that area.
Proactive LBS requires continuous operation of the GPS sub-
system which in turn requires a GPS engine with a power
footprint compatible with the average power consumption of
the host device. For cellphone use 5mW operation is required.
When user location is continuously available, geographic
triggers can be defined to automatically launch LBS services.
If location is not continuously available these services can
only be triggered in response to the user enabling the GPS
sub-system. Examples of proactive triggers are listed in [15].
Proactive LBS applications enable the immediate delivery of
services. An example is location-aware push advertising.
Provision of continuous positioning requires a continuous
stream of location information from the GPS sub-system to
the LBS application(s). Different LBS services will require
differing levels of position quality from the GPS sub-system.
Providing a continuous stream of location updates is not the
same as delivering updates as frequently as possible. If the
LBS application only requires course location then low update
rates are appropriate. However if the application requires
accurate location continuously then conventional 1Hz rates are
suitable. Understanding that future LBS applications can
operate with varying update rate GPS sub-systems is critical to
the delivery of proactive LBS applications [16] [17] [18].
VI. ARCHITECTURE FOR PROACTIVE LBS APPLICATIONS
Releasing the GPS receiver from the constraints of
traditional continuous-mode tracking with fixed frequency
update rate provides a new degree of freedom in architecture
definition and enables the development of GNSS receivers
capable of operating at very low power levels of around 5mW.
With total receiver power in the region of 5mW the GPS
receiver can continuously operate in the background without
impacting power budget and significantly affecting the time
between battery recharge cycles for mobile devices.
Critically, background operation of the GPS receiver
delivers three major advantages: predictable (and minimal)
TTF for immediate position update in push-to-fix operation,
guaranteed availability of recent location with zero second
TTF and pseudo-operation indoors since indoor operation of
GPS is difficult and low-power indoor GPS is an oxymoron.
The receiver architecture described in this paper is capable
of providing push-to-fix operation with TTF effectively
independent of GPS signal conditions. LBS operation in
indoor conditions is maintained as a side-effect of continuous
background operation. Alternative approaches would fail to
detect satellite signals indoors, not deliver service quality and
eventually report “location unavailable” to LBS applications.
Traditional GPS receivers operate in either search mode or
navigation tracking mode. Minimization of TTFF has lead to
ever increasing numbers of effective correlators for the search
engine, resulting in solutions offering efficient performance
when searching huge numbers of candidate bins. A-GPS
receivers maximize the number of effective correlators.
Conventional tracking operation operates the GPS radio and
tracking subsystems continuously. Power consumption for
radio operation approaches practical limit of 10mW [19] [20].
Reduction of GPS sub-system power consumption below this
level demands the receiver is operated in discontinuous mode
rather than traditional continuous mode triggering a decision
on receiver architecture. The receiver must be periodically
activated to “duty-cycle” the operation and minimize power.
Should the receiver activate only when location is requested or
would a more effective solution automatically activate itself to
maintain more detailed knowledge for visible GPS signals?
VII. FREQUENCY - CODE PHASE - SV PRN SEARCH SPACE
As received GPS signal strength decreases from -130dBm
to -160dBm the resulting coherent integration time required to
maintain target SNR increases with corresponding decrease in
bandwidth of each search bin from 500Hz to below 10Hz [20].
Stability of the local reference frequency translates to error in
conversion of the RF signal to IF due to difference between
the locally generated LO and the target mixing frequency.
Mixing from RF to IF results in additional pre-correlation
frequency error, which will depend on reference conditions.
0.5ppm reference stability leads to frequency error of 788Hz.
 1,000
Pre-Correlation Frequency Error (Hz)
900
800
700
600
500
400
300
200
100
0 0
0.05 0.5
Reference Frequency Stability (PPM)
Figure 1. Effect of Local Reference Frequency Error
Cold start TTFF is defined by number of code phase and
frequency search bins, number of satellites, elapsed time to
collect ephemeris and solve position. Minimum time is 30s.
In contrast, the aided hot start TTFF is defined by the time to
only search frequency and code-phase and solve for position.
A-GPS hot start TTFF can be 1s in suitable signal conditions.
Reduction in GPS signal strength from -130dBm to -160dBm
increases the number of search bins as shown in Figure 2.
Provision of coarse receiver location and ephemeris allows
the receiver to determine which satellites are known to be not
visible and reduces TTFF by 30s. The resulting aided hot start
time is defined by the frequency-code phase search space,
number of effective correlators and time to solve for position.
Lack of accurate time aiding and knowledge of variation in
reference frequency limits the aided hot-start TTFF and as the
GPS signal strength decreases the increased number of search
bins coupled with increased dwell time per bin impacts TTFF.
Provision of accurate time aiding allows the code-phase
search space to be minimized. A-GPS offers two levels of
time aiding: ±10µs fine-time aiding and 2s coarse-time aiding.
With no external time aiding an autonomous GPS receiver
drifts from GPS time at a rate of around 0.06ms/min
corresponding to loss of the 1ms epoch within 15 minutes.
The exponential increase in frequency-code phase search
space results from the loss of accurate time and the uncertainty
around local receiver reference frequency. Controlling impact
of these two factors enables the hot-start search space to be
minimized and delivers TTF that is (almost) independent of
the receiver GPS signal power. The architecture presented in
the next section delivers push-to-fix TTF that is effectively
independent of GPS signal conditions, exceeding A-GPS
performance, delivering TTF of 2.5s even with received signal
levels of -150dBm but requiring only 200 local correlators.
Alternative approaches require 200,000+ correlators and
network aiding information to deliver comparable TTF.
VIII. SELF-ASSIST GPS ARCHITECTURE AND PERFORMANCE
When tracking the GPS transmission the receiver is locked
directly to GPS time and whilst not tracking, the receiver local
time will drift compared to satellite time. The rate of drift
depends on the relative performance of the receivers ability to
either predict reference variations or maintain the frequency
reference with known performance. Maintaining an accurate
local estimate of system GPS time enables self-assistance.
1,000,000
Correlation Bins for TTFF
750,000
500,000
250,000
-140 -145 -150 -155 -160
GPS signal strength (dBm)
Figure 2. Increase in correlation bins with GPS signal strength
The receiver has no absolute time or frequency reference
and must make time hypothesis which are validated against
the GPS signal itself to ensure local receiver time predictions
remain within suitable tolerances. This requires the receiver
to periodically activate and re-lock to the GPS transmission.
Existence of accurate local time enables use of minimum size
search windows for re-detection of the GPS satellite signals.
The virtuous circle that results is the critical factor enabling
self-assistance of the GPS receiver [22], [23] and [24]. The
resulting architecture needs a micro-searcher for re-detection
of GPS time. Since the receiver operates by maintaining GPS
time rather than accurate receiver location, only one satellite
needs to be detected (in stationary conditions) for operation.
Location is a side-effect of fine-time receiver self-assistance.
The fine-time self-assistance approach forms the basis of a
recent GPS receiver development. Tracking sensitivity of the
solution in self-assist mode has been measured to -150dBm
and is expected to operate to at least -154dBm. Unfiltered
CEP50 position accuracy (over 12 hours) for the receiver
operating without a Kalman filter is 2.8m and the self-assisted
hot-start TTF is 2.5s over signal power -130dBm to -150dBm.
Performance of the resulting self-assisting GPS receiver
exceeds all sensitivity, TTF and accuracy requirements for the
3GPP standard yet needs 200 rather than 200,000+ correlators.
IX. CONCLUSIONS
Traditional GPS receivers deliver time from tracking
location, alternative architectures can deliver location through
tracking time. Despite additional complexity tracking time
provides the ability for a GPS receiver to provide self-assist
information, enabling enhanced push-to-fix TTF compared to
alternative traditional approaches.
Earlier approaches have adapted GPS receivers originally
intended for navigation to deliver LBS functionality [20] [25].
The approach described in this paper forms the basis for a
GPS receiver optimized for use with LBS applications [22].
The receiver has been successfully used to enable the
emerging “geotagging” application for use in digital cameras.
Resulting performance for the self-assist GPS receiver
exceeds the 3GPP sensitivity, TTF and accuracy requirements
for A-GPS operation without any network aiding requirement!
 Figure 3. Performance of Self-Assist GPS receiver (over receiver signal power -130dBm to -150dBm)
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
Development of any complex system-level semiconductor
product is a group activity involving (and often demanding)
system, silicon and software optimizations and tradeoffs. The
approach described in this paper forms part of a system-level
GPS semiconductor product developed by the team at Air.
The product detailed in this paper results from the combined
contributions of all team members.
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