GNSS OVERVIEW

Centre of Studies for Surveying Science & Geomatics

Universiti Teknologi Mara (Perlis)

GLS611 – Advanced Geodes

 What is GNSS?

Global Navigation Satellite System

“GNSS is a satellite system that is used to On Air
pinpoint geographic location of a user's
receiver anywhere on land and sea, in the
air or in Earth orbit.”
A common term for GPS, GLONASS, Galileo
and BeiDou. IRNSS and QZSS as regional
navigation system for India and Japan
respectively On Land
On Sea
Developed by the United States Department of
Defense (DoD) to provide a accurate method of
determining location
Originally designed for military applications
but also provides commercial and recreational
users with worldwide navigation coverage
Offer:
a.  Positioning accuracy from ten metre down to the
sub-centimetre level
However,
b.  Available to all users anywhere on the earth, 24
hours a day and all-weather system
it is a military system!
 History
Development work on GPS commenced in
1973.
First (“Block I”) satellite launched 1978 –
last “experimental” satellite launched 1985.
WGS84 satellite datum introduced in 1978 –
redefined in 1994, 1997, 2002.
“Block II/IIA/IIR” satellites launched from
1989 onwards – “Block IIF” satellites for
2005-15.
“Selective Availability“ (SA) introduced 25 •  “Anti-Spoofing” (AS)
March 1990. introduced 31 January 1994.
•  “Full Operational Capability”
mid-1995
http://www.gps.gov/systems/gps/space/#IIRM
Segmenting GPS

The three segments of GPS

are the space, control, and
user
GPS Control Segment

Control segment function:

i.  Monitor and control satellite system
continuously.
ii.  Determine GPS system time.
iii.  Predict satellite ephemerides and
behavior of satellite clocks
iv.  Update periodically navigation message
for each particular satellite.

•  This information is then packed and

uploaded into the GPS satellites through
the S-band link
 GPS Control Segment

Current operational control segment

includes:
a.  A master control station located at
Falcon Air Force Base, in Colorado
Spring
b.  Two backup master control station-
Vandenberg and Gaithersburg
c.  12 command and control antennas-
for uploading data into satellites
d.  16 monitoring sites
The positions (or coordinates) of http://www.gps.gov/systems/gps/control/
these monitor stations are known
very precisely
Master Control Station (MCS)
providing command and control of the GPS
constellation
generates and uploads navigation messages
and ensures the health and accuracy of the
satellite constellation
receives navigation information from the
monitor stations, utilizes this information to
compute the precise locations of the GPS
satellites in space, and then uploads this
data to the satellites.
 Monitor Stations
Track the GPS satellites as they pass overhead and
channel their observations back to the master
control station
collect atmospheric data, range/carrier
measurements, and navigation signals
16 monitoring stations located throughout the
world, including six from the Air Force and 10 from Ground monitor station
the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA)
Ground Antennas
used to communicate with the GPS satellites for
command and control purposes
responsible for normal command transmissions to
the satellites
Ground Antennas
Currently GPS constellation is a mix of old and
new satellites
There are 24 satellites (plus 3 spares) orbiting
the earth in a 6 near circular orbit with minimal
of 4 satellite in each orbit
At an altitude of over 20,200-20,300km above
the earth and at 55 inclinations with orbital
period of 11 hours 58 minute
Each satellite circles the Earth twice a day
Includes anyone who captures the
transmission of the GPS satellite in
order to determine its location
GPS receiver convert satellite satellite
signals into position, velocity and time
Four satellite are required to compute
the four dimensions of X,Y,Z and time
Surveying & Cadastre
Increase density of cadastral control.
Improve spatial accuracy.
Significantly reduce need to maintain
physical survey control network.
Surveying Engineering
Infrastructure development - road, rail,
ports, monitoring.
Asset capture, planning of utility services -
power, water, telecommunications. For
state government agencies but also public
sector.
Hydrography
Maritime surveying.
Depths profiling.
Wreck search.
Transport Sector
Vehicle navigation.
Mobile Mapping.
Fleet management.
Traffic guidance systems.
Space Weather & Atmospheric Study
Climatic research.
Weather forecast.
Determination of tropospheric and
stratospheric parameters.
 GLONASS

Global'naya Navigatsionnaya Sputnikovaya

Sistema or Global Navigation Satellite
System .
GLONASS is managed for the Russian
Federation Government by the Russian
Space Forces.
Provide real-time position and velocity
determination, initially for use by the
Soviet military in navigating and ballistic
missile targeting.
The system was in full operation in
December 1995
 GALILEO
A global navigation satellite system (GNSS)
currently being built by the European Union
(EU) and European Space Agency (ESA),
intended for civilian use only
Provide an alternative high-precision
positioning system upon which European
nations can rely, independently from the
Russian GLONASS and US GPS systems

Galileo launch on a Soyuz

rocket, 21 October 2011
 GALILEO centers and stations
(http://www.galileoic.org/node/150)
 The BEIDOU (‘Big Dipper’) or COMPASS
China announced late last year that it
will launch its own 35- satellite, GPS-
like global navigation system over the
next several years.
Thirty of these satellites will fly in
medium-earth orbits at around 12,000
miles altitude, similar to that of GPS,
while the remaining five will be equally
spaced around the equator -like
geostationary orbits and perform a
similar service…
GPS: The basic idea
 GPS positioning service

GPS was originally developed as a military system, but was

later made available to civilians
To keep the military advantage, U.S.DoD provides two levels
of GPS positioning and timing services:
a.  Precise Positioning Service (PPS)
b.  Standard Positioning Service (SPS)
Precise Positioning Service (PPS)
•  most precise autonomous positioning and timing service
•  uses one of the transmitted GPS codes, known as P(Y)-
code, which is accessible by authorized users only-U.S.
military forces
•  expected positioning accuracy provided by the PPS is 16m
for the horizontal component and 23m for the vertical
component
Standard Positioning Service (SPS)
less precise than PPS. It uses the second transmitted
GPS code, known as the C/A-code, which is
available free of charge to all users worldwide,
authorized and unauthorized
SPS provided positioning accuracy of the order of
100m for the horizontal component and 156m for the
vertical component-effect of selective availability (SA)
discontinuing the SA, the SPS autonomous
positioning accuracy is presently at a comparable
level to that of the PPS
 GPS Signal Structure

Each GPS satellite transmits a microwave radio

signal composed of two carrier frequencies (or sine
waves) modulated by two digital codes and a
navigation message.
1.  Digital Code
•  The two GPS codes are called coarse acquisition (or C/A-code)
and precision (or P-code)
•  The C/A code has a frequency of 1.023 MHz and a wavelength
of about 300 m and accessible to all users
•  P code, with a frequency of 10.23 MHz and a wavelength of
about 30 m, is 10 times more accurate for positioning than the
C/A code
•  Each code consists of a stream of binary digits, zeros and ones,
known as bits or chips
digital code
Modernization
•  C/A code and P code are older technology and recent satellites are being equipped
with new codes.
•  Include a second civilian code on the L2 signal called the L2C.
•  The P code is being replaced by two new military codes, known as M codes
•  A third civilian signal known as the L5 to provide safety of life applications to GPS
Sine waves carrier frequencies (L1 and L2)
•  The carriers, which are transmitted in the L band of microwave radio frequencies, are
identified as the L1 signal with a frequency of 1575.42 MHz and the L2 signal at a
frequency of 1227.60 MHz
•  The corresponding carrier wavelengths are approximately 19 cm and 24.4 cm,
respectively
•  The availability of the two carrier frequencies allows for correcting a major GPS error,
known as the ionospheric delay
 Sine waves carrier frequencies (L1 and L2)

L1 frequency contains the civilian Coarse Acquisition

(C/A) Code as well as the military Precise (P) Code.
The L2 frequency contains only the P code. The P
code is encrypted by the military—using a technique
known as anti-spoofing—and is only available to sinusoidal wave
authorized personnel.
Civilian GPS receivers use the C/A Code on the L1
frequency to compute positions—although high-end
survey grade civilian receivers use the L1 and L2
frequencies’ carrier waves directly.
digital code
•  The codes and the navigation message are added to the
carriers as binary biphase modulations
•  The carriers and the codes are used mainly to determine
the distance from the user.s receiver to the GPS
Navigation message
•  Every satellite receives from the ground antennas the
navigation data which is sent back to the users through
the navigation message
•  provides all the necessary information to allow the user
to perform the positioning service
Navigation message contains:
i.  almanac
ii.  broadcast ephemeris,
iii.  satellite clock correction coefficients,
iv.  ionospheric correction coefficients,
v.  satellite condition (also termed satellite health)
GPS Signal
Structure
 FUNDAMENTALS OF SATELLITE POSITIONING

If the distances from a point on the Earth (a GPS

receiver) to three GPS satellites are known along
with the satellite locations, then the location of
the point (or receiver) can be determined by
simply applying the well-known concept of
trilateration
Once the receiver acquires the GPS signal, it will
process it using its built-in software
Through digital code- distances to the GPS
satellites (known as the pseudoranges) and the
satellite coordinates through the navigation
message.
how can we get the distances to the satellites as
well as the satellite locations?
a. code ranging
b. carrier phase-shift
Code ranging
Also called code matching - method of determining the
time it takes the signals to travel from satellites to
receivers
The code is transmitted from the satellite and the
receiver generates an exact replica of that code
comparing the transmitted code and its replica, the
receiver can compute the signal travel time
the precise travel time of the signal is necessary to
determine the distance, or so-called range, to the
satellite
•  the range to the satellite can be determined from
r= c x t
where r is the range to the satellite , t the elapsed time for the wave to
travel from the satellite to the receiver and c, the speed of light
(299,729,458 m/s) .
Code ranging (cont..)
the assumption that the receiver and satellite clocks are
synchronized is not exactly true-synchronization error
between the satellite and receiver clocks
this range is referred to as the pseudorange
If observations taken on three satellites, the position of a
receiver at station A can be determined by

systematic error (known as bias) in the clocks, and the

refraction of the wave as it passes through the Earth’s
atmosphere, must also be considered-valid time
observation
•  introduction of a fourth satellite range, the
receiver clock bias can be mathematically
determined

•  These four equations can be simultaneously

solved yielding the position of the receiver and
the receiver clock bias -point positioning
equations or code pseudorange model
Carrier phase-shift
•  Depends on the un-modulated L1 and L2 carrier
wave and better accuracy in measuring ranges to
satellites
•  sum of the total number of full carrier cycles plus
fractional cycles at the receiver and the satellite,
multiplied by the carrier wavelength
•  does not account for the number of full wavelengths
or cycles that occurred as the signal travelled
between the satellite and receiver
•  Only measure a fraction of a cycle very accurately
(less than 2 mm), while the initial number of
complete cycles remains unknown, or ambiguous
commonly known as the initial cycle ambiguity, or
the ambiguity bias
Carrier phase-shift
(contn..)
The satellites are moving and thus
their ranges are constantly
changing,
The ambiguity cannot be
determined by simply transmitting
additional frequencies
Once the ambiguity is determined,
the mathematical model for carrier
phase-shift, corrected for clock
biases, is
TOTAL DISTANCE TO SV: 1 + 2 + 3 = 0.0475 +20,140,000 +190 = 20,140,190.0475m