Search

Fast precise point positioning (Fast-PPP) is a satellite-based navigation technique using an accurate real-time ionospheric modeling to achieve high accuracy quickly. In this paper, an end-to-end performance assessment of Fast-PPP is presented in near-maximum Solar Cycle conditions; from the accuracy of the Central Processing Facility corrections, to the user positioning. A planetary distribution of permanent receivers including challenging conditions at equatorial latitudes, is navigated in pure kinematic mode, located from 100 to 1300 km away from the nearest reference station used to derive the ionospheric model. It is shown that satellite orbits and clocks accurate to few centimeters and few tenths of nanoseconds, used in conjunction with an ionosphere with an accuracy better than 1 Total Electron Content Unit (16 cm in L1) reduce the convergence time of dual-frequency Precise Point Positioning, to decimeter-level (3-D) solutions. Horizontal convergence times are shortened 40% to 90%, whereas the vertical components are reduced by 20% to 60%. A metric to evaluate the quality of any ionospheric model for Global Navigation Satellite System is also proposed. The ionospheric modeling accuracy is directly translated to mass-market single-frequency users. The 95th percentile of horizontal and vertical accuracies is shown to be 40 and 60 cm for single-frequency users and 9 and 16 cm for dual-frequency users. The tradeoff between the formal and actual positioning errors has been carefully studied to set realistic confidence levels to the corrections.

This paper summarizes the main results obtained during the development of an Enhanced Precise Point Positioning (EPPP) Global Navigation Satellite Systems multifrequency user algorithm. The main innovations include the application of precise ionospheric corrections to facilitate the resolution of undifferenced carrier phase ambiguities, ambiguity validation, and integrity monitoring. The performance of the EPPP algorithm in terms of accuracy, convergence time, and integrity is demonstrated with actual GPS and simulated Galileo data. This can be achieved with very limited bandwidth requirements for EPPP users (less than 300 b/s for dual-frequency GPS data).

This manuscript summarizes the new algorithm of Fast Precise Point Positioning (FPPP) the developed during the projects "Enhanced PPP GNSS multifrequency user algorithm" nd “Precise Real Time Orbit Determination and Time synchronisation”, both funded by the European Space Agency (ESA). The main innovations achieved during the overall project comprise the application of precise ionospheric corrections to facilitate the fast resolution of undifferenced carrier phase ambiguities, ambiguity validation and integrity monitoring for both multi- and single-frequency users. Among the integrity, detailed in previous works, the performance of the FPPP algorithm in terms of improved accuracy and convergence time is demonstrated with actual GPS and simulated Galileo data. The 10-centimeters error level real-time kinematic positioning can be achieved in few minutes for dual-and single-frequency users, almost instantaneous for three-frequency users (or once the tropospheric delay is well estimated in few minutes in cold start), and with very limited bandwidth requirements for the FPPP users (less than 300 bps for dual-frequency GPS).