Global positioning system

GPS: It stands for global positioning system and is a satellite based navigation system. It works on the
principle of timing and ranging using that fact that signals transmitted by satellites travel at known
speed of 3x108 m/s. Time taken by signal to travel is measured to obtain distance of satellite from the
earth. This way each satellite gives a position sphere which on interception with earth’s surface gives
position circle. Two such circles give a 2-D fix and three such circles give a 3-D fix. An additional satellite
measurement is taken by GPS receiver to account for receiver clock bias and thus correct all satellite
“pseudo ranges” and make the positions free of errors. This is needed because receiver clock is not very
accurate like the expensive atomic clocks fitted on satellites. It is more accurate than any other existing
satellite positioning system, provides worldwide coverage and is unaffected by weather conditions and
man made or electrical interferences.

GPS signal consists of pseudo random code, ephemeris and almanac data. Each satellite transmits two
codes i.e. P (precision) code (gives 10 m accuracy) and C/A (coarse acquisition) code (gives 100 m
accuracy). C/A code is for civilian users and P code is reserved for US military and its allies.
These codes are modulated by phase modulation technique on two carrier frequencies:
L1 = 1575.42 MHz (consists of both P and C/A codes)
L2 = 1227.60 MHz (consists of only P code)

The C/A code is made up of 0’s and 1’s called chip, having a frequency of 1.023 MBits /sec or 1.023
Bits/µ sec or 1023 Bits/msec.
Entire sequence is repeated ever 1 msec. i.e. after every 1023 Bits or every 3x 105 m
Thus each Bit (chip) is given by: 300000 / 1023 = 293 m = 1.023 µ sec
In case of P code the chip frequency is 10.23 MBits/sec, the duration of each Bit becomes 0.1023 µ sec
or, in terms of distance 29.3 meters.

In addition each satellite transmits 2 types of orbit data Almanac and Ephemeris. Almanac data contains
the health and approximate location of each satellite in the system. A GPS receiver gathers Almanac
data from any available satellite; using information from the Almanac, the receiver then determines
which set of satellites will give the best geometries for position fix. And then the receiver obtains
Ephemeris from those satellites.

The receiver then assesses the transmission time and signal quality from each satellite and multiplies
the difference in transmission time by speed of light to arrive at estimated satellite’s distance.
Ephemeris data contains the precise orbital parameters of each satellite.

GPS signal is extremely resistant to conditions that disturb other electronic navigation systems. In
general GPS is not affected by:
Weather conditions
Passing ships
Onboard electronic installations
Onshore electronic installations
Onboard engine ignition
Portable radio receivers

GPS SEGMENTS:

The GPS system has 3 segments:

GROUND BASED SEGMENT:
It consists of 4 land based monitoring stations (Kwajalein, Hawaii, Ascension Island and Diego Garcia). It
also has master control station and upload station located at Colorado Springs in USA. The monitoring
stations track the satellites, obtain the data from these satellites and pass the information to master
control station. After receiving the data from the monitoring stations, the master control station does
the necessary computation to predict the future path and position of all the satellites. The master
control station also determines the error of the atomic clocks in all the satellites. The updated data are
fed to the upload station, which in turn transmits the same data to each satellite three times a day.
The master control station can selectively degrade satellite data. This degradation is known as Selective
Availability and it can cause position errors of 100 meters.

SPACE SEGMENT: It consists of 24 satellites evenly placed in 6 different orbits. They move at the speed
of 3.9 km/sec at a height of 20,200 km above earth’s surface. Each orbit is inclined at an angle of 55 deg
to the equinoctial and the angle between 2 successive orbits is 60 deg. The satellites are arranged in
such a manner that at any time signals can be received from at least 4 satellites having elevation of
more than 9.5 degrees.
If any satellite emits erroneous data or is otherwise not operating properly, a ground station marks it
“unhealthy”. The affected satellite broadcasts its status to the GPS receiver, which is programmed to
ignore an unhealthy satellite and use the next best satellite.

USER SEGMENT: It consists of receiver with built in computer, display unit and antenna. The receiver
locks on to one satellite and from this satellite it obtains the almanac of all the other satellites and
thereby selects the four most suitable satellites for position fixing. The fix obtained is displayed on the
display unit along with other information like COG, SOG and UTC.
Each satellite transmits a navigational message of 30 s in the form of 50 Bits/s data frame. This data,
which is different for each satellite is supplied by MCS and is divided into 5 sub-frames. Each sub-frame
commences with telemetry word (TLM) containing satellite status followed by hand over word (HOW)
data for acquiring P code from C/A code. The 1st sub frame contains data relating to satellite correction.
The 2nd and 3rd sub frames contain the satellite ephemeris defining the position of the satellite. The
4th sub frame passes alphanumeric data to the user and will only be used upload station has a need to
pass specific message. The 5th sub frame gives the almanac of all other satellites which includes data on
satellite health and identity codes.

ERRORS IN GPS POSITIONS

1. Satellite clock error: this is caused by error in satellite’s clock wrt GPS time. This is monitored by
ground based segment and any error in the Satellite clock forms part of the 30s navigation message.
Though satellite clocks are highly accurate, they are not perfect. Clock errors can cause positional errors
of about 1.5m.
2. User clock error: It is caused by user clock not being synchronized with the satellite clock. Because of
this range measurement will not be correct and is known as pseudo range. This error is eliminated
within the receiver by extra satellite measurement (three for 2D and four for 3D positions).Extra
measurement is used to find the extra unknown variable i.e. the error between user and satellite clock.
3. GDOP: The geometry of the position of the satellite determines the angle of cut which governs the
quality of the position obtained. Wider the angular separation between the satellites, more accurate is
the fix as the intersection will be almost at right angles. The lower the value of GDOP, higher the
accuracy of the fix obtained. The value of GDOP is indicated on the display. Since the receiver knows he
position of all the satellites through 30s navigational message, it is programmed to select the best
available satellites considering their elevation and geometry.
4. Multi path Error: This is caused signal coming to receiver after being reflected from other
obstructions in addition to reaching the receiver directly. The two signals thus received simultaneously
cause distortion of signal and in turn affect the range measurement. This problem is resolved by
suitable siting of antenna. Multipath errors are difficult to detect but good quality sophisticated
receivers can minimize the problem using intricate signal rejection techniques.
5. Ionospheric and tropospheric error: Radio waves transmitted by satellites pass through different
layers of atmosphere and space and undergoes change in its velocity which in turn affects the range
measurement and hence the fix. Dual frequency receivers are able to receive both the frequencies and
calculate the correction and do the compensation within the receiver. Ionosphere [position errors can
be about 5m whereas troposphere conditions can cause errors up to 1 m.
6. Deviation of satellite from predicted path: The satellites are monitored and their paths predicted by
ground based segment. Between two consecutive monitoring there may be small deviations from their
respective paths. These deviations hen translate into errors in fixes. These errors can be up to 2.5 m.

DIFFERENTIAL GPS (DGPS)

DGPS system is used to enhance the accuracy of the normal GPS system so that it can be used for survey,
drilling, oceanography etc where higher accuracy of position fixing is required. The DGPS reference
station is situated at a fixed location and from this position the GPS receiver tracks all the satellites
within its site, obtains data from them and computes the correction based on the position obtained
from the GPS and its actual position. These corrections are then broadcast to GPS users to improve their
positional accuracy.
There are two methods by which the DGPS station can transmit the corrections.

Computing and transmitting a position correction in terms of latitude correction, longitude
correction and altitude correction i.e. x, y and z coordinates and

Computing pseudo range correction to each satellite which is then broadcast to the user and applied
to the user's pseudo range measurement before the position is calculated by the onboard receiver
resulting in a higher accuracy of position fix.

The first method, in which the correction in terms of x-y-z coordinates broadcast, requires less data than
the second method but the. Accuracy decreases as the distance from reference station increases. In this
method the reference station as well as the user should select the same satellite, which is practically not
possible as the user cannot select the satellites manually.
In the second method, the reference station receives signals from all the visible satellites and measures
the pseudo range to each of them. Since the satellite signals contain information on the precise
satellites position and the reference station knows its position, the true range of each satellite is
calculated. By comparing the calculated true range and measured pseudo range, the correction can be
determined for each satellite. These corrections are then broadcast which is applied to the pseudo
range measured by the user.

Galileo (satellite navigation)

Galileo is a global navigation satellite system (GNSS) currently being built by the European Union (EU)
and European Space Agency (ESA). The €5 billion project is named after the Italian astronomer Galileo
Galilee. One of the aims of Galileo is to provide a high-precision positioning system upon which
European nations can rely, independently from the Russian GLONASS, US GPS, Indian IRNSS system, and
Chinese Compass systems, which can be disabled in times of war or conflict.
When in operation, it will use two ground operations centres near Munich in Germany and in Fucino in
Italy. In December 2010, EU ministers in Brussels voted Prague in the Czech Republic as the
headquarters of the Galileo project.
On 21 October 2011, the first two of four operational satellites were launched to validate the system.
The next two followed on 12 October 2012, making it "possible to test Galileo end-to-end".[3] Once this
In-Orbit Validation (IOV) phase has been completed, additional satellites will be launched to reach Initial
Operational Capability (IOC) around mid-decade. Full completion of the 30-satellite Galileo system (27
operational and three active spares) is expected by 2019.
Basic navigation services will be free of charge. Galileo is intended to provide horizontal and vertical
position measurements within 1-metre precision and better positioning services at high latitudes than
other positioning systems. As a further feature, Galileo will provide a unique global search and rescue
(SAR) function. Satellites will be equipped with a transponder which will relay distress signals from the
user's transmitter to the Rescue Co-ordination Centre, which will then initiate the rescue operation. At
the same time, the system will provide a signal to the users, informing them that their situation has
been detected and that help is on the way. This latter feature is new and is considered a major upgrade
compared to the existing GPS and GLONASS navigation systems, which do not provide feedback to the
user. The use of basic (low-precision) Galileo services will be free and open to everyone. The high-
precision capabilities will be available for paying commercial users and for military use.
The system is intended primarily for civilian use, unlike the more military-oriented systems of the
United States (GPS), Russia (GLONASS), and China (Beidou-1/2, COMPASS). The US reserves the right to
limit the signal strength or precision of GPS, or to shut down public GPS access completely, so that only
the US military and its allies would be able to use it in time of conflict. The European system will only be
subject to shut down for military purposes in extreme circumstances. It will be available at its full
precision to both civil and military users.
GPS and Galileo
One of the reasons given for developing Galileo as an independent system was that position information
from GPS can be made significantly inaccurate by the deliberate application of universal Selective
Availability (SA) by the US military; this was enabled until 2000, and can be re-enabled at any time. GPS
is widely used worldwide for civilian applications; Galileo's proponents argued that civil infrastructure,
including aeroplane navigation and landing, should not rely solely upon a system with this vulnerability.

GLONASS
Global Navigation Satellite System is a space-based satellite navigation system operated by the Russian
Aerospace Defence Forces. It provides an alternative to Global Positioning System (GPS) and is the only
alternative navigational system in operation with global coverage and of comparable precision.
System description
GLONASS is a global satellite navigation system, providing real time position and velocity determination
for military and civilian users. The satellites are located in middle circular orbit at 19,100 km altitude
with a 64.8 degree inclination and a period of 11 hours and 15 minutes. GLONASS' orbit makes it
especially suited for usage in high latitudes (north or south), where getting a GPS signal may be little
problematic. The constellation operates in three orbital planes, with 8 evenly spaced satellites on each.
A fully operational constellation with global coverage consists of 24 satellites, while 18 satellites are
necessary for covering the territory of Russia. To get a position fix the receiver must be in the range of
at least four satellites.

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