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

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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Performance Evaluation of Precise Point Positioning for BeiDou-3 B1c/B2a Signals in the Global Range

Sensors ◽

10.3390/s21175780 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 21 (17) ◽

pp. 5780

Author(s):

Ershen Wang ◽

Tao Yang ◽

Zhi Wang ◽

Yize Zhang ◽

Jing Guo ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Precise Point Positioning ◽

Satellite System ◽

Three Dimensions ◽

Convergence Time ◽

The North ◽

Significant Difference ◽

Global Positioning ◽

System Bias ◽

Point Positioning ◽

Kinematic Ppp

With the construction and development of the BeiDou navigation satellite system (BDS), the precise point positioning (PPP) performance of the BDS is worthy of research. In this study, observational data from 17 stations around the world across 20 days are used to comprehensively evaluate the PPP performance of BDS B1c/B2a signals. For greater understanding, the results are also compared with the Global Positioning System (GPS) and BDS PPP performance of different signals and system combinations. The evaluation found root mean square (RMS) values of the static PPP in the north (N), east (E), and upward (U) components, based on the B1c/B2a frequency of BDS-3, to be 6.9 mm, 4.7 mm, and 26.6 mm, respectively. Similar to the static positioning, the RMS values of kinematic PPP in the three directions of N, E, and U are 2.6 cm, 6.0 cm, and 8.5 cm, respectively. Besides this, the static PPP of BDS-3 (B1cB2a) and BDS-2 + BDS-3 (B1IB3I) have obvious system bias. Compared with static PPP, kinematic PPP is more sensitive to the number of satellites, and the coordinate accuracy in three dimensions can be increased by 27% with the combination of GPS (L1L2) and BDS. Compared with BDS-2+BDS-3 (B1IB3I), the convergence time of BDS-3 (B1CB2a) performs better in both static and kinematic modes. The antenna model does not show a significant difference in terms of the effect of the convergence speed, though the number of satellites observed has a certain influence on the convergence time.

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Evaluating the Latest Performance of Precise Point Positioning in Multi-GNSS/RNSS: GPS, GLONASS, BDS, Galileo and QZSS

Journal of Navigation ◽

10.1017/s0373463320000508 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 1-21 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Jian Chen ◽

Xingwang Zhao ◽

Chao Liu ◽

Shaolin Zhu ◽

Zhiqiang Liu ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Precise Point Positioning ◽

Elevation Angle ◽

Satellite System ◽

Convergence Time ◽

Observation Data ◽

Navigation Satellite ◽

Satellite Systems ◽

North East ◽

The North ◽

Point Positioning

The single initial Global Positioning System (GPS) has been expanded into multiple global and regional navigation satellite systems (multi-GNSS/RNSS) as the Global Navigation Satellite System (GLONASS) is restored and the BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS), Galileo Satellite Navigation System (Galileo) and Quasi-Zenith Satellite System (QZSS) evolve. Using the differences among these five systems, the paper constructs a consolidated multi-GNSS/RNSS precise point positioning (PPP) observation model. A large number of datasets from Multi-GNSS Experiment (MGEX) stations are employed to evaluate the PPP performance of multi-GNSS/RNSS. The paper draws three main conclusions based on the experimental results. (1) The combined GPS/GLONASS/Galileo/BDS/QZSS presents the PPP with the shortest mean convergence time of 11·5 min, followed by that of GPS/GLONASS/Galileo/BDS (12·4 min). (2) The combined GPS/GLONASS/BDS/Galileo/QZSS shows the optimal PPP performance when the cut-off elevation angle is basically the same because of the rich observation data due to a large number of satellites. To be specific, for combined GPS/GLONASS/BDS/Galileo/QZSS, the PPP convergence percentage is 80·9% higher relative to other combined systems under 35° cut-off elevation angle, and the percentages of the root mean square values of PPP within 0–5 cm are enhanced by 80·5%, 81·5% and 87·3% in the North, East and Up directions relative to GPS alone at 35° cut-off elevation angle. (3) GPS alone fails to conduct continuous positioning due to the insufficiency of visible satellites at 40° cut-off elevation angle, while the kinematic PPP of multi-GNSS/RNSS remains capable of obtaining positioning solutions with relatively high accuracy, especially in the horizontal direction.

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Precise Point Positioning Using the Regional BeiDou Navigation Satellite Constellation

Journal of Navigation ◽

10.1017/s0373463313000842 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 67 (3) ◽

pp. 523-537 ◽

Cited By ~ 7

Author(s):

Aigong Xu ◽

Zongqiu Xu ◽

Xinchao Xu ◽

Huizhong Zhu ◽

Xin Sui ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Real Time ◽

Precise Point Positioning ◽

Satellite System ◽

Convergence Time ◽

Asia Pacific ◽

Satellite Orbits ◽

Navigation Satellite ◽

Asia Pacific Region ◽

Point Positioning

On 27 December 2012 it was announced officially that the Chinese Navigation Satellite System BeiDou (BDS) was able to provide operational services over the Asia-Pacific region. The quality of BDS observations was confirmed as comparable with those of GPS, and relative positioning in static and kinematic modes were also demonstrated to be very promising. As Precise Point Positioning (PPP) technology is widely recognized as a method of precise positioning service, especially in real-time, in this contribution we concentrate on the PPP performance using BDS data only. BDS PPP in static, kinematic and simulated real-time kinematic mode is carried out for a regional network with six stations equipped with GPS- and BDS-capable receivers, using precise satellite orbits and clocks estimated from a global BDS tracking network. To validate the derived positions and trajectories, they are compared to the daily PPP solution using GPS data. The assessment confirms that the performance of BDS PPP is very comparable with GPS in terms of both convergence time and accuracy.

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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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Real-time Precise Point Positioning with a Xiaomi MI 8 Android Smartphone

Sensors ◽

10.3390/s19122835 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 19 (12) ◽

pp. 2835 ◽

Cited By ~ 18

Author(s):

Bo Chen ◽

Chengfa Gao ◽

Yongsheng Liu ◽

Puyu Sun

Keyword(s):

Real Time ◽

Mobile Phones ◽

Precise Point Positioning ◽

Satellite System ◽

Dual Frequency ◽

Gnss Positioning ◽

Positioning Errors ◽

Positioning Method ◽

Point Positioning ◽

Time Required

The Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) positioning technology using smartphones can be applied to many aspects of mass life, and the world’s first dual-frequency GNSS smartphone Xiaomi MI 8 represents a new trend in the development of GNSS positioning technology with mobile phones. The main purpose of this work is to explore the best real-time positioning performance that can be achieved on a smartphone without reference stations. By analyzing the GNSS raw measurements, it is found that all the three mobile phones tested have the phenomenon that the differences between pseudorange observations and carrier phase observations are not fixed, thus a PPP (precise point positioning) method is modified accordingly. Using a Xiaomi MI 8 smartphone, the modified real-time PPP positioning strategy which estimates two clock biases of smartphone was applied. The results show that using multi-GNSS systems data can effectively improve positioning performance; the average horizontal and vertical RMS positioning error are 0.81 and 1.65 m respectively (using GPS, BDS, and Galileo data); and the time required for each time period positioning errors in N and E directions to be under 1 m is less than 30s.

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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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Analysis on the Potential Performance of GPS and Galileo Precise Point Positioning using Simulated Real-Time Products

Journal of Navigation ◽

10.1017/s0373463318000577 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 72 (1) ◽

pp. 19-33 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Francesco Basile ◽

Terry Moore ◽

Chris Hill

Keyword(s):

Real Time ◽

Precise Point Positioning ◽

Satellite System ◽

Convergence Time ◽

Alternative Methods ◽

International Gnss Service ◽

Binary Offset Carrier ◽

Time Service ◽

Point Positioning ◽

The Impact

With the evolving Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) landscape, the International GNSS Service (IGS) has started the Multi-GNSS Experiment (MGEX) to produce precise products for new generation systems. Various analysis centres are working on the estimation of precise orbits, clocks and bias for Galileo, Beidou and Quasi-Zenith Satellite System (QZSS) satellites. However, at the moment these products can only be used for post-processing applications. Indeed, the IGS Real-Time service only broadcasts Global Positioning System (GPS) and Globalnaya Navigatsionnaya Sputnikovaya Sistema (GLONASS) corrections. In this research, a simulator of multi-GNSS observations and real-time precise products has been developed to analyse the performance of GPS-only, Galileo-only and GPS plus Galileo Precise Point Positioning (PPP). The error models in the simulated orbits and clocks were based on the difference between the GPS Real-Time and the Final products. Multiple scenarios were analysed, considering different signals combined in the Ionosphere Free linear combination. Results in a simulated open area environment show better performance of the Galileo-only case over the GPS-only case. Indeed, up 33% and 29% of improvement, respectively, in the accuracy level and convergence time can be observed when using the full Galileo constellation compared to GPS. The dual constellation case provides good improvements, in particular in the convergence time (47% faster than GPS). This paper will also consider the impact of different linear combinations of the Galileo signals, and the potential of the E5 Alternative Binary Offset Carrier (AltBOC) signal. Even though it is significantly more precise than E5a, the PPP performance obtained with the Galileo E1-E5a combination is either better or similar to the one with Galileo E1-E5. The reason for this inconsistency was found in the use of the ionosphere free combination with E1. Finally, alternative methods of ionosphere error mitigation are considered in order to ensure the best possible positioning performance from the Galileo E5 signal in multi-frequency PPP.

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Performance Evaluation of Real-Time Precise Point Positioning with Both BDS-3 and BDS-2 Observations

Sensors ◽

10.3390/s20216027 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 20 (21) ◽

pp. 6027

Author(s):

Lin Pan ◽

Xuanping Li ◽

Wenkun Yu ◽

Wujiao Dai ◽

Cuilin Kuang ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Real Time ◽

Precise Point Positioning ◽

Rapid Development ◽

Satellite System ◽

Convergence Time ◽

Static Mode ◽

The Real ◽

Point Positioning ◽

Time Critical

For time-critical precise applications, one popular technology is the real-time precise point positioning (PPP). In recent years, there has been a rapid development in the BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS), and the constellation of global BDS (BDS-3) has been fully deployed. In addition to the regional BDS (BDS-2) constellation, the real-time stream CLK93 has started to support the BDS-3 constellation, indicating that the real-time PPP processing involving BDS-3 observations is feasible. In this study, the global positioning performance of real-time PPP with BDS-3/BDS-2 observations is initially evaluated using the datasets from 147 stations. In the east, north and upward directions, positioning accuracy of 1.8, 1.2 and 2.5 cm in the static mode, and of 6.7, 5.1 and 10.4 cm in the kinematic mode can be achieved for the BDS-3/BDS-2 real-time PPP, respectively, while the corresponding convergence time with a threshold of 10 cm is 32.9, 23.7 and 32.8 min, and 66.9, 42.9 and 69.1 min in the two modes in the three directions, respectively. To complete this, the availability of BDS-3/BDS-2 constellations, the quality of BDS-3/BDS-2 real-time precise satellite products, and the BDS-3/BDS-2 post-processed PPP solutions are also analyzed. For comparison, the results for the GPS are also presented.

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GPS and Galileo Triple-Carrier Ionosphere-Free Combinations for Improved Convergence in Precise Point Positioning

Journal of Navigation ◽

10.1017/s0373463320000454 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 1-19

Author(s):

Francesco Basile ◽

Terry Moore ◽

Chris Hill ◽

Gary McGraw

Keyword(s):

Precision Agriculture ◽

Urban Areas ◽

Precise Point Positioning ◽

Simulated Data ◽

Satellite System ◽

Low Noise ◽

Convergence Time ◽

Triple Frequency ◽

Wide Lane ◽

Point Positioning

In recent years, global navigation satellite system (GNSS) precise point positioning (PPP) has become a standard positioning technique for many applications with typically favourable open sky conditions, e.g. precision agriculture. Unfortunately, the long convergence (and reconvergence) time of PPP often significantly limits its use in difficult and restricted signal environments typically associated with urban areas. The modernisation of GNSS will positively affect and improve the convergence time of the PPP solutions, thanks to the higher number of satellites in view that broadcast multifrequency measurements. The number and geometry of the available satellites is a key factor that impacts on the convergence time in PPP, while triple-frequency observables have been shown to greatly benefit the fixing of the carrier phase integer ambiguities. On the other hand, many studies have shown that triple-frequency combinations do not usefully contribute to a reduction of the convergence time of float PPP solutions. This paper proposes novel GPS and Galileo triple-carrier ionosphere-free combinations that aim to enhance the observability of the narrow-lane ambiguities. Tests based on simulated data have shown that these combinations can reduce the convergence time of the float PPP solution by a factor of up to 2·38 with respect to the two-frequency combinations. This approach becomes effective only after the extra wide-lane and wide-lane ambiguities have been fixed. For this reason, a new fixing method based on low-noise pseudo-range combinations corrected by the smoothed ionosphere correction is presented. By exploiting this algorithm, no more than a few minutes are required to fix the WL ambiguities for Galileo, even in cases of severe multipath environments.

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