Understanding GPS Signals & Pseudo Ranging

S.D.P.J. Dampegama
Senior Lecturer / Superintendent of Surveys

Institute of Surveying & Mapping Diyatalawa -Sri Lanka

Contents
Some Basic Concepts Wave Equation

Electro Magnetic Waves propagate through vacuum at a rate of about 300,000 km./sec.(C) This propagation can be expressed by the wave equation, C= f f - Frequency of the Wave - Wave length

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Energy of a Wave

The energy of an electro magnetic wave is directly proportionate to the frequency.

Where E -Energy

E=hf

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Wave Modulation

In order to send a wave through long distances the energy of the wave should be increased. But this distort the frequency. One remedy is to load the wave onto a wave with higher energy known as carrier wave. This loading is known as modulation and can be done in many ways.

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Wave Modulation

Different types of Modulation

Amplitude Modulation Frequency Modulation Phase Modulation

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GPS Signal Structure

L2 Carrier

Data Message

L1 Carrier

P-Code

P-Code

C/A Code

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GPS Signal Structure

Satellites Atomic Clock gives fundamental frequency 10.23 Mhz. Two Carrier frequencies L1 & L2
L1= 10.23x154=1575.42 MHz (=19 cm.) L2= 10.23x120=1227.60 MHz (=24 cm.)

Two Code frequencies. Precise Code (P-Code) & Coarse Acquisition Code (C/A Code). The codes were encrypted on to the carrier waves by phase modulation. L1 with P-Code & C/A Code L2 with P-Code
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GPS Signal Structure

C/A code and P code are designed to carry information from the satellite to the receiver. They are also impressed on to the carrier frequencies L1 which carries both P code & C/A code and L2 carries P code only. The Phase modulation used by GPS receivers are known as binary biphase modulation. Each zero & one of the binary code is known as code chip. The phase of the carrier wave (L1 or L2) will change by 180 to represent each binary code. There for the frequency and the amplitude of the carrier wave remain unaltered during the phase modulation.
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GPS Signal Structure

As L1 carrier has to carry both P code and C/A code through the same phase modulation the codes could be mixed up. This problem was solve by transmission in quadraturve. The C/A code modulation in L1 carrier is phase shifted by 90 from the P code modulation on the Same Carrier. C/A Code frequency 1.023 million bits per second (=300 m) repeated in every Millie second. Each satellite broad casts unique C/A code on its L1 frequency.

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GPS Signal Structure

P Code frequency 10.23 M/S (=30 m) repeated in every 37 weeks. There fore the chirping rate of P code is ten times faster than C/A code. This also defines the satellite uniquely. Each satellite was given one week portion of P-Code and this week number is known as the satellites identity. (Space Vehicle Number or SV number) Pseudo Random Noise (PRN): P code & C/A code are so complicated and appear to be noise as first. But these code can be read in order to grab the information associated.
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GPS Signal Structure

Standard Positioning Service (SPS) C/A code is designed for most civilian applications. Which is low in terms of accuracy. ( 100 m.) Precise Positioning Service (PPS) P code is designed to get higher degree of accuracy in positioning and is restricted to users authorized by the DoD Selective Availability (SA) Selective availability is the intentional degradation of codes.
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GPS Signal Structure

Navigation Message: The navigation message is a 50Hz signal on L1& L2 containing data that describes many parameters required for the processing. The message is 1500 bits long and divided in to five subframes with 300 bits in each. The time-tagged sub frames are marked with the time they transmitted by the Satellite. One data frame will get transmitted in 30 seconds.

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Types of GPS Observations

There are two main types of methods to determine position in GPS. Pseudo Range observations Carrier beat phase Pseudo Range Observations: Pseudo range observations provide instantaneous positions and relatively low accuracy when compared with carrier phase measurements. Pseudo range is based on time measurements. The time difference d is the time taken for the electro magnetic wave to travel from the satellite to the receiver.
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How To Measure Time

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Pseudo Range Observations

A position on three dimensional space consists of three parameters. (x,y,z) Determination of position is equivalent to solve for three unknowns in mathematics. There for it is necessary to create three independent equations. In pseudo ranging each equation is represented by distance (range) from a satellite to the receiver. The range = c x d

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Pseudo Range Observations

2nd Range (Eqn. 2)

3rd Range (Eqn. 3)

1st Range (Eqn. 1)

Three equations to solve for three parameters. (X,Y,Z) Known Unknown GPSSignals by Dampe

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Pseudo Range Observations

Problem: But the above technique is not practically possible due to errors associated with the receiver clock. It is impossible to use precise atomic clock in the receiver due to the price and the size. Solution: By treating the error of the receiver clock as another unknown the clock error can be computed and corrected.

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Pseudo Range Observations

3rd Range (Eqn. 3) 2nd Range (Eqn. 2)

1st Range (Eqn. 1)

4th Range (Eqn. 4)

Four equations to solve for four parameters.Receiver clock error can be eliminated. (X,Y,Z dt) (X,Y,Z,dt) Unknown Known GPSSignals by Dampe

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Accuracy of Pseudo Ranging

Pseudo range can be resolved for about 1% of the accuracy of the code being used by using good receiver. For C/A code ( = 300 m.) accuracy = 3 m. For P code ( = 30 m) accuracy = 30 cm. Various types of systematic errors are also associated with GPS observations. In order to reach highest accuracy these systematic errors are also to be considered. But with selective availability the accuracy of positions can be reduced even up to 100 m.
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How to Reach Better Accuracy ?

A single receiver observing four or more satellites on its own to find a position is subjected to various errors and as mentioned earlier the errors can be large as 100 m in horizontal . ( 160 m in vertical) This accuracy level is not good enough for most applications. By comparison positions generated by simultaneous data, most of the systematic errors will get cancelled out and could reach much better accuracy levels when compared with positions obtained by single receiver. This method is known as differential GPS technology.
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Differential GPS Observations

Compute Position (Contaminated by errors) Error =Computed - Observed

Correct the computed positions by applying error corrections

Compute Position (Contaminated by errors)

Base
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Rover
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Unknown Point (X,Y,Z)

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Known Point (X,Y,Z)

Differential Corrections
The base station and rover should receive signals from same set of satellites in order to apply the differential correction successfully. This will reduce the errors by substantial amount. By applying differential correction to code, positions can be obtained to an accuracy of 0.5-2 m. This is a suitable accuracy range for most applications.

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GPS Range Error Sources Error Source SV Clock SV Ephemeris Troposphere Ionosphere Multipath
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Range Error DGPS Range Error 1.0 m. 1.0 m. 1.0 m. 10.0 m. 1.0 m. 0.5 m.
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Pseudo Range Noice 1.0 m 0.5 m.

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