Evaluation and analysis on positioning performance of BDS/QZSS satellite navigation systems in Asian-Pacific region

By using the observation data and products of precise obit and clock offset from Multi-GNSS Experiment (MGEX) of the International GNSS Service (IGS) and GNSS Research Centre, Curtin University in this paper, the positioning performance of BDS/QZSS satellite navigation system has been analyzed and evaluated in aspects of the quantity of visible satellites, DOP value, multipath effect, signal-to-noise ratio, static PPP and kinematic PPP. The analysis results show that compared to BDS single system when the cutoff angle are 30°and 40°, the DOP value of BDS/QZSS combined system has decreased above 20%, and the quantity of visible satellites increased about 16–30% respectively, because of the improved spatial geometric configuration. The magnitude of satellite multipath effect of BDS system shows the trend of MEO?>?IGSO?>?GEO, which is consistent with that of QZSS satellite system, as the constellation structure of the two systems is similar. The variation tendencies of signal-to-noise ratio with respect to elevation angle of the two systems are almost the same at all frequencies, showing that at the same elevation angle the signal-to-noise ratio of MEO satellites is higher than that of IGSO satellites, as the higher obit is the lower transmitting power is obtained. For having a specially designed obit, the variation of signal-to-noise ratio of BDS system is more stable. However, the magnitude of signal-to-noise ratio of QZSS system appears the trend of frequency 3?>?frequency 2?>?frequency 1. The static PPP performance of the BDS/QZSS combination system has been improved more significantly than the BDS single system in E, N and U directions. When the cutoff angle are at 7°, 15° and 30°, the PPP accuracy is increased about 25–34% in U direction, 10–13% and 23–34% in E and N directions respectively. When the elevation angle is large (40°), compared to BDS single system at lower elevation angles (7° and 15°) the PPP accuracy of the BDS/QZSS combination system is improved above 30% in U direction. In kinematic PPP performance, compared to BDS single system, the accuracy, availability and reliability of the BDS/QZSS combination system has been improved too, especially at large elevation angles (30° and 40°), the kinematic PPP accuracy in E and U directions has been improved about 10–50%, and above 50% in U direction. It can be concluded that the combination with QZSS system can improve the positioning accuracy, reliability and stability of BDS system. In the future, with the improvement of the satellite construction of Japan’s QZSS system and the global networking of China’s BDS satellites, the QZSS satellites will contribute greatly to improve the positioning accuracy, reliability, availability and stability of GNSS systems in areas such as cities, mountains, densely-packed buildings and severely covered areas in Asian-Pacific region.     

Time synchronization of new-generation BDS satellites using inter-satellite link measurements

Autonomous satellite navigation is based on the ability of a Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS), such as Beidou, to estimate orbits and clock parameters onboard satellites using Inter-Satellite Link (ISL) measurements instead of tracking data from a ground monitoring network. This paper focuses on the time synchronization of new-generation Beidou Navigation Satellite System (BDS) satellites equipped with an ISL payload. Two modes of Ka-band ISL measurements, Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) mode and the continuous link mode, were used onboard these BDS satellites. Using a mathematical formulation for each measurement mode along with a derivation of the satellite clock offsets, geometric ranges from the dual one-way measurements were introduced. Then, pseudoranges and clock offsets were evaluated for the new-generation BDS satellites. The evaluation shows that the ranging accuracies of TDMA ISL and the continuous link are approximately 4?cm and 1?cm (root mean square, RMS), respectively. Both lead to ISL clock offset residuals of less than 0.3?ns (RMS). For further validation, time synchronization between these satellites to a ground control station keeping the systematic time in BDT was conducted using L-band Two-way Satellite Time Frequency Transfer (TWSTFT). System errors in the ISL measurements were calibrated by comparing the derived clock offsets with the TWSTFT. The standard deviations of the estimated ISL system errors are less than 0.3?ns, and the calibrated ISL clock parameters are consistent with that of the L-band TWSTFT. For the regional BDS network, the addition of ISL measurements for medium orbit (MEO) BDS satellites increased the clock tracking coverage by more than 40% for each orbital revolution. As a result, the clock predicting error for the satellite M1S was improved from 3.59 to 0.86?ns (RMS), and the predicting error of the satellite M2S was improved from 1.94 to 0.57?ns (RMS), which is a significant improvement by a factor of 3–4.     

A novel predictive algorithm for double difference observations of obstructed BeiDou geostationary earth orbit (GEO) satellites

Transmission link disturbances and device failure cause global navigation satellite system (GNSS) receivers to miss observations, leading to poor accuracy in real-time kinematic (RTK) positioning. Previously described solutions for this problem are influenced by the length of the prediction period, or are unable to account for changes in receiver state because they use information from previous epochs to make predictions. We propose an algorithm for predicting double difference (DD) observations of obstructed BeiDou navigation system (BDS) GEO satellites. Our approach adopts the first-degree polynomial function for predicting missing observations. We introduce a Douglas-Peucker algorithm to judge the state of the rover receiver to reduce the impact of predictive biases. Static and kinematic experiments were carried out on BDS observations to evaluate the proposed algorithm. The results of our navigation experiment demonstrate that RTK positioning accuracy is improved from meter to decimeter level with fixed ambiguity (horizontal?<?2?cm, vertical?<?18?cm). Horizontal accuracy is improved by over 50%, and the vertical accuracies of the results of the static and kinematic experiments are increased by 47% and 27% respectively, compared with the results produced by the classical approach. Though as the baseline becomes longer, the accuracy is weakened, our predictive algorithm is an improvement over existing approaches to overcome the issue of missing data.     

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

Precise point positioning (PPP) usually takes about 30?min to obtain centimetre-level accuracy, which greatly limits its application. To address the drawbacks of convergence speed and positioning accuracy, we develop a PPP model with integrated GPS and BDS observations. Based on the method, stations with global coverage are selected to estimate the fractional cycle bias (FCB) of GPS and BDS. The short-term and long-term time series of wide-lane (WL) FCB, and the single day change of narrow-lane (NL) FCB are analysed. It is found that the range of GPS and BDS non-GEO (IGSO and MEO) WL FCB is stable at up to a 30-day-time frame. At times frame of up to 60?days, the stability is reduced a lot. Whether for short-term or long-term, the changes in the BDS GEO WL FCB are large. Moreover, BDS FCB sometimes undergoes a sudden jump. Besides, 17 and 10 stations were used respectively to investigate the convergence speed and positioning errors with six strategies: BDS ambiguity-float PPP (Bfloat), GPS ambiguity-float PPP (Gfloat), BDS/GPS ambiguity-float PPP (BGfloat), BDS ambiguity-fixed PPP (Bfix), GPS ambiguity-fixed (Gfix), and BDS/GPS ambiguity-fixed (BGfix). The average convergence speed of the ambiguity-fixed solution is greatly improved compared with the ambiguity-float solution. In terms of the average convergence time, the Bfloat is the longest and the BGfix is the shortest among these six strategies. Whether for ambiguity-float PPP or ambiguity-fixed PPP, the convergence reduction time in three directions for the combined system is the largest compared with the single BDS. The average RMS value of the Bfix in three directions (easting (E), northing (N), and up (U)) are 2.0?cm, 1.5?cm, and 5.9?cm respectively, while those of the Gfix are 0.8?cm, 0.5?cm, and 1.7?cm. Compared with single system, the BDS/GPS combined ambiguity-fixed system (BGfix) has the fastest convergence speed and the highest accuracy, with average RMS as 0.7?cm, 0.5?cm, and 1.9?cm for the E, N, U components, respectively.     

基于MLAMBDA的BDS/GPS单频RTK性能分析

GNSS RTK技术以其高精度、高效率、实时性的优点，被广泛应用于航空航天等领域.目前双频RTK技术已非常成熟并且应用较广.相比于双频，单频GNSS RTK在数据质量控制、定位误差处理等方面存在难点.因此单频RTK服务精度可能会受到限制，其定位性能有待研究.本文基于扩展卡尔曼滤波模型，通过MLAMBDA模糊度搜索方法和Ratio检验法，结合实测数据，对比分析BDS，GPS，BDS/GPS三种模式下的单频RTK定位性能.实验证明在静态场景下，三种模式的单频RTK定位精度都在厘米级，可满足高精度定位需求；动态场景下三种模式的模糊度固定率都在70%以上，可满足日常定位需求.在静态及动态应用场景下，北斗的模糊度固定率最高，模糊度解算所用时间短，能实现快速RTK定位.      

The impact of orbital errors on the estimation of satellite clock errors and PPP

Precise satellite orbit and clocks are essential for providing high accuracy real-time PPP (Precise Point Positioning) service. However, by treating the predicted orbits as fixed, the orbital errors may be partially assimilated by the estimated satellite clock and hence impact the positioning solutions. This paper presents the impact analysis of errors in radial and tangential orbital components on the estimation of satellite clocks and PPP through theoretical study and experimental evaluation. The relationship between the compensation of the orbital errors by the satellite clocks and the satellite-station geometry is discussed in details. Based on the satellite clocks estimated with regional station networks of different sizes (∼100, ∼300, ∼500 and ∼700 km in radius), results indicated that the orbital errors compensated by the satellite clock estimates reduce as the size of the network increases. An interesting regional PPP mode based on the broadcast ephemeris and the corresponding estimated satellite clocks is proposed and evaluated through the numerical study. The impact of orbital errors in the broadcast ephemeris has shown to be negligible for PPP users in a regional network of a radius of ∼300 km, with positioning RMS of about 1.4, 1.4 and 3.7 cm for east, north and up component in the post-mission kinematic mode, comparable with 1.3, 1.3 and 3.6 cm using the precise orbits and the corresponding estimated clocks. Compared with the DGPS and RTK positioning, only the estimated satellite clocks are needed to be disseminated to PPP users for this approach. It can significantly alleviate the communication burdens and therefore can be beneficial to the real time applications.     

Performance assessment of real-time multi-GNSS integrated PPP with uncombined and ionospheric-free combined observables

For precise position services, the real-time precise point positioning (PPP) is a promising technology. The real-time PPP performance is expected to be improved by multi-system combination. The performance of real-time multi-system PPP needs to be periodically investigated, with the increasing number of available satellites and the continuously improved quality of real-time precise products of satellite clocks and orbits. In this study, a comprehensive performance assessment is conducted for the four-system integrated real-time PPP (FSIRT-PPP) with GPS, BDS, Galileo and GLONASS in both static and kinematic modes. The datasets from 118 stations spanning approximately a month are used for analysis, and the real-time stream CLK93 is employed. The superior performance of FSIRT-PPP is validated by comparing with the results of GPS/BDS, GPS/Galileo, GPS/GLONASS, GPS-only, BDS-only, Galileo-only and GLONASS-only cases. The FSIRT-PPP using ionospheric-free (IF) combined observables can achieve a convergence time of 10.9, 4.8 and 11.8 min and a positioning accuracy of 0.4, 0.5 and 0.7 cm in the static mode in the east, north and up directions, respectively, while the derived statistic is 15.4, 7.0 and 16.4 min, and 1.6, 1.2 and 3.4 cm in the kinematic mode in the three directions, respectively. Moreover, we also compare the position solutions of real-time PPP adopting IF combined and uncombined (UC) observables, and prove the mathematical equivalence between the two PPP models in the converged stage, provided that there are no external ionospheric corrections or constraints given to the estimated ionospheric delays in the UC model. The difference between the fully converged positioning accuracy of IF-based and UC-based real-time PPP is marginal, but the UC-based real-time PPP has longer convergence time due to the influence of the significant unmodeled time-varying errors in the real-time precise products as well as the different parameterization between them. For completeness, the real-time kinematic PPP results in harsh environments and the post-processed PPP results are also presented.     

Multi-GNSS contributions to differential code biases determination and regional ionospheric modeling in China

Due to the limited number and uneven distribution globally of Beidou Satellite System (BDS) stations, the contributions of BDS to global ionosphere modeling is still not significant. In order to give a more realistic evaluation of the ability for BDS in ionosphere monitoring and multi-GNSS contributions to the performance of Differential Code Biases (DCBs) determination and ionosphere modeling, we select 22 stations from Crustal Movement Observation Network of China (CMONOC) to assess the result of regional ionospheric model and DCBs estimates over China where the visible satellites and monitoring stations for BDS are comparable to those of GPS/GLONASS. Note that all the 22 stations can track the dual- and triple-frequency GPS, GLONASS, and BDS observations. In this study, seven solutions, i.e., GPS-only (G), GLONASS-only (R), BDS-only (C), GPS + BDS (GC), GPS + GLONASS (GR), GLONASS + BDS (RC), GPS + GLONASS + BDS (GRC), are used to test the regional ionosphere modeling over the experimental area. Moreover, the performances of them using single-frequency precise point positioning (SF-PPP) method are presented. The experimental results indicate that BDS has the same ionospheric monitoring capability as GPS and GLONASS. Meanwhile, multi-GNSS observations can significantly improve the accuracy of the regional ionospheric models compared with that of GPS-only or GLONASS-only or BDS-only, especially over the edge of the tested region which the accuracy of the model is improved by reducing the RMS of the maximum differences from 5–15 to 2–3 TECu. For satellite DCBs estimates of different systems, the accuracy of them can be improved significantly after combining different system observations, which is improved by reducing the STD of GPS satellite DCB from 0.243 to 0.213, 0.172, and 0.165 ns after adding R, C, and RC observations respectively, with an increment of about 12.3%, 29.4%, and 32.2%. The STD of GLONASS satellite DCB improved from 0.353 to 0.304, 0.271, and 0.243 ns after adding G, C, and GC observations, respectively. The STD of BDS satellite DCB reduced from 0.265 to 0.237, 0.237 and 0.229 ns with the addition of G, R and GR systems respectively, and increased by 10.6%, 10.4%, and 13.6%. From the experimental positioning result, it can be seen that the regional ionospheric models with multi-GNSS observations are better than that with a single satellite system model.     

Inertial aided BDS triple-frequency integer ambiguity rounding method

The integer ambiguity resolution (AR) of carrier phase is significant for Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) precise positioning. However, in kinematic case, single-epoch AR methods based on alone GNSS are usually not reliable due to the instable pseudorange accuracy. Moreover, the computation of classical AR method Least Squares Ambiguity Decorrelation Adjustment (LAMBDA) is large. Thus, the inertial measurement unit (IMU) is introduced, a new inertial-aided AR method that directly rounds the float ambiguity of BeiDou triple-frequency combined observations, which is characterized by long wavelength, low carrier-phase noise and ionospheric delay, is proposed. The mathematical model of the new method is derived first. Then the impacts of the carrier-phase noise, ionospheric delay and inertial navigation system (INS) position error on the AR success ratio of combined observation are analyzed through probabilistic approach. Based on above investigation, the combinations (0, ?1, 1), (1, 4, ?5) and (4, ?2, ?3) are selected to resolve the original ambiguity. A vehicular integrated navigation test is performed to demonstrate the proposed method. The results show that the average AR success ratios of the three selected combinations, whose float ambiguity errors are 0.041, 0.146, 0.279 cycle respectively, are above 97.25% without regard to low-elevation C05. With respect to positioning accuracy based on our AR method when compared with IE software, the east, north, up error RMS of position are 0.042, 0.024, 0.069 m, respectively. In terms of the AR recover after the BeiDou signals outage, as long as 62 s BeiDou signal complete outage, all the ambiguities of all satellites could be re-fixed immediately. Besides, during the 90 s signals partial outage, the AR is not influenced by the position error, since the float ambiguity errors are all below half-cycle. The research of this contribution demonstrates the effectiveness of the proposed new method, which indicates it is applicable to kinematic positioning, even in BDS degraded and denied environments.     

Initial accuracy and reliability of current BDS-3 precise positioning,velocity estimation,and time transfer (PVT)

The primary system of Chinese global BeiDou satellite system (BDS-3) was completed to provide global services on December 27, 2018; this was a key milestone in the development process for BDS in terms of its provision of global services. Therefore, this study analyzed the current performance of BDS-3, including its precise positioning, velocity estimation, and time transfer (PVT). The datasets were derived from international GNSS monitoring and assessment system (iGMAS) tracking networks and the two international time laboratories in collaboration with the International Bureau of Weights and Measures (BIPM). With respect to the positioning, the focus is on the real-time kinematic (RTK) positioning and precise point positioning (PPP) modes with static and kinematic scenarios. The results show that the mean available satellite number is 4.8 for current BDS-3 system at short baseline XIA1–XIA3. The RTK accuracy for three components is generally within cm level; the 3D mean accuracy is 8.9 mm for BDS-3 solutions. For the PPP scenarios, the convergence time is about 4 h for TP01 and BRCH stations in two scenarios. After the convergence, the horizontal positioning accuracy is better than cm level and the vertical accuracy nearly reaches the 1 dm level. With respect to kinematic scenarios, the accuracy stays at the cm level for horizontal components and dm level for the vertical component at two stations. In terms of velocity estimation, the horizontal accuracy stays at a sub-mm level, and the vertical accuracy is better than 2 mm/s in the BDS-3 scenario, even in the Arctic. In terms of time and frequency transfer, the noise level of BDS-3 time links can reach 0.096 ns for long-distances link NT01–TP02 and 0.016 ns for short-distance links TP01–TP02. Frequency stability reaches 5E–14 accuracy when the averaging time is within 10,000 s for NT01–TP02 and 1E–15 for TP01–TP02.     

北斗卫星导航系统实时定轨与钟差处理策略

目前鲜有对北斗卫星导航系统（BeiDouNavigationSatelliteSystem,BDS）实时精密定轨与钟差确定的研究,文章提出了BDS实时轨道与实时钟差处理策略,包括了观测与动力学模型、实时轨道与实时钟差处理流程与评估方法。尤其对于实时钟差,为了提高计算效率,联合使用两个独立并行的线程估计非差绝对钟差和历元间相对钟差。利用多模全球卫星导航系统试验(MGEX)与全球连续检测评估系统（iGMAS）实测数据进行了北斗实时轨道与钟差解算,BDS实时轨道径向平均精度对于GEO卫星优于20cm,对于IGSO与MEO一般优于10cm;钟差精度对于GEO卫星为0.5~4.5ns,对于IGSO／MEO为0.2~2.0ns。基于目前的轨道与钟差结果,实时精密单点定位（PrecisePointPositioning,PPP）结果可以达到分米量级。     

Analysis on navigation accuracy of high orbit spacecraft based on BDS GEO and IGSO satellites

To make up for the insufficiency of earth-based TT&C systems, the use of GNSS technology for high-orbit spacecraft navigation and orbit determination has become a new technology. It is of great value to applying Geosynchronous Earth Orbit (GEO) and Inclined GeoStationary Orbit (IGSO) navigation satellites for supporting the navigation of high-orbit spacecraft since there are three different types of navigation satellites in BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS): Medium Earth Orbit (MEO), GEO and IGSO. This paper conducts simulation experiments based on Two-Line Orbital Element (TLE) data to analyze and demonstrate the role of these satellites in the navigation of high-orbit spacecraft. Firstly, the spacecraft in GEO was used as the target satellite to conduct navigation experiments. Experiments show that for the spacecraft on the GEO orbit, after adding GEO and IGSO respectively on the basis of receiving MEO navigation satellite signals, the accuracies were improved by 7.22 % and 6.06 % respectively. When adding both GEO and IGSO navigation satellites at the same time, the accuracy can reach 16 m. In the second place, navigation and positioning experiments were carried out on three high elliptical orbit (HEO) satellites with different semimajor axis (32037.2 km, 42385.9 km, 67509.6 km). The experiments show that the number of visible satellites has been improved significantly after adding GEO and IGSO navigation satellites at the same time. The visible satellites in these three orbits were improved by 32.84 %, 41.12 % and 37.68 %, respectively compared with only observing MEO satellites.The RMS values of the navigation positioning errors of these three orbits are 25.59 m, 87.58 m and 712.48 m, respectively.     

Performance assessment of RTPPP positioning with SSR corrections and PPP-AR positioning with FCB for multi-GNSS from MADOCA products

The state-space representation (SSR) product of satellite orbit and clock is one of the most essential corrections for real-time precise point positioning (RTPPP). When it comes to PPP ambiguity resolution (PPP-AR), the fractional cycle bias (FCB) matters. The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) has developed a multi-GNSS (i.e., global navigation satellite system) advanced demonstration tool for orbit and clock analysis (MADOCA), providing free and precise orbit and clock products. Because of the shortage of relevant studies on performance evaluation, this paper focuses on the performance assessment of RTPPP and PPP-AR by real-time and offline MADOCA products. To begin with, the real-time MADOCA products are evaluated by comparing orbit and clock with JAXA final products, which gives an objective impression of the correction. Second, PPP tests in static and simulated kinematic mode are conducted to further verify the quality of real-time MADOCA products. Finally, the offline MADOCA products are assessed by PPP and PPP-AR comparisons. The results are as follows: (1) Orbit comparisons produced an average error of about 0.04–0.13 m for the global positioning system (GPS), 0.14–0.16 m for the global navigation satellite system (GLONASS), and 0.07–0.08 m for the quasi-zenith satellite system (QZSS). The G15 satellite had the most accurate orbit, with a difference of 0.04 m between the JAXA orbit products and MADOCA’s counterpart, while the R07 satellite had the least accurate orbit with a difference of 0.16 m. Clock products had an accuracy of 0.4–1.3 ns for GPS, 1.4–1.6 ns for GLONASS, and 0.7–0.8 ns for QZSS in general. The G15 satellite had the most accurate clock with a difference of only 0.40 ns between the JAXA clock products and MADOCA products, and the R07 satellite had the least accurate clock with a difference of 1.55 ns. The orbit and clock products for GLONASS performed worse than those of GPS and QZSS. (2) After convergence, the positioning accuracy was 3.0–8.1 cm for static PPP and 8.1–13.7 cm for kinematic PPP when using multi-GNSS observations and precise orbit and clock products. The PFRR station performed the good performance both in static and kinematic mode with an accuracy of 2.99 cm and 8.08 cm, respectively, whereas the CPNM station produced the worst static performance with an error of 8.09 cm, and the ANMG station produced the worst kinematic performance with a counterpart of 13.69 cm. (3) The PPP-AR solution was superior to the PPP solution, given that, with respect to PPP, post-processing PPP-AR improved the positioning accuracy and convergence time by 13–32 % (3–89 %) in GPS-only mode by 2–15 % (5–60 %) in GPS/QZSS mode. Thus, we conclude that the current MADOCA products can provide SSR corrections and FCB products with positioning accuracy at the decimeter or even centimeter level, which could meet the demands of the RTPPP and PPP-AR solutions.     

一种顾及厄特沃思效应的水下重力辅助导航方法

水下相对于水面环境,准确估计厄特沃思效应更为困难,进而影响重力测量精度。由于传统重力匹配算法未考虑水下厄特沃思估计误差对重力辅助导航定位性能的影响,根据不同导航参数对厄特沃思估计误差的影响程度,构建了水下惯导系统/计程仪/重力仪组合导航框架,采用UKF非线性滤波算法,分析了不同导航模式下厄特沃思估计误差特性,并评估了有无厄特沃思估计误差时重力辅助导航性能的差异。半物理仿真结果表明采用DVL的辅助导航方式可有效抑制惯导误差积累,INS/DVL/Gravimeter三者信息融合导航模式定位性能得到了进一步提高,即使在考虑厄特沃思估计误差的情况下,与仅采用DVL作为辅助信息源相比,水平径向误差定位精度依然提升了17.02%。     

基于混沌粒子群优化的北斗/GPS组合导航选星算法

全球卫星导航系统（GNSS）接收机在接收信号的过程中会受到诸如建筑物遮挡、信号干扰等因素的影响,无法得到全部可见星。为减轻多星座组合接收机的处理负担,研究利用部分可见卫星进行定位的快速选星算法,提出了一种基于混沌粒子群优化（CPSO）的北斗/GPS组合导航选星算法。首先,对当前历元时刻可见卫星进行连续编码,按照选星数目分组,每个分组视为一个粒子。然后,通过混沌映射初始化粒子种群,选取几何精度因子（GDOP）作为评价粒子优劣的适应度函数;粒子通过粒子群优化算法的速度-位移模型更新自身位置,逐渐趋近空间卫星几何分布较好的卫星组合全局最优解。最后,采集北斗/GPS实际数据对选星算法进行仿真验证和性能比较,结果表明,所提算法在选星颗数多于5颗时,单次选星耗时为遍历法选星的37.5%,选星结果的几何精度因子计算误差在0~0.6之间。该算法可适用于北斗/GPS组合导航定位不同选星颗数的情况。      

Evaluation of a regional real-time precise positioning system based on GPS/BeiDou observations in Australia

The performance of real-time (RT) precise positioning can be improved by utilizing observations from multiple Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) instead of one particular system. Since the end of 2012, BeiDou, independently established by China, began to provide operational services for users in the Asia-Pacific regions. In this study, a regional RT precise positioning system is developed to evaluate the performance of GPS/BeiDou observations in Australia in providing high precision positioning services for users. Fixing three hourly updated satellite orbits, RT correction messages are generated and broadcasted by processing RT observation/navigation data streams from the national network of GNSS Continuously Operating Reference Stations in Australia (AUSCORS) at the server side. At the user side, RT PPP is realized by processing RT data streams and the RT correction messages received. RT clock offsets, for which the accuracy reached 0.07 and 0.28?ns for GPS and BeiDou, respectively, can be determined. Based on these corrections, an accuracy of 12.2, 30.0 and 45.6?cm in the North, East and Up directions was achieved for the BeiDou-only solution after 30 min while the GPS-only solution reached 5.1, 15.3 and 15.5?cm for the same components at the same time. A further improvement of 43.7, 36.9 and 45.0 percent in the three directions, respectively, was achieved for the combined GPS/BeiDou solution. After the initialization process, the North, East and Up positioning accuracies were 5.2, 8.1 and 17.8?cm, respectively, for the BeiDou-only solution, while 1.5, 3.0, and 4.7?cm for the GPS-only solution. However, we only noticed a 20.9% improvement in the East direction was obtained for the GPS/BeiDou solution, while no improvements in the other directions were detected. It is expected that such improvements may become bigger with the increasing accuracy of the BeiDou-only solution.     

BDS/GPS组合导航接收机自主完好性监测算法

为使接收机自主完好性监测（RAIM）技术应用于民航垂直引导进近（APV）飞行阶段成为可能,研究了BDS/GPS组合导航RAIM算法。提出了一种基于BDS/GPS定位解最优加权平均解的算法,结合最优加权平均解与BDS/GPS定位解的关系建立检验统计量,根据最大允许的虚警率计算检验门限,实现对故障所在卫星导航系统的检测,并采用加权最小二乘残差法对故障进行检测与识别。研究结果对多星座组合卫星导航系统应用于民航APV飞行阶段的导航具有一定的参考意义。      

LEO enhanced Global Navigation Satellite System (LeGNSS) for real-time precise positioning services

Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) has been widely used in many geosciences areas with its Positioning, Navigation and Timing (PNT) service. However, GNSS still has its own bottleneck, such as the long initialization period of Precise Point Positioning (PPP) without dense reference network. Recently, the concept of PNTRC (Positioning, Navigation, Timing, Remote sensing and Communication) has been put forward, where Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite constellations are recruited to fulfill diverse missions. In navigation aspect, a number of selected LEO satellites can be equipped with a transmitter to transmit similar navigation signals to ground users, so that they can serve as GNSS satellites but with much faster geometric change to enhance GNSS capability, which is named as LEO constellation enhanced GNSS (LeGNSS). As a result, the initialization time of PPP is expected to be shortened to the level of a few minutes or even seconds depending on the number of the LEO satellites involved. In this article, we simulate all the relevant data from June 8th to 14th, 2014 and investigate the feasibility of LeGNSS with the concentration on the key issues in the whole data processing for providing real-time PPP service based on a system configuration with fourteen satellites of BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS), twenty-four satellites of the Global Positioning System (GPS), and sixty-six satellites of the Iridium satellite constellations. At the server-end, Precise Orbit Determination (POD) and Precise Clock Estimation (PCE) with various operational modes are investigated using simulated observations. It is found out that GNSS POD with partial LEO satellites is the most practical mode of LeGNSS operation. At the user-end, the Geometry Dilution Of Precision (GDOP) and Signal-In-Space Ranging Error (SISRE) are calculated and assessed for different positioning schemes in order to demonstrate the performance of LeGNSS. Centimeter level SISRE can be achieved for LeGNSS.     

Carrier phase prediction method for GNSS precise positioning in challenging environment

Since the signals of global navigation satellite system (GNSS) are blocked frequently in challenging environments, the discontinuous carrier phases seriously affect the application of GNSS precise positioning. To improve the carrier phase continuity, this paper proposes a carrier phase prediction method based on carrier open-loop tracking. In the open-loop tracking mode, the carrier numerically controlled oscillator (NCO) is controlled by the predicted Doppler, but not by the loop filter output. To improve the phase prediction effective time, accurate receiver clock drift estimation is studied in the prediction method. The phase prediction performance is tested on GNSS software receiver. In the phase prediction effective time tests, open-loop processes were set for the tested channel. The test results show that, when some satellite signals are blocked in 15?s, the probability of carrier phase error less than quarter cycles is more than 94%. In the real time kinematic (RTK) positioning tests, some satellite signals are blocked in 10–15?s repeatedly. The test results show that, the carrier phase continuity is basically not affected by the signal interruption, and the RTK can almost keep continuous centimeter-level positioning accuracy without re-fixing the integer ambiguity.     

Comprehensive outage compensation of real-time orbit and clock corrections with broadcast ephemeris for ambiguity-fixed precise point positioning

The main challenge in real-time precise point positioning (PPP) is that the data outages or large time lags in receiving precise orbit and clock corrections greatly degrade the continuity and real-time performance of PPP positioning. To solve this problem, instead of directly predicting orbit and clock corrections in previous researches, this paper presents an alternative approach of generating combined corrections including orbit error, satellite clock and receiver-related error with broadcast ephemeris. Using ambiguities and satellite fractional-cycle biases (FCBs) of previous epoch and the short-term predicted tropospheric delay through linear extrapolation model (LEM), combined corrections at current epoch are retrieved and weighted with multiple reference stations, and further broadcast to user for continuous enhanced positioning during outages of orbit and clock corrections. To validate the proposed method, two reference station network with different inter-station distance from National Geodetic Survey (NGS) network are used for experiments with six different time lags (i.e., 5 s, 10 s, 15 s, 30 s, 45 s and 60 s), and one set of data collected by unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) is also used. The performance of LEM is investigated, and the troposphere prediction accuracy of low elevation (e.g., 10–20degrees) satellites has been improved by 44.1% to 79.0%. The average accuracy of combined corrections before and after LEM is used is improved by 12.5% to 77.3%. Without LEM, an accuracy of 2–3 cm can be maintained only in case of small time lags, while the accuracies with LEM are all better than 2 cm in case of different time lags. The performance of simulated kinematic PPP at user end is assessed in terms of positioning accuracy and epoch fix rate. In case of different time lags, after LEM is used, the average accuracy in horizontal direction is better than 3 cm, and the accuracy in up direction is better than 5 cm. At the same time, the epoch fix rate has also increased to varying degrees. The results of the UAV data show that in real kinematic environment, the proposed method can still maintain a positioning accuracy of several centimeters in case of 20 s time lag.