Comparison of convergence time and positioning accuracy among BDS, GPS and BDS/GPS precise point positioning with ambiguity resolution

The emergence of multiple global navigation satellite systems (multi-GNSS), including global positioning system (GPS), global navigation satellite system (GLONASS), Beidou navigation satellite system (BDS), and Galileo, brings not only great opportunities for real-time precise point positioning (PPP), but also challenges in quality control because of inevitable data anomalies. This research aims at achieving the real-time quality control of the multi-GNSS combined PPP using additional observations with opposite weight. A robust multiple-system combined PPP estimation is developed to simultaneously process observations from all the four GNSS systems as well as single, dual, or triple systems. The experiment indicates that the proposed quality control can effectively eliminate the influence of outliers on the single GPS and the multiple-system combined PPP. The analysis on the positioning accuracy and the convergence time of the proposed robust PPP is conducted based on one week’s data from 32 globally distributed stations. The positioning root mean square (RMS) error of the quad-system combined PPP is 1.2 cm, 1.0 cm, and 3.0 cm in the east, north, and upward components, respectively, with the improvements of 62.5%, 63.0%, and 55.2% compared to those of single GPS. The average convergence time of the quad-system combined PPP in the horizontal and vertical components is 12.8 min and 12.2 min, respectively, while it is 26.5 min and 23.7 min when only using single-GPS PPP. The positioning performance of the GPS, GLONASS, and BDS (GRC) combination and the GPS, GLONASS, and Galileo (GRE) combination is comparable to the GPS, GLONASS, BDS and Galileo (GRCE) combination and it is better than that of the GPS, BDS, and Galileo (GCE) combination. Compared to GPS, the improvements of the positioning accuracy of the GPS and GLONASS (GR) combination, the GPS and Galileo (GE) combination, the GPS and BDS (GC) combination in the east component are 53.1%, 43.8%, and 40.6%, respectively, while they are 55.6%, 48.1%, and 40.7% in the north component, and 47.8%, 40.3%, and 34.3% in the upward component.

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Single-Frequency Precise Point Positioning Using Multi-Constellation GNSS: GPS, GLONASS, Galileo and BeiDou

GEOMATICA ◽

10.5623/cig2016-203 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 70 (2) ◽

pp. 113-122 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Mahmoud Abd Rabbou ◽

Ahmed El-Rabbany

Keyword(s):

Urban Areas ◽

Precise Point Positioning ◽

Cost Effective ◽

Convergence Time ◽

Single Frequency ◽

Dual Frequency ◽

Positioning Accuracy ◽

Point Positioning ◽

Beidou Satellites ◽

Gnss Observations

Single-frequency precise point positioning (PPP) presents a cost-effective positioning technique for a large number of users. However, it possesses low positioning accuracy and convergence time compared with the dual-frequency PPP. Single-frequency PPP commonly employs GPS satellite systems that suffer from poor satellite geometry, especially in dense urban areas. We develop a new single-frequency PPP model that combines the observations of current GNSS constellations, including GPS, GLONASS, Galileo and Beidou. The MGEX IGS final precise products are utilized to account for the orbital and clock errors, while the IGS final global ionospheric maps (GIM) model is used to correct for the ionospheric delay. The GNSS inter-system biases are treated as additional unknowns in the estimation process. The con tri bution of the additional GNSS observations to single-frequency PPP is assessed through solution comparison with its traditional GPS-only counterpart. Various GNSS combinations are considered in the assessment, including GPS/GLONASS, GPS/Galileo, GPS/BeiDou and all-constellation GNSS. It is shown that the additional GNSS observations enhance the PPP solution accuracy and convergence time in comparison with the tra di tional GPS-only solution. Except for stations with a sufficient number of tracked BeiDou satellites, both Galileo and BeiDou have marginal effects on the positioning accuracy due to their limited number of satel lites. However, for stations with a sufficient number of visible BeiDou satellites, an average of 40% PPP accuracy improvement is obtained. The major contribution to the PPP accuracy enhancement is obtained from GLONASS satellite observations.

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GPS/BDS-2/Galileo Precise Point Positioning Ambiguity Resolution Based on the Uncombined Model

Remote Sensing ◽

10.3390/rs12111853 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 12 (11) ◽

pp. 1853

Author(s):

Jin Wang ◽

Guanwen Huang ◽

Qin Zhang ◽

Yang Gao ◽

Yuting Gao ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Ambiguity Resolution ◽

Precise Point Positioning ◽

Three Dimensional ◽

Convergence Time ◽

Wide Lane ◽

3D Positioning ◽

System Bias ◽

Point Positioning ◽

Raw Observations ◽

Gps Observations

In this study, an uncombined precise point positioning (PPP) model was established and was used for estimating fractional cycle bias (FCB) products and for achieving ambiguity resolution (AR), using GPS, BDS-2, and Galileo raw observations. The uncombined PPP model is flexible and efficient for positioning services and generating FCB. The FCBs for GPS, BDS-2, and Galileo were estimated using the uncombined PPP model with observations from the Multi-GNSS Experiment (MGEX) stations. The root mean squares (RMSs) of the float ambiguity a posteriori residuals associated with all of the three GNSS constellations, i.e., GPS, BDS-2, and Galileo, are less than 0.1 cycles for both narrow-lane (NL) and wide-lane (WL) combinations. The standard deviation (STD) of the WL combination FCB series is 0.015, 0.013, and 0.006 cycles for GPS, BDS-2, and Galileo, respectively, and the counterpart for the NL combination FCB series is 0.030 and 0.0184 cycles for GPS and Galileo, respectively. For the BDS-2 NL combination FCB series, the STD of the inclined geosynchronous orbit (IGSO) satellites is 0.0156 cycles, while the value for the medium Earth orbit (MEO) satellites is 0.073 cycles. The AR solutions produced by the uncombined multi-GNSS PPP model were evaluated from the positioning biases and the success fixing rate of ambiguity. The experimental results demonstrate that the growth of the amount of available satellites significantly improves the PPP performance. The three-dimensional (3D) positioning accuracies associated with the PPP ambiguity-fixed solutions for the respective only-GPS, GPS/BDS-2, GPS/Galileo, and GPS/BDS-2/Galileo models are 1.34, 1.19, 1.21, and 1.14 cm, respectively, and more than a 30% improvement is achieved when compared to the results related to the ambiguity-float solutions. Additionally, the convergence time based on the GPS/BDS-2/Galileo observations is only 7.5 min for the ambiguity-fixed solutions, and the results exhibit a 53% improvement in comparison to the ambiguity-float solutions. The values of convergence time based on the only-GPS observations are estimated as 22 and 10.5 min for the ambiguity-float and ambiguity-fixed solutions, respectively. Lastly, the success fixing rate of ambiguity is also dramatically raised for the multi-GNSS PPP AR. For example, the percentage is approximately 99% for the GPS/BDS-2/Galileo solution over a 10 min processing period. In addition, the inter-system bias (ISB) between GPS, BDS-2, and Galileo, which is carefully considered in the uncombined multi-GNSS PPP method, is modeled as a white noise process. The differences of the ISB series between BDS-2 and Galileo indicate that the clock datum bias of the satellite clock offset estimation accounts for the variation of the ISB series.

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Ambiguity Resolution In Precise Point Positioning Technique: A Case Study

Journal of Applied Engineering Sciences ◽

10.1515/jaes-2015-0007 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 5 (1) ◽

pp. 53-60 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

S. Nistor ◽

A. S. Buda

Keyword(s):

Ambiguity Resolution ◽

Carrier Phase ◽

Precise Point Positioning ◽

Main Idea ◽

Convergence Time ◽

Powerful Method ◽

Satellite Clock ◽

Positioning Technique ◽

Point Positioning

Abstract Because of the dynamics of the GPS technique used in different domains like geodesy, near real-time GPS meteorology, geodynamics, the precise point positioning (PPP) becomes more than a powerful method for determining the position, or the delay caused by the atmosphere. The main idea of this method is that we need only one receiver – preferably that have dual frequencies pseudorange and carrier-phase capabilities – to obtain the position. Because we are using only one receiver the majority of the residuals that are eliminated in double differencing method, we have to estimate them in PPP. The development of the PPP method allows us, to use precise satellite clock estimates, and precise orbits, resulting in a much more efficient way to deal with the disadvantages of this technique, like slow convergence time, or ambiguity resolution. Because this two problem are correlated, to achieve fast convergence we need to resolve the problem of ambiguity resolution. But the accuracy of the PPP results are directly influenced by presence of the uncalibrated phase delays (UPD) originating in the receivers and satellites. In this article we present the GPS errors and biases, the zenith wet delay and the necessary time for obtaining the convergence. The necessary correction are downloaded by using the IGS service.

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Ambiguity of Residual Constraint-Based Precise Point Positioning with Partial Ambiguity Resolution under No Real-Time Network Corrections Using Real Global Positioning System (GPS) Data

Sensors ◽

10.3390/s20113220 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 20 (11) ◽

pp. 3220

Author(s):

Honglei Qin ◽

Peng Liu ◽

Li Cong ◽

Xia Xue

Keyword(s):

Real Time ◽

Global Positioning System ◽

Ambiguity Resolution ◽

Precise Point Positioning ◽

Convergence Time ◽

Positioning System ◽

Post Processing ◽

Partial Ambiguity Resolution ◽

Global Positioning ◽

Point Positioning

Although precise point positioning (PPP) is a well-established and promising technique with the use of precise satellite orbit and clock products, it costs a long convergence time to reach a centimeter-level positioning accuracy. The PPP with ambiguity resolution (PPP-AR) technique can improve convergence performance by resolving ambiguities after separating the fractional cycle bias (FCB). Now the FCB estimation is mainly realized by the regional or global operating reference station network. However, it does not work well in the areas where network resources are scarce. The contribution of this paper is to realize an ambiguity residual constraint-based PPP with partial ambiguity resolution (PPP-PARC) under no real-time network corrections to speed up the convergence, especially when the performance of the float solution is poor. More specifically, the update strategy of FCB estimation in a stand-alone receiver is proposed to realize the PPP-PAR. Thereafter, the solving process of FCB in a stand-alone receiver is summarized. Meanwhile, the influencing factors of the ambiguity success rate in the PPP-PAR without network corrections are analyzed. Meanwhile, the ambiguity residual constraint is added to adapt the particularity of the partial ambiguity-fixing without network corrections. Moreover, the positioning experiments with raw observation data at the Global Positioning System (GPS) globally distributed reference stations are conducted to determine the ambiguity residual threshold for post-processing and real-time scenarios. Finally, the positioning performance was verified by 22 GPS reference stations. The results show that convergence time is reduced by 15.8% and 26.4% in post-processing and real-time scenarios, respectively, when the float solution is unstable, compared with PPP using a float solution. However, if the float solution is stable, the PPP-PARC method has performance similar to the float solution. The method shows the significance of the PPP-PARC for future PPP applications in areas where network resource is deficient.

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Assessment of BeiDou-3 and Multi-GNSS Precise Point Positioning Performance

Sensors ◽

10.3390/s19112496 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 19 (11) ◽

pp. 2496 ◽

Cited By ~ 14

Author(s):

Guoqiang Jiao ◽

Shuli Song ◽

Yulong Ge ◽

Ke Su ◽

Yangyang Liu

Keyword(s):

Precise Point Positioning ◽

Geographic Area ◽

Satellite System ◽

Assessment System ◽

Convergence Time ◽

Navigation Satellite ◽

Positioning Accuracy ◽

Kinematic Positioning ◽

Global Coverage ◽

Point Positioning

With the launch of BDS-3 and Galileo new satellites, the BeiDou navigation satellite system (BDS) has developed from the regional to global system, and the Galileo constellation will consist of 26 satellites in space. Thus, BDS, GPS, GLONASS, and Galileo all have the capability of global positioning services. It is meaningful to evaluate the ability of global precise point positioning (PPP) of the GPS, BDS, GLONASS, and Galileo. This paper mainly contributes to the assessment of BDS-2, BDS-2/BDS-3, GPS, GLONASS, and Galileo PPP with the observations that were provided by the international Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) Monitoring and Assessment System (iGMAS). The Position Dilution of Precision (PDOP) value was utilized to research the global coverage of GPS, BDS-2, BDS-2/BDS-3, GLONASS, and Galileo. In particular, GPS-only, BDS-2-only, BDS-2/BDS-3, GLONASS-only, Galileo-only, and multi-GNSS combined PPP solutions were analyzed to verify the capacity of the PPP performances in terms of positioning accuracy, convergence time, and zenith troposphere delay (ZTD) accuracy. In view of PDOP, the current BDS and Galileo are capable of global coverage. The BDS-2/BDS-3 and Galileo PDOP values are fairly evenly distributed around the world similar to GPS and GLONASS. The root mean square (RMS) of positioning errors for static BDS-2/BDS-3 PPP and Galileo-only PPP are 10.7, 19.5, 20.4 mm, and 6.9, 18.6, 19.6 mm, respectively, in the geographic area of the selected station, which is the same level as GPS and GLONASS. It is worth mentioning that, by adding BDS-3 observations, the positioning accuracy of static BDS PPP is improved by 17.05%, 24.42%, and 35.65%, and the convergence time is reduced by 27.15%, 27.87%, and 35.76% in three coordinate components, respectively. Similar to the static positioning, GPS, BDS-2/BDS-3, GLONASS, and Galileo have the basically same kinematic positioning accuracy. Multi-GNSS PPP significantly improves the positioning performances in both static and kinematic positioning. In terms of ZTD accuracy, the difference between GPS, BDS-2/BDS-3, GLONASS, and Galileo is less than 1 mm, and the BDS-2/BDS-3 improves ZTD accuracy by 20.48% over the BDS-2. The assessment of GPS, BDS-2, BDS-2/BDS-3, GLONASS, Galileo, and multi-GNSS global PPP performance are shown to make comments for the development of multi-GNSS integration, global precise positioning, and the construction of iGMAS.

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Improving the Performance of Galileo Uncombined Precise Point Positioning Ambiguity Resolution Using Triple-Frequency Observations

Remote Sensing ◽

10.3390/rs11030341 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 11 (3) ◽

pp. 341 ◽

Cited By ~ 8

Author(s):

Gen Liu ◽

Xiaohong Zhang ◽

Pan Li

Keyword(s):

Ambiguity Resolution ◽

Precise Point Positioning ◽

Simulated Data ◽

Satellite System ◽

Dual Frequency ◽

Positioning Accuracy ◽

Processing Mode ◽

Beidou Navigation Satellite System ◽

Triple Frequency ◽

Point Positioning

Compared with the traditional ionospheric-free linear combination precise point positioning (PPP) model, the un-differenced and uncombined (UDUC) PPP model using original observations can keep all the information of the observations and be easily extended to any number of frequencies. However, the current studies about the multi-frequency UDUC-PPP ambiguity resolution (AR) were mainly based on the triple-frequency BeiDou navigation satellite system (BDS) observations or simulated data. Limited by many factors, for example the accuracy of BDS precise orbit and clock products, the advantages of triple-frequency signals to UDUC-PPP AR were not fully exploited. As Galileo constellations have been upgraded by increasing the number of 19 useable satellites, it makes using Galileo satellites to further study the triple-frequency UDUC-PPP ambiguity resolution (AR) possible. In this contribution, we proposed the method of multi-frequency step-by-step ambiguity resolution based on the UDUC-PPP model and gave the reason why the performance of PPP AR can be improved using triple-frequency observations. We used triple-frequency Galileo observations on day of year (DOY) 201, 2018 provided by 166 Multi-GNSS Experiment (MGEX) stations to estimate original uncalibrated phase delays (UPD) on each frequency and to conduct both dual- and triple-frequency UDUC-PPP AR. The performance of UDUC-PPP AR based on post-processing mode was assessed in terms of the time-to-first-fix (TTFF) as well as positioning accuracy with 2-hour observations. It was found that triple-frequency observations were helpful to reduce TTFF and improve the positioning accuracy. The current statistic results showed that triple-frequency PPP-AR reduced the averaged TTFF by 19.6 % and also improved the positioning accuracy by 40.9, 31.2 and 23.6 % in the east, north and up directions respectively, compared with dual-frequency PPP-AR. With an increasing number of Galileo satellites, it is expected that the robustness and accuracy of the triple-frequency UCUD-PPP AR can be improved further.

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Performance Evaluation of Precise Point Positioning Using Dual Frequency Multi-GNSS Observations

Artificial Satellites ◽

10.2478/arsa-2020-0011 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 55 (4) ◽

pp. 150-170

Author(s):

Jabir Shabbir Malik

Keyword(s):

Root Mean Square ◽

Precise Point Positioning ◽

Convergence Time ◽

Observation Data ◽

Three Dimension ◽

Mean Square ◽

Positioning Accuracy ◽

Position Accuracy ◽

Position Errors ◽

Point Positioning

AbstractIn addition to GPS and GLONASS constellation, the number of (Global Navigation Satellite System) GNSS satellites are increasing, it is now possible to evaluate and analyze the position accuracy with multi GNSS constellation. In this paper, statistical assessment of static Precise Point Positioning (PPP) using GPS, GLONASS, dual system GPS/GLONASS, three system GPS/GLONASS/Galileo, GPS/GLONASS/BeiDou and multi system GPS/GLONASS/Galileo/BeiDou PPP combinations is evaluated. Observation data of seven whole days from seven IGS multi GNSS experiment (MGEX) stations is used for analysis. Position accuracy and convergence time is analyzed. Results show that the GPS/GLONASS positioning accuracy increases over GPS PPP. Standard deviations (STDs) of position errors for GPS PPP are 4.63, 3.00 and 6.96 cm in east, north and up components while STDs for GPS/GLONASS PPP are 4.10, 3.42 and 6.50 cm respectively. Root mean square for three dimension (RMS3D) for GPS/GLONASS PPP solution is 8.96 cm. With the addition of Galileo and BeiDou to the combined GPS/GLONASS further enhances the positioning accuracy. Root mean square for horizontal component reach to 5.35 cm of GPS/GLONASS/Galileo/BeiDou PPP solutions. Results analysis of GPS/GLONASS/Galileo PPP solutions show an improvement of convergence time by only 3.81% to achieve accuracy level of 3.0 cm over GPS/GLONASS/BeiDou PPP mode. Results also demonstrate that position accuracy improvement after adding BeiDou observations to the GPS/GLONASS PPP mode is not significant.

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Assessment of GPS/Galileo/BDS Precise Point Positioning with Ambiguity Resolution Using Products from Different Analysis Centers

Remote Sensing ◽

10.3390/rs13163266 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (16) ◽

pp. 3266

Author(s):

Chao Chen ◽

Guorui Xiao ◽

Guobin Chang ◽

Tianhe Xu ◽

Liu Yang

Keyword(s):

Ambiguity Resolution ◽

Precise Point Positioning ◽

Satellite System ◽

Convergence Time ◽

Major Drawback ◽

System Combination ◽

North East ◽

Positioning Errors ◽

Point Positioning ◽

Kinematic Ppp

Suffering from hardware phase biases originating from satellites and the receiver, precise point positioning (PPP) requires a long convergence time to reach centimeter coordinate accuracy, which is a major drawback of this technique and limits its application in time-critical applications. Ambiguity resolution (AR) is the key to a fast convergence time and a high-precision solution for PPP technology and PPP AR products are critical to implement PPP AR. Nowadays, various institutions provide PPP AR products in different forms with different strategies, which allow to enable PPP AR for Global Positioning System (GPS) and Galileo or BeiDou Navigation System (BDS). To give a full evaluation of PPP AR performance with various products, this work comprehensively investigates the positioning performance of GPS-only and multi-GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System) combination PPP AR with the precise products from CNES, SGG, CODE, and PRIDE Lab using our in-house software. The positioning performance in terms of positioning accuracy, convergence time and fixing rate (FR) as well as time to first fix (TTFF), was assessed by static and kinematic PPP AR models. For GPS-only, combined GPS and Galileo PPP AR with different products, the positioning performances were all comparable with each other. Concretely, the static positioning errors can be reduced by 21.0% (to 0.46 cm), 52.5% (to 0.45 cm), 10.0% (to 1.33 cm) and 21.7% (to 0.33 cm), 47.4% (to 0.34 cm), 9.5% (to 1.16 cm) for GPS-only and GE combination in north, east, up component, respectively, while the reductions are 20.8% (to 1.13 cm), 42.9% (to 1.15 cm), 19.9% (to 3.4 cm) and 20.4% (to 0.72 cm), 44.1% (to 0.66 cm), 10.1% (to 2.44 cm) for kinematic PPP AR. Overall, the positioning performance with CODE products was superior to the others. Furthermore, multi-GNSS observations had significant improvements in PPP performance with float solutions and the TTFF as well as the FR of GPS PPP AR could be improved by adding observations from other GNSS. Additionally, we have released the source code for multi-GNSS PPP AR, anyone can freely access the code and example data from GitHub.

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GLONASS Aided GPS Ambiguity Fixed Precise Point Positioning

Journal of Navigation ◽

10.1017/s0373463313000052 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 66 (3) ◽

pp. 399-416 ◽

Cited By ~ 20

Author(s):

Altti Jokinen ◽

Shaojun Feng ◽

Wolfgang Schuster ◽

Washington Ochieng ◽

Chris Hide ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Ambiguity Resolution ◽

Precise Point Positioning ◽

Satellite System ◽

Integer Ambiguity ◽

Convergence Time ◽

Reference Network ◽

Positioning Errors ◽

Point Positioning ◽

Time Required ◽

Global Navigation Satellite

The Precise Point Positioning (PPP) concept enables centimetre-level positioning accuracy by employing one Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) receiver. The main advantage of PPP over conventional Real Time Kinematic (cRTK) methods is that a local reference network infrastructure is not required. Only a global reference network with approximately 50 stations is needed because reference GNSS data is required for generating precise error correction products for PPP. However, the current implementation of PPP is not suitable for some applications due to the long time period (i.e. convergence time of up to 60 minutes) required to obtain an accurate position solution. This paper presents a new method to reduce the time required for initial integer ambiguity resolution and to improve position accuracy. It is based on combining GPS and GLONASS measurements to calculate the float ambiguity positioning solution initially, followed by the resolution of GPS integer ambiguities.The results show that using the GPS/GLONASS float solution can, on average, reduce the time to initial GPS ambiguity resolution by approximately 5% compared to using the GPS float solution alone. In addition, average vertical and horizontal positioning errors at the initial ambiguity resolution epoch can be reduced by approximately 17% and 4%, respectively.

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