Global Positioning System (GPS)

The NAVSTAR Global Positioning System (GPS) is a

satellite-based radio-positioning and time-transfer system,
designed, financed, deployed and operated by the US
Department of Defense.

However, the system has currently significantly larger

number of civilian users as compared to the military users.

Global Positioning System (GPS)

The NAVSTAR Global Positioning System (GPS) program
was initiated in 1973 through the combined efforts of the US
Army, the US Navy, and the US Air Force.
The new system, designed as an all-weather, continuous,
global radio-navigation system was developed to replace the
old satellite navigation system, TRANSIT, which was not
capable of providing continuous navigation data in real time
on a global basis.

GPS Objectives
Suitable for all classes of platform: aircraft, ship, landbased and space (missiles and satellites),
Real-time positioning, velocity and time determination
capability to an appropriate accuracy,
The positioning results were to be available on a single
global geodetic datum,
Highest accuracy to be restricted to a certain class of
user,
Resistant to jamming (intentional and unintentional),
Redundancy provisions to ensure the survivability of
the system,
Passive positioning system that does not require the
transmission of signals from the user to the satellite(s),
Able to provide the service to an unlimited number of
users,

Motto Adopted by the Joint Program

Office on GPS Program
The mission of this Program is to:
1. Drop 5 bombs in the same hole, and
2. Build a cheap set that navigates (<$10,000)

GPS Policy Board*

Department of Agriculture
Department of Commerce
Department of Defense
Department of Interior
Department of State
Department of Transportation
NASA

*created to give larger voice to civilian applications of GPS.

Who are GPS largest customers?

Survey & Mapping

Navigation
Tracking & Comm
Military
Car Navigation

~ 54%
~ 20%
~18%
~ 6%
~ 2%

GPS Applications

Military

Civilian aircraft, land mobile, and marine vessel

navigation

Spacecraft orbit determination

Geodesy (precise positioning)

Geophysics (ionosphere, crustal motion monitoring,

etc.)

Surveying

Intelligent Transportation Systems

GIS, Mobile Mapping Systems etc

GPS

GPS Satellite System

24 satellites
altitude ~20,000 km
12-hour period
6 orbital planes
inclination 55o

CONTROLE SEGMENT

GPS Satellite System

continuous signal transmit

fundamental frequency 10.23 MHz
almost circular orbit (e = 0.02)
at least 4 satellites visible at all times
from any point on the Earths surface (5-7 most
of the time)

GPS Antenna Coverage

Antenna has ~28 field of view

First GPS satellite Block I was launched in 1978

Air Force-launched Delta II carried the 18th

GPS satellite into orbit in February 1993.

 The basis of GPS is

"triangulation" from satellites.
To "triangulate," a GPS receiver measures distance using the
travel time of radio signals.
To measure travel time, GPS needs very accurate timing, which it
achieves with some tricks
The primary unknowns are three coordinates of the receiver
antenna (user)

 Mathematically we need four satellite ranges to

determine exact position.
Three ranges are enough if we reject ridiculous
answers or use other tricks.

How distance measurements from three

satellites can pinpoint you in space 1/3
Suppose we measure our distance from a satellite and
find it to be 11,000 miles. Knowing that we're 11,000
miles from a particular satellite narrows down all the
possible locations we could be in the whole universe to
the surface of a sphere that is centered on this satellite
and has a radius of 11,000 miles.

How distance measurements from three

satellites can pinpoint you in space 2/3
Next, say we measure our distance to a second satellite and find
out that it's 12,000 miles away.
That tells us that we're not only on the first sphere but we're also
on a sphere that's 12,000 miles from the second satellite. Or in
other words, we're somewhere
on the circle where these
two spheres intersect.

How distance measurements from three

satellites can pinpoint you in space 3/3
If we then make a measurement from a third satellite and find
that we're 13,000 miles from that one, that narrows our position
down even farther, to the
two points where the 13,000 mile
sphere cuts through the circle
that's the intersection
of the first two spheres.

Finally: In order to find the correct location (out of

two points determined by the observation of three
ranges to three satellites) we may need to make a
fourth observation to the fourth satellite this way
we get the unique answer to our positioning problem.
But usually one of the two points is a ridiculous
answer (either too far from Earth or moving at an
impossible velocity) and can be rejected without a
measurement.

Thus: four range measurements to four GPS

satellites are needed for point positioning
But how do we measure the range to the satellite?

By precise measurement of the time that the radio signal takes

to travel from the satellite antenna to the receiver antenna

How accurate is GPS?

Depending on the design of the GPS receiver and the
measurement techniques employed, the accuracy is from
100 meters under Selective Availability (SA) policy (below
10 m with SA turned to zero) to better than 1 centimeter.
In order to obtain better than 100 (10 with SA turned to
zero) meter accuracy, differential GPS must be used (two
simultaneously tracking receivers or differential services).

Why is GPS so accurate ?

The key to GPS accuracy is the fact that the signal
is precisely controlled by the highly accurate atomic
clock
Atomic clocks stability is 10-13 10-14 per day (this
means that the clock can loose 1 sec in 3,000,000
years!)

Atomic Clocks
Atomic clocks don't run on atomic energy. They get the
name because they use the oscillations of a particular atom
as their "metronome (device for marking time by means of
a series of clicks at precise intervals).
This form of timing is the most stable and accurate
reference man has ever developed.
With the development of atomic clocks a new
era of precise time-keeping had commenced.
However, before the GPS program was launched
these precise clocks had never been tested in
space.

Atomic Clock Technology

The development of reliable, stable, compact, spacequalified atomic frequency oscillators (rubidium, and
then cesium) was therefore a significant technological
breakthrough.
The advanced clocks now being used on the GPS
satellites routinely achieve long-term frequency
stability in the range of a few parts in 1014 per day
(about 1 sec in 3,000,000 years!).
This long-term stability is one of the keys to GPS, as
it allows for the autonomous, synchronized generation
and transmission of accurate timing signals by each of
the GPS satellites without continuous monitoring from
the ground.

Rubidium Atomic Clocks

Cesium clocks are the best

time keeping devices with a
drift of 2-3 * 10-14/day
Rubidium clocks can drift
by 2-3 * 10-13/day

Quartz Crystal Oscillator Technology

In order to keep the cost of user equipment
down, quartz crystal oscillators were proposed
(similar to those used in modern digital
watches),
Besides their low cost, quartz oscillators have
excellent short-term stability.
However, their long-term drift must be
accounted for as part of the user position
determination process this is where the fourth
range measurement becomes handy!

Getting Perfect Timing

If our receivers needed atomic clocks (which cost upwards of
$50K to $100K) GPS would be a lame duck technology. Nobody
could afford it.
Luckily the designers of GPS came up with a brilliant little trick
that lets us get by with much less accurate clocks in our receivers.
The secret to perfect timing is to make an extra satellite
measurement (remember the fourth range observation that we need
to get precise position in space?)
By using an extra satellite range measurement and a little algebra
a GPS receiver can eliminate any clock inaccuracies it might have.

Measuring distance from a satellite 1/2

The timing problem is tricky. First, the signal travel times
are going to be awfully short (about 0.06 seconds), so we need
some really precise clocks.
But assuming we have precise clocks, how do we measure
travel time?
Suppose we start generating the same signal at the satellite
and the receiver at the same time.
The signal (Pseudo Random Code) coming from the
satellite is delayed because it had to travel over 11,000 miles.

Measuring distance from a satellite 2/2

If we wanted to see just how delayed the satellite's signal
was, we delay the receiver's version of signal until they fell
into perfect synchronization.
The amount we have to shift back the receiver's version is
equal to the travel time of the satellite's version.
So we just multiply that time times the speed of light and
we've got our distance to the satellite.

A Random Code?
The Pseudo Random Code (PRC) or Pseudo Random
Noise code, PRN, is a fundamental part of GPS.
Physically it's just a very complicated digital code, or
in other words, a complicated sequence of "on" and
"off" pulses. The signal is so complicated that it almost
looks like random electrical noise. Hence the name
"Pseudo-Random".

Sent by satellite at time t0

Received from
satellite at time t1

A Random Code?
Since each satellite has its own unique PseudoRandom Code, this complexity also guarantees that the
receiver won't accidentally pick up another satellite's
signal.
So all the satellites can use the same frequency
without jamming each other. And it makes it more
difficult for a hostile force to jam the system.
In fact the Pseudo Random Code gives the DoD a
way to control access to the system.

A Random Code?

Another reason for the complexity of the Pseudo

Random Code, is crucial to making GPS economical.
The codes make it possible to use information
theory to amplify the GPS signal. And that's why
GPS receivers don't need big satellite dishes to receive
the GPS signals.

GPS Signal

What else do we need to navigate

(position) with GPS?
Along with distance, you need to know exactly where
the satellites are in space.
Finally you must correct for any delays the signal
experiences as it travels through the atmosphere.

Getting Satellite Position in Space

Successful operation of GPS depends on the
precise knowledge and prediction of a satellite's
position with respect to an earth-fixed reference
system.
Tracking data collected by ground monitor stations
are analyzed to determine the satellite orbit over the
period of tracking (typically one week).
This reference ephemeris is extrapolated into the
future and the data is then up-loaded to the
satellites.
Prediction accuracies of the satellite coordinates,
for one day, at the few meter level have been
demonstrated.

Getting Satellite Position in Space

The Air Force has injected
each GPS satellite into a
very precise planned orbit.
GPS satellites are so high up
that their orbits are very
predictable.
On the ground all GPS receivers have an almanac programmed
into their computers that tells them where in the sky each
satellite is.
Minor variations in satellite orbits are measured by the
Department of Defense (data from permanently tracking stations
allow determination of satellite position and speed)

Getting Satellite Position in Space

These errors (variations from the ideal orbit) are caused by
gravitational pulls from the moon and sun and by the pressure of
solar radiation on the satellites.
That information is sent back up to the satellite itself. The
satellite then includes this new corrected position information in
the timing signals it's broadcasting.
So a GPS signal is more than just pseudo-random code for
timing purposes. It also contains a navigation message with
ephemeris information as well.
Now we are almost ready for perfect positioning, but there is
one more trouble...

Getting Errors Corrected

A GPS signal doesnt travel
in vacuum!
We've been saying that you
calculate distance to a satellite by
multiplying a signal's travel time
by the speed of light. But the speed of light is only constant in
a vacuum.
As a GPS signal passes through the charged particles of the
ionosphere and then through the water vapor in the
troposphere it gets slowed down, and this creates the same
kind of error as bad clocks.

Getting Errors Corrected

Some errors can be factored out using
mathematics and
modeling (tropospheric errors)
One way to handle ionosphereinduced errors is to compare the relative
speeds of two different signals. This
"dual frequency" measurement is only
provided by advanced GPS receivers.
Problem on the ground -- is called
multipath error
Good receivers use sophisticated
signal rejection techniques to
minimize this problem.

Atmospheric Errors on GPS Range

Boundary between iono
and troposphere
Actual signal path

ionosphere
Geometric distance

troposphere

Getting Errors Corrected

Other error sources: satellite position.
Random errors due to orbit
perturbations
Intentional errors - the policy is called
"Selective
Availability" or "SA" and the idea behind
it is to make sure that no hostile force or
terrorist group can use GPS to make
accurate weapons.
DoD introduces some "noise" into the
satellite's clock
data which, in turn, adds noise (or
inaccuracy) into position
calculations. DoD may also be sending
slightly erroneous orbital data to the
satellites

Getting Errors Corrected

Military receivers use a decryption key to remove the SA

errors and so they're much more accurate.
SA was turned down to zero on May 2, 2000
Differential GPS can eliminate almost all error sources.

How does DGPS work?

The stationary receiver must be located on a known
control point
The stationary unit works backwardsinstead of
using timing to calculate position, it uses its position to
calculate timing

How does DGPS work?

Can do this because precise location of stationary

receiver is known, and hence, so is location of satellite
Once it knows error, it determines a correction factor
and sends it to the other receiver.

How does DGPS work?

Message sent to rover with correction factor for all
satellites.
More reference stations becoming available.

Other DGPS Concepts

Real-time vs. Post-processing
Augmented GPS
Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS)
Local Area Augmentation System (LAAS)

Summary of GPS Error Sources [m]

(Pseudoranging)
Satellite Clocks
Orbit Errors
Ionosphere
Troposphere
Receiver Noise
Multipath

SA=0
2.0
2.1
5.0
0.5 (model)
0.3
1.0

Typical Position Accuracy

Horizontal
10.0
Vertical
13.0

SA
Differential GPS
20.0
0
20.0
0
5.0
0.4
0.5 (model) 0.2
0.3
0.3
1.0
1.0
41.0
51.0

1.3
2.0