Fully Software Implementations for Galileo Receiver

The last decade has seen the success of satellite based navigation applications in the ordinary people’s life. New services with demanding performance are boosting also the development of improved technologies for navigation receivers. Although the navigation technology also rapidly evolved towards more complex signal processing techniques, when compared to communication receivers, GNSS receivers are dealing with signals of smaller bandwidth and much lower data-rates, thus making them appealing for Softwarebased implementations, considering both Hardware/Software platforms and fully software implementations. This chapter will provide a discussion of the technological challenges for the implementation of software positioning receivers, also discussing as examples of general validity the implementation of acquisition and tracking stages in a fully software receiver.