GNSS Augmentation System

I. WHAT IS THE MEANING OF GNSS AUGMENTATION? EXPLAIN.

A. GNSS Augmentation System
• Augmentation of a global navigation satellite system (GNSS) is a method of improving the navigation system’s attributes,
such as accuracy, reliability and availability, through the integration of external information into the calculation process.
• This is a local system which is particularly developed for a country or region.
• These system transmits the correction data to the user via satellite or directly through reference station antenna.
• The user segment receives the correction data and improves its position accordingly.
• A number of reference stations is required to set up an augmentation system through which the service is controlled.

Fig. 1. GNSS augmentation system.

II. EXPLAIN THE NECESSITY OF GNSS AUGMENTATION SYSTEM.

A. Necessity of GNSS Augmentation System
• GNSS augmentation systems were born to continuously provide robust and safe navigation especially when high precision or
enhanced coverage or availability is required such as air plane landing (GLS), search and rescue (SAR), transport,
communication security and so on.
• Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) refers to a constellation of satellites providing signals from space that transmit
positioning and timing data to GNSS receivers. By definition, GNSS provides global coverage. Major satellite constellations
that form GNSS are: GPS, Galileo, GLONASS, Beidou. GNSS usually consists of three segments: space segment, control
segment, and user segment.
• The performance of GNSS is assessed using four criteria as follows:
✓ Accuracy : the difference between a receiver’s measured and real position, speed or time;
✓ Integrity : a system’s capacity to provide a threshold of confidence and, in the event of an anomaly in the positioning
data, an alarm;
✓ Continuity : a system’s ability to function without interruption;
✓ Availability : the percentage of time a signal fulfils the above accuracy, integrity and continuity criteria.
GNSS augmentation provides additional information to the user for enhancing performance in terms of these 4 criteria.
 • GNSS accuracy is degraded due to many unavoidable circumstances such as:
❖ Ionosphere and troposphere delays : the atmosphere slows the signal (refraction lengthens the path), not always by the
same amount.
❖ Signal multipath : Buildings and rock surfaces can cause the signal to reflect, lengthening the path and thus the time. This
affects the results in urban areas.
❖ Receiver clock errors : The receiver's built-in clock will be much less accurate than the atomic clocks on GPS
satellites. To get around this, the clock error becomes a fourth unknown in the solution, which requires a fourth satellite
to be in view.
❖ Orbital errors : The satellite's reported location may not be accurate.
❖ Number of satellites visible : Accuracy improves with the number of visible satellites. GPS units typically will not work
underwater or underground, but newer receivers can track some signals when indoors or under tree-cover.
❖ Satellite geometry/shading : The best results occur with satellites are located at widely spaced locations, and not in a line
or small region of the sky. This affects the results in urban areas.
❖ Selective availability : The U.S. Department of Defense once deliberately degraded signals with Selective Availability
(SA) to satellites, having the satellites essentially lie and dropping accuracy to about 100 m. President Clinton ended SA
in May of 2000, which improved results dramatically to about 3-5 meters.

TABLE I. ACCURACY OF GNSS SATELLITES

GNSS Satellite Horizontal Accuracy (m) Vertical Accuracy (m)

GPS 3.9 9.6

Galileo 4 8
GLONASS 2.8 7.38

• Precise positioning is essential in civil applications which include traffic, road transport, vehicle guidance etc. Moreover, it is
important in defense sector such as landing of fighter jets on sea fleet, enemy location determination, mapping etc. Without
exact accuracy these services will fail.
• Due to error in accuracy, precise positioning is affected in aviation sector. Neither GPS nor GLONASS can provide
Continuity, Availability, Integrity and Accuracy to be used as sole means of air navigation for all phases of flight. Most of the
aircraft landing systems now depend on satellite such as GNSS Landing System (GLS). Without a precise calculation, landing
will be risky.
• Augmentation systems attempt to correct for many of the dominant error sources in GNSS. It is basically accomplished by
placing a reference station at a precisely known location in the vicinity of a user, or where high-accuracy navigation is
required. The reference station measures the ranges to each of the satellites in view, demodulates the navigation message,
and depending on the type of parameter, computes several types of corrections to be applied by the user's receiver in order
to improve its performance. Then the station broadcasts its corrections to local users via a data link, so that position
accuracies of a few centimeters are obtained. However, augmentation works only against common mode, spatially correlated
errors such as the ionosphere and troposphere delays. Multipath-induced errors, as well as interference-induced ones, are
not common to the reference station and the user; therefore, they cannot be recovered by means of any augmentation systems.
III. WHAT ARE THE DIFFERENT TYPES OF GNSS AUGMENTATION SYSTEM?
A. Different Types of GNSS Augmentation System
There are basically 2 types of GNSS augmentation system as follows:
• Ground Based Augmentation System (GBAS): Provides Differential GPS (DGPS) corrections and integrity verification as
demonstrated in Fig. 2 (a).
• Satellite Based Augmentation System (SBAS): Geo Satellite transmits the corrections as depicted in Fig. 2 (b).
 (a) (b)

Fig. 2. GNSS augmentation system (a) GBAS (b) SBAS.

IV. DESCRIBE DIFFERENT GNSS AUGMENTATION SYSTEMS WITH CLEAR DIAGRM.

A. Different GNSS Augmentation Systems
• Ground Based Augmentation System (GBAS)
➢ Ground-Based Augmentation System (GBAS) is a system that provides differential corrections and integrity monitoring
of Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS).
➢ GBAS provides navigation and precision approach service in the vicinity of the host airport (approximately a 23 nautical
mile radius), broadcasting its differential correction message via a very high frequency (VHF) radio data link from a
ground-based transmitter.
➢ GBAS yields the extremely high accuracy, availability, and integrity necessary for Category I, and eventually Category II,
and III precision approaches.
➢ GBAS demonstrated accuracy is less than 1 meter in both the horizontal and vertical axis.

Fig. 3. Ground Based Augmentation System (GBAS).

❖ GBAS Ground Subsystem
➢ The Ground Subsystem consists of two to four GNSS reference receivers, ground processing functions, data
broadcast transmitters and integrity monitoring.
➢ Time-tagged differential correction information is generated for each satellite.
➢ Satellite integrity data is also elaborated. This is obtained by processing the received satellites’ signals by reference
to the surveyed and stored antenna co-ordinates.
➢ The data broadcast uses the VHF band, i.e., 108.000 – 117.975 MHz.

Fig. 4. GBAS ground subsystem

❖ Local Area Augmentation System (LAAS)

➢ The local-area augmentation system (LAAS) is an all-weather aircraft landing system based on real-time
differential correction of the GPS signal.
➢ Local reference receivers located around the airport send data to a central location at the airport. This data is used
to formulate a correction message, which is then transmitted to users via a VHF Data Link.
➢ A receiver on an aircraft uses this information to correct GPS signals, which then provides a standard ILS-style
display to use while flying a precision approach.
➢ The advantages of LAAS are as follows:
✓ Remote Coverage : can augment GPS in locations with low cost.
✓ Modified Approaches : to avoid Obstacles, Noises in sensitive area or crowed airspace.
✓ Multiple runway coverage : one LAAS can serve an entire Airport.
✓ Surface Navigation : can be used for ground navigation and taxiing.

Fig. 5. Local Area Augmentation System (LAAS).

• Satellite Based Augmentation System (SBAS)
➢ Satellite-based augmentation systems (SBAS) support wide-area or regional augmentation through the use of additional
satellite-broadcast messages.
➢ Using measurements from the ground stations, correction messages are created and sent to one or more satellites for
broadcast to end users as differential signal.
➢ Generally a geo stationary satellite is used to retransmit the correction data to the user.
➢ The SBAS satellite transmits a GPS-like L1 (1574.42 MHz) signal, modulated with a Coarse/Acquisition Pseudo-Random
Noise (PRN) code.
➢ While the main goal of SBAS is to provide integrity assurance, it also increases the accuracy with position errors below 1
meter (1 sigma).
➢ The increased accuracy is critical for aviation and is widely used by the geospatial industry for increased accuracy in
navigation and mapping.
❖ SBAS Principle
➢ GNSS signals are received by the reference stations which are established at known locations.
➢ The signal is send to the Master station to calculate the correction data. The data is ready to transfer to a geo
stationary satellite.
➢ The correction data is transmitted to the geo satellite.
➢ Finally, the satellite transmits the correction data to the user/aircraft and precise positioning is achieved.

Fig. 6. Satellite Based Augmentation System (SBAS).

❖ SBAS Architecture
The main layers of a general SBAS architecture include the following:
➢ Space segment comprising the geostationary satellites (GEO) with navigation payloads in charge of transmitting a
GPS-like carrier signal with the SBAS information.
➢ Ground segment comprising all the ground elements in charge of the provision of the SBAS navigation message.
The main elements are:
✓ Monitoring Station Network.
✓ Processing Facility Center.
✓ GEO Satellite Control Center.
✓ Communication Layer.
➢ Support segment comprising all the elements need to support the correct operation and maintenance of the SBAS:
✓ configuration control,
 ✓ performance evaluation,
✓ maintenance and development, help desk, etc.
➢ User segment comprising all the user equipment needed to receive and use the SBAS information.

Fig. 7. SBAS architecture.

❖ SBAS Message Structure

➢ Messages sent to the user are defined in a document called the SBAS Minimum Operational Performance Standards
(MOPS). It is a large document written by committee to describe a complicated system.
➢ Messages are sent once per second and contain 212 bits of correction data comprised of 8 additional bits of
acquisition and synchronization data, 6 bits to identify the message type, and 24 bits designated for parity, for a
total of 250 bits.
➢ The parity bits protect against the use of corrupted data. The information from multiple messages must be stored
and combined to form the corrections.
➢ For precise vertical operations, the user must stop using data from messages that were received more than two
update periods prior. This restriction prevents users from applying out of date information, but allows them to
operate even when they are missing the most recent copy of any given message.

Fig. 8. SBAS message structure.

TABLE II. SBAS MESSAGE TYPES

GNSS Satellite Message Contents Update Period (sec)

Don’t use this GEO for safety of life (it is only for
0 6
testing)
1 PRN Mask assignments, set upto 51 of 210 bits 120
 2-5 Fast corrections (satellite clock error) 6-60

6 Integrity information (UDREI) 6

7 Fast correction degradation factors 120

9 GEO navigation message (Y, Y, Z, time, etc) 120

10 Degradation parameters 120

12 EAAS network time/UTC offset parameters 300

17 GEO satellite almanacs 300

18 Ionospheric grid point masks 300

24 Mixed fast/long term satellite error corrections 6-60

25 Long term satellite error corrections 120

26 Ionospheric delay corrections 300

27 WAAS service message 300

28 Clock/ephemeris covariance matrix 120

63 Null message -

❖ SBAS Ionospheric Correction

➢ The ionospheric corrections and integrity bound information are broadcast in Message Types 18 and 26.
➢ Message Type 18 defines a “mask” of activated Ionospheric Grid Points (IGP). This mask allows the user to
determine the latitude and longitude of the corrections and confidences in the Type 26 messages.
➢ For that the Earth is divided into ten regions and a separate MT18 is sent for each region which may contain up to
201 possible IGPs.
➢ An MT18 is only sent for regions where the SBAS chooses to broadcast corrections. WAAS, for example, only
broadcasts masks for regions 0, 1, 2, 3, and 9.
➢ The application of ionospheric corrections requires the user to interpolate corrections for their measurements from
a predefined grid of vertical delay values.
➢ The user must determine which grid points to use for interpolation and then apply the proper weights to each one
to form their vertical delay estimate .
➢ This vertical delay estimate at the user’s Ionospheric Pierce Point (IPP) is then scaled by an obliquity factor to
convert it to a slant range correction.

Fig. 9. Global ionospheric grid points.

➢ To estimate the ionospheric error, each receiver must identify the so-called Ionospheric Pierce Points IPPs.
➢ Location of each IPP is defined as the intersection between the atmospheric layer located at an altitude of 350 km
and the line connecting the receiver position and GPS satellite. This position is defined by the latitude φ PP and the
longitude λPP in WGS84 coordinates.
➢ Corrections are transmitted for each of the points on the virtual grid located at an altitude of 350 km. This is
Ionospheric Grid Points (IGP).
➢ The final correction for a given IPP is the result of interpolation of individual IGPs.
➢ The receiver must also take into account the Obliquity factor (ionosphere signal angle). Cartesian Coordinate
System.
➢ The latitude φpp and the longitude λpp for the given IPP are given,
𝜑𝑝𝑝 = 𝑠𝑖𝑛−1 (𝑠𝑖𝑛𝜑𝑢 𝑐𝑜𝑠𝜑𝑝𝑝 + 𝑐𝑜𝑠𝜑𝑢 𝑠𝑖𝑛𝜑𝑝𝑝 𝑐𝑜𝑠𝐴) (1)
𝑠𝑖𝑛𝜓𝑝𝑝 𝑠𝑖𝑛𝐴
𝜆𝑝𝑝 = 𝜆𝑢 + 𝜋 − 𝑠𝑖𝑛 −1 − ( ) (2)
𝑐𝑜𝑠𝜑𝑝𝑝

where, 𝜓𝑝𝑝 = 𝑎𝑛𝑔𝑙𝑒 𝑏𝑒𝑡𝑤𝑒𝑒𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑢𝑠𝑒𝑟 𝑝𝑜𝑠𝑖𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑑𝑖𝑟𝑒𝑐𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝐼𝑃𝑃
𝜋 𝑅𝑒
= − 𝑒 − 𝑠𝑖𝑛−1 ( 𝑐𝑜𝑠𝐸),
2 𝑅𝑒 +ℎ𝑙

𝐸 = 𝐸𝑙𝑒𝑣𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑎𝑛𝑔𝑙𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝑠𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑙𝑙𝑖𝑡𝑒,

𝑅𝑒 = 𝐸𝑎𝑟𝑡ℎ 𝑟𝑎𝑑𝑖𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛,
ℎ𝑙 = ℎ𝑒𝑖𝑔ℎ𝑡 𝑜𝑓 𝑚𝑎𝑥𝑖𝑚𝑢𝑚 𝑒𝑙𝑒𝑐𝑡𝑟𝑜𝑛 𝑑𝑒𝑛𝑠𝑖𝑡𝑦
and 𝐴 = 𝑎𝑧𝑖𝑚𝑢𝑡ℎ 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑠𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑙𝑙𝑖𝑡𝑒 𝑟𝑒𝑙𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑣𝑒 𝑡𝑜 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑝𝑜𝑠𝑖𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑟𝑒𝑐𝑒𝑖𝑣𝑒𝑟.
➢ Once IPP position is determined, it is chosen which IGPs will be used for interpolation.
➢ The receiver must take into account the possibility that some IGPs will not be monitored. In such a situation, the
interpolation is performed within a triangle that contains IPP. If two IGPs are not monitored, the interpolation area
will expand, which obviously reduces accuracy.
➢ Vertical error of the IPP must be multiplied by the so-called Obliquity Factor Fpp.
➢ So, the ionospheric correction is,
𝐼𝐶 = 𝐹𝑝𝑝 𝜏𝑣𝑝𝑝 (𝜑𝑝𝑝 , 𝜆𝑝𝑝 ) (3)
−0.5
𝑅𝑒 𝑐𝑜𝑠𝐸 2
where, 𝐹𝑝𝑝 = [1− ( ) ]
𝑅𝑒 +ℎ𝑙

(a) (b)

Fig. 10. SBAS ionospheric correction.

 V. DESCRIBE THE GNSS AUGMENTATION SYSTEMS USED IN DIFFERENT REGIONS OF THE GLOBE.
A. GNSS Augmentation Systems Used in Different Regions of the Globe

TABLE III. COUNTRIES WITH SBAS

SBAS Country

Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS) USA

MTSAT Satellite Augmentation Service (MSAS) Japan

GPS and Geo-Augmentation Navigation
India
(GAGAN)
System for Differential Corrections and
Russia
Monitoring (SDCM)
Korean Augmentation Satellite System (KAAS) Korea

Satellite Navigation Augmentation Service China

(SNAS)
European Geostationary Navigation Overlay European Union
Service (EGNOS)

Fig. 11. Countries with SBAS.

• WAAS
➢ WAAS was commissioned for service in July 2003 and has undergone many changes with many improvements to its
service since that time.
➢ WAAS consists of 20 WRSs (Wide-area Reference Station) in the Conterminous United States (CONUS), in addition to
seven in Alaska, one in Hawaii, one in Puerto Rico, four in Canada, and five in Mexico for a network of 38 total WRSs.
➢ WAAS also has 3 WMSs (Wide-area Master Station) and three geostationary satellites (GEOs) whose footprints are shown
below.
 Fig. 12. WAAS service area.

➢ The current GEOs are the Intelsat Galaxy XV satellite at 133° W (labeled CRW and using PRN 138), the Telesat ANIK
F1R satellite at 107° W (labeled CRE and using PRN 137), and the EUTELSAT 117 West B at 117° W (labeled SM9 and
using PRN 131).
➢ Each GEO has two independent Ground Uplink Stations (GUSs).
• MSAS
➢ The Multi-functional Satellite Augmentation System (MSAS) is the Japanese SBAS. NEC manufactured and delivered
MSAS under contract with the Civil Aviation Bureau, Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism.
➢ MSAS is operational since 2007 supporting en-route, terminal and non-precision approach operations (RNP 0.1).
Recently has completed successful LPV flight trials augmenting GPS L1 signals.

Fig. 13. MSAS architecture.

• GAGAN
➢ The SBAS in India is called Geo-Aided Geo-Augmented Navigation (GAGAN).
➢ Currently it has fifteen Indian Reference Stations (INRES) all of which are in India.
 ➢ There are two Indian Master Control Centers (INMCC), and it uses GSAT-8 at 55° E, GSAT-10 at 83° E, and GSAT-15
at 93.5° E as its GEOs.
➢ GAGANs algorithms were derived from the same ones developed for WAAS.
➢ GAGAN has good availability for vertical guidance when the ionosphere is quiet.

Fig. 14. GAGAN service area.

• SDCM
➢ The Russian Federation has developed SDCM to provide Russia with accuracy improvements and integrity monitoring
for both the GLONASS and GPS navigation systems.
➢ By 2016, the Russian Federation planned to provide L1 SBAS coverage for all Russian territory and by 2018 L1/L5
coverage.
➢ SDCM also provided Precise Point Positioning (PPP) services for L1/L3 GLONASS by 2018.

Fig. 15. SDCM architecture.

• KAAS
➢ KASS is the Korean multi-functional SBAS, which is being developed by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and
Transport (MOLIT), and Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI).
➢ The KASS program has been initiated in October 2014 and will enable approach operations with the vertical guidance
type I (APV-I) in 2022.
➢ The KASS system will be composed of two GEO satellites and ground stations, which include seven reference stations,
two processing stations, two control stations and three KASS uplink stations. The control stations will monitor and control
the whole KASS ground sub-systems. A set of processing station and control station will be located in the same site.
However, the configuration may vary based on further analysis on defining key parameters.
➢ The KASS monitors satellite signals by the network of ground stations. The reference stations receive and process satellite
signals, collect data from GPS and GEO satellites and send the data to processing stations, which then generate correction
and integrity information. This information is sent to uplink stations and uplinked along with the GEO navigation messages
to GEO satellites. The GEO satellite broadcasts integrity and correction data to SBAS receivers.

➢
Fig. 16. KAAS architecture.

• SNAS
➢ The People’s Republic of China is developing its own SBAS, called Satellite Navigation Augmentation System (SNAS).
There is little public information available on this development.
➢ Now, the Chinese SBAS initiatives refer to BeiDou Satellite-based Augmentation System (BDSBAS).

Fig. 17. BDSBAS architecture.

 • EGNOS
➢ EGNOS consists of 29 Ranging and Integrity Monitoring Stations (RIMS) in Europe, in addition to one in Turkey, six in
Africa, one in North America, and one in South America for a total of 38.
➢ There are four Master Control Centers (MCCs) and two operational GEOs (EGNOS also has a third test GEO, Astra-4B
at 5° E).
➢ The operational GEOs are the Inmarsat-3 F2 satellite at 15.5° W and the Astra-5B satellite at 31.5° E and are shown in
Fig. 18.
➢ EGNOS was declared operation in October 2009, and was certified for safety-of-life service in March 2011.

Fig. 18. EGNOS service area.

VI. WHAT IS ASSISTED GPS (A-GPS)? WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN DGPS AND A-GPS?
A. Assisted GPS (A-GPS)
• Assisted GPS or Augmented GPS (abbreviated generally as A-GPS and less commonly as aGPS) is a system that often
significantly improves the startup performance—i.e., time-to-first-fix (TTFF)—of a GPS satellite-based positioning system.
Time to first fix (TTFF) is a measure of the time required for a GPS navigation device to acquire satellite signals and
navigation data, and calculate a position solution.
❖ A-GPS Components
➢ A wireless handset with a partial GPS receiver.
➢ An AGPS server with a reference GPS receiver that can simultaneously “see” the same satellites as the handset.
➢ A MSC to control the system.
➢ A wireless network infrastructure consisting of base stations and a mobile switching center.

Fig. 19. A-GPS components.

 • Standalone GPS provides first position in approximately 30–40 seconds.
• A standalone GPS needs orbital information of the satellites to calculate the current position. The data rate of the satellite
signal is only 50 bit/s, so downloading orbital information like ephemerides and the almanac directly from satellites typically
takes a long time, and if the satellite signals are lost during the acquisition of this information, it is discarded and the standalone
system has to start from scratch.
• In A-GPS, the network operator deploys an A-GPS server, a cache server for GPS data.
• These A-GPS servers download the orbital information from the satellite and store it in the database.
• An A-GPS-capable device can connect to these servers and download this information using mobile-network radio bearers
such as GSM, CDMA, WCDMA, LTE or even using other radio bearers such as Wi-Fi or LoRa.

Fig. 20. A-GPS scheme.

B. Difference between DGPS and A-GPS

• The Ground Based Augmentation System (GBAS) provides Differential GPS (DGPS) corrections and integrity verification.
While DGPS requires the deployment of a specific terrestrial network of reference stations and specific communication
protocols, the AGNSS approach essentially exploits the network architecture of existing cellular communication systems,
with specifically added features. For this reason, AGNSS is a very promising technology, since it inherently implements the
concept of NAV/COM integration.
• More specifically, in Assisted GPS (referred to as A-GPS), communications network and infrastructure are used to assist
the mobile GPS receiver, either as a Standalone device or integrated with a mobile station (MS). The basic idea of A-GPS
is to establish a GPS reference network (or a wide-area DGPS network) whose receivers have clear views of the Sky and
can operate continuously. This reference network is also connected with the cellular infrastructure and continuously monitors
the real-time constellation Status and provides precise data for each satellite at a particular epoch time.