GPS World - April 2015

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April 2015
VOL. 26, NUMBER 4
gpsworld.com
GALILEO
COVER STORYSPECIAL SECTION
GNSS MODERNIZATION
Galileo E1 and E5a Performance 30

For Multi-Frequency, Multi-Constellation GBAS
Analysis of new Galileo signals at an experimental ground-based augmentation system (GBAS)
compares noise and multipath in their performance to GPS L1 and L5. Raw noise and multipath level
of the Galileo signals is shown to be smaller than those of GPS. Even after smoothing, Galileo signals
perform somewhat better than GPS and are less sensitive to the smoothing time constant.
By Mihaela-Simona Circiu, Michael Felux and Sam Pullen
EXPERT ADVICE
Taking Up Positions: Galileo and E112 28

By Andy Proctor
2015 GNSS MARKET REPORT
European GNSS Agency Provides a Fresh Look at Worldwide Growth 36

The report presents an overview and quantification of the GNSS market of today and the future.
It specifically looks at the global GNSS market in terms of shipments, revenues and installed base
of receivers, with a forecast up to 2023.
GALILEO PRODUCT SHOWCASE
39
OPINIONS & DEPARTMENTS
Out in Front
The Things We Carry

By Alan Cameron
THE SYSTEM
GPS IIF-9 Launch; Celebrating 20 Years; and more
THE BUSINESS
12
Mobile World Congress Report; Rohde & Schwarz Adds Testing; FAA
Seeks Comments on UAS; and more
EXPERT ADVICE
The Impact of RFI on GNSS Receivers 50

By Fabio Dovis
www.gpsworld.com
April 2015 | GPS World
ONLINE RESOURCES
NEWSLETTER EXCERPT
Threat Simulation Required?

Recently, I had a conversation with
Guy Buesnel, market segment
manager, GNSS Vulnerabilities, at
Spirent Communications. He wanted
to alert me to the concept that
jamming and spoofing is at a stage
where Internet hacking was many
years ago. Hacking has progressed
By Tony Murfin
from the typical loan student in his
Professional OEM
bedsit or studio apartment pounding
Editor
on a keyboard to break down banking
or other institutional firewalls, to
nowadays, where focused groups mount hacking attacks on
targeted agencies or companies lasting days, weeks, even
months. Huge effort is currently being applied to defending
against these and future focused attacks.
Buesnels point is that organized attacks on GNSS may be
coming, and coming soon. Individuals and groups are already
self-jamming to prevent detection organized car and truck
thieves wanting to avoid location of stolen assets, or truck
drivers wanting to prevent their employers knowing their
whereabouts using easily obtained personal cigarette
lighter or even professional-looking jammers. Jamming GPS
L3 at 1381.05MHz might awaken U.S. Department of Defense
(DOD) interest as its used by the Nuclear Detonation (NUDET)
Detection System Payload (NDS), and L4 at 1379.913 MHz

is currently only used for studies on additional ionospheric
corrections.
But Buesnel warns that organized spoofing could soon
start to happen, and happen frequently. And it could be
argued that spoofing is more dangerous than jamming,
because a user or someone monitoring a user might not
know for some time that their position information has been
compromised. Long enough, perhaps, for an unwary user
to get into potentially serious trouble, especially in a higher
speed, fuel-restricted application like an aircraft or a small
boat running some distance offshore.
GNSS is already embedded into the critical infrastructure
of utility providers, and also telecoms, financial and transport
sectors for timing/synchronization or positional data, and
the growth in vehicle automation will soon see GNSS being
used for even more safety-critical applications. The security
of GNSS is already of huge importance and a GNSS hacking
attack, like those experienced by Internet users, could
achieve significant disruption across a host of operational
segments. Precise GNSS timing is already essential for time
stamping some transactions and used extensively for cell-site
synchronization, so significant damage could occur if timing
information were to be compromised.
Read the full column at gpsworld.com/opinions.
Hottest Pages @ GPSWorld.com
presents
MARKETINSIGHTS
WEBINAR
APRIL WEBINAR
Global GNSS Market Trends and Forecasts

Highlights of GSA GNSS Market Report 2015
Thursday, April 16
10 a.m. PT / 1 p.m. ET / 5 p.m. GMT
Speakers:
Gian Gherardo Calini, Head of Market
Development, European GNSS Agency
Tim Reynolds, GPS Worlds Europe Editor
Moderator: Tracy Cozzens,
GPS World Managing Editor
See a summary of the report on page 36.
Register at www.gpsworld.com/webinar
4
GPS World | April 2015
February 17 March 19, 2015
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
GPS Watch Aimed at Childrens Safety Unveiled at CES
LATEST
NEWS
BeiDou Numbering Presents Leap-Second Issue
LATEST
NEWS
The Almanac
FROM THE
MAGAZINE
Another MEMS Success Story
INSIGHTS
(Professional OEM newsletter)
In GNSS Race, Could Galileo Be Surging into Second?

(Survey Scene newsletter)
Finally, A List of Public RTK Base Stations in the U.S.

(Survey Scene newsletter)
Flying Without GPS One Dark, Stormy Night

(Defense PNT newsletter)
Obstacles in the Orbit Path of GPS III

(GNSS Design & Test newsletter)
INSIGHTS
INSIGHTS
INSIGHTS
INSIGHTS
Orbit of Second Wayward Galileo Satellite Adjusted
LATEST
NEWS
Google Maps Takes Street View Camera through

Amazon Canopy
LATEST
NEWS
www.gpsworld.com
OUT IN FRONT
The Things We Carry
e have entered a discussion

phase at the magazine, a
fierce conversation if you
will, occasioned on the one hand by the
periodic need to freshen our appearance,
but also to re-investigate and re-evaluate
our whole approach. The way we do
things, and the actual things we do.
The thoughts and pre-conceptions and
mental equipment we carry with us to
do our jobs: gathering and presenting
the news and the newest in GNSS
technology and business.
In the beginning, or before the
beginning, really, I asked myself these
questions:
What has changed in the last year?
Where are we succeeding?
Where are we failing?
What have we learned in the last six
months?
What is required of us now?
Some of the answers to these
questions are of course proprietary, but
some at least can be shared. So: What
has changed in the last year in the
market?
Among new developments, we can
count diversification away from the core
of GPS/GNSS standalone technology.
Never again, really, will satnav
positioning suffice to answer the needs
of the day. That ship has sailed. That dog
has left the porch.
Certainly, though this is nothing
new, we also see more international
participation in the market, more
international involvement on the part
of all GNSS companies, no matter
where their base, and more international
collaboration.
The story of the year, replacing
jamming and interference which were
the stories of the last few years, is the
rise of unmanned autonomous vehicles
(UAVs), whether in the air, on land, or
sea.
Finally, as a reflection of these trends,
some trade shows and conferences
are declining, while others grow in
6
importance, attendance, and exhibitors.

In the context of future change, heres
a question Id like to ask all of our
readers. I welcome your answers to any
of the questions you see posed here, or
any thoughts at all, even if they consist
of more questions. Send all and sundry
to:
editor@gpsworld.com
But if you wouldnt mind, please

include this one:
Where do you see your efforts and
those of your organization focusing
primarily over the next five to 10 years?
A. Primarily on GPS;
B. Inclusive also of multiple GNSS:
GLONASS, Galileo, BeiDou,
various satellite-based augmentation
systems;
C. More broadly, on positioning,
navigation, and timing (PNT)
systems generally and in an
integrated fashion, including other
sensors;
D. Encompassing all the above
and geospatial software such as
geographic information systems
(GIS) and location-based services
(LBS).
Skipping ahead now to some
outcomes, under the heading of what
is required of us now, we here at the
magazine are leaning more every day on
these precepts:
Grow digitally and grow
internationally. These are the only true
paths to growth, at least in business-tobusiness publishing.
Beef up our geospatial presence.
You can see this in action at geospatialsolutions.com.
Increase show tie-ins at newly

developing conferences.
Aggressively pursue small, diverging
markets.
Thats the new equipment were
picking up. Thats what we carry now.
www.gpsworld.com
EDITORIAL
Editor-in-Chief and Group Publisher Alan Cameron | editor@gpsworld.com
Managing Editor Tracy Cozzens | tcozzens@northcoastmedia.net
Art Director Charles Park
EDITORIAL OFFICES
1360 East 9th St, Suite 1070
Cleveland, OH 44114, USA
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www.gpsworld.com | gpsworld@gpsworld.com
CONTRIBUTING EDITORS
Innovation Richard Langley | lang@unb.ca
Defense PNT Don Jewell | djewell@gpsworld.com
European GNSS Tim Reynolds | treynolds@gpsworld.com
Professional OEM Tony Murfin | tmurfin@gpsworld.com
Geospatial Eric Gakstatter | egakstatter@gpsworld.com
Survey Dave Doyle and Dave Zilkoski
Wireless LBS Insider Kevin Dennehy | kdennehy@gpsworld.com
Janice Partyka | jpartyka@gpsworld.com
BUSINESS
Publisher and International Account Manager
Steve Copley | scopley@northcoastmedia.net | 216-363-7921
Digital Operations Manager
Bethany Chambers | bchambers@northcoastmedia.net | 216-706-3771
Senior Digital Editor
Diane Sofranec | dsofranec@northcoastmedia.net | 216-706-3793
Digital Editor
Joelle Harms | jharms@northcoastmedia.net | 216-706-3780
Web Developer
Jesse Malcmacher |jmalcmacher@northcoastmedia.net | 216-363-7925
Marketing Specialist
Michelle Mitchell | mmitchell@northcoastmedia.net | 216-363-7922
Marketing Manager
Ryan Bockmuller | rbockmuller@northcoastmedia.net | 216-706-3772
PUBLISHING SERVICES
Manager, Production Services
Chris Anderson | canderson@northcoastmedia.net
Sr. Audience Development Manager
Antoinette Sanchez-Perkins | asanchez-perkins@northcoastmedia.net
PRODUCTION OFFICE
1360 East 9th St, Suite 1070, Cleveland, OH 44114
216-978-5341
CIRCULATION/SUBSCRIBER SERVICES
gpsworld@halldata.com | USA: 847-763-4942
NORTH COAST MEDIA, LLC.
President & CEO
Kevin Stoltman | kstoltman@northcoastmedia.net | 216-706-3740
Vice President of Finance & Operations
Steve Galperin | sgalperin@northcoastmedia.net | 216-706-3705
VP Graphic Design & Production
Pete Seltzer | pseltzer@northcoastmedia.net | 216-706-3737
MANUSCRIPTS: GPS World welcomes unsolicited articles but cannot be held responsible for
their safekeeping or return. Send to: 1360 East 9th St, Suite 1070, IMG Center, Cleveland, OH 44114,
USA. Every precaution is taken to ensure accuracy, but publishers cannot accept responsibility for
the accuracy of information supplied herein or for any opinion expressed. REPRINTS: Reprints
of all articles are available (500 minimum). Contact 877-652-5295, Nick Iademarco. Wrights Media,
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GPS WORLD does not verify any claims or other information appearing in any of the
advertisements contained in the publication and cannot take any responsibility for any losses or other
damages incurred by readers in reliance on such content.
Published monthly
www.gpsworld.com
SYSTEM
THE
Policy and system news and developments | GPS | Galileo | GLONASS | BeiDou
Celebrating 20
Years of GPS
pril marks the 20th anniversary of GPS FOC. U.S. Air

Force Space Command declared Full Operational
Capability (FOC) for the GPS constellation April 27,
1995, signifying the system met all requirements with 24
operational Block II/IIA satellites in their assigned orbital
slots and providing both the military Precise Positioning
Service (PPS) performance standard and the civil Standard
Positioning Service (SPS) performance standard.
FOC was formally announced on July 17, 1995.
CNAV Performance Compares

Favorably to Legacy Signals
GPS IIF-9 Launch

on March 25
s this magazine went to press on March 19, the U.S.

Air Forces ninth GPS Block IIF satellite (GPS IIF-9) was
being readied for a March 25 launch. The satellite
was encapsulated in the Delta IV rockets 4-meter-diameter
nose cone at a processing facility, and moved to the launch
pad at Space Launch Complex 37 for mating to its booster
inside the mobile service tower.
Launch is scheduled for March 25 at 2:36 p.m. U.S. Eastern
time from Space Launch Complex 37 at Cape Canaveral Air
Force Station, Fla. GPS IIF-9 marks the 29th Delta IV launch
and the 57th operational GPS satellite to launch on a ULA or
heritage launch vehicle.
A March 5 announcement concerning the new L2C and

L5 GPS civil signals states: CNAV Message Types 10, 11, 30
and 33 are currently transmitted on seven GPS IIR-M (L2C)
and eight GPS IIF satellites (L2C and L5). A Modernized
Navigation (MODNAV) Tool integrated with the GPS
ground control software (Architecture Evolution Plan or
AEP) is generating the CNAV data messages. Daily CNAV
uploads began December 31, 2014, and the U.S. Air Force
reports that signal performance of CNAV matches or
slightly outperforms Legacy performance: average user
range error (RMS URE) from 25 February 3 March 2015
was 0.50 m for Legacy and 0.57 m for Modernized; best
week for Modernized signals since the broadcast initiated
April 2014 was 0.42 m for 6 13 January 2015.
Users are reminded that these CNAV signals are preoperational and should be used with discretion until they
become fully operational; the L5 message is currently set
unhealthy, concluded Rick Hamilton, CGSIC Executive
Secretariat, USCG Navigation Center, in a status email
to the Civil Global Positioning System Service Interface
Committee (CGSIC).
More System News Online

See www.gpsworld.com.
www.gpsworld.com
THE SYSTEM
Galileo Six, Seven, Eight: Lay Them Straight
n March 17, some stations participating in the

International GNSS Service Multi-GNSS Experiment
acquired E1 and E5a signals from Galileo 6
(FOC-FM2, GSAT0202). The satellite is using pseudorandom
noise code E14.
This development follows the successful repositioning
of the sixth Galileo satellite into a corrected orbit, which will
now allow detailed testing to assess the performance of its
navigation payload. A 20-meter-diameter antenna at the
European Space Agencys (ESAs) Redu center in Belgium will
study the strength and shape of the navigation signals at high
resolution.
Launched with the fifth Galileo last August, its initial
elongated orbit saw it traveling as high as 25,900 kilometers
above Earth and down to a low point of 13,713 kilometers
confusing the Earth sensor used to point its navigation
antennas at the ground.
A recovery plan was devised between ESAs Galileo team,
flight dynamics specialists at ESAs ESOC operations centre
and Frances CNES space agency, as well as satellite operator
SpaceOpal and manufacturer OHB. This involved gradually
raising the lowest point of the satellites orbits more than
3,500 km while also making them more circular.
The fifth Galileo entered its corrected orbit at the end of
November 2014. Both its navigation and search-and-rescue
payloads were switched on the following month to begin
testing. Now the sixth satellite has reached the same orbit.
This latest salvage operation began in mid-January and
concluded six weeks later, with 14 maneuvers performed in
total. Its corrected position is effectively a mirror image of
the fifth satellites, placing the pair on opposite sides of the
planet. The exposure of the two to the harmful Van Allen Belt
radiation has been greatly reduced, helping to ensure future
reliability.
The corrected orbit means they will overfly the same
location on the ground every 20 days. This compares with
a standard Galileo repeat pattern of every 10 days, helping
to synchronize their ground tracks with the rest of the
constellation.
I am very proud of what our teams at ESA and industry
have achieved, said Marco Falcone, head of the Galileo
system office. Our intention was to recover this mission from
the very early days after the wrong orbit injection. This is what
we are made for at ESA.
The decision whether to use the two satellites for
navigation and search-and-rescue purposes will be ultimately
made by the European Commission, as the system owner,
www.gpsworld.com
THE ORIGINAL (IN RED) and corrected (in blue) orbits of the fifth and
sixth Galileo satellites, along with that of the first four satellites
(green).
based on the in-orbit test results and the systems ability to

provide navigation data from the improved orbits.
March 27 Launch Date for Galileo Seven, Eight

The seventh and eighth Galileo satellites, set for launch
together on March 27, were placed onto the Fregat upper
stage of their Soyuz ST-B launcher in mid-March.
The Fregat stage will hold the satellites in place during
their four-hour flight into orbit 22,300 kilometers above
the Earth. Then, at the correct altitude, the two satellites are
sprung away in opposing directions.
The Fregat upper stage was blamed for the August misdelivery of Galileo satellites five and six. The root cause of the
anomaly producing the wrong orbits was a shortcoming in
the system thermal analysis performed during stage design,
according to findings by an independent inquiry board.
The anomaly occurred during the flight of the launchers
fourth stage, Fregat. It occurred about 35 minutes after
liftoff, and was due to a temporary interruption of the
joint hydrazine propellant supply to the Fregat thrusters.
The interruption in the flow was caused by freezing of
the hydrazine, resulting from the proximity of hydrazine
and cold helium feed lines, these lines being connected
by the same support structure, which acted as a thermal
bridge. Ambiguities in the design documents allowed the
installation of this type of thermal bridge between the two
lines.
THE SYSTEM
IRNSS Launch Scheduled for March 29
BeiDou, Too, in Late March
The launch of the fourth satellite for the Indian Regional

Navigation Satellite System, previously scheduled for
March 9, was postponed until March 29 at 13:00 UTC, due
to the replacement of a faulty telemetry transmitter on the
satellite.
IRNSS-1D will be fourth in the seven-spacecraft IRNSS
constellation.
There are indications that the first satellite in the BeiDou

Phase 3 expansion may be launched by the end of March.
Apparently, a BeiDou satellite has been shipped to the
Xichang launch site, and tracking ships have left port for the
open ocean. Also, a philatelic first day cover for the launch
(a common Chinese practice) has been issued with a March
2015 inscription. This is likely a launch of a medium Earth
orbit (MEO)satellite.
Where It All Began for Galileo and EGNOS

The European Space Agency issued a
press information notice on June 11,
1995 in the same timeframe as the
GPS FOC announcement noted on
the previous page titled Europes
Contribution to a Navigation Satellite
System.
The European Commission,
the European Space Agency (ESA),
and the civil aviation organisation
EUROCONTROL have agreed to
cooperate on a joint programme). The
European Satellite Navigation (ESN)
Action Programme, elements of which
are GNSS-1 [First Generation Global
Navigation Satellite System] and GNSS2, is planned to run for five years (from
mid-1995 to mid-2000) with a budget
of the order of 150 million euros.
National aviation authorities and
the parties involved in the action
programme see Europes commitment
to satellite navigation as being of
strategic significance for the future.
The main objective of the
programme is to develop technologies
that will ensure that data from the two
existing Global Navigation Satellite
Systems the United States GPS and
Russias GLONASS which are both
under military control, will also be
available for civil use on a reliable basis
and will provide the requisite precision.
In parallel, studies will be conducted
in order to make preparations for a
second generation satellite-navigation
and positioning system (GNSS-2), to be
deployed as from 2005.
10
In the first phase (GNSS-1), ESAs

contribution to the joint action
programme will be EGNOS [European
Geostationary Navigation Overlay
Service]. Satellites stationed in
geostationary orbit at an altitude of
about 36,000 km will relay to aircraft,
shipping or road vehicles information
that will enable the recipients to
determine their actual positions with
greater precision than is possible
by using GPS/GLONASS data alone.
Civil users of those systems receive
artificially degraded data deviating by
about 100 metres. EGNOS, will enable
in particular, to increase the number
of satellites that can be seen by a
given user within the geostationary
broadcast area.
Around the period 20052008, after
completing a trial period, the new system is due to be used as sole means.
Galileo, Previously GNSS-2

It is planned to develop GNSS-2 in
the period between 2005 and 2020,
building on experience acquired
under GNSS-1. From the technical
viewpoint, the second generation will
be a considerable improvement on the
first in terms of reliability, precision and
availability.
However, if Europe were to confine
itself to developing the relevant technologies, its industry would have only
a very slim chance of being involved
in the construction of the satellites for
the system or in the control and user
segments for a second-generation civil

system (GNSS-2). Given that U.S. and
Russian firms are the current leaders
in this area, it is necessary for strategic
reasons for Europe to carry out a comprehensive development and demonstration programme as it must be able
to prove it has the requisite capabilities
before GNSS-2 becomes operational,
which, in the experts opinion, will be
from 2005.
The time schedule foreseen for the
different steps can be summarised as
follows:
GNSS-1 mission analysis and definition
studies: mid-1995 to mid-1996
European GNSS-1 pre-operational
mission (task 1): to end 1997.
Development of the geostationary
network, following the Inmarsat
III launch and first ranging
demonstration phase
GNSS-1 (task 2): 1996 to end 1998.
In parallel to the development of
the network, the Ground Integrity
Channel will be set up, followed by a
second demonstration phase
GNSS-1 (task 3): 1997 to early 2000.
Wide Area Differential service for
precision approaches to be set up and
tested
Introduction of GNSS-1 as sole means:
2000/2003.
GPS World is indebted to Richard
Langleys CANSPACE archive of
historical documents for this note of
interest.
www.gpsworld.com
Register
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online at
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BUSINESS DESIGN CENTRE

LONDON UK 27 28 MAY
The geospatial event for everyone involved

in the gathering, storing, processing and
delivering of geospatial information.
Incorporating:
A world class exhibition attracting the leading service
providers and suppliers of geospatial technology
An innovative conference presenting the latest industry
advances for all those working with spatial data
A workshop and demonstration programme offering
buyers a hands-on experience and providing in-depth
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Welcome drinks and gala dinner offering a chance to
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For more information on the event visit
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Organised by:
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EMPOWERING GEOSPATIAL INDUSTRIES

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BUSINESS
THE
Industry news and developments | GPS | Galileo | GLONASS
AVIATION
SIMULATION
FAA Seeks Comments

on UAS Proposal
Rohde & Schwarz Adds Testing for Russias ERA-GLONASS
The public has until April 24 to

comment on a framework of
regulations proposed in February by
the Federal Aviation Administration
(FAA). The regulations would
allow routine use of certain small
unmanned aircraft systems (UAS),
while maintaining flexibility to
accommodate future technological
innovations, the agency said.
The FAA proposal offers safety
rules for small UAS (under 55 pounds)
conducting non-recreational
operations. The rule would limit flights
to daylight and visual-line-of-sight
operations. It also addresses height
restrictions, operator certification,
optional use of a visual observer,
aircraft registration and marking, and
operational limits.
Comments can be entered online
through the U.S. government
Regulations site (www.regulations.gov).
Effective January 1, all new car models introduced to the Russian market must
be equipped with the automatic ERA-GLONASS emergency call system. Rohde
& Schwarz now offers a standard compliant test solution for manufacturers and
suppliers of these in-vehicle systems.
Rohde & Schwarz has introduced an ERA-GLONASS test setup consisting of
the R&S CMW500 wideband radio communication tester and R&S SMBV100A
vector signal generator as a GNSS simulator. The setup allows manufacturers
and suppliers of automatic in-vehicle systems (IVS) to perform reliable and
reproducible preconformance tests on their ERA-GLONASS modules in the lab.
In the Russian Federation, ERA-GLONASS works much like the EUs eCall system.
When an accident occurs,
the IVS connects with a
public safety answering
point (PSAP) via the local
wireless communications
network and transmits a
standardized minimum
set of data (MSD). In
addition to GLONASS
or GPS coordinates, the
MSD contains information
about the accident vehicle. If no voice connection can be made or if data cannot be
transferred via the voice channel, the MSD is sent to the PSAP via SMS. This fallback
option is a special ERA-GLONASS feature. The Russian system is also certified for 2G
and WCDMA networks.
PROFESSIONAL OEM
PPP Solution from NovAtel Improved for Sub-Decimeter Accuracy

NovAtel CORRECT with PPP (precise
point positioning) will now offer the
new TerraStar-C correction service as its
exclusive source for satellite-delivered
PPP correction data.
TerraStar-C contains an enhanced
correction data set that enables up to
4-centimeter accuracy and instant reconvergence when combined with the
receiver error models and positioning
algorithms offered by NovAtel CORRECT.
This new level of PPP performance is
available on NovAtels OEM6 receivers
with firmware version 6.600.
NovAtel CORRECT is the positioning
12
algorithm on NovAtels GNSS receivers

that handles corrections from a variety
of sources, including real-time kinematic
(RTK), PPP, spaced-based augmentation
systems (SBAS) and differential GPS
(DGPS).
NovAtel CORRECT with PPP combines
GNSS satellite clock and orbit correction
data from TerraStars global reference
station network with NovAtels receiver
algorithms to yield robust subdecimeter positioning without the need
for nearby base stations, NovAtel said.
Correction data provided by TerraStar
is delivered to the end user via Inmarsat
satellites. With satellites visible globally,

PPP helps the accuracy of precision
applications where communications
infrastructure is either unreliable or not
available.
In addition, applications where signal
interruptions are common will benefit
from a more robust positioning solution
with the ability to quickly regain full
accuracy following a temporary loss of
GNSS signals, NovAtel said.
NovAtel customers with current
TerraStar-D subscriptions have
the option to upgrade to the new
TerraStar-C service level free of charge.
www.gpsworld.com
THE BUSINESS
TRACKING
Meitrack Offers GPS Tracker for 3G Networks

GPS tracking manufacturer Meitrack
Group is introducing a tracker that
runs on 3G networks. Meitrack said it is
transitioning all of its current trackers so
they work on the 3G network standard
instead of the outdated 2G technology.
The first model released is the T333
GPS tracker, which offers real-time

tracking, history reports, assisted GPS
tracking, geofence creation, and an
S.O.S. panic button. The tracker can
be installed in vehicles ranging from
everyday family cars, to construction
and commercial trucks. It uses the
u-blox 7 GPS module.

The T333 also comes equipped
with digital and analog inputs that
transform the GPS tracker into a central
hub where other accessories can be
simultaneously attached and synced.
These accessories include fuel sensors,
RFID card readers, handset phones,
cameras, and LCDs and LEDs displays.
AVIATION
McMurdo Transmitter
Helps Locate Aircraft
McMurdo Group is offering the
Kannad Integra Smart Pack, an aviation
emergency locator transmitter (ELT)
bundle with both GPS and antenna
redundancy. The product can result in
Integra Smart Pack-equipped aircraft
being twice as likely to be found in the
event of an emergency compared to
standard ELTs.
The Smart Pack includes the Kannad
Integra ELT a small, light ELT with
a built-in antenna and embedded
GPS receiver. It also includes the new
Kannad Integra e-NAV NMEA an
NMEA-standard interface cable that
connects the Integra ELT to the aircraft
GPS. The latest known aircraft GPS
position is continually updated and
stored on the cable to provide an
additional level of redundancy over the
embedded Integra ELT GPS data.
Traditional ELTs rely on an
aircrafts external antenna and GPS
equipment, which is subject to failure
in an emergency. The Integra ELT can
operate independently of the aircraft to
provide key positioning data through
its internal antenna and GPS receiver.
www.gpsworld.com
13
THE BUSINESS
Mobile World Congress Sees Jump in Indoor Location Companies

By Kevin Dennehy
BARCELONA Joining the 95,000 or so
Mobile World Congress attendees were
about three dozen companies who are
offering indoor location and location
advertising services. These companies
have exhibited at previous conferences,
but not in the numbers this year.
At the huge Fira Convention Center
where MWC was held, Los Altos, Calif.based Pole Star installed more than 600
beacons for indoor location. Visitors
were able to be guided to booths and
other areas through an interactive
map. Business was good in 2014, we
sold 10,000 beacons. We are making
money, said Christian Carle, Pole Star
CEO.
One company, which has developed
a popular mobile game, is using its
network to attract advertisers for
its location-based ad platform. We
already have the infrastructure in place
because of our mobile game. With our
platform, we can allow advertisers to
launch campaigns using our beacon
signals and geofencing, said Pedro
Jahara, CEO of Brazil-based RevMob.
New location technology, like the
ability to track SIM cards, was rolled
out at MWC. W-Locate, which is
partnering with Morpho in Thailand,
is tracking SIM cards with its XimLoc
product, which the company said is
more accurate indoors than other
technology.
Even the location-based advertising
market is gaining traction as
advertisers are seeing the benefit of
locating and attracting customers.
New York-based xAd said it has doubled
its revenue for the second year. We
have billions of mobile ads processed
and billions of ad impressions. The
company is profitable, said Dipanshu
Sharma, xAd founder and CEO. He said
the company has expanded into France
and Germany and added China to its
global ad network.
Another company using location
technology as a differentiator is Airpush.
The companys Abstract Banners was
14
March 25, Barcelona, Spain
The SK Telecom 5G robot depicts human

gestures in real time.
Smartwatches and other wearables made

a huge splash, with offerings showcased
by Garmin, LG, Optus, Huawei, Amigo,
Sony and Telefonica.
Ford announced an app that lets owners

charge up their vehicle, set cabin temperature, check battery charge level and
plan journeys remotely.
Read the full column at

gpsworld.com/opinions.
a big draw to attendees. Location,

particularly geofenced areas, has
created a call-to-action for consumers,
which is attractive to advertisers,
said Cameron Peeples, Airpush vice
president of marketing.
Connected Cars. Although the Geneva
Auto Show began as the MWC was
ending, there were still several big
announcements by connected car
companies in Barcelona. Even the
well-publicized Samsung S6 and S6
Edge and HTC One M9 handset rollouts
included Mirrorlink, the connected
vehicle standard from the Connected
Car Consortium.
In another big announcement,
Audi and AT&T said that all 2016 model
vehicles equipped with Audi connect
will come with the carriers 4G LTE or 3G
coverage. This increase in services is big
because the auto giant just rolled out
4G AT&T service in Audi A3s last year.
AT&T selected Airbiquity to provide
end-user registration and devicemanagement connected vehicle
services for select customer programs.
Airbiquity will deliver these services
to AT&T using our Choreo cloud-based
connected vehicle services delivery
platform and project management,
engineering, and operations teams,
said David Jumpa, Airbiquity chief
revenue officer. This is a white
label agreement whereby AT&T will
integrate Airbiquitys service delivery
capability into AT&Ts connected
vehicle customer solutions.
In other news, Spirent said its
simulators have the capability to
evaluate Wi-Fi offload and Wi-Fi
performance of mobile devices on its
test framework.
The new product allows companies
to test multiple devices on a single
unit to cover Wi-Fi/LTE mobility
and interoperability. The testing is
important in light of wireless carriers
strategy to extend VoLTE in areas
where cell coverage is limited, said
Saul Einbinder, Spirent vice president,
venture development.
www.gpsworld.com
THE BUSINESS
BUSINESS
BRIEFS
GNSS positioning facilities to offshore

industries, has upgraded its Apex
and Apex precise point positioning
services. The services now typically
provide users with a horizontal position
accuracy of better than 5 cm and 12
cm in the vertical at the two sigma (95
percent) confidence level.
LocationSmart, Locaid to Merge
SBG Offers Apogee MEMS INS

SBG Systems has released the
Apogee Series, inertial navigation
systems based on robust and costeffective MEMS technology. The INS/
GNSS integrates the latest generation
of MEMS sensors and a tri-frequency
GNSS receiver. Apogee achieves 0.008
in roll and pitch in real time and 0.005
in post-processing. With two antennas,
it delivers a robust and accurate
heading.
New Report Considers GNSS

Market Outlook 2015-2020
Research and Markets has added
the report Global Navigation Satellite
Systems Market Outlook 2020 to
its offerings. The global core GNSS
market is forecast to grow at a CAGR
of 9 percent during 20152020.
Analysts look at various GNSS industry
segments and regions, highlighting
the areas offering possibilities for
companies to boost their growth.
LocationSmart, a provider of
cloud-based location and interactivity
services, and Locaid, a location-as-aservice platform for enterprise location,
have merged to create an enterprise
mobility platform for cloud-based
location services. Stockholders of both
companies approved the merger on
Feb. 19. The combined company will
operate under the LocationSmart
brand.
Veripos Offshore PPP Improves

Veripos, a supplier of high-precision
16
Trimble VRS Now Service Expands

The Trimble VRS Now correction
service has expanded to Australia
(specifically Queensland, New South
Wales, South Australia, Tasmania
and Victoria). The service is also now
in Oregons Willamette Valley. The
commercial subscription service
provides surveyors with access to
real-time kinematic GNSS corrections
without the need for a base station.
GAPS PPP Software Upgraded

A new version of the online GAPS
precise point positioning software is
now available. GAPS GPS Analysis
and Positioning Software is
offered by the University of New
Brunswick Geodesy and Geomatics
Engineering Department. The latest
release provides capabilities for
handling GPS data files in both RINEX
2 and 3 formats, whether Hatanakacompressed or not, along with a
number of receiver raw file formats.
Also, additional input and output dataquality verification is now performed.
Smartphone Nav in Agriculture

A new app available on the Google
Play store enables farmers to use their
smartphone in the field. AgriBus-NAVI
is a GPS guidance system to mount
on agricultural machinery such as
tractors, combines and self-propelled
sprayers to help with straight-line
tasks in the field. Checking the display
while driving will enable the creation
of straight and evenly spaced lines in
large fields. No auto-steer included.
Farmers Edge Acquires GranDuke

Farmers Edge Inc., a precision
agriculture and independent
data-management company, has
acquired GranDuke Geomatics Ltd. of
Lethbridge, Alberta. The agreement
was finalized on Jan. 9, giving control of
the geospatial solutions and software
development company to Farmers
Edge.
which has been a significant hurdle

for cost-effective small cell indoor
deployments.
Microsemi GNSS Master Solves

Small-Cell Synchronization Issue
Microsemi is offering a new
Integrated GNSS Master (IGM) solution
for small-cell synchronization. The
IGM is the companys first solution
that fully integrates a 1588v2 PTP
grandmaster with a GNSS receiver
and antenna in a small, fully contained
package, designed to mount indoors.
The Microsemi IGM solves the
challenge of indoor synchronization,
Trimble Offers Corrections

for Agriculture in Europe
Trimble is offering a new version
of its CenterPoint RTX correction
service that delivers convergence to
4-centimeter
horizontal
accuracy
in less than
5 minutes.
The service
is designed
for a variety
of precision
agriculture operations in Central and
Western Europe, and is available for use
with the Trimble CFX-750 display.
More Business News Online

See www.gpsworld.com.
Follow @gpsworld on Twitter.
www.gpsworld.com
THE BUSINESS
TRANSPORTATION
Volvo Developing System for Integrating Autonomous Cars into Traffic

Volvo Cars has developed a
complete system solution
that makes it possible to
integrate self-driving cars
into real traffic, with ordinary
people in the drivers seat.
As its autonomous Drive
Me project enters its second
year, the Swedish carmaker
is moving toward its goal of
placing 100 self-driving cars
in the hands of customers
on selected roads around Gothenburg,
Sweden, by 2017. This public pilot
project, planned in conjunction with the
city, is a central component of Volvos
plan to achieve sustainable mobility and
a crash-free future.
Volvos autonomous driving system is
based on a complex network of sensors,
cloud-based positioning systems
and intelligent braking and steering
technologies. The system is designed
www.gpsworld.com
to be reliable enough to allow the car

to take over every aspect of driving in
autonomous mode. The technology
advances a crucial step beyond the
automotive systems demonstrated
so far since it includes fault-tolerant
systems, Volvo said.
The system generates exact
positioning and a complete 360-degree
view of the cars surroundings through
a combination of radars, cameras and
laser sensors. A network of

computers processes the
information, generating a
real-time map of moving
and stationary objects in
the environment.
Precise positioning is
based on this surround
information together with
GPS and a high-definition
3D digital map that is
continuously updated with
real-time data.
The high-performance GPS is
enhanced with a three-degrees-offreedom accelerometer and gyro. By
matching the image created by the
sensors with the map image, the car
receives information about its position
in relation to the surroundings, and
can choose the best course in real time,
factoring in road curvature, speed limit,
temporary signs and other traffic.
17
THE BUSINESS
DEFENSE
EVENTS
European Navigation Conference
April 710, Bordeaux, France
http://enc-gnss2015.com/
The ENC gathers 150 members of
the scientific community and more
than 300 guests, providing a unique
opportunity to meet key players in
the navigation area. It is renowned
for its high-level scientific activities
highlighted during the conference and
the wide range of topics covered.
IFCS-EFTF 2015
April 1216, Denver; http://ifcs-eftf2015.org/
The IEEE International Frequency
Control Symposium & European
Frequency and Time Forum Conference
includes topics on timekeeping, time
and frequency transfer, and GNSS
applications.
EGU General Assembly

April 1217, Vienna; www.egu.eu
The General Assembly of the
European Geosciences Union will
feature a high-precision GNSS session.
9th International Navigation

Forum
April 2223, Moscow; www.glonass-forum.com
The forum is designed to inform
a wide audience in Russia about
the current status and plans for the
development of GLONASS and other
satnav systems, state policies on the
commercial use of GLONASS in Russia
and overseas, innovative technologies,
and up-to-date navigation equipment
and services.
AUVSI Unmanned Systems 2015

May 4 7, Atlanta; www.auvsi.org/home
Unmanned Systems 2015 convenes
a global community of commercial and
defense leaders in intelligent robotics,
drones and unmanned systems,
powered by AUVSI.
9th Annual Baka GNSS

Conference
May 1012, Baka, Krk Island Croatia
www.baskagnssconference.org/ocs/
18
This event gathers worldwide

experts in satellite navigation and
related disciplines, and focuses on
GNSS resilience and GNSS applications
development.
Telematics Berlin
May 1112, Berlin; www.tu-auto.com/berlin/
Telematics Berlin brings together
players in the connected car space to
deliver insights on changes brought
about by automotive data, including
speakers from TomTom, Ford and
Teradata.
UN/Russian Federation Workshop

on the Applications of GNSS
May 1822, Krasnoyarsk, Russian Federation
www.unoosa.org
Organized jointly by the United
Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs
and the Russian Federal Space Agency
(ROSCOSMOS), this workshop will
address the use of GNSS for various
applications that can provide
sustainable social and economic
benefits, in particular for developing
countries.
CSNC 2015: 6th China Satellite

Navigation Conference
May 2123, Xian, China
http://182.92.190.247/english/about.asp
CSNC is an open platform for
academic exchanges that aim to
enhance academic innovation to
promote cooperation and exchange in
the field of satellite navigation.
Joint Navigation Conference

June 2225, Orlando, Florida
http://ion.org/jnc/index.cfm
The ION Military Divisions Joint
Navigation Conference is the largest
U.S. military navigation conference
with joint service and government
participation. The event focuses on
technical advances in guidance,
navigation and control (GN&C) with
emphasis on joint development,
test and support of affordable GN&C
systems, logistics and integration.
Karel Launches HighPerformance GPS/INS

The VIA-100G, an integrated GPS and
MEMS-IMU (inertial measurement
system), has been added to the
ViaNav inertial navigation system
family produced by Karel Electronics
Corporation.
Featuring a high-accuracy fusion
filter running on an embedded
processor, the VIA-100G provides all
the functions of a vertical reference
unit (VRU), an attitude and heading
reference system (AHRS) and an
integrated GPS/IMU system.
The system contains GPS, 3D
gyroscopes, 3D accelerometers, a
magnetometer, a static pressure sensor
and temperature sensors in a compact
and rugged enclosure. The embedded
processor provides driftless and realtime navigation information over a
wide range of temperature in dynamic
and static conditions, Karel said.
The sensors are integrated with a
highly accurate fusion filter. A Kalman
filter running on an embedded
processor fuses data from the IMU,
GPS, magnetometer, altimeter and
barometer in an optimal manner to
output highly accurate navigation
solutions.
VIA-100G outputs highfrequency position, velocity and
attitude information in addition to
calibrated 3D acceleration, rotation,
magnetometer and pressure data.
KAREL provides a software
development kit (Vianav SDK) and
user interface with the device. System
parameters can be adjusted to
customize the system according to the
dynamic properties of the application.
www.gpsworld.com
www.gpsworld.com
27
EXPERT ADVICE
Taking Up Positions: Galileo and E112

Andy Proctor
essions on indoor navigation

and a keynote from Google
at Februarys International
Navigation Conference (INC15),
organised by the Royal Institute of
Navigation, addressed the revised
E911 positioning requirements in the
United States, and flowed over into
speculation about E112 emergency
calling parameters in Europes near
future.
technology; it specifies performance

criteria in terms of accuracy that must be
met. The recently revised performance
criteria include indoor performance, and
some of the technology discussed at the
INC is able to meet these requirements
without using GNSS at all.
This could be troublesome for
Europe, which is looking at the
imposition of Galileo as part of an
A-GNSS technology push for the
Europe is looking at the imposition

of Galileo as part of an A-GNSS
technology push for E112 emergency
calling applications. E112 processes
currently do not specify performance
criteria for the position location
accuracy.
According to the 2014 U.S. Federal

Communications Commission report,
75 percent of 911 calls now come from
mobile phones, more than half of those
originate indoors, and around 1 percent
of emergency calls contain no location
information from the caller (due to
distress, confusion, language issues,
illness, and so on). The report estimates
10,000 deaths per year in the United
States might have been avoided if a
landline had been used instead, since
location information for landlines can be
provided confidently.
Discussion in the breaks of INC
highlighted a misunderstanding
amongst some parties that E911
mandates the use of GPS for position
location determination. In fact,
E911 does not mandate any specific
28
E112 application. The real problems,

discussed during INC and in European
consultation processes with safety of
life services such as E112, are:
the accuracy of the position derived
by the device and/or network, and
the timeliness of the delivery of
that position to the Public Service
Answering Point (PSAP).
The E911 directives address these
points directly, and the infrastructure
in the cellular networks is in place.
Does simply implementing a Galileo
capability into a European mobile
device solve these problems?
In many outdoor cases,
implementing Galileo can bring
benefits, including signal diversity.
And of course the E112 proposal is
greater than just adding Galileo.
It does address the second problem

of timeliness of delivery and data
transfer, but there are significant
infrastructure upgrades required
across Europe for the provision of this
location data to the PSAPs.
What the E112 processes do not
currently do is specify performance
criteria for the position location
accuracy. This means that the position
estimate provided under E112 is likely
to be a cell-ID fix, with an accuracy
ranging from hundreds of meters to
dozens of kilometers.
Galileo on Mobiles. Further discussion
during the conference delved
into the realms of the specifics of
implementing A-GNSS, including
Galileo, onto a mobile device.
Conversations centered around if
any future E911 or E112 positioning
capability would be aligned around
a single-chip solution as generally
currently deployed on a device, or if
some of the functions will be moved
up the stack into the operating system
(OS) of the device, into software.
Most opinions were against this
latter concept, and a panel at the ION
GNSS+ last year in Florida concluded
the same thing. However, questions
were asked about some ideas relating
to identifying the emergency number
at the time of dialing and then starting
the position location determination
functions in readiness for the need
to provide the device location. This
addresses the first bullet point earlier,
the accuracy of the position derived
by the device and/or network. If this
is carried out in the OS or software
layers, vulnerability of the system will
be increased overall as the OS of a
mobile device is a target for the cyber
criminal community.
A robust software-based solution
is, however, being rolled out in the
United Kingdom in the form of eSMS,
www.gpsworld.com
EXPERT ADVICE
bringing mobile operators, government

and handset vendors together to
provide location data via SMS to the
PSAP. The advantage of this approach
is that no new standards or major
infrastructure changes are required,
and the time to implement is small.
Further discussions established
that future chipsets are likely to use
whatever GNSS signals are available,
regardless of whether they are GPS,
Galileo, GLONASS, Beidou and so
on. This, coupled with new signal
processing techniques (singlefrequency observable for example),
increasing sensor clustering on
devices, and user demand for services,
may make the use of a specific GNSS
system above others somewhat
redundant. Certainly picking up on
a point made by Chandu Thota from
Google, GNSS is not relevant for
their indoor positioning solutions,

and technologies they are working
on, in both hardware and mapping
improvements, are looking at meeting
indoor accuracy requirements down
to a target requirement of 1 meter,
without GNSS.
Taking these points into account,
questions were asked from the floor
of the conference about the legal
position of the EC mandating Galileo
as a positioning method as well as
the willingness of the global mobile
chipset and device industry to be told
what to do. Perhaps specifying strong
performance criteria, as in the United
States, is the way forward to reboot
the European E112 system. No one
disputes that a properly functioning
E112 is a life saver and a good thing to
do; however, the points discussed here
detail some of the concerns expressed
during and after hours at INC15.
In February 2015, the Royal Institute

of Navigation hosted the International
Navigation Conference in Manchester, UK.
Keynotes at this well-attended conference
included Harold Martin, director of the GPS
Coordination Office; Gian Gherardo Calini, the
head of market development at the European
GNSS Agency; Todd Humphreys from the
University of Texas; Chandu Thota from
Google; and others. The conference covered
multiple technology tracks including indoor
navigation, autonomy, quantum technology
and the resilience of GNSS systems.
ANDY PROCTOR is lead technologist for satellite

navigation at InnovateUK, the UKs innovation
agency. He acknowledges RAMSEY FARAGHER,
Cambridge University, for help in the preparation
of this article.
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29
COVER STORY
Galileo E1 and E5a Performance

For Multi-Frequency, Multi-Constellation GBAS
Analysis of new Galileo signals at an experimental ground-based augmentation system (GBAS) compares noise and multipath in
their performance to GPS L1 and L5. Raw noise and multipath level of the Galileo signals is shown to be smaller than those of GPS.
Even after smoothing, Galileo signals perform somewhat better than GPS and are less sensitive to the smoothing time constant.
Mihaela-Simona Circiu, Michael Felux, German Aerospace Center (DLR), and Sam Pullen, Stanford University
everal ground-based augmentation system (GBAS)

stations have become operational in recent years and
are used on a regular basis for approach guidance.
These include airports at Sydney, Malaga, Frankfurt and
Zurich. These stations are so-called GBAS Approach
Service Type C (GAST C) stations and support approaches
only under CAT-I weather conditions; that is, with a certain
minimum visibility. Standards for stations supporting
CAT-II/III operations (low visibility or automatic landing,
called GAST D), are expected to be agreed upon by the
International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) later this
year. Stations could be commercially available as soon as
2018.
However, for both GAST C and D, the availability of the
GBAS approach service can be significantly reduced under
active ionospheric conditions. One potential solution is the
use of two frequencies and multiple constellations in order to
30
be able to correct for ionospheric impacts, detect and remove

any compromised satellites, and improve the overall satellite
geometry (and thus the availability) of the system.
A new multi-frequency and multi-constellation (MFMC)
GBAS will have different potential error sources and failure
modes that have to be considered and bounded. Thus, all
performance and integrity assumptions of the existing
single-frequency GBAS must be carefully reviewed
before they can be applied to an MFMC system. A central
element for ensuring the integrity of the estimated position
solution is the calculation of protection levels. This is done
by modeling all disturbances to the navigation signals in
a conservative way and then estimating a bound on the
resulting positioning errors that is valid at an allocated
integrity risk probability.
One of the parameters that is different for the new signals
and must be recharacterized is the residual uncertainty
www.gpsworld.com
GNSS Modernization |
GALILEO
26
attributed to the corrections from the

ground system (pr_gnd). A method to
BS03
BS02
assess the contribution of residual
noise and multipath is by evaluating
BS04
the B-values in GBAS, which give
an estimate of the error contribution
from a single reference receiver to a
broadcast correction. Independent data
samples over at least one day (for GPS)
BS01
are collected and sorted by elevation
angle. Then the mean and standard
deviations for each elevation bin are
FIGURE 1 DLR ground facility near Braunschweig Airport, also shown in opening photo at
determined.
left.
Here, we evaluate the E1 and E5a
signals broadcast by the operational
Receiver
Latitude []
Longitude []
Height [m]
Galileo satellites now in orbit. In the same manner as we
BS01
5219
2
N
1034
2
E
134.21
did for GPS L5 in earlier research, we determine the pr_gnd
values for these Galileo signals. As for GPS L5, results
BS02
5219 6N
1033 5 E
137.53
show a lower level of noise and multipath in unsmoothed
BS03
521920N
103316E
133.25
pseudorange measurements compared to GPS L1 C/A code.
BS04
521917N
103236E
131.51
08
Tower
DLR GBAS Facility

DLR has set up a GBAS prototype at the research airport
in Braunschweig (ICAO identifier EDVE) near the DLR
research facility there. This ground station has recently been
updated and now consists of four GNSS receivers connected
to choke ring antennas, which are mounted at heights between
2.5 meters and 7.5 meters above equipment shelters. All four
receivers are capable of tracking GPS L5 (in addition to GPS
L1 and L2 semi-codeless) and Galileo E1 and E5a signals.
FIGURE 1 gives an overview of the current ground station layout,
and TABLE 1 gives the coordinates of the antennas.
Smoothing Techniques
The GBAS system corrects for the combined effects of
multiple sources of measurement errors that are highly
correlated between reference receivers and users, such as
satellite clock, ephemeris error, ionospheric delay error, and
tropospheric delay error, through the differential corrections
broadcast by the GBAS ground subsystem. However,
uncorrelated errors such as multipath and receiver noise can
make a significant contribution to the remaining differential
error. Multipath errors are introduced by the satellite signal
reaching the antenna via both the direct path from the satellites
and from other paths due to reflection. These errors affect both
the ground and the airborne receivers, but are different at each
and do not cancel out when differential corrections are applied.
To reduce these errors, GBAS performs carrier
smoothing. Smoothing makes use of the less noisy but
ambiguous carrier-phase measurements to suppress the
noise and multipath from the noisy but unambiguous code
measurements.
The current GBAS architecture is based on singlewww.gpsworld.com
TABLE 1 Ground receiver antenna coordinates.
frequency GPS L1 C/A code measurements only. Singlefrequency carrier smoothing reduces noise and multipath,
but ionospheric disturbances can cause significant
differential errors when the ground station and the
airborne user are affected by different conditions. With
the new available satellites (GPS Block IIF and Galileo)
broadcasting in an additional aeronautical band (L5 / E5),
this second frequency could be used in GBAS to overcome
many current limitations of the single-frequency system.
Dual-frequency techniques have been investigated in
previous work. Two dual-frequency smoothing algorithms,
Divergence Free (Dfree) and Ionosphere Free (Ifree),
have been proposed to mitigate the effect of ionosphere
gradients.
The Dfree output removes the temporal ionospheric
gradient that affects the single-frequency filter but is still
affected by the absolute difference in delay created by
spatial gradients. The main advantage of Dfree is that
the output noise is similar to that of single-frequency
smoothing, since only one single-frequency code
measurement is used as the code input (recall that carrier
phase noise on both frequencies is small and can be
neglected).
Ifree smoothing completely removes the (first-order)
effects of ionospheric delay by using ionosphere-free
combinations of code and phase measurements from two
frequencies as inputs to the smoothing filter. Unlike the
Dfree, the Ifree outputs contain the combination of errors
from two code measurements. This increases the standard
deviation of the differential pseudorange error and thus also
31
GALILEO | GNSS Modernization
of the position solution.
Noise and Multipath in New GNSS Signals

GBAS users compute nominal protection levels (H0)
under a fault-free assumption. These protection levels are
conservative overbounds of the maximum position error after
application of the differential corrections broadcast by the
ground system, assuming that no faults or anomalies affect
the position solution. In order to compute these error bounds,
the total standard deviation of each differentially corrected
pseudorange measurements has to be modeled. The standard
deviation of the residual uncertainty (n, for the nth satellite)
consists of the root-sum-square of uncertainties introduced by
atmospheric effects (ionosphere, troposphere) as well as of
the contribution of the ground multipath and noise. In other
words, these error components are combined to estimate n2 as
described in the following equation:
(1)
The ground broadcasts a value for pr_gnd (described
later in the section) associated with the pseudorange
correction for each satellite. These broadcast values are
based on combinations of theoretical models and actual
measurements collected from the ground receivers that
represent actual system characteristics. Unlike the ground,
pr_air is computed based entirely on a standardized error
model. This is mainly to avoid the evaluation of multipath
for each receiver and each aircraft during equipment
approval.
In addition to the characteristics of nearby signal
reflectors, multipath errors are mainly dependent on signal
modulation and other signal characteristics (for example,
power, chip rate). In earlier research, we showed that the
newly available L5 signals broadcast by the GPS Block
IIF satellites show better performance in terms of lower
noise and multipath. This mainly results from an increased
transmitted power and a 10 times higher chip rate on L5
compared to the L1 C/A code signal.
In this work, we extend this evaluation to the new
Galileo signals and investigate their impact on a
future multi-frequency, multi-constellation GBAS.
Characterization of these new signals is based on ground
subsystem measurements, since no flight data with GPS
L5 or Galileo measurements are available at the moment.
We assume that the improvements observed by ground
receivers are also applicable to airborne measurements.
This assumption will be validated as soon as flight data are
available.
The measurements used were collected from the DLR
GBAS test bed over 10 days (note that Galileo satellite
ground track repeatability is 10 sidereal days) between the
December 14 and 23, 2013. In that period, four Galileo
32
FIGURE 2 Raw multipath function of elevation for GPS L1, Galileo E1

(BOC (1,1)) and Galileo E5a (BPSK(10)) signals.
and four Block IIF GPS satellites were operational and

broadcast signals on both aeronautical bands E1 / L1 and
E5a / L5.
In FIGURE 2, the suppression of multipath and noise on the
Galileo signals can be observed, where the code multipath
and noise versus elevation for GPS L1 C/A BSPK(1),
Galileo E1 (BOC (1,1)) and Galileo E5a (BPSK(10))
signals are shown. The code multipath and noise was
estimated using the linear dual-frequency combination
described in equation (2), where MPi represents the
code multipath and noise on frequency i, i the code
measurement, and i,and j represent the carrier-phase
measurements on frequencies i and j, respectively. Carrier
phase noises are small and can be neglected.
(2)
The multipath on the Galileo E1 (BOC(1,1)) signal (the
magenta curve) is lower than the GPS L1 C/A (BPSK(1))
(black curve), especially for low elevation, where the
advantage of the E1 BOC(1,1) is more pronounced. The
lower values can be explained by the wider transmission
bandwidth on E1 and the structure of the BOC signal.
Galileo E5a (green data in Figure 2) again shows a better
performance than Galileo E1. This was expected due to the
higher chip rate and higher signal power. A comparison of
the raw multipath and noise standard deviations for GPS
L1, L5 and Galileo E1, E5a signals is presented in FIGURE 3.
The curves there show the ratios of the standard
deviations for each elevation bin. The values for GPS
L1 are almost 1.5 times larger than those for Galileo E1
BOC(1,1) (green curve) for elevations below 20. For high
elevations, the ratio approaches 1.0. This corresponds to
the observations in the raw multipath plot ( Figure 2). With
the same signal modulation and the same chip rate, E5a and
L5 have very similar results (red curve), and the ratio stays
close to 1.0 for all elevations.
www.gpsworld.com
GALILEO
signals and different smoothing time constants. Note that,

in this study, pr_gnd contains only smoothed multipath and
noise; no other contributions (for example, inflation due to
signal deformation or geometry screening) are considered.
ratios
B-values and pr_gnd

B-values represent estimates of the associated noise and
multipath with the pseudorange corrections provided from
each receiver for each satellite, as described in Eurocae ED114A and RTCA DO-253C. They are used to detect faulty
measurements in the ground system. For each satellite-receiver
pair B(i,j), they are computed as:
elevation []
FIGURE 3 Ratios of the multipath and noise standard deviation

function of elevation.
(3)
The blue and the purple curves in Figure 3 show the

ratio of GPS L1 C/A (BPSK(1)) and GPS L5 (BPSK(10)),
and Galileo E1 (BOC(1,1)) and Galileo E5a (BPSK(10)),
respectively. The ratio of GPS L1 to GPS L5 (blue curve)
increases with elevation from values around 2.5 for low
elevations, reaching values above 3.5 for elevations higher
than 60. As Galileo E1 performs better, the ratio between
Galileo E1 and Galileo E5a (purple curve) is smaller, from
a value of 1.5 for elevations below 10 degrees to a value of
3.0 for high elevations.
Until now, we have presented the evaluation of raw code
noise and multipath. However, in GBAS, carrier smoothing
is performed to minimize the effect of code noise and
multipath. The value that describes the noise introduced by
the ground station is represented by a standard deviation
called pr_gnd and is computed based on the smoothed
pseudoranges from the reference receivers. In the following
section, we focus on the evaluation of pr_gnd using different
where PRCTX represents the candidate transmitted

pseudorange correction for satellite i (computed as an
average over all M(i) receivers), and PRCSCA(i,k) represents the
correction for satellite i from receiver k after smoothed clock
adjustment, which is the process of removing the individual
receiver clock bias from each reference receiver and all
other common errors from the corrections. The summation
computes the average correction over all M(k) receivers except
receiver j. This allows detection and exclusion of receiver j
if it is faulty. If all B-values are below their thresholds, the
candidate pseudorange correction PRCTX is approved and
transmitted. If not, a series of measurement exclusions and
PRC and B-value recalculations takes place until all revised
B-values are below threshold. Note that, under nominal
conditions using only single-frequency measurements, the
B-values are mainly affected by code multipath and noise.
Under the assumption that multipath errors are
uncorrelated across reference receivers, nominal B-values
can be used to assess the accuracy of the ground system.
0.4
10s GPS L1
10s Gal E1
30s GPS L1
30s Gal E1
60s GPS L1
60s Gal E1
100s GPS L1
100s Gal E1
0.35
0.3
pr
gnd
0.25
0.2
0.15
0.1
0.05
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
elevation []
FIGURE 4 (pr_gnd) versus elevation for Galileo E1 (dotted lines) and GPS L1 (solid lines for different smoothing constants: red (10s), green (30s),
cyan (60s), purple (100s).
www.gpsworld.com
33
GALILEO | GNSS Modernization
0.4
10s GPS L1
10s Gal E5
30s GPS L1
30s Gal E5
60s GPS L1
60s Gal E5
100s GPS L1
100s Gal E5
0.35
0.3
pr
gnd
0.25
0.2
0.15
0.1
0.05
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
elevation []
FIGURE 5 (pr_gnd) versus elevation for Galileo E5a (dotted lines) and GPS L1 (solid lines) for different smoothing constants: red (10s), green (30s),
cyan (60s), purple (100s).
The standard deviation of the

uncertainty associated with the
contribution of the corrections (pr_gnd)
for each receiver m is related to the
standard deviation of the B-values by:
(4)
where M represents the number of the
receivers and N represents the number
of satellites used. The final sigma takes
into account the contribution from all
receivers and is computed as the root
mean square of the standard deviation
of the uncertainties associated with each
receiver (Eq. 4).
FIGURE 4 shows the evaluation of
(pr_gnd) for the Galileo E1, BOC(1,1)
signal and the GPS L1 C/A signal
for increasing smoothing time
constants (10, 30, 60, and 100
seconds). Starting with a 10-second
smoothing constant, Galileo E1 shows
much better performance than GPS
L1. The difference shrinks as the
smoothing constant increases due
to the effectiveness of smoothing
in reducing noise and short-delay
multipath. However, even with
100-second smoothing (the purple
curves), Galileo E1 BOC(1,1) shows
lower values of (pr_gnd).
A similar comparison is presented
in FIGURE 5, of the performance of GPS
L1 and Galileo E5a. The Galileo E5a
34
signal is significantly less affected

by multipath, and the difference
stays more pronounced than in the
Galileo E1 GPS L1, even with
100-second smoothing. It can be also
observed that the Galileo signals have
a lower sensitivity to the smoothing
constant. The Galileo E1 signal
shows an increase of sensitivity for
low elevations (below 40), while
on E5a, a smoothing constant larger
than 10 seconds has almost no impact
on the residual error. Thus, a shorter
smoothing constant on Galileo
E5a generates approximately the
same residual noise and multipath a
100-second smoothing constant on
GPS L1.
The values for (pr_gnd) are, however,
impacted by the number of satellites
which are used to determine a
correction. Since only a very limited
number of satellites broadcasting
L5 and Galileo signals are currently
available, these results should be
considered preliminary. The first
evaluations strongly indicate that
with the new signals, we get better
ranging performance. Based on the
performance advantage of the new
signals, a decrease of the smoothing
constant is one option for future
application. This would reduce the time
required (for smoothing to converge)
before including a new satellite or reincluding a satellite after it was lost.
In the current GAST-D

implementation, based on GPS L1
only, guidance is developed based on
a 30-second smoothing time constant.
A second solution, one with 100
seconds of smoothing, is used for
deriving the Dv and Dl parameters
from the DSIGMA monitor and thus
for protection level bounding (it is
also used for guidance in GAST-C).
During the flight, different flight
maneuvers or the blockage by the
airframe can lead to the loss of the
satellite signal.
FIGURE 6 shows the ground track
of a recent flight trial conducted by
DLR in November 2014. The colors
represent the difference between
the number of satellites used by the
ground subsystem (with available
corrections) and the number of
satellites used by the airborne
subsystem in the GAST-D position
solution. One of the purposes of
the flight was to characterize the
loss of satellite signals in turns. In
turns with a steeper bank angle,
up to 3 satellites are lost (Turns
1, 3, and 4), while on a wide turn
with a small bank angle (Turn 2),
no loss of satellite lock occurred.
It is also possible for airframe to
block satellite signals, leading to
a different number of satellites
between ground and airborne even
without turns.
www.gpsworld.com
53
GALILEO
Turn 2
2.8
Turns 3,4
52.8
Latitude []
52.7
Turn 5
1.5
Turn 1
Turn 6
52.6
52.5
0.5
52.4
2.6
2.4
2.2
2
ratio
2.5
Nr. PRCs - Nr. SVs. used by airborne
52.9
1.8
1.6
1.4
52.3
1.2
10.3
10.4
10.5
10.6
10.7
10.8
10.9
11
Longitude []
1
10
FIGURE 6 Ground track of a flight trial conducted by DLR. The colors

represent difference between number of SVs used by the ground
system and number of SVs used by the airborne.
With this in mind, a shorter smoothing constant would

allow the satellites lost to turns or to airframe blockage
to be re-included more rapidly in the position solution.
However, a new smoothing constant would have to be
validated with a larger amount of data. Data from flights
trials has to be evaluated as well to confirm that similar
levels of performance are reresentative of the air multipath
and noise.
In a future dual-frequency GBAS implementation, an
important advantage of lower multipath and noise is to
improve the Ifree position solution. In earlier research, we
demonstrated that the error level of the Dfree solution is
almost the same as for single-frequency, but an increase
in error by a factor of 2.33 was computed for the Ifree
standard deviation based on L1 C/A code and L2 semicodeless measurements.
If the errors on L1 (E1) and L5 (E5a) code and carrier
phase measurements are statistically independent the
standard deviation of the Ifree can be written as,
(5)
where =1f 21 f 25 , and L1,L5 represent the standard
deviations of the smoothed noise and multipath for L1 (E1)
and L5 (E5a), respectively. Considering pr_gnd ,L1(E1)) =
pr_gnd ,L5(E5a)) in equation (5), the noise and multipath error
on Ifree (Ifree) increases by a factor of 2.59.
FIGURE 7 shows the ratio I free/L1 using measured
data. We observe that the measured ratio (the black
curve) is below the theoretical ratio computed based
on the assumption of statistically independent samples
(the constant value of 2.59). This is explained by the
fact that the multipath errors in the measurements are
not independent but have some degree of statistical
correlation. The standard deviations are computed based
on the same data set used in the raw multipath and noise
www.gpsworld.com
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
elevation []
FIGURE 7 Measured ratio Ifree/L1 function of elevation.
assessment using 100-second smoothed measurements

sorted into elevation bins of 10 spacing.
Conclusion
We have shown how GBAS can benefit from the new signals
provided by the latest generation of GPS and Galileo satellites.
We have demonstrated improved performance in terms of
lower noise and multipath in data collected in our GBAS test
bed. When GBAS is extended to a multi-frequency and multiconstellation system, these improvements can be leveraged for
improved availability and better robustness of GBAS against
ionospheric and other disturbances.
Acknowledgment
Large portions of this work were conducted in the framework
of the DLR internal project, GRETA.
Manufacturers
The ground facility consists of four JAVAD GNSS Delta
receivers (www.javad.com), all connected to Leica AR 25 (www.leicageosystems.com) choke ring antennas.
MIHAELA-SIMONA CIRCIU is is a research associate at the German
Aerospace Center (DLR). Her research focuses on multi-frequency multiconstellation Ground Based Augmentation System. She obtained a 2nd level
Specialized Master in Navigation and Related Applications from Politecnico
di Torino.
MICHAEL FELUX is is a research associate at the German Aerospace
Center (DLR). He is coordinating research in the field of ground-based
augmentation systems and pursuing a Ph.D. in Aerospace Engineering at
the Technische Universitt Mnchen.
SAM PULLEN is a senior research engineer at Stanford University,
where he is the director of the Local Area Augmentation System
(LAAS) research effort. He has supported the FAA and others in
developing GNSS system concepts, requirements, integrity algorithms,
and performance models sinceobtaining his Ph.D. from Stanford in
Aeronautics and Astronautics.
35
GNSS MARKETS | 2015-2023
FIGURE 1 Cumulative core revenue, 20132023.
2015 GNSS Market Report

European GNSS Agency Provides a Fresh Look at Worldwide Growth
The report presents an overview and quantification of the GNSS market of today and the future. It specifically looks at the global
GNSS market in terms of shipments, revenues and installed base of receivers, with a forecast up to 2023.
he fourth edition of the

European GNSS Agencys
(GSAs) GNSS Market Report
provides a comprehensive source of
knowledge on this dynamic global
market. The report has become a key
reference for organizations building
their GNSS market strategies. The
new edition provides:
Comprehensive updates on
previous analyses;
New statistics of the GNSS
receiver capabilities of the 31 top
global manufacturers, offering in
total more than 300 models;
Insights on the GNSS industry
and regional shares of the GNSS
market
A more granular segmentation
36
of the global GNSS market,

namely: European Union (EU28);
North America (including the
United States, Canada, Mexico);
Asia-Pacic (including China,
Japan, Australia, India, Republic
of Korea); Non-EU28 Europe
(Norway, Switzerland, Russia,
Ukraine); Middle East and Africa
(Turkey, Israel, South Africa,
UAE, Saudi Arabia); South
America and Caribbean (including
Brazil, Argentina, Colombia,
Guatemala)
Information on a new
market segment: Timing and
Synchronization
Plus additional applications
within existing segments, such as
recreational navigation, shing

vessels, personal locator beacons,
emergency locator transmitters and
digital tachograph.
Key Findings
Top-line insights from the fourth GSA
GNSS Market Report:
The global GNSS downstream
market is forecast to increase by 8.3
percent annually from 2013 2019,
then slow down to 4.6 annually
around 2023, growing on average
faster (7 percent) than the forecast
global GDP in this period (6.6
percent).
The installed base in the mature
regions of EU28 and North
America will grow steadily (8
www.gpsworld.com
2015-2023 |
GNSS MARKETS
most popular platform to access

LBS.
In the analysis of the capabilities of
GNSS receivers and chipsets, it is
reported that more than 60 percent
of currently available receivers and
chipsets support a minimum of two
constellations with more than 20
percent supporting all four of them.
TABLE 1 Top 10 companies in each group based on 2012 revenue.
percent per year) to 2023. The

primary region of growth will be
Asia-Pacific, which is forecast
to grow 11 percent per year from
1.7 billion in 2014 to 4.2 billion
devices in 2023 more than the
EU and North America together.
The Middle East and Africa will
grow at the fastest rate (19 percent
per year), but starting from a lower
base.
Location-Based Services (LBS)
and Road dominate cumulative

GNSS revenues, driven by
booming sales of smartphones and
in-vehicle devices, location-aware
applications and data services.
With emerging economies catching
up in terms of GNSS devices per
capita, the Digital Divide will
narrow, driven by the take-up
of smartphones. The growing
dominance of smartphones (3.08
billion in 2014) is foreseen as the
K528
K508
GPS L1/L2/L5
GLONASS L1/L2
BeiDou B1/B2/B3(support)
New Charts
The report includes new infographics
presenting:
Global GNSS downstream market
size, core and enabled (2013 to
2023)
GNSS industry share by region
(2012)
The global shares of companies
among components manufacturers,
systems integrators and valueadded service providers (2012)
Capability of GNSS receivers and
chipsets, all segments (2015)
K500
K501G
GPS L1/L2
GLONASS L1/L2
K501
GPS L1/L2
BeiDou B1/B2
GPS L1
GLONASS L1
BeiDou B1
GPS L1/L2
BeiDou B1/B2
/B3(support)
K FAMILY IS READY FOR YOU

Choose one for your high precision applications
ComNav Technology Ltd.
www.gpsworld.com
www.comnavtech.com
37
GNSS MARKETS | 2015-2023
Supported constellation by
FIGURE 2 SUPPORTED CONSTELLATION BY RECEIVERS Chart shows the percentage of available

receivers capable of tracking signals from one GNSS (such as GPS only), two GNSS (GPS
+ Galileo, GPS + GLONASS, GPS + BeiDou), three GNSS (GPS + Galileo + GLONASS, GPS +
Galileo + BeiDou, GPS + GLONASS + BeiDou) or tracking signals from all constellations at
the same time. The percentages add up to 100 percent. We can conclude that almost 60
percent of all available receivers, chipsets and modules are supporting a minimum of two
constellations, showing that multi-constellation is becoming a standard feature across all
market segments.
FIGURE 3 LOCATION-BASED SERVICES SECTOR GNSS shipments by type; GNSS penetration in

mobile phones is defined as the proportion of mobile telephones in use in the world that is
GNSS enabled.
receivers and chipsets , all segments

(2015)
Detailed analysis of key GNSS
segments: LBS, Road, Aviation,
Rail, Maritime, Agriculture,
Surveying, Timing and
Synchronization, quantified in
terms of:
Shipments of GNSS devices by
application and region (2013 to
2023)
Installed base of GNSS devices
by application and region (2013
to 2023)
Core revenues from GNSS
device sales by application and
region (2013 to 2023)
Capability of GNSS receivers
and chipsets (2015)
Supported constellation by
receivers and chipsets (2015).
Methodology
The GSA GNSS Market Report
is compiled by the GSA and
the European Commission and
was produced using the GSAs
systematic Marketing Monitoring and
Forecasting Process.
The underlying market model uses
advanced forecasting techniques
applied to a wide range of input data,
assumptions, and scenarios to forecast
the size of the GNSS market in terms
of shipments, revenue and installed
base of receivers.
Historical values are anchored to
actual data in order to ensure a high
level of accuracy. Assumptions are
provided by expert opinions and
model results are cross-checked
against the most recent market
research reports from independent
sources, before being validated
through an iterative consultation
process with sector experts and
stakeholders.
Download
Readers can download the entire
29-MB report, free, at:
www.gsa.europa.eu/2015-gnss-market-report.
38
FIGURE 4 ROAD SECTOR Core revenue from GNSS device sales and services by application.
www.gpsworld.com
gpsworld.com/products
GPS/GLONASS/Galileo Receiver
The AsteRx3 is a multi-frequency GPS/GLONASS/Galileo receiver is designed for demanding industrial applications.
AsteRx3 features simultaneous high-quality GPS, GLONASS and Galileo tracking and a range of innovative features,
such as the patented Galileo AltBOC tracking, the advanced multipath mitigation algorithm APME, LOCK+
tracking for exceptional tracking stability under high vibration conditions, RTK+ for extended RTK baselines and faster
initialization, and AIM+, Septentrios Advanced Interference Mitigation technology, offering centimeter-level measurement
quality for high-precision positioning, even in challenging environments. Septentrio, www.septentrio.com
and Geodesy of the Uni-
Professor (W3)
Software Receiver
IFENs SX3 multi-GNSS software
receiver tracks all known GNSS signals
in view, including Galileo signals, in real
time on a standard laptop now and
in the foreseeable future (up to 1,000
channels in parallel on a corei7). The
included RF front end offers four RF
frequency paths with 50-MHz bandwidth
each, covering the entire GNSS L-band
spectrum. The USB 3.0 interface enables
high-speed data transfer with up to
8-bit quantization. An optional dual RF
input front end can be used for attitude
determination, reflectometry and other
applications requiring the synchronized
input from two antennas. An optional
built-in shock and vibration robust OCXO
reference oscillator (MIL-STD 202G) is
available, which replaces the standard
high-quality TCXO normally used.
The SX3 software lets users configure
the data processing, including changing
loop bandwidths, integration times
and the main processing rate, and
choosing between different correlation
types. The software includes a multicorrelator providing a two-dimensional
(code and Doppler) correlation function
visualization in real-time. The receiver
comes with several powerful processing
algorithms like vector tracking, to
improve the tracking of weak signals in
degraded environments.
IFEN, www.ifen.com
www.gpsworld.com
and Head of the Institute of Navigation (at the

date).
Successful
following areas in teaching
estimation
and research: navigation,
Their research
covers satellitebased navigation and
(GNSS), inertial navigation
and inertial sensor technology, as well as integrated navigation.
in innovative
Furthermore, the candidate
research areas such as multisensor navigation and indoor
navigation.
of navigation are
of
The successful
is
to
and geodetic estimateach courses on navigation,
tion theory.
didactical skills and dedication
ant to
faculty and with other institutions on

Moreover, collaboration with academic and industrial
outside the University of Stuttgart is highly desirable.
listed in 47 and 50 of the
th
should be sent no
,
to Prof. Dr. Volker Schwieger, University of Stuttgart, Institute
of Engineering Geodesy, Geschwister-Scholl-Str. 24D, 70174
Stuttgart/Germany; volker.schwieger@ingeo.uni-stuttgart.de.
The University of Stuttgart has established a Dual Career Program

to offer assistance to
of those moving to Stuttgart. For
dual-career.
The University of Stuttgart is an equal
from women
of equal qualifcations.
39
RTK GNSS Receiver
Indoor/Outdoor Positioning Module

The NEO-M8L Automotive Dead Reckoning (ADR) module by u-blox has integrated
motion, direction and elevation sensors. The module integrates gyro and accelerometer
with u blox GNSS platform M8 to achieve high indoor/outdoor positioning
performance for road vehicle and high-accuracy navigation applications.
The module is able to track all visible GNSS satellites including GPS, GLONASS,
BeiDou, QZSS and all SBAS, with Galileo to be supported in a future firmware version.
Concurrent reception of two GNSS systems is supported. The NEO-M8L module can
output a position up to 20 times per second.
In addition to accessing the integrated modules gyro and accelerometer data,
accident reconstruction systems can provide the location of an accident to facilitate
insurance claims even if a collision occurs in a tunnel or park house. High-end
navigation devices are able to guide drivers through tunnels of several kilometers
because of the accuracy of u-blox ADR system. Stolen vehicles can be located instantly
due to continuous monitoring of sensor data and storage of location in non-volatile
memory.
u-blox, www.u-blox.com
The NovAtel FlexPak6D enclosed

GNSS receiver is a flexible dual-antenna
solution for application developers
seeking a high-precision headingcapable positioning engine for spaceconstrained applications.
Designed for efficient and rapid
integration, the compact receiver
tracks Galileo as well as GPS, GLONASS
and BeiDou. Antenna placement is
flexible: the antenna baseline can be set
according to space available on a vehicle
and heading accuracy required. The
modular OEM6 firmware enables users
to configure the receiver for unique
application needs. Scalable for submeter to centimeter-level positioning,
the FlexPak6D delivers NovAtels ALIGN
precision heading and relative heading
firmware, as well as its GLIDE firmware
for smooth decimeter-level pass-to-pass
accuracy and RAIM for increased GNSS
pseudorange integrity.
NovAtel, www.novatel.com
GNSS Simulator
The GNSS simulator in the vector signal generator R&S
SMBV100A is designed for development, verification and
production of GNSS chipsets, modules and receivers. The
simulator supports all possible scenarios, from simple
setups with individual, static satellites up to flexible
scenarios generated in real time with up to 24 dynamic
Galileo, GPS, GLONASS, BeiDou and QZSS satellites. The
simulator also supports Assisted GNSS (A-GNSS) test
scenarios, including generation of assistance data for
Galileo.
The simulator offers real-time simulation of realistic
constellations with up to 24 satellites and unlimited
simulation time. Flexible scenario generation includes
moving scenarios, dynamic power control and atmospheric modeling. Users can configure realistic user environments, including
obscuration and multipath, antenna characteristics and vehicle attitude.
Rohde & Schwarz, www.rohde-schwarz.com
40
www.gpsworld.com
GNSS Interference
Monitoring Tool
GNSS Survey Receiver

The all-in-one TRIUMPH-LS by JAVAD
GNSS combines a high-performance
864-channel GNSS receiver, all-frequency
GNSS antenna, and a modern featured
handheld. The 864 all-in-view channels
include Galileo E1/E5A/E5B, GPS L1/L2/
L5, GLONASS L1/L2/L3, QZSS L1/L2/L5,
BeiDou B1/B2 and SBAS L1/L5.
The TRIUMPH-LS offers GUIDE data
collection, Visual Stake-out (VSO),
navigation, six parallel RTK engines,
more than 3,000 coordinate conversions,
advanced CoGo features, and rich
attribute tagging on a high-resolution,
bright, 800 x 460 bright display. Two
3-megapixel cameras enable recording of
images along with GNSS data.
With VSO, the virtual location of a
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www.gpsworld.com
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41
INNOVATION | Algorithms & Methods
Carrier-Phase Ambiguity Resolution

Handling the Biases for Improved Triple-Frequency PPP Convergence
Denis Laurichesse
PPP? WHATS THAT? This acronym stands for precise
point positioning and, although the technique is still
in development, it has evolved to a stage where it
can be considered another viable tool in the kitbag
of GPS positioning techniques. It is now supported
by a number of receiver manufacturers and several
free online PPP processing services. You might think,
INNOVATION INSIGHTS
looking at the name, that theres nothing particularly
with Richard Langley
special about it. After all, doesnt any kind of
positioning with GPS give you a precise point position
including that from a handheld receiver or a satnav device? They key word here is
precise.
The use of the word precise, in the context of GPS positioning, usually means getting
positional information with precision and accuracy better than that afforded by the use
of L1 C/A-code pseudorange measurements and the data provided in the broadcast
navigation messages from the satellites. A typically small improvement in precision
and accuracy can be had by using pseudoranges determined from the L2 frequency
in addition to L1. This permits the real-time correction for the perturbing effect of the
ionosphere. Such an improvement in positioning is embodied in the distinction between
the two official GPS levels of service: the Standard Positioning Service provided through
the L1 C/A-code and the Precise Positioning Service provided for authorized users,
which requires the use of the encrypted P-code on both the L1 and L2 frequencies.
Civil GPS users will have access to a similar level of service once a sufficient number of
satellites transmitting the L2 Civil (L2C) code are in orbit. However, this capability will
only provide meter-level accuracy. The PPP technique can do much better than this.
It can do so thanks to two additional precision aspects of the technique. The first is
the use of more precise (and, again, accurate) descriptions of the orbits of the satellites
and the behavior of their atomic clocks than those included in the navigation messages.
Such data is provided, for example, by the International GNSS Service (IGS) through
its global tracking network and analysis centers. These so-called precise products are
typically used to process receiver data after collection in a post-processing mode,
although real-time correction streams are now being provided by the IGS and some
commercial entities.
Now, its true that a user can get high precision and accuracy in GPS positioning using
the differential technique where data from one or more base or reference stations is
combined with data from the user receiver. However, by using precise products and a
very thorough model of the GPS observables, the PPP technique does away with the
requirement for a directly accessed base station.
The other precision aspect of PPP is its use of carrier-phase measurements rather than
just pseudoranges. Carrier-phase measurements have a precision on the order of two
magnitudes (a factor of 100) better than that of pseudoranges. But there is a catch to
the use of carrier-phase measurements: they are ambiguous by an integer multiple of
one cycle. Processing algorithms must resolve the value of this ambiguity and ideally fix
it at its correct integer value. Unfortunately, it is difficult to do this instantaneously, and
often many epochs of measurements are needed for a position solution to converge
to a sufficiently high accuracy, say better than 10 centimeters. Researchers are actively
working on reducing the convergence time, and in this months column, we look at how
using measurements from three satellite frequencies rather than just two can help.
Innovation is a regular feature that discusses advances in GPS technology and its applications as well as the fundamentals of GPS
positioning. The column is coordinated by Richard Langley of the Department of Geodesy and Geomatics Engineering, University of
New Brunswick. He welcomes comments and topic ideas. To contact him, see the Contributing Editors section on page 6.
42
hile carrier-phase measurements typically have very

low noise compared to
pseudorange (code) measurements,
they have an inherent integer cycle
ambiguity: the carrier phase, interpreted
as a range measurement, is ambiguous
by any number of cycles. However,
integer ambiguity fixing is now
routinely applied to undifferenced GPS
carrier-phase measurements to achieve
precise positioning. Some implementations are even available in real time. This
so-called precise point positioning (PPP)
technique permits ambiguity resolution
at the centimeter level.
With the new modernized satellites
capabilities, performing PPP with
triple-frequency measurements will
be possible and, therefore, the current
dual-frequency formulation will not be
applicable. There is also a need for a
generalized formulation of phase biases
for Radio Technical Commission for
Maritime Services (RTCM) State
Space Representation (SSR) needs. In
this RTCM framework, the denition
of a standard is important to allow
interoperability between the two
components of a positioning system:
the network side and the user side.
Classical Formulation
In this section, we review the
formulation of the observation
equations. We will use the following
constants in the equations:
where f1 and f2 are the two primary

frequencies transmitted by all GPS
satellites and c is the vacuum speed of
light. For the GPS L1 and L2 bands, f1
= 154f0 and f2 = 120f0, where f0 = 10.23
MHz.
The pseudorange (or code)
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Algorithms & Methods |
Triple-frequency bias estimation
Dual-frequency bias estimation
R
h
bL1
bL1
bL2
bL2
INNOVATION
R12
R
h
R12
h12
bL1
bL1
h12
R15
bL2
bL2
R15
Unambiguous transformation
Inverse transformation
Integer nature of phase ambiguities
h15
bL5
bL5
h15
Network side
User side
...
FIGURE 1 Phase biases estimation in the dual-frequency case.
measurements, P1 and P2, are expressed in meters, while

phase measurements, L1 and L2, are expressed in cycles. In
the following, we use the word clock to mean a time offset
between a receiver or satellite clock and GPS System Time
as determined from either code or phase measurements on
different frequencies or some combination of them.
The code and phase measurements are modeled as:
(1)
where:
D1 and D2 are the geometrical propagation distances
between the emitter and receiver antenna phase centers
at f1 and f2 including troposphere elongation, relativistic
effects and so on.
W is the contribution of the wind-up effect (in cycles).
e is the code ionosphere elongation in meters at f1. This
elongation varies with the inverse of the square of the
carrier frequency and is applied with the opposite sign
for phase.
h = hi - hj is the difference between receiver i and emitter
j ionosphere-free phase clocks. hp is the corresponding
term for code clocks.
= i - j is the difference between receiver i and emitter j
offsets between the phase clocks at f1 and the ionospherefree phase clocks. By construction, the corresponding
quantity at f2 is . Similarly, the corresponding quantity
for the code is p (time group delay).
N1 and N2 are the two carrier-phase ambiguities. By
denition, these ambiguities are integers. Unambiguous
phase measurements are therefore L1 + N1 and L2 + N2.
Equations (1) take into account all the biases related to
delays and clock offsets. The four independent parameters,
h, , hp, and p, are equivalent to the denition of one
clock per observable. However, our choice of parameters
emphasizes the specic nature of the problem by identifying
reference clocks for code and phase (hp and h) and the
corresponding hardware offsets (p and ). These offsets are
assumed to vary slowly with time, with limited amplitudes.
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...
Many possible combinations

How to compute biases?
Integer nature of phase ambiguities must

be kept on all viable phase combinations
Network side
User side
FIGURE 2 Phase biases estimation in the triple-frequency case.
The measured widelane ambiguity, , (also called the

Melbourne-Wbbena widelane) can be written as:
(2)
where is the integer widelane ambiguity, is the constant
widelane delay for satellite j and is the widelane delay for
receiver i (which is fairly stable for good quality geodetic
receivers). The symbol means that all quantities have been
averaged over a satellite pass.
Integer widelane ambiguities are then easily identied from
averaged measured widelanes corrected for satellite widelane
delays. Once integer widelane ambiguities are known, the
ionosphere-free phase combination can be expressed as
(3)
where
is the ionospherefree phase combination computed using the known
ambiguity, is the propagation distance, is the receiver
clock and
is the satellite clock.
is the remaining
ambiguity associated to the ionosphere-free wavelength
(10.7 centimeters).
The complete problem is thus transformed into a singlefrequency problem with wavelength
and without any
ionosphere contribution. Many algorithms can be used to
solve Equation (3) using data from a network of stations. If
is known with sufcient accuracy (typically a few centimeters,
which can be achieved using a good oating-point or realvalued ambiguity solution), it is possible to simultaneously
solve for , and . The properties of such a solution have
been studied in detail. A very interesting property of the
satellite clocks is, in particular, the capability to directly x (to
the correct integer value) the values of a receiver that was
not part of the initial network.
The majority of the precise-point-positioning ambiguityresolution (PPP-AR) implementations are based on the
identication and use of the two quantities and . These
quantities may be called widelane biases and integer phase
clocks, a decoupled clock model or uncalibrated phase delays,
but they are all of the same nature.
43

5.0
4.5
4.0
Ambiguity (cycles)
3.5
3.0
2.5
2.0
1.5
1.0
0.5
0.0
0
200
400
600
800
1000
Time (seconds)
1200
1400
1600
1800
FIGURE 3 Ambiguity residuals for the extra-widelane 5-2

combination.
A Real-Time PPP-AR Implementation

A PPP-AR technique was successfully implemented by the
Centre National dEtudes Spatiales (CNES) in real time in
the so-called PPP-Wizard demonstrator in 2010 and has
been subsequently improved. In this demonstrator and in the
framework of the International GNSS Service (IGS) RealTime Service (RTS) and the RTCM, the GPS and GLONASS
constellation orbits and clocks are computed. Additional
biases for GPS ambiguity resolution are computed and
broadcast to the user. The demonstrator also provides an opensource implementation of the method on the user side, for test
purposes. Centimeter-level positioning accuracy in real time
is obtained on a routine basis.
Limitations of the Bias Formulations. The current formulation
works but it has several drawbacks:
The chosen representation is dependent on the
implemented method. Even if the nature of the biases is
the same, their representation may be different according
to the underlying methods, and this makes it difcult for
a standardization of the bias messages.
The user side must implement the same method as the
one used on the network side. Otherwise, the user side
would have to convert the quantities from one method to
another, leading to potential bugs or misinterpretations.
It is limited to the dual-frequency case. There are only
two quantities to be computed in the dual-frequency
case ( and ), but in the triple-frequency case, there
are many more possible combinations. For example,
one can have (this is a non-exhaustive list) , ,
, , , , where the indices refer to different pairs
of frequencies, and other ionosphere-free combinations
such as phase widelane-only or even phase ionospherefree and geometry-free combinations are possible.
New RTCM SSR Model

The new model, as proposed by the RTCM Special Committee
104 SSR working group for phase bias messages is based on
the idea that the phase bias is inherent to each frequency. Thus,
instead of making specic combinations, one phase bias per
phase observable is identied and broadcast.
It is noted that this convention was adopted a long time ago
for code biases. Indeed, in the RTCM framework, and unlike
the standard differential code bias (DCB) convention where
code biases are undifferenced but combined, the RTCM SSR
code biases are dened as undifferenced and uncombined.
The general model for uncombined code and phase biases is
therefore:
(4)
Time group delays, , and phase clocks, , in Equation
(1) are replaced by code and phase biases (
and
respectively). RTCM SSR code and phase biases correspond
to the satellite part of these biases. The prime notation denotes
the unbiasing process of the measurements. Here, the clock
denition is crucial. As the biases are uncombined, they
are referenced to the clocks. The convention chosen for the
standard is natural: it is the same as the one used by IGS, that
is,
in our notation.
44
www.gpsworld.com
This new model can be extended to the triple-frequency

case very easily, as it does not involve explicit dual-frequency
combinations:
Parameter Nature
RTCM SSR message
Quantity
GPS/GLONASS orbits/
clocks
1060/1066
D, hp
GPS code biases
1059/1065
bP
GPS phase biases
1265
bL
(5)
This new model simplies the concept of phase biases for
ambiguity resolution. This representation is very attractive
because no assumption is made on the method used to identify
phase biases on the network side. All the implementations
are valid if they respect this proposed model. It also allows
convenient interoperability if the network and user sides
implement different ambiguity resolution methods.
TABLE 1 summarizes the different messages used for PPP-AR
in the context of RTCM SSR:
INNOVATION
TABLE 1 RTCM SSR messages for PPP-AR.
Bias Estimation in the Dual-Frequency Case. The new phase biases

identication in the dual-frequency case is straightforward.
There are two biases ( , ) to be estimated using two
combinations ( and h). The problem to be solved is described
in FIGURE 1.
It can be solved very easily on the network side by means
of a 2 2 matrix inversion:
(6)
with
5.0
4.5
4.0
Ambiguity (cycles)
3.5
3.0
2.5
2.0
1.5
1.0
0.5
0.0
0
200
400
600
800
1000 1200
Time (seconds)
1400
1600
1800
200
400
600
800
1000 1200
Time (seconds)
1400
1600
1800
6.0
Ambiguity (cycles)
5.0
4.0
3.0
2.0
1.0
0.0
FIGURE 4 Ambiguity residuals for widelane combinations; top: 1-2

widelane, bottom: 1-5 widelane.
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45
5.0
5.0
4.5
4.5
4.0
4.0
3.5
3.5
Ambiguity (cycles)
Ambiguity (cycles)
3.0
2.5
2.0
3.0
2.5
2.0
1.5
1.5
1.0
1.0
0.5
0.5
0.0
0.0
0
400
600
800
1000
Time (seconds)
1200
1400
1600
1800
FIGURE 5 Ambiguity residuals for widelane-only 1-2-5 ionosphere

free combinations.
5.0
5.0
4.5
4.5
4.0
4.0
3.5
3.5
3.0
2.5
2.0
600
800
1000 1200
Time (seconds)
1400
1600
1800
2.5
2.0
1.5
1.0
1.0
0.5
0.5
0.0
200
400
600
800
1000
Time (seconds)
1200
1400
1600
FIGURE 6 Ambiguity residuals for the N1 combination using a fixed

1-2 widelane.
1800
Note: All the quantities denote the satellite part of the

operator dened above.
Bias Estimation in the Triple-Frequency Case. The triplefrequency bias identication is tricky due to the need,
using only three biases, to keep the integer nature of phase
ambiguities on all viable ionosphere-free combinations,
and in particular combinations that were not used in the
identification process. At this level, one cannot make
assumptions on what kind of combinations will be employed
by a user. The problem to be solved is described in FIGURE 2.
As an example, a nave solution would be to identify the
extra-widelane phase biases, , using the dual-frequency
widelane approach, and then identify the
bias. Given
the large wavelength of the extra-widelane combination,
such identification would be very easy. However, the
corresponding bias would be only helpful for extra-widelane
ambiguity identication, and its noise would prevent its use
46
400
3.0
1.5
0.0
200

1-5 widelane.
Ambiguity (cycles)
Ambiguity (cycles)
200
200
400
600
800
1000 1200
Time (seconds)
1400
1600
1800

2-5 widelane.
for widelane 15 (L1/L5) ambiguity resolution or other useful

combinations available in the triple-frequency context.
Each independent phase bias can be directly estimated in
a lter; however, in order to keep ascending compatibility
with the dual-frequency case during the deployment phase of
the new modernized satellites, we have chosen to stay in the
old framework, that is, to work with combinations of biases.
The resolution method is the following:
The widelane biases, that is, the identication of all the
quantities, are solved. For this computation and
in order to have an accurate estimate of these biases, the
two MW-widelane biases
and
are used coupled
to an additional phase bias, which is given by the triplefrequency ionosphere-free phase combination with the
integer widelane ambiguities already xed. This last
combination using only phase measurements is much
more accurate than MW-widelanes. The system to
be solved is redundant and the noise of the different
equations has to be chosen carefully.
The remaining bias ( ) is estimated using the
traditional ionosphere-free phase combination of L1
and L2.
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INNOVATION
This computation has been

implemented in the CNES realtime analysis center software, and
since September 15, 2014, CNES
broadcasts phase biases compatible
with this triple-frequency concept
on the IGS CLK93 real-time data
stream.
context, there is a possibility

of forming an ionosphere-free
combination of the three phase
observables. This combination has
an important noise amplification
factor (>20), but would allow us to
perform decimeter-accuracy PPP
using only the solved widelane
integer ambiguities and if the
Real Data Analysis
corresponding phase biases are
To prove the validity of the concept,
accurate. In addition, it can be shown
at CNES, we compute several
that the wavelength of the widelane
ambiguity combinations using real
ambiguity when the extra-widelane
data. The process is the following:
ambiguity is solved is about 3.4
Look for good receiver
meters. It means that the remaining
locations having a large
widelane using this combination can
number of GPS Block IIF
be solved if the position is accurate
satellites (transmitting the L5
enough (a few tens of centimeters)
signal) in view for a period of FIGURE 9 Network used for the triple-frequency
and the extra-widelane is known.
time exceeding 30 minutes,
FIGURE 5 shows such a case, that is, the
PPP study.
and choose among them,
residuals of the widelane ambiguity
one participating in the IGS Multi-GNSS (MGEX) using this combination and assuming that the extra-widelane
experiment. The station CPVG (Cape Verde) in the is already solved for.
Reseau GNSS pour lIGS et la Navigation (REGINA)
Such a case where the solution is the most biased is shown
network was chosen for the time span on September (the dark blue curve). This behavior is mainly due to the
28, 2014, between 19 and 20 hours UTC. During
this period, four Block IIF satellites were visible
simultaneously (PRNs 1, 6, 9, 30) for a total of 14 GPS
satellites in view.
Record a compatible phase-bias stream. The CLK93
stream is recorded during the time span of the
experiment.
Perform a PPP solution using the measurements,
CLK93 corrections and biases to estimate the
propagation distance, the troposphere delay and the
receiver clock and phase ambiguity estimates according
to Equation (5).
For different ambiguity estimates, compute and plot the
obtained residuals.
We present in the following graphs various ambiguity
residuals for the four Block IIF satellites in view. The values
of each ambiguity are offset by an integer value for clarity
purposes.
Melbourne-Wbbena Extra-Widelane. FIGURE 3 represents
the MW extra-widelane (between frequencies L2 and L5)
ambiguity estimation using our process. The MW extrawidelane ambiguity has a wavelength of 5.86 meters. The
noise of the combination expressed in cycles is very low,
and the integer nature of ambiguities in this combination is
clearly visible.
Melbourne-Wbbena Widelanes. FIGURE 4 represents the MWwidelanes (the regular 1-2 and 1-5 combinations). Here
again, the integer nature of the four ambiguities is clearly
visible.
Widelane-Only Ionosphere-Free Phase. In the triple-frequency
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47
1.0
1.0
0.9
0.9
0.8
0.8
Horizontal position error (meters)
0.7
0.6
0.5
0.4
0.3
0.2
0.1
0.5
0.4
0.3
0.2
0.0
0.0
0.5
1.0
1.5
2.0
2.5
3.0
Time (minutes)
3.5
4.0
4.5
5.0
FIGURE 10 Widelane-only triple-frequency PPP convergence

(horizontal position error).
difculty in estimating the phase biases on this combination

accurately using only a few Block IIF satellites. We hope that
in the future the increasing number of modernized satellites
will help such bias estimation.
N1 Ionosphere-Free Phase. FIGURES 6 to 8 show the three
possible ambiguity estimates using the ionosphere-free
phase combination with two measurements (we assume that
the corresponding widelane has already been solved). In
each case, the computed biases allow us to easily retrieve
the integer nature of the N1 ambiguity.
Application to Triple-Frequency PPP

The results presented above show that the integer ambiguity
nature of phase measurements is conserved for various
useful observable combinations and prove the validity of the
model. Another experiment has been carried out to estimate
the impact of ambiguity convergence in the triple-frequency
context. For that, in order to maximize the observability of
the GPS Block IIF constellation and thus the accuracy of
the biases, a network of ten stations across Europe has been
chosen for the phase biases computation (see FIGURE9). The
station REDU (in green) was the test station to be positioned.
The test occurred on January 10, 2015, around 11:00
UTC. At that time, four Block IIF satellites were visible
simultaneously (PRNs 1, 3, 6, 9) for a total of 10 satellites
in view.
The PPP-Wizard open source client was used to perform
PPP in real time. The advantage of this implementation
is that it directly follows the uncombined observable
formulation described in Equations (5). The strategy for
ambiguity resolution is a simple bootstrap approach.
Convergence of the Widelane-Only Solution. In this test, a PPP
solution was performed, but only the xing of the widelane
ambiguities was implemented. As noted in the previous
section, the wavelength of the widelane ambiguity when the
extra-widelane ambiguity is solved is about 3.4 meters, so
it is expected that all the widelanes can be xed in a very
short time. Despite the amplication factor of about 20 of
the equivalent unambiguous phase combination, we expect
48
0.6
0.1
0.0
0.7
10
15
Time (minutes)
FIGURE 11 All ambiguities triple-frequency PPP convergence

(horizontal position error).
to obtain an accuracy of about 10 centimeters with such a

solution.
FIGURE 10 shows the convergence time of several PPP
runs in this context (16 different runs of ve minutes are
superimposed), in terms of horizontal position error.
The extra-widelanes are fixed instantaneously; the
remaining widelanes are xed in about two minutes on
average to be below 30 centimeters (this is represented
by the different sharp reductions of the errors). This new
configuration, available in the triple-frequency context,
is very interesting as it provides an intermediate class of
accuracy, which converges very quickly and which is suitable
for applications that do not demand centimeter accuracy.
Another interesting aspect of this combination is the gapbridging feature. In PPP, gap-bridging is the functionality that
allows us to recover the integer nature of the ambiguities after
a loss of the receiver measurements over a short period of time
(typically a pass through a tunnel or under a bridge). This is
done usually by means of the estimation of a geometry-free
combination (ionosphere delay estimation) during the gap.
Realistic maximum gap duration in the dual-frequency case is
about one minute. In the triple-frequency case, the wavelength
of the geometry-free combination involving the widelane (if
the extra-widelane is xed) is 1.98 meters. With such a large
wavelength, the gaps are much easier to ll, and we can safely
extend the gap duration to several minutes. In addition, the
widelane combinations are wind-up independent, so there is
no need to monitor a possible rotation of the antenna during
the gap, as in the dual-frequency case.
Overall Convergence (All Ambiguities). Another PPP
convergence test has been carried out with all ambiguities
xing activated (four different runs of 15 minutes are
superimposed). Results are shown in FIGURE 11.
The centimeter accuracy is obtained in this conguration
within eight minutes, which is a signicant improvement in
comparison to the dual-frequency case. Further improvement
of this convergence time is expected with an increase in the
number of Block IIF satellites and, subsequently, GPS IIIA
satellites.
www.gpsworld.com
1.0
DENIS LAURICHESSE received his engineering degree and a Diplme

dtudes appliques (an advanced study diploma) from the Institut National
des Sciences Appliques in Toulouse, France, in 1988. He has worked in the
Spaceflight Dynamics Department of the Centre National dEtudes Spatiales
(CNES, the French Space Agency) in Toulouse since 1992, responsible for the
development of the onboard GNSS Diogene navigator. He was involved in
the performance assessment of the EGNOS and Galileo systems and is now
in charge of the CNES International GNSS Service real-time analysis center.
He specializes in navigation, precise satellite orbit determination and GNNSbased systems. He was the recipient of The Institute of Navigation Burka
Award in 2009 for his work on phase ambiguity resolution.
Triple
Dual
0.9
INNOVATION
0.8
0.7
0.6
0.5
0.4
0.3
0.2
MORE ONLINE
0.1
Further Reading
0.0
0
10
20
30
Time (minutes)
40
50
60
For references related to this article, go to gpsworld.com and click on Innovation

in the navigation bar.
FIGURE 12 Realistic PPP convergence comparison between dual- and

triple-frequency contexts (horizontal position error).
Convergence Time Comparison Between the Dual- and TripleFrequency Contexts. Thanks to these new results, a realistic
picture for PPP convergence in the dual- and triple-frequency
contexts can be drawn. To do so, polynomial functions have
been tted over the data points obtained in the previous
studies. Two data sets were used:
Standard dual-frequency convergence (GPS only, 10
satellites in view).
Triple-frequency convergence (GPS only, 10 satellites
in view, four Block IIF satellites).
FIGURE 12 represents the comparison between the two
polynomials (horizontal error).
CORRECTION In the Innovation Insights introduction to last months

column, I said that Interestingly, Maxwell used 20 equations to describe
his theory but Oliver Lodge managed to boil them down to the four
we are familiar with today. It was not Oliver Lodge but rather Oliver
Heaviside who gave us the equations we now use. Oliver Lodge, on the
other hand, carried out experiments in the generation and detection of
radio waves (like Heinrich Hertz) and was involved in the development of
key patents in wireless telegraphy.
RBL
Conclusion
The new phase-bias concept proposed for RTCM SSR has
been successfully implemented in the CNES IGS real-time
analysis center. This new concept represents the phase biases
in an uncombined form, unlike the previous formulations. It
has the advantage of the unication of the different proposed
methods for ambiguity resolution, and it prepares us for the
future; for example, for a widely available triple-frequency
scenario. The validity of this concept has been shown; that
is, the integer ambiguity nature of phase measurements is
conserved for various useful observable combinations.
In addition, we have also shown that the triple-frequency
context has a signicant impact on ambiguity convergence
time. The overall convergence time is drastically reduced
(to some minutes instead of some tens of minutes) and there
is an intermediate combination (widelane-only) that has
some interesting properties in terms of convergence time,
accuracy and gap-bridging for non-demanding centimeterlevel applications.
Acknowledgments
The contributions of colleagues contributing to the IGS
services are gratefully acknowledged. Geo++ is thanked
for useful discussions on the standardization of phase bias
representation.
www.gpsworld.com
49
EXPERT ADVICE
The Impact of RFI on GNSS Receivers

Fabio Dovis
hen subjected to very

strong interference, a
GNSS receiver can be
totally blinded and stop working.
This is often the scope of intentional
jammers. However, in a number of
cases the presence of interference is
severe enough to significantly decrease
receiver performance, but not so much
as to make the receiver lose its lock
on the satellite signals or blind the
acquisition of the satellite signals.
since the received signal power is below

that of the thermal noise floor. When
in-band interference is present, the
AGC will squeeze the incoming signal
to match the maximum dynamics of
the ADC, causing a reduction of the
amplitude of the useful signal, which
may be lost. This may typically happen
in the presence of some kind of wideband interference (WBI) spread over a
bandwidth larger than the passband of
the front-end filter.
In the presence of stronger interference,

other front-end components such as filters
and amplifiers may also be led to work
outside of their nominal regions, generating
nonlinear effects or clipping phenomena.
Such intermediate power values turn
out to be the most dangerous cases,
because sometimes they cannot be
detected, but lead to a worsening of the
positioning performance. The accuracy
of the position solution depends
on, among others, the quality of the
pseudorange measurements and/or the
phase measurements. Thus, when RFI
degrades the pseudorange and phase
measurements or induces cycle slips on
the phase measurements, the accuracy
of the position solution will decrease.
Impact on the Front End

The front-end filters the incoming
signal, demodulating it to the chosen
intermediate frequency before
performing the analog-to-digital
conversion (ADC). We must consider
the presence in the front end of the
adjustable gain control (AGC) between
the analog portion of the front end and
the ADC. When the GNSS band is
interference-free, AGC gain depends
almost exclusively on thermal noise,
50
With narrow-band (NBI) or

continuous-wave interference (CWI),
statistics of the digital signal at the
ADC output are also affected. In
this case the AGC can still compress
the input signal to avoid a stronger
saturation, but the following receiver
stages will have to deal with a GNSS
contribution quantized only on lower
levels.
In the presence of stronger
interference, even the other
components of the front end (filters
and amplifiers) may be led to work
outside of their nominal regions,
generating nonlinear effects or clipping
phenomena (in which the signal
amplitude exceeds the hardwares
capability to treat them). In both cases,
spurious harmonics are generated and
mixed with the useful signal in the
front end itself.
Impact on the Acquisition Stage

If the interference is not driving
the AGC/ADC to full saturation,
the acquisition module is still able

to perform its task, processing the
interfered signal to estimate the
code phase and the Doppler shift
with respect to the local code. The
correlation with the local code can be
seen as a spreading operation followed
by a filter.
FIGURE 1 shows the acquisition
search space for different levels of
the interfering power of a CWI from
140 to 130 dBW compared to the
interference-free case. The search
spaces depicted for the four scenarios
are achieved using 1 ms of coherent
integration time and three non-coherent
accumulations, and the peak-to-noisefloor separation defined as
is considered as a figure of merit.

The value of mean decreases as the
interfering power increases, thus
increasing the probability of a false
alarm. With the increasing power of the
CWI, a modulation effect in the search
space floor in the Doppler domain
dimension can be observed. Such an
effect is mainly determined by the new
harmonics components generated by
the multiplication between the locally
generated carrier and received CWI.
Such an effect also depends on how the
interfering signal and the useful GNSS
signal are combined at the entrance to
the acquisition block, which in turn
depends on the random variables 0
and int.
In the presence of WBI, a different
effect is observed in the acquisition
search space. Considering a bandlimited Gaussian white noise spread all
over the GNSS useful filtered signal
components, the effect on the CAF
envelop is an increase in the noise
floor. This increases the search space
noise floor. The presence of additive
band-limited noise causes a uniform
increase in the noise floor tin the search
space that might mask the correct
www.gpsworld.com
EXPERT ADVICE
correlation peak and thus fool the

acquisition process.
RMS code tracking error [m]
Impact on the Tracking Stage

Interference impact on the
tracking stage has a direct
consequence on the quality of
the measured pseudorange.
Harmful interfering signals
B
increase the variance of the
time-of-arrival (TOA) estimate
by the discriminator and modify
the shape of the S-curve of the
code discriminator, thus creating
in some cases a bias in the
measurements.
FIGURE 2 depicts outputs of the
early-prompt-late correlators. In
C
the presence of in-band CWI and
of NBI, the interference is injected
9.3 seconds after the beginning
of the tracking stage where the
receiver is correctly locked on the
received signal. A CWI, shifted
200 kHz with respect to the
signal intermediate frequency (in
correspondence with a C/A code
spectrum line), increases the noise
D
at the correlators outputs and leads
to harmonic behavior of the earlyprompt-late correlator outputs.
NBI increases the variance
of the correlators outputs; this
directly increases the pseudorange
error and the noise on the receiver
phase measurements. Additive
FIGURE 1 GPS L1 C/A acquisition search space in (a) an
band-limited noise leads to an
interference-free environment and in the presence of (b)
overall increase in the carrier
140 dBW in-band CWI; (c) 135 DBW in-band CWI; (d)
phase discriminator output
130 dBW in-band DWI.
variance over the 3 threshold,
Code tracking error: B =1Hz; =0.25chip; T=20ms
which for a PLL two-quadrant
6
CELP
arctangent discriminator is 45 degrees.
NELP
4
When in presence of strong CWI, a
sudden jump of the phase discriminator
2
output is detected as soon as the CWI is
0
injected onto the received signal.
0
10
20
30
40
50
C /C [dB]
L
the ratio between the received

power and the power spectral
density due to thermal noise
at the input of the receiver,
the presence of interference
should not change the value,
since the thermal noise is not
increasing. However, the C/
N0 value provided by the
receivers is estimated on the
basis of the correlator outputs
at the tracking stage. For
this reason the estimation is
affected by the presence of the
additional (nonthermal) noise
generated by the interference.
The variation of the C/N0 can
also be used as observable for
interference (or other threats)
detection.
Condensed from Chapter 2 of
GNSS Interference Threat and
Countermeasures, edited by Fabio
Dovis, published by Artech House
(www.artechhouse.com). This article
omits many figures, equations and
technical discussions given in book.
Chapters: The Interference Threat;
Classification of Interfering Sources
and Analysis of the Effects on GNSS
Receivers; The Spoofing Menace;
Analytical Assessment of Interference
on GNSS Signals; Interference
Detection Strategies; Classical Digital
Signal Processing Countermeasures
to Interference in GNSS; Interference
Mitigation Based on Transformed
Domain Techniques; Antispoofing
Techniques for GNSS. The book
is intended for members of the
engineering/scientific community with
pre-existing knowledge of satellite
navigation principles and GNSS.
Impact on the Estimated Signal-toNoise Ratio

Sticking to the definition of C/N0 as
FIGURE 2 GPS L1 C/A code tracing error

comparison: coherent and non-coherent
early-late processing (CELP and NELP).
FABIO DOVIS holds a Ph.D. in elecronics and

communications engineering from Politecnico di
Torino, Italy, where he is an associate professor.
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51
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