Precise GNSS positioning

Threats and opportunities

Kees de Jong

Department of Mathematical Geodesy and Positioning

Delft University of Technology
The Netherlands
Simpsio Brasileiro de Geomtica
UNESP, Presidente Prudente, July 2002

Contents

Modernized GPS and Galileo

GNSS vulnerabilities
Integrated GPS/Galileo ambiguity resolution
Major error sources
Trends in RTK positioning

GPS modernization

No Selective Availability (SA)

Second civil signal on L2
Third civil signal on new L5
frequency (1176.45 MHz)

Switched off on 2 May 2000

Availability of new GPS signals

Block IIR
New civil signal on L2
Stronger signals on L1 and L2
First launch in 2003
Block IIF
L5 frequency (1176.45 MHz)
New civil signals on L2 en L5
Stronger signals on L1, L2 and L5
First launch 2005

Aug-11

Feb-11

Aug-10

Feb-10

Aug-09

Feb-09

Aug-08

30
28
26
24
22
20
18
16
14
12
10
8
6
4
2
0
Feb-08

Aug-07

Feb-07

Aug-06

Feb-06

Aug-05

Feb-05

Aug-04

Feb-04

Aug-03

Feb-03

Number of satellites

Availability of new GPS signals

Block IIF (L1, L2, L5)

Block IIR (L1, L2)

Galileo orbits and frequency bands

Orbits

Frequency bands

Orbital planes

E1

1587-1591 MHz

Satellites/plane

10

E2

1559-1563 MHz

Semi-major axis 29900 km

E4

1254-1258 MHz

Inclination

E5

1164-1214 MHz

E6

1260-1300 MHz

56

Satellite constellation
GPS
Galileo

GNSS frequency allocation

Lower L-band
L-Band
Lower

UpperL-band
L-Band
Upper

ARNS

ARNS
RNSS*

E5
:1
16
412
14

M
H
z

RNSS

RNSS

GPS L1

Galileo E1

Glonass
GPS L2 G2

Galileo C1

Galileo E2

Galileo E6

Galileo E4

GPS L5

RNSS*

ARNS

Glonass
G2

E4
:1
25
4E6
: 1 125
8
26
M
0H
13
z
0
E2
0
M
:1
H
55
z
915
E1
63
:1
M
58
H
7z
15
91
C
M
1:
H
z
50
10
-5
03
0
M
H
z

Galileo E5/A Galileo E5/B

Galileo E3

RNSS

C-band

C-Band

GPS and Galileo signals

1160

L5 (E5a)

E5b

1176.45

1202.25

1170

1180

1190

1200

1210

1220

L2

E6

1227.60

1210

1220

E2

1230

L1

f [MHz]

1278.75

1240

1250

1260

1270

1280

1290

E1
GPS civil signal

1575.42

Galileo civil signal

Galileo commercial signal
GPS precision signal
1560

1570

1580

1590

f [MHz]

Galileo precision signal

Non--civil signal

1300

f [MHz]

Galileo schedule
Official go-ahead on 26 March 2002
First experimental satellite in 2004
(Galileo System Test Bed)
First four operational satellites in 2005-2006
Full operational constellation in 2008

See also http://www.europa.eu.int/comm/energy_transport/en/gal_en.html

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Date: 11 July 2002

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Location: Presidente Prudente

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21

1:00:00.0

0:00:00.0

Number of satellites

Visible satellites
Minimum elevation: 10

24

GPS
Galileo
Total

18

15

12

GPS system vulnerabilities

See Volpe vulnerability report (august 2001)
http://www.navcen.uscg.gov

Unintentional interference
Radio-frequency interference (RFI)
GPS testing
Ionosphere (solar maximum)
Spectrum congestion

GPS system vulnerabilities

Intentional interference
Jamming: denial of use of GPS
Spoofing: broadcast wrong GPS-like signals
Meaconing: rebroadcast GPS signals
System damage: satellites or ground control segment
Human factors
Errors, over-reliance, lack of knowledge/training

Jamming

Characteristics
Simple, 1 watt: 10/85 km (loss/no acquisition)
GPS-like, 1 watt: 1000 km (no acquisition)

Jammers

Russian, 4 Watt, L1 and L2, GPS

and GLONASS, US$ 4,000

USA, 1 Watt

Miniature L1 jammer

TNO-FEL prototype jammer

1 mW output
Range > 125 m
Power consumption 9 V, 30 mA
Size of one cubic inch feasible
TNO-FEL: Physics research lab of the Netherlands
organization for applied research

Sources of interference
Technical enthusiasts
Students or people that cannot withstand the challenge

Criminals
Car or cargo theft, free access to toll-roads

Terrorists
Block airports, rescue and police

Military
Jam potential enemy to deny use of GPS, Galileo and Glonass signals

Precise GNSS positioning

Carrier ambiguity resolution is the key to precise positioning
with a Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) such as

I n t e g r aGPS
ted
Galileo
GPS/Galileo

GNSS processing steps

Float solution
Estimate
position and
carrier
ambiguities
Least squares

LAMBDA method
Estimate
integer
ambiguities

Integer least squares

Fixed solution
Estimate
position
(ambiguities
fixed)
Least squares

Success-rate

Probability (number in interval [0-100%]) of fixing the

carrier ambiguities to their correct integer values

Requires satellite almanac and approximate

user position, but no actual data

Ionosphere models
Ionosphere float (long baseline)
New ionosphere parameter for each satellite at each observation
epoch (equivalent to eliminating ionosphere)

Ionosphere weighted (medium baseline)

New ionosphere parameter for each satellite at each observation
epoch constrained by a priori standard deviation

Ionosphere fixed (short baseline)

Ionosphere assumed absent

Design parameters - frequencies

GPS

Galileo

L1

1575.420 MHz

E2-L1-E1 1575.420 MHz

L2

1227.600 MHz

E5b

1202.025 MHz

L5

1176.450 MHz

E6

1278.750 MHz

Design parameters
Computation of instantaneous success-rates
(single-epoch ambiguity resolution)
Location:

Presidente Prudente (22 S, 51 W)

Date:

11 July 2002

Minimum elevation:

10

Standard deviation carrier: 0.003 m

Ionosphere weight:

0.05 m (medium baseline only)

Design parameters - code observations

Standard deviation code

L1

0.30

E2-L1-E1

0.15

L2

0.30

E5b

0.10

L5

0.10

E6

0.10

Interpretation of results
Succes-rate
is 57% or
100%
higher in 95% percent of
all cases

100%

100%

Success rate [%]

80%

57%

60%
44%
40%

20%
3%

0%
0%
Dual-frequency
Long baseline

Triple-frequency
Medium baseline

Short baseline

GPS only
100%

100%

100%

Success rate [%]

80%

57%

60%
44%
40%

20%
3%

0%
0%
Dual-frequency
Long baseline

Triple-frequency
Medium baseline

Short baseline

Integrated GPS and Galileo

100%

100%

100%
92%

87%

Success rate [%]

80%

60%
45%
40%

20%
3%
0%
Dual-frequency
Long baseline

Triple-frequency
Medium baseline

Short baseline

Code observations - alternatives

Standard precision
L1

0.30

E2-L1-E1

0.15

L5

0.10

E5b

0.10

High precision
L1

0.30

E2-L1-E1

0.10

L5

0.05

E5b

0.05

Integrated GPS and Galileo (2 freq.)

100%

100%

100%
94%

91%

Success rate [%]

80%

59%

60%

40%
27%
20%

0%
Standard precision
Long baseline

High precision
Medium baseline

Short baseline

High precision
Standard precision
Satellites

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Number of epochs
100

80

70

60
15

50

40
10

30

20
5

10

0
0

Number of satellites

Integrated GPS and Galileo (2 freq.)

Success-rate 99%, medium baseline
25

90

20

Integrated GPS and Galileo

Integrated use of GPS and Galileo significantly

increases ambiguity succes-rate
Single-epoch ambiguity resolution becomes feasible if
ionospheric effects can be constrained
Very long-baseline ambiguity resolution requires more
than one observation epoch and benefits most from
triple-frequency integrated system

Major GNSS error sources

Ionosphere
Multipath

Ionosphere

Ionosphere is dispersive: effect is frequency dependent

Effect depends on free electron density in atmosphere
Electron density is related to solar activity
Solar activity has period of 11 years and is characterised
by sunspot numbers

Sunspots

2001

1989

1977

1965

1953

1941

1929

1917

1905

1893

1881

1869

1857

1845

1833

1821

1809

1797

1785

1773

1761

1749

Sunspot number

Solar cycle and sunspot numbers

300

250

200

150

100

50

Sunspot number prediction

Effects of ionosphere

Poor GPS satellite tracking

Disturbance of GPS data links
Positioning biases
Incorrect ambiguity resolution
(also results in positioning biases)

Ionosphere and positioning

Measurement set-up
Two permanent GPS receivers, 4 km apart
(short baseline) in The Netherlands (52 N)
Known baseline, continuously monitored

Ionosphere and positioning

Analysis procedure
Compute daily percentage of height errors
greater than 5 cm for period of two months
Correlate this percentage to daily variations
in Total Electron Content (TEC)

Daily variation TEC [tecu]

Height bias > 5 cm [%]

Height biases and TEC

Effects due multipath

Periodic biases in
Observations
Estimated positions (if same satellites are used)
Biases repeat every 23h56m

Multipath in observations
GPS SV06, L2-code

Multipath detection in positions

Aim
Show multipath explicitly in stationary baselines
Set-up
Collect data over 224 hours and determine presence of
repeatable effects with period 23h56m
Background
GPS constellation has 23h56m repeatability
satellitereflector-antenna geometry re-occurs every day

Height errors
2nd day shifted 4 minutes

Real-time kinematic (RTK) positioning

Ideal world
Centimeter accuracy in real-time, provided
carrier ambiguities can be resolved to their
correct integer values

RTK positioning in the real world

Incorrect height estimates due to wrong

initialization of carrier ambiguities

Correct height estimates

Precise RTK GNSS positioning

Choose reference stations carefully to

avoid multipath as much as possible
Integrate RTK GPS with other sensors
Validate estimated carrier ambiguities

Trends in RTK positioning

From single-reference station
to network-based RTK

Advantages
Higher reliability
Longer baselines
Less reference stations

Fugro Starfix global DGPS network

Fugro Starfix HP

Starfix HP (High Performance)

Regional sub-networks of global Starfix network
Decimeter accuracy for distances up to 500 km

Jet Propulsion Laboratorys IGDG

Internet-based Global Differential GPS (IGSG)

Global network of reference stations
Reference station data collection via the Internet
Data dissemination to users via the Internet
Decimeter positioning accuracy

IGDG - demonstration results

See also http://gipsy.jpl.nasa.gov/igdg

Last six hours

Last 30 minutes

Conclusions
Modernized GPS and future Galileo offer
unprecedented accuracy and availability
Both systems are vulnerable to intentional and
unintentional interference
Error sources (ionosphere, multipath) remain
major concern
Network-based RTK will result in longer baseline
lengths and less reference stations