Performance evaluation of MSK and OFDM modulations for future GNSS signals

The objective of this work is to investigate the performances of orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) and minimum frequency shift keying (MSK) modulations as potential future global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) signal modulation schemes. MSK is used in global system for mobile communications because of its spectral efficiency, while OFDM is used in WLAN and digital video broadcast-terrestrial because of its multipath mitigation capability. These advantages of MSK and OFDM modulations render them as promising modulation candidates for future GNSS signals to offer enhanced performances in challenging environments. Gabor bandwidth and multipath error envelopes of these two modulations were computed and compared with those of the current global positioning system (GPS), Galileo, and Beidou signal modulations. The results show that OFDM modulation demonstrated promises as a viable future GNSS modulation, especially for signals that require pre-filtering bandwidths larger than 2 MHz, while MSK modulation is more desirable for pre-filtering bandwidth below 2 MHz where it exhibits the largest Gabor bandwidth.