Single-frequency Ionosphere-free Precise Point Positioning Using Combined GPS and GLONASS Observations

Single-frequency Precise Point Positioning (PPP) using a Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) has been attracting increasing interest in recent years due to its low cost and large number of users. Currently, the single-frequency PPP technique is mainly implemented using GPS observations. In order to improve the positioning accuracy and reduce the convergence time, we propose the combined GPS/GLONASS Single-Frequency (GGSF) PPP approach. The approach is based on the GRoup And PHase Ionospheric Correction (GRAPHIC) to remove the ionospheric effect. The performance of the GGSF PPP was tested using both static and kinematic datasets as well as different types of precise satellite orbit and clock correction data, and compared with GPS-only and GLONASS-only PPP solutions. The results show that the GGSF PPP accuracy degrades by a few centimetres using rapid/ultra-rapid products compared with final products. For the static GGSF PPP, the position filter typically converges at 71, 33 and 59 minutes in the East, North and Up directions, respectively. The corresponding positioning accuracies are 0·057, 0·028 and 0·121 m in the East, North and Up directions. Both positioning accuracy and convergence time have been improved by approximately 30% in comparison to the results from GPS-only or GLONASS-only single-frequency PPP. A kinematic GGSF PPP test was conducted and the results illustrate even more significant benefits of increased accuracy and reliability of PPP solutions by integrating GPS and GLONASS signals.

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Multi-GNSS Combined Precise Point Positioning Using Additional Observations with Opposite Weight for Real-Time Quality Control

Remote Sensing ◽

10.3390/rs11030311 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 11 (3) ◽

pp. 311 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Wenju Fu ◽

Guanwen Huang ◽

Yuanxi Zhang ◽

Qin Zhang ◽

Bobin Cui ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Quality Control ◽

Real Time ◽

Precise Point Positioning ◽

Satellite System ◽

Convergence Time ◽

Navigation Satellite ◽

Positioning Accuracy ◽

Global Navigation ◽

Point Positioning ◽

Global Navigation Satellite

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 Regional Dual-Frequency Observations

Sensors ◽

10.3390/s21082856 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 21 (8) ◽

pp. 2856

Author(s):

Junping Zou ◽

Ahao Wang ◽

Jiexian Wang

Keyword(s):

High Precision ◽

Precise Point Positioning ◽

Low Cost ◽

Deformation Monitoring ◽

Convergence Time ◽

Single Frequency ◽

Relative Positioning ◽

Dual Frequency ◽

Positioning Accuracy ◽

Point Positioning

High-precision and low-cost single-frequency precise point positioning (SF-PPP) has been attracting more and more attention in numerous global navigation satellite system (GNSS) applications. To provide the precise ionosphere delay and improve the positioning accuracy of the SF-PPP, the dual-frequency receiver, which receives dual-frequency observations, is used. Based on the serviced precise ionosphere delay, which is generated from the dual-frequency observations, the high-precision SF-PPP is realized. To further improve the accuracy of the SF-PPP and shorten its convergence time, the double-differenced (DD) ambiguity resolutions, which are generated from the DD algorithm, are introduced. This method avoids the estimation of fractional cycle bias (FCB) for the SF-PPP ambiguity. Here, we collected data from six stations of Shanghai China which was processed, and the corresponding results were analyzed. The results of the dual-frequency observations enhanced SF-PPP realize centimeter-level positioning. The difference between the results of two stations estimated with dual-frequency observations enhanced SF-PPP were compared with the relative positioning results computed with the DD algorithm. Experimental results showed that the relative positioning accuracy of the DD algorithm is slightly better than that of the dual-frequency observations enhanced SF-PPP. This could be explained by the effect of the float ambiguity resolutions on the positioning accuracy. The data was processed with the proposed method for the introduction of the DD ambiguity into SF-PPP and the results indicated that this method could improve the positioning accuracy and shorten the convergence time of the SF-PPP. The results could further improve the deformation monitoring ability of SF-PPP.

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Evaluation of Quad-Constellation GNSS Precise Point Positioning in Egypt

Artificial Satellites ◽

10.1515/arsa-2017-0002 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 52 (1) ◽

pp. 9-18

Author(s):

Emad El Manaily ◽

Mahmoud Abd Rabbou ◽

Adel El-Shazly ◽

Moustafa Baraka

Keyword(s):

Urban Areas ◽

Precise Point Positioning ◽

Low Cost ◽

Single Point ◽

Convergence Time ◽

Reference Station ◽

Single Frequency ◽

Major Drawback ◽

Positioning Accuracy ◽

Point Positioning

Abstract Commonly, relative GPS positioning technique is used in Egypt for precise positioning applications. However, the requirement of a reference station is usually problematic for some applications as it limits the operational range of the system and increases the system cost and complexity On the other hand; the single point positioning is traditionally used for low accuracy applications such as land vehicle navigation with positioning accuracy up to 10 meters in some scenarios which caused navigation problems especially in downtown areas. Recently, high positioning accuracy can be obtained through Precise Point Positioning (PPP) technique in which only once GNSS receiver is used. However, the major drawback of PPP is the long convergence time to reach to the surveying grade accuracy compared to the existing relative techniques. Moreover, the PPP accuracy is significantly degraded due to shortage in satellite availability in urban areas. To overcome these limitations, the quad constellation GNSS systems namely; GPS.GLONASS, Galileo and BeiDou can be combined to increase the satellite availability and enhance the satellite geometry which in turn reduces the convergence time. In Egypt, at the moment, the signals of both Galileo and BeiDou could be logged with limited number of satellites up to four and six satellites for both Systems respectively. In this paper, we investigated the performance of the Quad-GNSS positioning in both dual- and single-frequency ionosphere free PPP modes for both high accurate and low cost navigation application, respectively. The performance of the developed PPP models will be investigated through GNSS data sets collected at three Egyptian cities namely, Cairo, Alexandria and Aswan.

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Performance Evaluation of Single-Frequency Precise Point Positioning and Its Use in the Android Smartphone

Remote Sensing ◽

10.3390/rs13234894 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (23) ◽

pp. 4894

Author(s):

Min Li ◽

Zhuo Lei ◽

Wenwen Li ◽

Kecai Jiang ◽

Tengda Huang ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Precise Point Positioning ◽

Satellite System ◽

Convergence Time ◽

Single Frequency ◽

Dominant Factor ◽

Smart Devices ◽

Dual Frequency ◽

Point Positioning ◽

Pseudorange Noise ◽

Global Navigation Satellite

The opening access of global navigation satellite system (GNSS) raw data in Android smart devices has led to numerous studies on precise point positioning on mobile phones, among which single-frequency precise point positioning (SF-PPP) has become popular because smartphone-based dual-frequency data still suffer from poor observational quality. As the ionospheric delay is a dominant factor in SF-PPP, we first evaluated two SF-PPP approaches with the MGEX (Multi-GNSS Experiment) stations, the Group and Phase Ionospheric Correction (GRAPHIC) approach and the uncombined approach, and then applied them to a Huawei P40 smartphone. For MGEX stations, both approaches achieved less than 0.1 m and 0.2 m accuracy in horizontal and vertical components, respectively. Uncombined SF-PPP manifested a significant decrease in the convergence time by 40.7%, 20.0%, and 13.8% in the east, north, and up components, respectively. For P40 data, the SF-PPP performance was analyzed using data collected with both a built-in antenna and an external geodetic antenna. The P40 data collected with the built-in antenna showed lower carrier-to-noise ratio (C/N0) values, and the pseudorange noise reached 0.67 m, which is about 67% larger than that with a geodetic antenna. Because the P40 pseudorange noise presented a strong correlation with C/N0, a C/N0-dependent weight model was constructed and used for the P40 data with the built-in antenna. The convergence of uncombined SF-PPP approach was faster than the GRAPHIC model for both the internal and external antenna datasets. The root mean square (RMS) errors for the uncombined SF-PPP solutions of P40 with an external antenna were 0.14 m, 0.15 m, and 0.33 m in the east, north, and up directions, respectively. In contrast, the P40 with an embedded antenna could only reach 0.72 m, 0.51 m, and 0.66 m, respectively, indicating severe positioning degradation due to antenna issues. The results indicate that the two SF-PPP models both can achieve sub-meter level positioning accuracy utilizing multi-GNSS single-frequency observations from mobile smartphones.

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Real-Time Precise Point Positioning Using Orbit and Clock Corrections as Quasi-Observations for Improved Detection of Faults

Journal of Navigation ◽

10.1017/s0373463317001023 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 71 (4) ◽

pp. 769-787 ◽

Cited By ~ 7

Author(s):

Ahmed El-Mowafy

Keyword(s):

Real Time ◽

Precise Point Positioning ◽

Exclusion Process ◽

Satellite Orbit ◽

Satellite System ◽

Navigation Satellite ◽

System Service ◽

Point Positioning ◽

Predicted Values ◽

Global Navigation Satellite

Real-time Precise Point Positioning (PPP) relies on the use of accurate satellite orbit and clock corrections. If these corrections contain large errors or faults, either from the system or by meaconing, they will adversely affect positioning. Therefore, such faults have to be detected and excluded. In traditional PPP, measurements that have faulty corrections are typically excluded as they are merged together. In this contribution, a new PPP model that encompasses the orbit and clock corrections as quasi-observations is presented such that they undergo the fault detection and exclusion process separate from the observations. This enables the use of measurements that have faulty corrections along with predicted values of these corrections in place of the excluded ones. Moreover, the proposed approach allows for inclusion of the complete stochastic information of the corrections. To facilitate modelling of the orbit and clock corrections as quasi-observations, International Global Navigation Satellite System Service (IGS) real-time corrections were characterised over a six-month period. The proposed method is validated and its benefits are demonstrated at two sites using three days of data.

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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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Compact, Low-cost GNSS Modules for Precise Point Positioning

E3S Web of Conferences ◽

10.1051/e3sconf/202131003001 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 310 ◽

pp. 03001

Author(s):

Anindya Bose ◽

Somnath Mahato ◽

Sukabya Dan ◽

Atanu Santra

Keyword(s):

Precise Point Positioning ◽

Low Cost ◽

Real Life ◽

Cost Effective ◽

Satellite System ◽

Vertical Coordinate ◽

Point Positioning ◽

Cost Efficient ◽

Global Navigation Satellite ◽

Solution Accuracy

Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) uses Precise Point Positioning (PPP) technique to find out accurate geolocation information of any point. Generally, costly, geodetic GNSS receivers are used for PPP. This manuscript presents the results of studies on the usability of commercial, compact, cost-effective GNSS modules with commercial antennas for PPP in comparison to commonly used geodetic, costly receivers from India, which is a excellent location for GNSS use. Compact GNSS modules from two manufacturers are used in the study, and the encouraging results show the clear advantage of cost, size, and power requirements of such modules. The modules provide sub-cm horizontal solution accuracy which is very similar to those obtained using geodetic receivers, and around 20 cm accuracy in the vertical coordinate, which is slightly inferior to the results provided by the geodetic reveivers. Results of this novel study would be useful for implementing cost-efficient GNSS PPP in real life, in highly demanding geodetic applications including CORS establishment and PPP.

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Integration of multi-constellation GNSS precise point positioning and MEMS-based inertial system for precise applications

10.32920/ryerson.14644260.v1 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Mahmoud Abd Rabbou

Keyword(s):

Precise Point Positioning ◽

Low Cost ◽

Satellite System ◽

Integrated System ◽

Inertial System ◽

Integrated Navigation ◽

Positioning Accuracy ◽

Phase Measurements ◽

Point Positioning ◽

Inertial Measurements

This dissertation develops a low-cost integrated navigation system, which integrates multi-constellation global navigation satellite system (GNSS) precise point positioning (PPP) with a low-cost micro-electro-mechanical sensor (MEMS)-based inertial system for precise applications. Both undifferenced and between-satellite single-difference (BSSD) ionosphere-free linear combinations of pseudorange and carrier phase measurements from three GNSS constellations, namely GPS, GLONASS and Galileo, are processed. An improved version of the PF, the unscented particle filter (UPF), which combines the UKF and the PF, is developed to merge the corrected GNSS satellite difference observations and inertial measurements and estimate inertial measurements biases and errors. The performance of the proposed integrated system is analyzed using real test scenarios. A tightly coupled GPS PPP/MEMS-based inertial system is first developed using EKF, which shows that decimeter-level positioning accuracy is achievable with both undifferenced and BSSD modes. However, in general, better positioning precision is obtained when BSSD linear combination is used. During GPS outages, the integrated system shows submeter-level accuracy in most cases when a 60-second outage is introduced. However, the positioning accuracy is improved to a few decimeter- and decimeter-level accuracy when 30- and 10-second GPS outages are introduced, respectively. The use of UPF, on the other hand, reduces the number of samples significantly, in comparison with the traditional PF. Additionally, in comparison with EKF, the use of UPF improves the positioning accuracy during the 60-second GPS outages by 14%, 13% and 15% in latitude, longitude and altitude, respectively. The addition of GLONASS and Galileo observations to the developed integrated system shows that decimeter- to centimeter-level positioning accuracy is achievable when the GNSS measurement updates are available. In comparison with the GPS-based integrated system, the multi-constellation GNSS PPP/MEMS-based inertial system improves the latitude, longitude and altitude components precision by 24%, 41% and 41%, respectively. In addition, the use of BSSD mode improves the precision of the latitude, longitude and altitude components by 23%, 15% and 13%, respectively, in comparison with the undifferenced mode. During complete GNSS outages, the developed integrated system continues to achieve decimeter-level accuracy for up to 30 seconds, while it achieves submeter-level accuracy when a 60-second outage is introduced.

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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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Improvement of Multi-GNSS Precise Point Positioning Performances with Real Meteorological Data

Journal of Navigation ◽

10.1017/s0373463318000462 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 71 (6) ◽

pp. 1363-1380 ◽

Cited By ~ 12

Author(s):

Ke Su ◽

Shuanggen Jin

Keyword(s):

Global Navigation Satellite System ◽

Precise Point Positioning ◽

Meteorological Data ◽

Satellite System ◽

Navigation Satellite ◽

Positioning Accuracy ◽

Global Pressure ◽

Global Navigation ◽

Point Positioning ◽

Global Navigation Satellite

Tropospheric delay is one of the main error sources in Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) Precise Point Positioning (PPP). Zenith Hydrostatic Delay (ZHD) accounts for 90% of the total delay. This research focuses on the improvements of ZHD from tropospheric models and real meteorological data on the PPP solution. Multi-GNSS PPP experiments are conducted using the datasets collected at Multi-GNSS Experiments (MGEX) network stations. The results show that the positioning accuracy of different GNSS PPP solutions using the meteorological data for ZHD correction can achieve an accuracy level of several millimetres. The average convergence time of a PPP solution for the BeiDou System (BDS), the Global Positioning System (GPS), Global Navigation Satellite System of Russia (GLONASS), BDS+GPS, and BDS+GPS+GLONASS+Galileo are 55·89 min, 25·88 min, 33·30 min, 20·50 min and 15·71 min, respectively. The results also show that atmospheric parameters provided by real meteorological data have little effect on the horizontal components of positioning compared to the meteorological model, while in the vertical component, the positioning accuracy is improved by 90·6%, 33·0%, 22·2% and 19·8% compared with the standard atmospheric model, University of New Brunswick (UNB3m) model, Global Pressure and Temperature (GPT) model, and Global Pressure and Temperature-2 (GPT2) model and the convergence times are decreased 51·2%, 32·8%, 32·5%, and 32·3%, respectively.

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