Design Validation and Performance Evaluation of Carrier Tracking Loop for GNSS Receiver in High Acceleration Flight Conditions

In high-speed or high-acceleration environments where dynamic characteristics change rapidly, the design of the carrier tracking loop is a critical aspect of global navigation satellite system (GNSS) receiver implementation. This study presents the design of a carrier tracking loop suitable for GNSS receivers operating under high-acceleration conditions. In this work, a frequency locked loop (FLL) - based carrier tracking loop is designed with three different bandwidth configurations. The performance analyses are first conducted using multiple constant-acceleration simulated trajectories, focusing on carrier-to-noise ratio (CNR) degradation and the number of navigation satellites. Furthermore, a GNSS receiver incorporating the designed FLL is implemented and installed on a real flight vehicle for experimental validation. The flight test results show that among the three bandwidth configurations, the largest FLL bandwidth provides the most stable CNR and maintains continuous navigation performance in high-acceleration environments. The proposed design is validated through both simulation and flight test applications, demonstrating its effectiveness and robustness in dynamic flight environments.