IRJMST Vol 7 Issue 1 [Year 2016] ISSN 2250 – 1959 (0nline) 2348 – 9367 (Print)

Comparative Study of Online GPS Post Processing Services and Effects on DGPS Data
Processing
*Manas Kumar Jha, **Saurabh Singh, **Nisha Upadhyay, *** Nishant Khare
*Manager (GIS), IL&FS Environmental Infrastructure & Services Ltd.
**M.Tech. (Geomatics), Indian Institute of Surveying and Mapping, Survey of India, Hyderabad, India
***M.Tech. (Spatial Information Technology), Devi Ahilya Vishwavidyalaya Indore, India

Abstract: for data-mission processing. In many cases,

Increasing dependency on Differential Global
Positioning System (DGPS) survey for
accurate surveying and mapping project is
common across the globe. Whether someone
require a point data or want to align the
LiDAR scans or point cloud data the precise
DGPS value is very much required. The
precision in the accuracy of the DGPS value
determines the overall accuracy of the project
output. To achieve a considerable accuracy
DGPS survey methodology and its post
processing technique must be defined
beforehand. DGPS data acquisition in RTK
(Real time kinematic) and PPK (post
processing kinematic) is common in survey
projects. The objective of processing of DGPS
data in both RTK mode and PPK mode is to
transform the absolute positioning of a point
(X, Y, Z) in a relative positioning with
reference to the other point of a known
coordinates in a similar reference system. This
paper will discuss in details the comparison of
DGPS processing output using the software
based post processing where control points get
validated using various online internet based
GPS processing services.
Keywords: Global Positioning System,
DGPS, RTK, Post Processing, GNSS,
Accuracy Assessment, Surveying, Post
Processing.
Introduction:
Traditionally in geodesy and surveying, the
measurements are collected over temporarily
or permanently monumental points and stored
the position of the user’s antenna has to be
determined in real time such as navigation or
mobile mapping. Real time determination of
position involves wireless transmission system
over radio frequencies, and L-band or C-band
geo-stationery satellites for coverage for entire
continents. Depending on the accuracy
requirements, two modes of real-time
operation can be used: DGPS or RTK.
DGPS [1] requires a reference station receiver
transmitting pseudo range corrections to the
users, whose receiver use this information
together with their measured pseudo-
ranges for positioning at the meter to few
centimeter accuracy levels. RTK [2] on the
other hand, is based on transmitting reference
station carrier phase data to the user’s
receivers.
In its simplest form, a DGPS reference
receiver is set up at a site with known
coordinates. After it has been configured to
operate as the `base station’, the reference
receiver tracks continuously all the visible
satellites and determines the corrections
necessary for its pseudo range data to be able
to compute the Single Point Positioning (SPP)
[4] result that is identical to the known
coordinates of the site.
There are two methods of GPS (Global
Positioning System) data processing. These
are Post-processing and Real-time Processing.
The Post-processing [3] method of
involves downloading of complete survey data
and processing in office using various
software such as Trimble Business Center,

International Research Journal of Management Science & Technology

http://www.irjmst.com Page 29
IRJMST Vol 7 Issue 1 [Year 2016] ISSN 2250 – 1959
GrafNet, etc.. In real-time processing the
correction data from base antenna is then
transmitted to the user (via some form of
wireless data link), receiver then apply the
corrections to their pseudo range data before
computing these SPP solutions.
The method of Post-processing of data is not
vulnerable to many limitations of real time
processing such as poor satellite visibility,
multi path and unreliable data link from the
reference station. Post processing even
provides a much better positional accuracy.
There are six popular post processing free
services are available. These services take
advantage of both the IGS Stations
Network and the IGS product range, and
works with data collected anywhere on Earth.
a) Online Positioning User Service
(OPUS) operated by United States
National Geodetic Survey (NGS)
b) Scripps Coordinate Update Tool
(SCOUT) operated by Scripps Orbit
and Permanent Array Center (SOPAC)
c) Australian Online GPS Processing
Service (AUSPOS) operated by
National Mapping Division of
GeoScience Australia
d) Auto Gipsy operated by NASA JPL
(Jet Propulsion Laboratory)
Methodology:
In this study, DGPS system is used to acquire
the data. A GNSS antenna (Trimble TRMR6-
3) is placed at an unknown point as a base
receiver for more than 7 hours with a DOP
(all) of less than 4. The rover GNSS antenna
(Trimble TRMR6-3) is used to collect 15
minutes of observation. The baseline distance
from Base to rover was limited up to 500
meters.
International Research Journal of Management Science & Technology
http://www.irjmst.com
(0nline) 2348 – 9367 (Print)
e) CSRS-Precise Point Positioning
(CSRS-PPP) operated by Canada
Geodetic Survey Division of Natural
Resource Canada (NRCan).
f) CenterPoint RTX post Processing by
Trimble
The free online GPS processing services are
solutions to obtain control quality coordinate.
By this one can get free of cost unlimited
access for online processing of GPS data. This
process is recognized and adopted widely in
GPS community.
The minimum number of hours for
observation to get the precise value from
online GPS processing system differs with
different agencies; however AUSPOS –
Australia suggest/recommends minimum 6
hours of observation to get precise
coordinates.
In this study a comparison between three
online processing facilities AUSPOS, OPUS
and Center Point RTX by Trimble is made
The major objective of the study is to know
the deviation in output of the rover data
processed using differentially corrected base
coordinate of various online GPS processing
Services.
Altogether 21 points using GNSS rover was
acquired in the open sky area.
The base data collected at an unknown point
cannot be used as a control quality in post-
processing of GPS data, so there is a need to
obtain appropriate control quality coordinate
values. Online GPS processing services are
freely available solutions to obtain a control
quality coordinate.
Page 30
IRJMST Vol 7 Issue 1 [Year 2016] ISSN 2250 – 1959 (0nline) 2348 – 9367 (Print)

Figure 1. DOP value for GPS Satellite

Figure 2. DOP value for GLONASS Satellite

Base Data Processing: c) Online Positioning User Service

Output base data were changed into the
RINEX (Receiver Independent Exchange
Format) [5] format and uploaded on the
following online GPS processing services for
post-processing;
(OPUS) operated by United States
National Geodetic Survey (NGS)
Trimble RTX gives processing result error in
terms of standard deviation (SD), the average
SD was 0.006 (m).

a) CenterPoint RTX post Processing by AUSPOS indicates a reliable solution in terms

Trimble
b) Australian Online GPS Processing
Service (AUSPOS) operated by
National Mapping Division of
GeoScience Australia
of ambiguity resolution; in this study average
ambiguity resolution obtained for base data is
76.1%.

International Research Journal of Management Science & Technology

http://www.irjmst.com Page 31
IRJMST Vol 7 Issue 1 [Year 2016] ISSN 2250 – 1959 (0nline) 2348 – 9367 (Print)

OPUS defines processing results in terms of obtained from three different online
overall RMS which is 0.015 (m) with the base processing services with same rover
data. coordinates.

Received precise control quality coordinate Observation with Base Coordinates:

from above three online GPS processing
services were used with rover data in post
processing process.
Post Processing;
1. Raw – unprocessed Base coordinate Vs
Precise Base Coordinate received from
Online GPS processing services.

The Rover data was post processed with
reference to the raw base data using Trimble
Business Center (TBC) software. The post
processing process was also repeated three
times with the precise base coordinate
received by three different online GPS
processing methodology (AUSPOS, OPUS
and Trimble RTX).
Analysis:
The coordinate of the base receiver after data
acquisition was observed and noted using
Trimble Business center software. Again the
precise coordinate received from online GPS
services was then compared with the
coordinate of base receiver data. There was
variation in precise coordinate received from
online GPS processing services was observed
as shown below in Table 1.

An analysis was made for accuracy

assessment for different base coordinates

Table 1
S.NO Precise Value for Base Station DX DY DZ
1 Raw Data - Trimble Trex 0.336 4.431 1.481
2 Raw Data - AUSPOS 0.3361 4.429 1.534
3 Raw Data - OPUS 0.3167 4.426 1.537

Figure 3. Deviation in X, Y, Z between raw base coordinate and Precise coordinate received
from Online Processing services.
2. Precise Base Coordinate received from Online GPS processing services, Trimble RTX
Vs AUSPOS Vs OPUS:

Precise coordinate received from three online GPS processing services was then compared,
Difference in position up to 2 cm was observed between AUSPOS and OPUS.

International Research Journal of Management Science & Technology

http://www.irjmst.com Page 32
IRJMST Vol 7 Issue 1 [Year 2016] ISSN 2250 – 1959 (0nline) 2348 – 9367 (Print)

Table 2
S.NO Precise Value for Base Station DX DY DZ
1 Trimble Trex - AUSPOS 0.0000 -0.0028 0.0530
2 Trimble Trex - OPUS -0.019 -0.005524 0.056
3 AUSPOS - OPUS -0.0200 -0.0020 0.0030

Figure 4. Deviation in X, Y, Z between raw base coordinate and Precise coordinate received
from Online Processing services.
3. Observation with Rover Coordinates:
To compare and analyze the result of the rover points, all rover data were processed using
Trimble business center with three different precise coordinates received from online GPS
processing services. Results were then plotted as a deviation in X, Y, Z as mentioned below.

Figure 4. Deviation Plotted for X, Y, Z against Raw rover coordinates as Processed Coordinates

Figure 5. Deviation Plotted for X, Y, Z against Raw rover coordinates as Processed Coordinates

International Research Journal of Management Science & Technology

http://www.irjmst.com Page 33
IRJMST Vol 7 Issue 1 [Year 2016] ISSN 2250 – 1959 (0nline) 2348 – 9367 (Print)

Table 3
S.NO Analysis criteria DX DY DZ
Raw Rover Data Vs Processed Rover data using Raw
0.9359 1.3616 -1.6011
1 Base Data
Raw Data Vs Processed rover data using Base
0.336048 4.431333 1.480762
2 Coordinate from Trimble RTX
Raw Data Vs Processed rover data using Base
0.336095 4.428524 1.533762
3 Coordinate from AUSPOS
Raw Data Vs Processed rover data using Base
0.316667 4.426 1.536762
4 Coordinate from OPUS

Results: services has resemblance in processing

Received precise coordinate from the three
service provider Trimble RTX, AUSPOS and
OPUS was used as an input for base
coordinate and with reference to the same all
rover data was processed. During the analysis,
it was observed that precise coordinate
received from all three online GPS processing
parameter.
Deviation in output observed between Trimble
RTX, OPUS, and AUSPOS. There is a
constant shift of approx. 1cm was observed.
Between Trimble RTX and OPUS however,
deviation was up to 2 cm between AUSPOS
and OPUS.

Table 4
S.NO Mean Deviation DX DY DZ
Processed rover data using Base Coordinate from
1 0.0000 -0.0028 0.0530
Trimble Vs AUSPOS
Processed rover data using Base Coordinate from
2 -0.019 -0.00552 0.056
Trimble Vs OPUS
Processed rover data using Base Coordinate from
3 -0.0200 -0.0020 0.0030
AUSPOS Vs OPUS

Figure 6. Deviation Plotted for X, Y, Z against Processed data using precise coordinate from
Trimble RTX and AUSPOS and OPUS.

Conclusion: be considered as a boon for surveying

To fasten the GPS survey with desired industries. To get the accurate coordinate user
accuracy online GPS processing services can dependency on the establishment of a base

International Research Journal of Management Science & Technology

http://www.irjmst.com Page 34
IRJMST Vol 7 Issue 1 [Year 2016] ISSN 2250 – 1959 (0nline) 2348 – 9367 (Print)

station can be minimized if we process the https://igscb.jpl.nasa.gov/igscb/data/format/r

data using online services. It can be done
without having detailed knowledge of data
processing. The minimum observation time
with a receiver also gets reduced up to 15
minutes that can be post-processed using these
services. With this study it is evident of the
fact that any Online GPS processing services
can be used for fastening data processing at
the user end. However to know the difference
in observed value it is very much required for
use of services as per project and accuracy
requirements.
Reference:
inex300.pdf
Other Internet Sites:
IGS Stations Network: http://igs.org/network
OPUS: http://www.ngs.noaa.gov/OPUS/
SOPAC: http://sopac.ucsd.edu/scout.shtml
Auto Gipsy: http://apps.gdgps.net/
Trimble RTX: http://www.trimblertx.com/
AUSPOS: http://www.ga.gov.au/scientific-
topics/positioning-avigation/geodesy/auspos
CSRS-PPP: http://goo.gl/RQfwg5

1. Morgan-Owen, G.J.; Johnston, G.T.,

"Differential GPS positioning,"
in Electronics & Communication
Engineering Journal , vol.7, no.1, pp.11-
21, Feb 1995 doi: 10.1049/ecej:19950104
2. Manabu Omae, Naohisa Hashimoto,
Takehiko Fujioka, Hiroshi Shimizu, “The
Application Of Rtk-Gps And Steer-Bywire
Technology To The Automatic Driving Of
Vehicles And An Evaluation Of Driver
Behavior,” IATSS Research Vol.30 No.2,
2006

3. Francois Koenig and David Wong,

“Differential Global Positioning System
(DGPS) Operation and Post-Processing
Method for the Synchronous Impulse
Reconstruction (SIRE) Radar,” Army
Research Laboratory, ARL-TN-0281,
June 2007
4. Rock Santerre, Lin Pan, Changsheng
Cai, Jianjun Zhu, “Single Point Positioning
Using GPS, GLONASS and BeiDou
Satellites,” Published Online November 2014
in Scientific Research.,
http://www.scirp.org/journal/pos,
http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/pos.2014.54013
5. RINEX: The Receiver Independent
Exchange Format, Werner Gurtner,
Astronomical Institute University of Bern,

International Research Journal of Management Science & Technology

http://www.irjmst.com Page 35