Impact of GLONASS pseudorange inter-channel biases on satellite clock corrections

GLONASS carrier phase and pseudorange observations suffer from inter-channel biases (ICBs) because of frequency division multiple access (FDMA). Therefore, we analyze the effect of GLONASS pseudorange inter-channel biases on the GLONASS clock corrections. Different Analysis Centers (AC) eliminate the impact of GLONASS pseudorange ICBs in different ways. This leads to significant differences in the satellite and AC-specific offsets in the GLONASS clock corrections. Satellite and AC-specific offset differences are strongly correlated with frequency. Furthermore, the GLONASS pseudorange ICBs also leads to day-boundary jumps in the GLONASS clock corrections for the same analysis center between adjacent days. This in turn will influence the accuracy of the combined GPS/GLONASS precise point positioning (PPP) at the day-boundary. To solve these problems, a GNSS clock correction combination method based on the Kalman filter is proposed. During the combination, the AC-specific offsets and the satellite and AC-specific offsets can be estimated. The test results show the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed clock combination method. The combined clock corrections can effectively weaken the influence of clock day-boundary jumps on combined GPS/GLONASS kinematic PPP. Furthermore, these combined clock corrections can improve the accuracy of the combined GPS/GLONASS static PPP single-day solutions when compared to the accuracy of each analysis center alone.     

Method for real-time self-calibrating GLONASS code inter-frequency bias and improvements on single point positioning

Utilization of frequency-division multiple access (FDMA) leads to GLONASS pseudorange and carrier phase observations suffering from variable levels inter-frequency bias (IFB). The bias related with carrier phase can be absorbed by ambiguities. However, the unequal code inter-frequency bias (cIFB) will degrade the accuracy of pseudorange observations, which will affect positioning accuracy and convergence of precise point positioning (PPP) when including GLONASS satellites. Based on observations made on un-differenced (UD) ionospheric-free combinations, GLONASS cIFB parameters are estimated as a constant to achieve GLONASS cIFB real-time self-calibration on a single station. A total of 23 stations, with different manufacturing backgrounds, are used to analyze the characteristics of GLONASS cIFB and its relationship with variable receiver hardware. The results show that there is an obvious common trend in cIFBs estimated using broadcast ephemeris for all of the different manufacturers, and there are unequal GLONASS inter-satellite cIFB that match brand manufacture. In addition, a particularly good consistency is found between self-calibrated receiver-dependent GLONASS cIFB and the IFB products of the German Research Centre for Geosciences (GFZ). Via a comparative experiment, it is also found that the algorithm of cIFB real-time self-calibration not only corrects receiver-dependent cIFB, but can moreover eliminate satellite-dependent cIFB, providing more stable results and further improving global navigation satellite system (GNSS) point positioning accuracy. The root mean square (RMS) improvements of single GLONASS standard point positioning (SPP) reach up to 54.18 and 53.80% in horizontal and vertical direction, respectively. The study’s GLONASS cIFB self-estimation can realize good self-consistency between cIFB and stations, working to further promote convergence efficiency relative to GPS?+?GLONASS PPP. An average improvement percentage of 19.03% is observed, realizing a near-consistent accuracy with GPS?+?GLONASS fusion PPP.     

Simultaneous estimation of GLONASS pseudorange inter-frequency biases in precise point positioning using undifferenced and uncombined observations

GLONASS precise point positioning (PPP) performance is affected by the inter-frequency biases (IFBs) due to the application of frequency division multiple access technique. In this contribution, the impact of GLONASS pseudorange IFBs on convergence performance and positioning accuracy of GLONASS-only and GPS + GLONASS PPP based on undifferenced and uncombined observation models is investigated. Through a re-parameterization process, the following four pseudorange IFB handling schemes were proposed: neglecting IFBs, modeling IFBs as a linear or quadratic polynomial function of frequency number, and estimating IFBs for each GLONASS satellite. One week of GNSS observation data from 132 International GNSS Service stations was selected to investigate the contribution of simultaneous estimation of GLONASS pseudorange IFBs on GLONASS-only and combined GPS + GLONASS PPP in both static and kinematic modes. The results show that considering IFBs can speed up the convergence of PPP using GLONASS observations by more than 20%. Apart from GLONASS-only kinematic PPP, the positioning accuracy of GLONASS-only and GPS + GLONASS PPP is comparable among the four schemes. Overall, the scheme of estimating IFBs for each GLONASS satellite outperforms the other schemes in both convergence time reduction and positioning accuracy improvement, which indicates that the GLONASS IFBs may not strictly obey a linear or quadratic function relationship with the frequency number.     

GLONASS pseudorange inter-channel biases considerations when jointly estimating GPS and GLONASS clock offset

GLONASS clock offset estimation is affected by the inter-channel biases (ICBs) caused by frequency division multiple access technique. The effect of ICBs on joint GPS/GLONASS clock offset estimation is analyzed. An efficient approach for joint estimation of GPS/GLONASS satellite clock offset is applied to the generation of 30-s clock offset products. During the estimation, the following three ICB handling strategies were tested: calculating ICBs for each GLONASS signal channel, calculating ICBs for each GLONASS satellite and neglecting ICBs. The behavior of ICBs under different strategies was statistically stable. Subsequently, the clock offset products using different ICB strategies were evaluated. The evaluation shows that consideration of the ICB is important when estimating the clock offset. Furthermore, estimating one ICB for each GLONASS satellite is better than estimating one for each GLONASS signal channel because, with the former strategy, the clock offset products behave more smoothly and have higher accuracy compared with products from the International GNSS Service Analysis Center. In addition, precise point positioning, using clock offsets based on one ICB for each GLONASS satellite, has the highest positioning accuracy.     

Undifferenced ionospheric-free ambiguity resolution using GLONASS data from inhomogeneous stations

GLONASS frequency division multiple access signals render ambiguity resolution (AR) rather difficult because: (1) Different wavelengths are used by different satellites, and (2) pseudorange inter-frequency biases (IFBs) cannot be precisely modeled by means of a simple function. In this study, an AR approach based on the ionospheric-free combination with a wavelength of about 5.3 cm is assessed for GLONASS precise point positioning (PPP). This approach simplifies GLONASS AR because pseudorange IFBs do not matter, and PPP-AR can be enabled across inhomogeneous receivers. One month of GLONASS data from 165 European stations were processed for different network size and different durations of observation periods. We find that 89.9% of the fractional parts of ionospheric-free ambiguities agree well within ± 0.15 cycles for a small network (radius = 500 km), while 77.6% for a large network (radius = 2000 km). In case of the 3-hourly GLONASS-only static PPP solutions for the small network, reliable AR can be achieved where the number of fixed GLONASS ambiguities account for 97.6% within all candidate ambiguities. Meanwhile, the RMS of the east, north and up components with respect to daily solutions is improved from 1.0, 0.6, 1.2 cm to 0.4, 0.4, 1.1 cm, respectively. When GPS PPP-AR is carried out simultaneously, the positioning performance can be improved significantly such that the GLONASS ambiguity fixing rate rises from 74.4 to 95.4% in case of hourly solutions. Finally, we introduce ambiguity-fixed GLONASS orbits to re-attempt GLONASS PPP-AR in contrast to the above solutions with ambiguity-float orbits. We find that ambiguity-fixed orbits lead to clearly better agreement among ionospheric-free ambiguity fractional parts in case of the large network, that is 80.5% of fractional parts fall in ± 0.15 cycles in contrast to 74.6% for the ambiguity-float orbits. We conclude that highly efficient GLONASS ionospheric-free PPP-AR is achievable in case of a few hours of data when GPS PPP-AR is also accomplished, and ambiguity-fixed GLONASS orbits will contribute significantly to PPP-AR over wide areas.     

单站多参数GLONASS码频间偏差估计及其对组合精密单点定位的影响

在分析传统GPS/GLONASS组合PPP数学模型中忽略GLONASS码IFB不足的基础上,提出一种基于"多参数"的组合PPP与码IFB估计算法。将"频间偏差"与"系统时差"参数进行合并,通过引入多个独立的"时频偏差"参数对组合PPP中的GLONASS码IFB进行函数模型补偿,同时可实现基于单个测站观测数据的码IFB精确估计。对配备6种GNSS品牌接收机的30个IGS站实测数据进行GLONASS码IFB估计与分析。结果表明:各品牌接收机不同频率通道的GLONASS码IFB可达数米,且表现出与频率的明显相关性,但难以通过简单函数建模为其提供精确的先验改正值;相同品牌接收机的GLONASS码IFB整体上具有相似的特性,而在个别测站会表现出异常特征;即使接收机类型、固件版本及天线类型完全相同的测站,GLONASS码IFB值也可能存在显著差异。新算法能实现对GLONASS码IFB的有效补偿,明显加快组合PPP的收敛速度。虽然引入多个附加参数会导致函数模型自由度减小,但对定位精度的影响有限,与传统"单参数"法进行组合PPP的定位精度相当。     

Integrating GPS and GLONASS to accelerate convergence and initialization times of precise point positioning

The main challenge of dual-frequency precise point positioning (PPP) is that it requires about 30 min to obtain centimeter-level accuracy or to succeed in the first ambiguity-fixing. Currently, PPP is generally conducted with GPS only using the ionosphere-free combination. We adopt a single-differenced (SD) between-satellite PPP model to combine the GPS and GLONASS raw dual-frequency carrier phase measurements, in which the GPS satellite with the highest elevation is selected as the reference satellite to form the SD between-satellite measurements. We use a 7-day data set from 178 IGS stations to investigate the contribution of GLONASS observations to both ambiguity-float and ambiguity-fixed SD PPP solutions, in both kinematic and static modes. In ambiguity-fixed PPP, we only attempt to fix GPS integer ambiguities, leaving GLONASS ambiguities as float values. Numerous experimental results show that PPP with GLONASS and GPS requires much less convergence time than that of PPP with GPS alone. For ambiguity-float PPP, the average convergence time can be reduced by 45.9 % from 22.9 to 12.4 min in static mode and by 57.9 % from 40.6 to 17.7 min in kinematic mode, respectively. For ambiguity-fixed PPP, the average time to the first-fixed solution can be reduced by 27.4 % from 21.6 to 15.7 min in static mode and by 42.0 % from 34.4 to 20.0 min in kinematic mode, respectively. Experimental results also show that the less the GPS satellites are used in float PPP, the more significant is the reduction in convergence time when adding GLONASS observations. In addition, on average, more than 4 GLONASS satellites can be observed for most 2-h observation sessions. Nearly, the same improvement in convergence time reduction is achieved for those observations.     

改正通道延迟的GLONASS/BDS组合伪距定位

由于俄罗斯的GLONASS卫星间频率存在差异,测站硬件延迟误差无法被接收机钟差参数吸收,提出为每颗卫星估计一个通道延迟改正参数的方法,以提升GLONASS/BDS组合伪距定位精度.?实验表明:加入通道延迟改正能有效降低GLONASS定位误差,改正后东(E)、北(N)、天顶(U)方向误差的均方根(RMS)值分别减小了0....     

GLONASS phase bias estimation and its PPP ambiguity resolution using homogeneous receivers

Integer ambiguity resolution (IAR) appreciably improves the position accuracy and shortens the convergence time of precise point positioning (PPP). However, while many studies are limited to GPS, there is a need to investigate the performance of GLONASS PPP ambiguity resolution. Unfortunately, because of the frequency-division multiple-access strategy of GLONASS, GLONASS PPP IAR faces two obstacles. First, simultaneously observed satellites operate at different wavelengths. Second and most importantly, distinct inter-frequency bias (IFB) exists between different satellites. For the former, we adopt an undifferenced method for uncalibrated phase delay (UPD) estimation and proposed an undifferenced PPP IAR strategy. We select a set of homogeneous receivers with identical receiver IFB to perform UPD estimation and PPP IAR. The code and carrier phase IFBs can be absorbed by satellite wide-lane and narrow-lane UPDs, respectively, which is in turn consistent with PPP IAR using the same type of receivers. In order to verify the method, we used 50 stations to generate satellite UPDs and another 12 stations selected as users to perform PPP IAR. We found that the GLONASS satellite UPDs are stable in time and space and can be estimated with high accuracy and reliability. After applying UPD correction, 91 % of wide-lane ambiguities and 99 % of narrow-lane ambiguities are within (?0.15, +0.15) cycles of the nearest integer. After ambiguity resolution, the 2-hour static PPP accuracy improves from (0.66, 1.42, 1.55) cm to (0.38, 0.39, 1.39) cm for the north, east, and up components, respectively.     

GPS/GLONASS组合精密单点定位研究

讨论了GPS/GLONASS组合精密单点定位的数学模型,并以IRKJ跟踪站的观测数据为例,分别利用GPS和GPS/GLONASS组合两种方式进行精密单点定位解算。计算结果表明,当GPS观测卫星数较多(9~10颗)时,组合GPS/GLONASS较单系统GPS的精密单点定位精度及收敛速度有一定改善,但效果不明显。当GPS卫星数较少(4~5颗)时,引入GLONASS卫星进行GPS/GLONASS组合精密单点定位,其定位精度及收敛速度较单系统GPS精密单点均有显著改善。     

Modeling and assessment of combined GPS/GLONASS precise point positioning

A combination of GPS and GLONASS observations can offer improved reliability, availability and accuracy for precise point positioning (PPP). We present and analyze a combined GPS/GLONASS PPP model, including both functional and stochastic components. Numerical comparison and analysis are conducted with respect to PPP based on only GPS or GLONASS observations to demonstrate the benefits of the combined GPS/GLONASS PPP. The observation residuals are analyzed for more appropriate stochastic modeling for observations from different navigation systems. An analysis is also made using different precise orbit and clock products. The performance of the combined GPS/GLONASS PPP is assessed using both static and kinematic data. The results indicate that the convergence time can be significantly reduced with the addition of GLONASS data. The positioning accuracy, however, is not significantly improved by adding GLONASS data if there is a sufficient number of GPS satellites with good geometry.     

Estimation and evaluation of real-time precipitable water vapor from GLONASS and GPS

The revitalized Russian GLONASS system provides new potential for real-time retrieval of zenith tropospheric delays (ZTD) and precipitable water vapor (PWV) in order to support time-critical meteorological applications such as nowcasting or severe weather event monitoring. In this study, we develop a method of real-time ZTD/PWV retrieval based on GLONASS and/or GPS observations. The performance of ZTD and PWV derived from GLONASS data using real-time precise point positioning (PPP) technique is carefully investigated and evaluated. The potential of combining GLONASS and GPS data for ZTD/PWV retrieving is assessed as well. The GLONASS and GPS observations of about half a year for 80 globally distributed stations from the IGS (International GNSS Service) network are processed. The results show that the real-time GLONASS ZTD series agree quite well with the GPS ZTD series in general: the RMS of ZTD differences is about 8 mm (about 1.2 mm in PWV). Furthermore, for an inter-technique validation, the real-time ZTD estimated from GLONASS-only, GPS-only, and the GPS/GLONASS combined solutions are compared with those derived from very long baseline interferometry (VLBI) at colocated GNSS/VLBI stations. The comparison shows that GLONASS can contribute to real-time meteorological applications, with almost the same accuracy as GPS. More accurate and reliable water vapor values, about 1.5–2.3 mm in PWV, can be achieved when GLONASS observations are combined with the GPS ones in the real-time PPP data processing. The comparison with radiosonde data further confirms the performance of GLONASS-derived real-time PWV and the benefit of adding GLONASS to stand-alone GPS processing.     

Assessment of PPP integer ambiguity resolution using GPS,GLONASS and BeiDou (IGSO,MEO) constellations

Although integer ambiguity resolution (IAR) can improve positioning accuracy considerably and shorten the convergence time of precise point positioning (PPP), it requires an initialization time of over 30 min. With the full operation of GLONASS globally and BDS in the Asia–Pacific region, it is necessary to assess the PPP–IAR performance by simultaneous fixing of GPS, GLONASS, and BDS ambiguities. This study proposed a GPS + GLONASS + BDS combined PPP–IAR strategy and processed PPP–IAR kinematically and statically using one week of data collected at 20 static stations. The undifferenced wide- and narrow-lane fractional cycle biases for GPS, GLONASS, and BDS were estimated using a regional network, and undifferenced PPP ambiguity resolution was performed to assess the contribution of multi-GNSSs. Generally, over 99% of a posteriori residuals of wide-lane ambiguities were within ±0.25 cycles for both GPS and BDS, while the value was 91.5% for GLONASS. Over 96% of narrow-lane residuals were within ±0.15 cycles for GPS, GLONASS, and BDS. For kinematic PPP with a 10-min observation time, only 16.2% of all cases could be fixed with GPS alone. However, adding GLONASS improved the percentage considerably to 75.9%, and it reached 90.0% when using GPS + GLONASS + BDS. Not all epochs could be fixed with a correct set of ambiguities; therefore, we defined the ratio of the number of epochs with correctly fixed ambiguities to the number of all fixed epochs as the correct fixing rate (CFR). Because partial ambiguity fixing was used, when more than five ambiguities were fixed correctly, we considered the epoch correctly fixed. For the small ratio criteria of 2.0, the CFR improved considerably from 51.7% for GPS alone, to 98.3% when using GPS + GLONASS + BDS combined solutions.     

An enhanced calibration method of GLONASS inter-channel bias for GNSS RTK

A user of heterogeneous GPS and GLONASS receiver pairs in differential positioning mode will experience ambiguity fixing challenges due to the presence of inter-channel biases. These biases cannot be canceled by differencing GLONASS observations, whether pseudorange or carrier phase. Fortunately, pre-calibration of GLONASS pseudorange and carrier phase observations can make ambiguity fixing for GPS/GLONASS positioning much easier. We propose an effective algorithm that transforms an RTK (real-time kinematic) solution in a mixed receiver baseline from a float to a fixed ambiguity solution. Carrier phase and code inter-channel biases are estimated from a zero baseline. Then, GLONASS both carrier phase and code observations are corrected accordingly. The results show that a mixed baseline can be transformed from a float (~100 %) to a fixed (more than 92 %) solution.     

多系统双频精密单点定位不同模型下性能比较分析

通过2018年1月多全球卫星导航系统（GNSS）实验(MGEX)的十个测站数据,采用无电离层模型和非差非组合模型,对单系统、双系统和四系统精密单点定位（PPP）进行定位性能分析,定位性能包括收敛时间和定位精度. 实验结果表明,两种PPP模型定位性能相当,但优于单频PPP,在E、N和U方向收敛时间缩短20 min左右,定位精度提高1.6 cm左右;联合多系统能够增加卫星数,改善卫星间几何构型,提升PPP的定位性能. 对GLONASS伪距频间偏差（IFB）采用估计每颗GLONASS卫星的伪距IFB模型和伪距IFB为频率二次多项式模型提升PPP的定位性能,结果表明估计每颗GLONASS卫星的伪距IFB模型要优于伪距IFB为频率二次多项式模型,估计伪距IFB相比忽略伪距IFB在PPP定位性能上有不同程度的提升.      

Android智能手机GNSS定位性能分析

随着全球卫星导航系统(GNSS)的发展和移动通信技术的进步,用户对位置服务(LBS)提出了更高的要求. 本文采用市面上常见的两部Android智能手机采集GNSS数据,对Android智能手机伪距单点定位(SPP)和单频精密单点定位(PPP)算法进行研究,分析了在不同条件下智能手机的SPP、单频PPP定位性能. 结果表明:在使用多普勒平滑伪距和信噪比随机模型的基础上,Android智能手机GPS单系统的SPP定位精度可达3 m,GPS、Galileo、GLONASS、北斗卫星导航系统(BDS)四系统定位精度可达亚米级. 在单频PPP静态定位中,在GPS单系统下,定位精度仅能达到米级,且收敛时间较长;在GPS、Galileo、GLONASS、BDS四系统下,定位精度可达亚米级,且平面方向可在40 min内收敛. 在单频PPP动态定位中,手机的定位精度仅能达到米级.      

GPS/GLONASS组合精密单点定位模型及结果分析

在GPS和GLONASS观测方程中考虑硬件延迟偏差的基础上,推导了GPS/GLONASS双系统组合精密单点定位的数学模型,并分析了硬件延迟偏差对估计的未知参数的影响。利用IGS跟踪站的观测数据和动态实验数据,对组合GPS/GLONASS精密单点定位模型进行了试算,并与GPS单系统精密单点定位的结果进行了比较。     

BDS-3新频点B1C/B2a动态数据特性及PPP精度分析

通过载噪比(CNR)、数据完整率、伪距与载波相位观测值噪声和伪距多路径效应四个指标对北斗三号卫星导航系统(BDS-3)新频点B1C/B2a车载动态数据的特性进行了分析,测试了BDS-3新频点动态精密单点定位(PPP)的性能,并与其它全球卫星导航系统(GNSS)进行了对比. 试验结果表明,BDS-3新频点B2a平均CNR优于北斗卫星导航系统(BDS)其它频率,但略差于GPS L5;相较于其它GNSS,BDS数据完整率相对较高,其中BDS-3 B2a新频点数据完整率最高;BDS-3 B2b伪距观测值噪声最小,B1C和B2a伪距观测值噪声约为B2b信号的3倍,但不同频率相位观测值噪声处于同一量级;对于伪距多路径而言,BDS-3 B1C/B2a 信号略小于B2b 信号. 总体而言,GPS L5信号抑制多路径效应的能力最强. 在动态PPP性能方面,BDS-3 B1C/B2a双频组合动态PPP定位精度最优,其三维(3D)均方根(RMS)误差为0.439 m,相比BDS B1I/B3I、GPS L1/L2、GLONASS G1/G2和Galileo E1/E5a双频组合PPP,其精度改善率分别为49%、56%、81%和42%.      

Rapid PPP ambiguity resolution using GPS+GLONASS observations

Integer ambiguity resolution (IAR) in precise point positioning (PPP) using GPS observations has been well studied. The main challenge remaining is that the first ambiguity fixing takes about 30 min. This paper presents improvements made using GPS+GLONASS observations, especially improvements in the initial fixing time and correct fixing rate compared with GPS-only solutions. As a result of the frequency division multiple access strategy of GLONASS, there are two obstacles to GLONASS PPP-IAR: first and most importantly, there is distinct code inter-frequency bias (IFB) between satellites, and second, simultaneously observed satellites have different wavelengths. To overcome the problem resulting from GLONASS code IFB, we used a network of homogeneous receivers for GLONASS wide-lane fractional cycle bias (FCB) estimation and wide-lane ambiguity resolution. The integer satellite clock of the GPS and GLONASS was then estimated with the wide-lane FCB products. The effect of the different wavelengths on FCB estimation and PPP-IAR is discussed in detail. We used a 21-day data set of 67 stations, where data from 26 stations were processed to generate satellite wide-lane FCBs and integer clocks and the other 41 stations were selected as users to perform PPP-IAR. We found that GLONASS FCB estimates are qualitatively similar to GPS FCB estimates. Generally, 98.8% of a posteriori residuals of wide-lane ambiguities are within \(\pm 0.25\) cycles for GPS, and 96.6% for GLONASS. Meanwhile, 94.5 and 94.4% of narrow-lane residuals are within 0.1 cycles for GPS and GLONASS, respectively. For a critical value of 2.0, the correct fixing rate for kinematic PPP is only 75.2% for GPS alone and as large as 98.8% for GPS+GLONASS. The fixing percentage for GPS alone is only 11.70 and 46.80% within 5 and 10 min, respectively, and improves to 73.71 and 95.83% when adding GLONASS. Adding GLONASS thus improves the fixing percentage significantly for a short time span. We also used global ionosphere maps (GIMs) to assist the wide-lane carrier-phase combination to directly fix the wide-lane ambiguity. Employing this method, the effect of the code IFB is eliminated and numerical results show that GLONASS FCB estimation can be performed across heterogeneous receivers. However, because of the relatively low accuracy of GIMs, the fixing percentage of GIM-aided GPS+GLONASS PPP ambiguity resolution is very low. We expect better GIM accuracy to enable rapid GPS+GLONASS PPP-IAR with heterogeneous receivers.     

利用GPS/BDS/GLONASS/Galileo组合PPP反演大气可降水量

为进一步改善精密单点定位（PPP）探测大气可降水量（PWV）的性能，本文提出采用GPS/BDS/GLONASS/Galileo组合PPP进行PWV反演的方法，并利用国内3个MGEX（multi-GNSS experiment）观测站的实测数据，对GPS/BDS/GLONASS/Galileo组合PPP在大气水汽探测方面的性能进行了评估。试验结果表明：相较于GPS PPP、GPS/BDS组合PPP和GPS/GLONASS组合PPP，GPS/BDS/GLONASS/Galileo组合PPP估计天顶对流层延迟（ZTD）的初始化时间分别缩短了33%、26%、20%，且能获得更高精度的ZTD估值和PWV信息，在大气水汽探测方面的性能更优。