Communications Equipment II (CM 417) - 4

Communications Equipment II
Global Positioning System
By:
MEng. HOSAM ALMQADIM
Introduction: What is GPS?
 The Global Positioning System (GPS) is a satellite-based system
that can be used to locate positions anywhere on the earth.
Operated by the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), NAVSTAR
(NAVigation Satellite Timing and Ranging) GPS provides
continuous (24 hours/day), real-time, 3-dimensional positioning,
navigation and timing worldwide. Any person with a GPS
receiver can access the system, and it can be used for any
application that requires location coordinates.
 The GPS system consists of three segments:
 Satellites (space segment)
 Receivers (user segment)
 Ground stations (control segment)
GPS History
 The design of GPS is based partly on similar ground-based radio-navigation
systems, such as LORAN and the Decca Navigator, developed in the early
1940s and used by the British Royal Navy during World War II.
 Development began in 1973
 The first GPS satellite was launched by the U.S. Air Force in early 1978.
 Declared completely functional in 1995
 30 satellites are currently functional
Space Segment: The GPS Constellation
 Orbital characteristics
 6x MEO planes
 Orbital height 20,180 km (12,540 mi)
 Orbital period 11 hours and 58 minutes;
pass over any point on the earth about
twice a day.
 The 6 orbit planes have approximately:
 55° inclination (tilt relative to the Earth's
equator)
 Separated by 60° right ascension of the
ascending node (angle along the equator
from a reference point to the orbit's
intersection).
Control Segment: U.S. DoD Monitoring
Control stations
• Master station at Falcon (Schriever) AFB, Colorado
• 4 additional monitoring stations distributed around the world
Responsibilities
1. Monitor satellite orbits & clocks
2. Broadcast orbital data and clock corrections to satellites
User Segment: GPS Users
 Ground-based devices read and interpret the radio signals from several of the
NAVSTAR satellites at once.
 Geographic position is determined using the time it takes signals from the
satellites to reach the GPS receiver.
 Calculations result in varying degrees of accuracy that depend on:
 Quality of the receiver
 User operation of the receiver (e.g., skill of user and receiver settings)
 Atmospheric conditions
 Local conditions (i.e., objects that block or reflect the signals)
 Current status of system
How does GPS work?
 The satellites carry very stable atomic clocks that are synchronized to each other and to
ground clocks. Any drift from true time maintained on the ground is corrected daily.
 GPS receivers have clocks as well but they are not synchronized with true time.
 GPS satellites continuously transmit their current time and position. A GPS receiver
monitors multiple satellites and solves equations to determine the exact position of the
receiver and its deviation from true time.
 A GPS receiver calculates its position by a technique called satellite ranging, which
involves measuring the distance between the GPS receiver and the GPS satellites it is
tracking.
 The range (an estimate of range) or distance, is measured as elapsed transit time. The
position of each satellite is known, and the satellites transmit their positions as part of the
"messages" they send via radio waves. The GPS receiver on the ground is the unknown
point, and must compute its position based on the information it receives from the
satellites.
Measuring Distance to Satellites
 Measuring the distance between the GPS receiver and a satellite requires measuring the
time it takes for the signal to travel from the satellite to the receiver.
 The Distance= the travel time of the signal times the speed of light.
 Each GPS satellite continually broadcasts a signal (carrier frequency with modulation)
that includes:
 A pseudorandom code that is known to the receiver
 A message that includes the time of transmission (TOT)
 The receiver measures the time of arrival TOAs (according to its own clock) of four
satellite signals. From the TOAs and the TOTs, the receiver forms time of flight (TOF)
value, which is approximately equivalent to receiver-satellite range difference.
Using the Distance Measurements to
Calculate a Position
 The GPS receiver "locks on" to one satellite and calculates the range to be 12,000 miles.
This fact helps narrow the receiver location down, but it only tells us that we are somewhere
on a sphere which is centered on the satellite and has a 12,000 mile radius. Many of the
locations on that sphere are not on earth, but out in space.
 Now, consider that the receiver picks up a signal from a second satellite and calculates
the range between the receiver and the satellite to be 11,000 miles. That means we are
also somewhere on a sphere with an 11,000 mile radius with the second satellite at the
center. We must, therefore, be somewhere where these two spheres intersect. When the
two spheres intersect, a circle is formed, so we must be somewhere on that circle.
 If the receiver picks up another satellite, say at 11,5000 miles away, another sphere is
formed, and there are only two points where the three spheres intersect.
 The receiver can discard one of the last two points because it is nowhere near the earth. So,
we're left with one point which is the location of the GPS receiver.
 In practice, a fourth measurement is needed to correct for clock error.
Triangulation
Applications of GPS Technology
 Location - determining a basic position
 Navigation - getting from one location to another
 Tracking - monitoring the movement of people and things
 Mapping - creating maps of the world
 Timing - bringing particular timing to the world
Transmitted Signals
 Modulation used is called Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum (code division
multiple access - CDMA)
 Spread Spectrum is used because
 resistance to jamming
 masks the transmissions
 resist multipath effects
 multiple access
 All 24 GPS satellites transmit on the same two frequencies L1 and L2, but use
a different ID sequence
Other systems are in use or under
development
 The Russian GLObal NAvigation Satellite System (GLONASS)
 The European Union System (Galileo)
 The Indian System (Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System) (IRNSS)
 The Chinese System (BeiDou Navigation Satellite System) (BDS)
 The Japanese System (Quasi-Zenith Satellite System) (QZSS)

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Communications Equipment II

Global Positioning System

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