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. 2015 Feb 9:5:8328.
doi: 10.1038/srep08328.

Precise positioning with current multi-constellation Global Navigation Satellite Systems: GPS, GLONASS, Galileo and BeiDou

Xingxing Li  1 , Xiaohong Zhang  2 , Xiaodong Ren  2 , Mathias Fritsche  3 , Jens Wickert  3 , Harald Schuh  3
Affiliations

Precise positioning with current multi-constellation Global Navigation Satellite Systems: GPS, GLONASS, Galileo and BeiDou

Xingxing Li et al. Sci Rep. .

Abstract

The world of satellite navigation is undergoing dramatic changes with the rapid development of multi-constellation Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSSs). At the moment more than 70 satellites are already in view, and about 120 satellites will be available once all four systems (BeiDou + Galileo + GLONASS + GPS) are fully deployed in the next few years. This will bring great opportunities and challenges for both scientific and engineering applications. In this paper we develop a four-system positioning model to make full use of all available observations from different GNSSs. The significant improvement of satellite visibility, spatial geometry, dilution of precision, convergence, accuracy, continuity and reliability that a combining utilization of multi-GNSS brings to precise positioning are carefully analyzed and evaluated, especially in constrained environments.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1. The distribution of multi-GNSS stations from MGEX and BETN networks.
Their supported constellations are shown in different colors, BeiDou in blue, GPS in red, GLONASS in green, and Galileo in black. This figure is drawn using GMT software.
Figure 2
Figure 2. Satellite visibility of Galileo, BeiDou, GLONASS and GPS at the four-system station GMSD (Japan) on September 3, 2013 (GPS Time).
Galileo, BeiDou, GLONASS and GPS satellites are shown by red, pink, blue and green lines, respectively.
Figure 3
Figure 3. Visible satellite number at the four-system station GMSD on September 3, 2013 (GPS Time).
The satellite number of GPS, GLONASS, BeiDou, Galileo and the total satellite number are shown by red, green, pink, black and blue lines, respectively.
Figure 4
Figure 4. Sky plots (azimuth vs. elevation) for the various satellite systems at GMSD on September 3, 2013.
a) GPS; b) GLONASS; c) BeiDou (pink) and Galileo (red); d) all the satellites including GPS, GLONASS, BeiDou and Galileo.
Figure 5
Figure 5. PDOP values for the single-system and four-system modes at GMSD on September 3, 2013 (GPS Time).
The PDOP values of GPS, GLONASS, BeiDou and four-system combination are shown by red, green, black, and blue lines, respectively.
Figure 6
Figure 6. The SNRs and MPCs of different satellite systems and orbital types at GMSD.
G02, R04, E20, C02(GEO), C06(IGSO) and C13(MEO) are selected as typical examples for their individual satellite system or orbital type. The variation of their elevations with time (GPS Time) is also shown.
Figure 7
Figure 7. Standard deviations of MPCs for different satellite systems and orbital types at GMSD station.
(GPS, GLONASS, Galileo, BeiDou GEO, BeiDou IGSO and BeiDou MEO; on the first frequency).
Figure 8
Figure 8. Static PPP solutions of single-system (G, R, E, and C), dual-system (G/R, G/C, and G/E) and four-system (G/R/E/C) modes at station CUT0 (Australia, 32.00°S, 115.89°E, ), on September 3, 2013 (GPS Time).
The north, east and up components are shown by the blue, green and red lines, respectively.
Figure 9
Figure 9. Static PPP solutions of single-system (G, R, E, and C), dual-system (G/R, G/C, and G/E) and four-system (G/R/E/C) modes at station LMMF (14.59°N, −60.99°W, Martinique, Caribbean Sea), on September 3, 2013 (GPS Time).
The north, east and up components are shown by the blue, green and red lines, respectively.
Figure 10
Figure 10. RMS values of static PPP solutions with different session lengths (15 min, 30 min, 1 h, 2 h, 4 h, 6 h and 12 h) in single-, dual- and four-system modes.
The north, east and up components are shown by the red, blue and green bars, respectively.
Figure 11
Figure 11. The RMS values of static PPP solutions in GPS-only and four-system modes under different cut-off elevation angles (from 10° to 40°).
The north, east and up components are shown by the red, blue and green bars, respectively.
Figure 12
Figure 12. Kinematic PPP results (with backward smoothing) in single- and multi-system modes at station CUT0 (32.00°S, 115.89°E, Australia), on September 3, 2013 (GPS Time).
The GPS, GLONASS, BeiDou and four-system solutions are shown by the blue, yellow, green and red lines, respectively.
Figure 13
Figure 13. Kinematic PPP results (with backward smoothing) in single- and multi-system modes under different cut-off elevation angles (from 10° to 40°) at station CUT0 (GPS Time).
The GPS-only and four-system solutions are shown by the red and blue lines, respectively.
Figure 14
Figure 14. The code and phase residuals of several typical satellites from different navigation satellite systems and orbital types [G02 (GPS), R04 (GLONASS), C02 (BeiDou GEO), C06 (BeiDou IGSO), C14 (BeiDou MEO), and E20 (Galileo)], on September 3, 2013 (GPS Time).
Figure 15
Figure 15. The RMS values of phase and code residuals (MGEX and BETN networks from September 1 to December 9 in 2013) for different satellite systems and orbital types (GPS, GLONASS, Galileo, BeiDou GEO, BeiDou IGSO, and BeiDou MEO).
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