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1
The Global Positioning System (GPS) is a satellite-based navigation system
that was developed by the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) in the early
1970s. Initially, GPS was developed as a military system to fulfill U.S. mili-
tary needs. However, it was later made available to civilians, and is now a
dual-use system that can be accessed by both military and civilian users [1].
GPS provides continuous positioning and timing information, any-
where in the world under any weather conditions. Because it serves an
unlimited number of users as well as being used for security reasons, GPS is
a one-way-ranging (passive) system [2]. That is, users can only receive the
satellite signals. This chapter introduces the GPS system, its components,
and its basic idea.
1
2 Introduction to GPS
satellites are arranged so that four satellites are placed in each of six orbital
planes (Figure 1.1). With this constellation geometry, four to ten GPS sat-
ellites will be visible anywhere in the world, if an elevation angle of 10° is
considered. As discussed later, only four satellites are needed to provide the
positioning, or location, information.
GPS satellite orbits are nearly circular (an elliptical shape with a maxi-
mum eccentricity is about 0.01), with an inclination of about 55° to the
equator. The semimajor axis of a GPS orbit is about 26,560 km (i.e., the sat-
ellite altitude of about 20,200 km above the Earths surface) [4]. The corre-
sponding GPS orbital period is about 12 sidereal hours (~11 hours, 58
minutes). The GPS system was officially declared to have achieved full
operational capability (FOC) on July 17, 1995, ensuring the availability of
at least 24 operational, nonexperimental, GPS satellites. In fact, as shown in
Section 1.4, since GPS achieved its FOC, the number of satellites in the GPS
constellation has always been more than 24 operational satellites.
L-band antenna
Solar panel
S-band antenna
Space
segment
GPS
signal
Download
(L-band)
Upload
(S-band)
Control segment
Y User segment
FL
Figure 1.2 GPS segments.
AM
Block IIR will be followed by another system, called Block IIF (for
follow-on), consisting of 33 satellites. The satellite life span will be 15
years. Block IIF satellites will have new capabilities under the GPS mod-
ernization program that will dramatically improve the autonomous GPS
positioning accuracy (see Chapter 2 for details). The first Block IIF satellite
is scheduled to be launched in 2005 or shortly after that date.
rubidium clocks only. It should be pointed out that two satellites, PRN05
and PRN06, are equipped with corner cube reflectors to be tracked by laser
ranging (Table 1.1).
Colorado Springs
Kwajalein
Cape
Hawaii Canaveral
Monitoring the GPS system integrity is also one of the tasks of the
MCS. The status of a satellite is set to unhealthy condition by the MCS dur-
ing satellite maintenance or outages. This satellite health condition appears
as a part of the satellite navigation message on a near real-time basis.
Scheduled satellite maintenance or outage is reported in a message called
Notice Advisory to Navstar Users (NANU), which is available to the public
through, for example, the U.S. Coast Guard Navigation Center [8].
R2
R3
R2
R1
R1
R3
probability level) [7, 11]. To further improve the GPS positioning accu-
racy, the so-called differential method, which employs two receivers simul-
taneously tracking the same GPS satellites, is used. In this case, positioning
accuracy level of the order of a subcentimeter to a few meters can be
obtained.
Other uses of GPS include the determination of the users velocity,
which could be determined by several methods. The most widely used
method is based on estimating the Doppler frequency of the received GPS
signal [6]. It is known that the Doppler shift occurs as a result of the relative
satellite-receiver motion. GPS may also be used in determining the attitude
of a rigid body, such as an aircraft or a marine vessel. The word attitude
means the orientation, or the direction, of the rigid body, which can be
described by the three rotation angles of the three axes of the rigid body
with respect to a reference system. Attitude is determined by equipping the
body with a minimum of three GPS receivers (or one special receiver) con-
nected to three antennas, which are arranged in a nonstraight line [12].
Data collected at the receivers are then processed to obtain the attitude of
the rigid body.
Future uses of GPS will include automatic machine guidance and control,
where hazardous areas can be mapped efficiently and safely using remotely
controlled vehicles. The recent U.S. decision to modernize GPS and to ter-
minate the selective availability will undoubtedly open the door for a
number of other applications yet to be developed [10].
References
[1] FRP, U.S. Federal Radionavigation Plan, 1999.
[2] Langley, R. B., Why Is the GPS Signal So Complex? GPS World, Vol. 1,
No. 3, May/June 1990, pp. 5659.
[3] Hoffmann-Wellenhof, B., H. Lichtenegger, and J. Collins, Global
Positioning System: Theory and Practice, 3rd ed., New York:
Springer-Verlag, 1994.
[4] Langley, R. B., The Orbits of GPS Satellites, GPS World, Vol. 2, No. 3,
March 1991, pp. 5053.
[5] Wells, D. E., et al., Guide to GPS Positioning, Fredericton, New Brunswick:
Canadian GPS Associates, 1987.
[6] Kaplan, E., Understanding GPS: Principles and Applications, Norwood, MA:
Artech House, 1990.
[7] Shaw, M., K. Sandhoo, and D. Turner, Modernization of the Global
Positioning System, GPS World, Vol. 11, No. 9, September 2000,
pp. 3644.
[8] U.S. Coast Guard Navigation Center, GPS Status, September 17, 2001,
http://www.navcen.uscg.gov/gps/.
[9] Leick, A., GPS Satellite Surveying, 2nd ed., New York: Wiley, 1995.
[10] Langley, R. B., The Mathematics of GPS, GPS World, Vol. 2, No. 7,
July/August 1991, pp. 4550.
[11] Conley, R., Life After Selective Availability, U.S. Institute of Navigation
Newsletter, Vol. 10, No. 1, Spring 2000, pp. 34.
[12] Kleusberg, A., Mathematics of Attitude Determination with GPS, GPS
World, Vol. 6, No. 9, September 1995, pp. 7278.
[13] Berg, R. E., Evaluation of Real-Time Kinematic GPS Versus Total Stations
for Highway Engineering Surveys, 8th Intl. Conf. Geomatics: Geomatics in
the Era of RADARSAT, Ottawa, Canada, May 2430, 1996, CD-ROM.