A Novel GNSS Interference Detection Method Based on Smoothed Pseudo-Wigner–Hough Transform

This paper develops novel Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) interference detection methods based on the Hough transform. These methods are realized by incorporating the Hough transform into three Time-Frequency distributions: Wigner–Ville distribution, pseudo -Wigner–Ville distribution and smoothed pseudo-Wigner–Ville distribution. This process results in the corresponding Wigner–Hough transform, pseudo-Wigner–Hough transform and smoothed pseudo-Wigner–Hough transform, which are used in GNSS interference detection to search for local Hough-transformed energy peak in a small limited area within the parameter space. The developed GNSS interference detection methods incorporate a novel concept of zero Hough-transformed energy distribution percentage to analyze the properties of energy concentration and cross-term suppression. The methods are tested with real GPS L1-C/A data collected in the presence of sweep interference. The test results show that the developed methods can deal with the cross-term problem with improved interference detection performance. In particular, the GNSS interference detection performance obtained with the smoothed pseudo-Wigner–Hough transform method is at least double that of the Wigner–Hough transform-based approach; the smoothed pseudo-Wigner–Hough transform-based GNSS interference detection method is improved at least 20% over the pseudo-Wigner–Hough transform-based technique in terms of the zero Hough-transformed energy percentage criteria. Therefore, the proposed smoothed pseudo-Wigner–Hough transform-based method is recommended in the interference detection for GNSS receivers, particularly in challenging electromagnetic environments.