Top of Form

Bottom of Form
What is GPS?

The Global Positioning System (GPS) is a satellite-based navigation system made up of a

network of 24 satellites placed into orbit by the U.S. Department of Defense. GPS was originally
intended for military applications, but in the 1980s, the government made the system available
for civilian use. GPS works in any weather conditions, anywhere in the world, 24 hours a day.
There are no subscription fees or setup charges to use GPS.

How it works
GPS satellites circle the earth twice a day in a very precise orbit and transmit signal information
to earth. GPS receivers take this information and use triangulation to calculate the user's exact
location. Essentially, the GPS receiver compares the time a signal was transmitted by a satellite
with the time it was received. The time difference tells the GPS receiver how far away the
satellite is. Now, with distance measurements from a few more satellites, the receiver can
determine the user's position and display it on the unit's electronic map.

A GPS receiver must be locked on to the signal of at least three satellites to calculate a 2D
position (latitude and longitude) and track movement. With four or more satellites in view, the
receiver can determine the user's 3D position (latitude, longitude and altitude). Once the user's
position has been determined, the GPS unit can calculate other information, such as speed,
bearing, track, trip distance, distance to destination, sunrise and sunset time and more.

How accurate is GPS?

Today's GPS receivers are extremely accurate, thanks to their parallel multi-channel design.
Garmin's 12 parallel channel receivers are quick to lock onto satellites when first turned on and
they maintain strong locks, even in dense foliage or urban settings with tall buildings. Certain
atmospheric factors and other sources of error can affect the accuracy of GPS receivers.
Garmin® GPS receivers are accurate to within 15 meters on average.

Newer Garmin GPS receivers with WAAS (Wide Area Augmentation System) capability can
improve accuracy to less than three meters on average. No additional equipment or fees are
required to take advantage of WAAS. Users can also get better accuracy with Differential GPS
(DGPS), which corrects GPS signals to within an average of three to five meters. The U.S. Coast
Guard operates the most common DGPS correction service. This system consists of a network of
towers that receive GPS signals and transmit a corrected signal by beacon transmitters. In order
to get the corrected signal, users must have a differential beacon receiver and beacon antenna in
addition to their GPS.

The GPS satellite system

The 24 satellites that make up the GPS space segment are orbiting the earth about 12,000 miles
above us. They are constantly moving, making two complete orbits in less than 24 hours. These
satellites are travelling at speeds of roughly 7,000 miles an hour.
 GPS satellites are powered by solar energy. They have backup batteries onboard to keep them
running in the event of a solar eclipse, when there's no solar power. Small rocket boosters on
each satellite keep them flying in the correct path.

Here are some other interesting facts about the GPS satellites (also called NAVSTAR, the
official U.S. Department of Defense name for GPS):

○ The first GPS satellite was launched in 1978.

○ A full constellation of 24 satellites was achieved in 1994.
○ Each satellite is built to last about 10 years. Replacements are constantly being built and
launched into orbit.
○ A GPS satellite weighs approximately 2,000 pounds and is about 17 feet across with the
solar panels extended.
○ Transmitter power is only 50 watts or less.

What's the signal?

GPS satellites transmit two low power radio signals, designated L1 and L2. Civilian GPS uses
the L1 frequency of 1575.42 MHz in the UHF band. The signals travel by line of sight, meaning
they will pass through clouds, glass and plastic but will not go through most solid objects such as
buildings and mountains.

A GPS signal contains three different bits of information - a pseudorandom code, ephemeris data
and almanac data. The pseudorandom code is simply an I.D. code that identifies which satellite is
transmitting information. You can view this number on your Garmin GPS unit's satellite page, as
it identifies which satellites it's receiving.

Ephemeris data, which is constantly transmitted by each satellite, contains important information
about the status of the satellite (healthy or unhealthy), current date and time. This part of the
signal is essential for determining a position.

The almanac data tells the GPS receiver where each GPS satellite should be at any time
throughout the day. Each satellite transmits almanac data showing the orbital information for that
satellite and for every other satellite in the system.
 Sources of GPS signal errors
Factors that can degrade the GPS signal and thus affect accuracy include the following:

○ Ionosphere and troposphere delays - The satellite signal slows as it passes through the
atmosphere. The GPS system uses a built-in model that calculates an average amount of
delay to partially correct for this type of error.
○ Signal multipath - This occurs when the GPS signal is reflected off objects such as tall
buildings or large rock surfaces before it reaches the receiver. This increases the travel time
of the signal, thereby causing errors.
○ Receiver clock errors - A receiver's built-in clock is not as accurate as the atomic clocks
onboard the GPS satellites. Therefore, it may have very slight timing errors.
○ Orbital errors - Also known as ephemeris errors, these are inaccuracies of the satellite's
reported location.
○ Number of satellites visible - The more satellites a GPS receiver can "see," the better the
accuracy. Buildings, terrain, electronic interference, or sometimes even dense foliage can
block signal reception, causing position errors or possibly no position reading at all. GPS
units typically will not work indoors, underwater or underground.
○ Satellite geometry/shading - This refers to the relative position of the satellites at any given
time. Ideal satellite geometry exists when the satellites are located at wide angles relative to
each other. Poor geometry results when the satellites are located in a line or in a tight
grouping.
○ Intentional degradation of the satellite signal - Selective Availability (SA) is an intentional
degradation of the signal once imposed by the U.S. Department of Defense. SA was
intended to prevent military adversaries from using the highly accurate GPS signals. The
government turned off SA in May 2000, which significantly improved the accuracy of
civilian GPS receivers.
Quick Links
What is GPS?ApplicationsGlossaryGPS GuidesWhat is WAAS?Geocaching
Why GPS?
Trying to figure out where you are and where you're going is probably one of man's oldest
pastimes.
Navigation and positioning are crucial to so many activities and yet the process has always
been quite cumbersome.
Over the years all kinds of technologies have tried to simplify the task but every one has had
some disadvantage. [view other Positioning Systems]
Finally, the U.S. Department of Defense decided that the military had to have a super precise
form of worldwide positioning. And fortunately they had the kind of money ($12 billion!) it took to
build something really good.
Why Did the Department of Defense Develop GPS?
The result is the Global Positioning System, a system that's changed navigation forever.
More about this page:
What is GPS?
The Global Positioning System (GPS) is a worldwide radio-navigation system formed from a
constellation of 24 satellites and their ground stations.
GPS uses these "man-made stars" as reference points to calculate positions accurate to a
matter of meters. In fact, with advanced forms of GPS you can make measurements to better than
a centimeter!
In a sense it's like giving every square meter on the planet a unique address.
GPS receivers have been miniaturized to just a few integrated circuits and so are becoming
very economical. And that makes the technology accessible to virtually everyone.
These days GPS is finding its way into cars, boats, planes, construction equipment, movie
making gear, farm machinery, even laptop computers.
Soon GPS will become almost as basic as the telephone. Indeed, at Trimble, we think it just
may become a universal utility.
XHow GPS works?
Here's how GPS works in five logical steps:
1. The basis of GPS is "triangulation" from satellites.
2. To "triangulate," a GPS receiver measures distance using the travel time of radio
signals.
3. To measure travel time, GPS needs very accurate timing which it achieves with some
tricks.
4. Along with distance, you need to know exactly where the satellites are in space. High
orbits and careful monitoring are the secret.
5. Finally you must correct for any delays the signal experiences as it travels through the
atmosphere.
We'll explain each of these points in the next five sections of the tutorial. We recommend you
follow the tutorial in order. Remember, science is a step-by-step discipline!
More about this page:

Tracking
If navigation is the process of getting something from one location to another, then tracking is
the process of monitoring it as it moves along.
Commerce relies on fleets of vehicles to deliver goods and services either across a crowded city
or through nationwide corridors. So, effective fleet management has direct bottom-line
implications, such as telling a customer when a package will arrive, spacing buses for the best
scheduled service, directing the nearest ambulance to an accident, or helping tankers avoid
hazards.
GPS used in conjunction with communication links and computers can provide the backbone for
systems tailored to applications in agriculture, mass transit, urban delivery, public safety, and
vessel and vehicle tracking. So it's no surprise that police, ambulance, and fire departments are
adopting systems like Trimble's GPS-based AVL (Automatic Vehicle Location) Manager to
pinpoint both the location of the emergency and the location of the nearest response vehicle on
a computer map. With this kind of clear visual picture of the situation, dispatchers can react
immediately and confidently.
Chicago developed a GPS tracking system to monitor emergency vehicles through their streets,
saving precious time responding to 911 calls. And on the commercial front, two taxi companies in
Australia track their cabs for better profit and improved safety.

Putting GPS to work

GPS technology has matured into a resource that goes far beyond its original design goals.
These days scientists, sportsmen, farmers, soldiers, pilots, surveyors, hikers, delivery drivers,
sailors, dispatchers, lumberjacks, fire-fighters, and people from many other walks of life are
using GPS in ways that make their work more productive, safer, and sometimes even easier.
In this section you will see a few examples of real-world applications of GPS. These applications
fall into five broad categories.
Click below to learn more about each application:
• Location - determining a basic position
• Navigation - getting from one location to another
• Tracking - monitoring the movement of people and things
• Mapping - creating maps of the world
• Timing - bringing precise timing to the world
 Bottom of Form
• PRODUCTS & SOLUTIONS
• SUPPORT & TRAINING
• ABOUT TRIMBLE
• INVESTOR

View the Animation

Measuring distance from a satellite

We saw in the last section that a position is calculated from distance measurements to at least three satellites.

View the Animation

The Big Idea Mathematically:

In a sense, the whole thing boils down to those "velocity times travel time" math problems we did in high school.
Remember the old: "If a car goes 60 miles per hour for two hours, how far does it travel?"
Velocity (60 mph) x Time (2 hours) = Distance (120 miles)
In the case of GPS we're measuring a radio signal so the velocity is going to be the speed of light or roughly
186,000 miles per second.
The problem is measuring the travel time.
 View the Animation

• Timing is tricky
• We need precise clocks to measure travel time
• The travel time for a satellite right overhead is about 0.06 seconds
• The difference in sync of the receiver time minus the satellite time is equal to the travel time
The timing problem is tricky. First, the times are going to be awfully short. If a satellite were right overhead the
travel time would be something like 0.06 seconds. So we're going to need some really precise clocks. We'll talk
about those soon.
But assuming we have precise clocks, how do we measure travel time? To explain it let's use a goofy analogy:
Suppose there was a way to get both the satellite and the receiver to start playing "The Star Spangled Banner" at
precisely 12 noon. If sound could reach us from space (which, of course, is ridiculous) then standing at the
receiver we'd hear two versions of the Star Spangled Banner, one from our receiver and one from the satellite.
These two versions would be out of sync. The version coming from the satellite would be a little delayed because
it had to travel more than 11,000 miles.
If we wanted to see just how delayed the satellite's version was, we could start delaying the receiver's version
until they fell into perfect sync.
The amount we have to shift back the receiver's version is equal to the travel time of the satellite's version. So we
just multiply that time times the speed of light and BINGO! we've got our distance to the satellite.
That's basically how GPS works.
Only instead of the Star Spangled Banner the satellites and receivers use something called a "Pseudo Random
Code" - which is probably easier to sing than the Star Spangled Banner.

View the Animation

In Review:

1. Distance to a satellite is determined by measuring how long a radio signal takes to reach us from that
satellite.
2. To make the measurement we assume that both the satellite and our receiver are generating the same
pseudo-random codes at exactly the same time.
3. By comparing how late the satellite's pseudo-random code appears compared to our receiver's code, we
determine how long it took to reach us.
4. Multiply that travel time by the speed of light and you've got distance.

More about this page:

Pseudo Random Code

SITE MAP CAREERS CONTACTS PRIVACY STATEMENT TERMS OF USE © COPYRIGHT 2011, TRIMBLE
NAVIGATION LIMITED

Trimble
Worldwide

Top of Form
 Search
Popular Searches

Bottom of Form
• PRODUCTS & SOLUTIONS

○ Product A-Z List

○ Product Types
○ Global Services
○ Where to Buy Products
○ Terms and Conditions of Sales
○ Engineering & Construction
○ Alignment Planning
○ Building Construction
○ Construction Heavy Highway
○ Construction Tools
○ Energy Solutions
○ Environmental Solutions
○ GeoSpatial
○ Infrastructure
○ Marine Construction
○ Mining
○ Power, Process, Plant
○ Surveying
○ Utilities Industries
○ Agriculture Solutions
○ Precision Agriculture
○ Guidance
○ Flow and Application Control
○ Water Management
○ Information Management
○ Field and Mobile Worker
○ Mapping & GIS
○ Public Safety
○ Rugged Handheld Computers
○ Utilities Field Solutions
○ Fleet Management Solutions
 ○ Advanced Devices
○ Embedded System
○ Defense
○ Precise Timing
○ Precision GNSS + Inertial
○ Indoor Mobile Mapping Solution
○ GPS Fleet Tracking
○ Government
○ U.S. Federal Government

• SUPPORT & TRAINING

• ABOUT TRIMBLE
• INVESTORS
• NEWS ROOM

GPS Tutorial
Trimble Home > GPS Tutorial > How GPS works? > Getting perfect timing

About GPS

• Why GPS?
• What is GPS?
• How GPS works?
○ Triangulating
○ Measuring
distance
○ Getting perfect
timing
○ Satellites positions
○ Error correction
• Differential GPS
○ Why we need
Differential GPS View the Animation
○ How Differential
GPS works Getting perfect timing
○ Where to get If measuring the travel time of a radio signal is the key to GPS, then our stop watches had better be darn good
Differential
because if their timing is off by just a thousandth of a second, at the speed of light, that translates into almost 2
Corrections
miles of error!
○ Other ways to
work with On the satellite side, timing is almost perfect because they have incredibly precise atomic clocks on board.
Differential GPS
But what about our receivers here on the ground?
○ Advanced
Concepts Remember that both the satellite and the receiver need to be able to precisely synchronize their pseudo-rando
• Putting GPS to work codes to make the system work. (to review this point click here)
○ Location If our receivers needed atomic clocks (which cost upwards of $50K to $100K) GPS would be a lame duck
○ Navigation technology. Nobody could afford it.
○ Tracking
Luckily the designers of GPS came up with a brilliant little trick that lets us get by with much less accurate cloc
○ Mapping
in our receivers. This trick is one of the key elements of GPS and as an added side benefit it means that every
○ Timing GPS receiver is essentially an atomic-accuracy clock.
• Glossary
t the tutorial
Tutorial Request

• Help

View the Animation

The secret to perfect timing is to make an extra satellite measurement.

That's right, if three perfect measurements can locate a point in 3-dimensional space, then four imperfect
measurements can do the same thing.
This idea is so fundamental to the working of GPS that we have a separate illustrated section that shows how
works. If you have time, cruise through that.
Next page >>
Page 1 - Page 2
More about this page:
Atomic Clocks
Code-Phase GPS vs. Carrier-Phase GPS
Using GPS for Timing

SITE MAP CAREERS CONTACTS PRIVACY STATEMENT TERMS OF USE © COPYRIGHT 2011, TRIMBLE
NAVIGATION LIMITED
 Trimble
Worldwide

Top of Form

Search
Popular Searches

Bottom of Form
• PRODUCTS & SOLUTIONS
• SUPPORT & TRAINING
• ABOUT TRIMBLE
• INVESTORS
• NEWS ROOM

GPS Tutorial
Trimble Home > GPS Tutorial > How GPS works? > Satellite Positions

About GPS

• Why GPS?
• What is GPS?
• How GPS works?
○ Triangulating
○ Measuring
distance
○ Getting perfect
timing
○ Satellites positions
○ Error correction
• Differential GPS
 ○ Why we need
Differential GPS
○ How Differential View the Animation
GPS works
○ Where to get Satellite Positions
Differential Knowing where a satellite is in space
Corrections
○ Other ways to In this tutorial we've been assuming that we know where the GPS satellites are so we can use them as referen
work with points.
Differential GPS But how do we know exactly where they are? After all they're floating around 11,000 miles up in space.
○ Advanced
Concepts A high satellite gathers no moss
• Putting GPS to work That 11,000 mile altitude is actually a benefit in this case, because something that high is well clear of the
○ Location atmosphere. And that means it will orbit according to very simple mathematics.
○ Navigation
The Air Force has injected each GPS satellite into a very precise orbit, according to the GPS master plan.
○ Tracking
○ Mapping
○ Timing
• Glossary

t the tutorial
Tutorial Request

• Help

View the Animation

On the ground all GPS receivers have an almanac programmed into their computers that tells them where in t
sky each satellite is, moment by moment.
The basic orbits are quite exact but just to make things perfect the GPS satellites are constantly monitored by
Department of Defense.
They use very precise radar to check each satellite's exact altitude, position and speed.
The errors they're checking for are called "ephemeris errors" because they affect the satellite's orbit or
"ephemeris." These errors are caused by gravitational pulls from the moon and sun and by the pressure of sol
radiation on the satellites.
The errors are usually very slight but if you want great accuracy they must be taken into account.
Next page >>
Page 1 - Page 2
More about this page:
GPS Master Plan

SITE MAP CAREERS CONTACTS PRIVACY STATEMENT TERMS OF USE © COPYRIGHT 2011, TRIMBLE
NAVIGATION LIMITED

Announcement

GPS based vehicle tracking system

International Symposium:
 Benefiting from Earth
Observation
4 - 6 October, 2010
Kathamandu, Nepal

J.Padmanabhan
Advanced Micronic Devices Ltd
Bangalore
amdbt@vsnl.com

Of all the applications of GPS, vehicle tracking and navigational

systems have brought this technology to the day-to-day life of the
common man. Today GPS fitted cars; ambulances, fleets and police
vehicles are common sights on the roads of developed countries.
Known by many names such as Automatic Vehicle Locating System
(AVLS), Vehicle Tracking and Information System (VTIS), Mobile Asset
Management System (MAMS), these systems offer an effective tool for
improving the operational efficiency and utilization of vehicles.

The switching off of SA has improved the accuracy of GPS to better

than 30 meters, which makes it an ideal position sensor for vehicle
tracking systems without the overhead of DGPS. Fig. 1 gives the block
diagram of a DGPS based VTIS.

GPS is used in vehicles for both tracking and navigation. Tracking

systems enable a base station to keep track of the vehicles without the
intervention of the driver where, as navigation system helps the driver
to reach the destination. Whether navigation system or tracking
system, the architecture is more or less similar. The navigation system
will have convenient, usually a graphic, display for the driver which is
not needed for a tracking system. Vehicle Tracking Systems combine a
number of well-developed technologies. Irrespective of the technology
being used, VTS consist of three subsystems: a) In-vehicle unit (IVU),
b) Base station and c) Communication link. The IVU includes a suitable
position sensor and an intelligent controller together with an
appropriate interface to the communication link. Thanks to the US
Government announcement of 911E regulation, radio based position
technology has witnessed a spurt of developmental activities.

Network Overlay Systems use cell phone infrastructure for locating

vehicles. The cell centers with additional hardware and software
assess the time of arrival (TOA) and angle of arrival (AOA) of radio
signals from vehicles to compute the position of the vehicles. This
information is sent to the tracking centre through the cell link or
conventional link. Another technique used for locating vehicles
computes the time difference for signals from two cell centers to reach
the vehicle. This computation is made in the IVU and the position
information is sent to the tracking centre through the cell phone link. A
more common technique used is direct radio link (DRL). In this system
dedicated radio infrastructure is used along with special IVU to
compute vehicle location. However all these techniques impose Search
limitation on the operational area. Alternatively, embedded GPS
receivers provide absolute position co-ordinates at any point, without Top of Form
any area restrictions.

Go

Bottom of Form

Fig.2 shows the block diagram of an IVU. The controller interacts with
the GPS receiver, collects co-ordinates at predefined intervals,
processes it and sends out to the communication link. Optionally in
certain cases a man-machine- interface like a display with key board
can be added for message communication between the driver and the
base station.
The base station consists of a high-speed system running VTIS
application software that will receive the position data from the vehicles
and display on a digital map. It too will have the interface to the
communication link. Enhanced features include video features, trace
mode, history track, vehicle database, network support etc. Fig.3 gives
the block diagram of a Base station.

The most costly part of a VTIS is the data link. The data link, together
with a suitable communication protocol, has to be selected after a
thorough study of various parameters such as the bandwidth
requirement, number of vehicles to be tracked, expandability, terrain,
area of coverage etc. Sophisticated VTIS are linked to data bases that
can support information about the vehicles such as the cargo, the
temperature of storage of perishable goods, fuel consumption rate etc.
Naturally, such systems demand data link with higher bandwidth. UHF
links are suitable for short range without shadow region, as they
require line of sight. Cell phone based systems demand minimum
infrastructure investment, but is limited in coverage. On the contrary,
LEO based systems are expensive and offer largest coverage. The
recently introduced WAP and GPRS technologies hold great promises
for VTIS.

When multiple vehicles are being tracked, a suitable communication

protocol need to be established to avoid collision of radio signal. The
simple technique is TDMA, where each IVU communicates during
predefined time slots. This synchronization is easy in a GPS based IVU
as the GPS receiver provides very precise time reference signal.
However, TDMA based systems have limited expandability, flexibility
and are known for under-utilization of bandwidth.

The alternative is polling technique. Here each vehicle is addressed by

the control station and in response the IVU sends the information. This
arrangement enables variable polling rate for different vehicles, non-
polling of specific vehicles and expansion of polling list as new vehicles
are added.

The relatively large investment needed for the communication link,

makes VTIS an opportunity area for service providers. Fig. 4 shows the
global market for GPS based VTIS in the next three years. In US and
Europe many vehicle tracking service providers are already in
operation. In a large country like India with a very long network of
roads and long coastline, this opportunity area is yet to be exploited.

Page 1 of 1

Contact US | Advertise with us

This site is best experienced with Internet Explorer 4.0 and above, at default browser settings 1024 X 768 pixels
Broken links? Problems with site? Send email to info@gisdevelopment.net
©GISdevelopment.net. All rights reserved.