Emulation of Realistic Satellite Constellations for GNSS Receiver Testing in Virtual Environment

Automotive navigation is key for modern traffic, which necessitates robust satellite navigation receivers. Distributed antenna arrays can be advantageous with their beam-and null-steering capabilities, however, testing them in the field is resource-intensive and non-repeatable. Therefore, evaluating them in virtual electromagnetic environments is reasonable prior to scheduling field-operational tests. Thereby the challenge arises that the angles-of-arrival of satellite signals deviate from those of their corresponding antennas due to the fixed orbital rotation of satellites and mechanical limitations of physical antenna placements. This discrepancy creates an unrealistic satellite constellation, eventually affecting directions-of-arrival estimation of incident signals which is crucial for interferer suppression. A Matlab tool was implemented to locate satellites near desired transmitter positions and numerically alter their orbital parameters to minimize their angular deviation from respective transmitters. Employing the tool, a realistic virtual satellite constellation with less than 1 degree deviation was emulated and experimentally verified for the test facility.