EventsEuropean Navigation Conference 2025
Published
This submission belongs to the session 9. PNT Resilience and Robustness of the event European Navigation Conference 2025
Published date
24 Sep, 2025
Academic Editor
author-avatarTomasz Hadas
Citation
Marc Fernández i Temprado, Antoni Reus-Bergas, Gonzalo Seco-Granados, José A. López-Salcedo, Experimental Testbed and Measurement Campaign for Multi-Constellation LEO Positioning, in Proceedings of European Navigation Conference 2025, Wrocław, 21 May–23 May 2025, MDPI: Basel, Switzerland
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Experimental Testbed and Measurement Campaign for Multi-Constellation LEO Positioning

1. Centre d’Estudis i Recerca en Espai (CERES), Institut d’Estudis Espacials de Catalunya (IEEC), 08193 Bellaterra, Spain, Spain
2. Department of Telecommunication and Systems Engineering, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), 08193 Bellaterra, Spain
Abstract

The proliferation of Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite constellations, driven by the NewSpace economy and reduced launch costs, has opened new opportunities for positioning, navigation, and timing (PNT) applications. Compared to traditional GNSS systems operating in Medium Earth Orbit, LEO satellites offer several advantages: higher received signal power, better satellite geometry and visibility in urban environments, and greater Doppler dynamics—enabling approaches such as single-satellite and Doppler-based positioning. Although dedicated LEO-PNT constellations are still under development, existing commercial LEO satellites can already be leveraged for experimental positioning applications. This paper presents a portable, multi-constellation testbed built using commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) hardware and software-defined radio (SDR) technologies. The platform enables the synchronous acquisition and processing of LEO signals from Orbcomm, Iridium, and Starlink, allowing for the extraction of key positioning observables. A comprehensive measurement campaign is conducted across both indoor and outdoor environments to evaluate signal visibility and Doppler tracking performance. Results highlight the potential of opportunistic LEO-based positioning, particularly in challenging scenarios such as indoor environments where traditional GNSS solutions are unreliable.

Keywords
satellite LEO
PNT
Orbcomm
Iridium
Starlink
signal processing
software defined radio
SDR
Doppler
Transmission of Ionospheric Parameters in Galileo HAS Phase 2
GRIPP: an Open-Source and Portable Software Defined Radio Oriented GNSS/SBAS Receiver