GPS

Global Positioning
System
Dr.G.Bhaskaran
Senior Lecturer
Department of Geography
University of Madras, Chennai-5
[email protected]

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Contents

 Radio Navigation
 GPS History
 Parts of GPS
 GPS Signals
 How Does GPS Work?
 GPS Error Sources
 Differential GPS
 Application of GPS

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Radio Navigation Systems
 Radio navigation consists of finding
position and heading by using
electromagnetic wave propogation.
 Examples:
 Radar
 VHF Omnidirectional Range (VOR,
VOR/DME)
 Long Range Navigation (LORAN-C)
 Global Positioning System (GPS)

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What is GPS ?
 GPS is a satellite based navigation
system.
 It is developed and financed by the U.S.
Department of Defense.
 It provides position velocity and timing
information anywhere in the world under
any weather condition.

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Development of GPS ?
 1969—Defense Navigation Satellite System (DNSS) formed
 1973—NAVSTAR Global Positioning System developed
 1978—first 4 satellites launched
Delta rocket launch
 1993—24th satellite launched; initial operational capability
 1995—full operational capability
 In 1980s it became available for civilian use.
 May 2000—Military accuracy available to all users

 Today it is being used in land, air and marine applications by

millions of people.

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Who maintains GPS?
 USA – NAVSTAR

(Navigation System with Time and Ranging)
 Department of Defense (DoD)

Russia –GLONASS

Global Navigation Satellite System

EEC – GALILEO (Under development)

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Who uses GPS?
 Government
 Military
 Agencies - Conservation, Weather, Rescue
 Industry
 Transportation
 Fishing
 Agriculture
 General Public
 Recreation
 Emergency / Security Reasons
 Health Related Reasons

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Current Configuration
 20,200 km elevation above Earth

 Currently there are 29 operational Block

II/IIA/IIR/IIR-M satellites

 Nominally there are 24 satellites (4 on 6

orbital planes)

 Inclined 55o with respect to equator

 Orbits separated by 60o

 Orbital period of 11 hr 55 min

 Five to eight satellites visible from any point

on Earth
Block I Satellite Vehicle

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ACTUAL SHAPE OF EARTH
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GPS CONSTELLATION 10 / 55
GPS Segments
 There are 3
segments
 Space
 Control
 User

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 Three Segments of the GPS3
Space Segment

User Segment

Control Segment

Ground
Antennas
Master Station Monitor Stations 12 / 55
 GPS Space Segment
 Consitsts of the space
vehicles (satellites) and
the radio signals sent by
these satellites.
 GPS satellites
 Height ~20200 km
 6 orbits with at least 4
satellites on each orbit
 Period ~ 1 revolution / 12
hour
 Weight ~950 kg
 Size 1,6 x 6 m

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GPS Space Segment
 At least 5 satellites are visible from
anywhere on the earth
 There are solar panels and 12 navigation
antennas on each satellite.
Block II/IIA

Block IIR ve IIR-M

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GPS Control Segment
 Monitors and Controls the
GPS satellites.
 One Master Control
Station (MCS),
Five Monitor Stations
(MS)

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GPS Control Segment

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GPS Control Segment
 Functions of the Control Segment
 Detection and determination of Satellite orbits
 Correction of satellite clocks
 Updating the satellite messages
 Monitoring the status of each satellite and
performing the maintanence tasks

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GPS User Segment
 Consists of receivers
that can decode the
satellite signals
 GPS receivers
transform the satellite
signals into position,
velocity and time
information.

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GPS Services
 GPS has two levels of information
 Precise Positioning Service - PPS

 Standard Positioning Service - SPS

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GPS Services – PPS
 Precise Positioning Service (PPS)
 Can be used by authorized users only
 Planned for military purposes

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GPS Services – PPS
 Access to PPS is controlled by two
methods
 SA (Selective Availability), GPS accuracy is
degraded intentionally by adding pseudo-
random errors on the signals.
 A-S (Anti-Spoofing), Encrypted code

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GPS Services – SPS
 Standard Positioning Service (SPS)
 Open to all users but less accurate
 With Selective Availability
 100 m SEP (3D - %50) position accuracy
 337 ns (1 σ) time accuracy

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GPS Services – SPS
 SAhas been removed on May 2000
 SPS users have accuracies close to PPS

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GPS Signals
 GPS satellites send very weak
radio signals on two L – band
frequencies (L1 and L2)
 L1 and L2 are carrier
frequencies.
These are sinusoidal signals

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GPS Signals
 All GPS satellites use the same frequency
carriers (L1 and L2)
 But each satellite has its own identification
code
 These are two types of codes modulating
the L1 and L2 carriers.
 C/A – Code
 P – Code

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GPS Signals
 L1: 1575.42 MHz L1
 Modulated byC/A-code & P-code C/A
 Signal Power: -160 dBW
P(Y)

 L2: 1227.6 MHz

 Modulated by P-code only 1575 MHz
 Signal Power : -166 dBW

L2

P(Y)

1227 MHz

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GPS Signals
Carriers (L1/L2)

Bipolar Phase Shift Keying

(BPSK) Modulation

C/A - Code (L1)

P - Code (L1/L2)

Nav Data (L1/L2)

A-S Encryption P –
P(Y)

Phase Quadrature O

SA Degredation

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GPS Signals

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GPS Signals
 GPS receivers generate the equivalent of these codes
internally and compares with the ones coming from the
satellites.

 GPS receiver shifts the internally generated code until it

matches with the received one (cross-correlation)

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GPS Signals
 Another Message on the L1 ve L2 carrier
frequency is the “Navigation Message”
 Navigation Message
 50 Hz Clock rate
 Has information specific for each satellite
 Has the satellite position and time delay information

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How Does GPS Work?

 Based on a geometric principle

“Position of a point can be calculated if
the distances between this point and
three objects with known positions can
be measured ”

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Triangulation

2kms 11kms

5kms

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How Does GPS Work?
 If the distance to one object is known:
 Then I am on a sphere with the object at the center

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How Does GPS Work?
 If I know the distance to a second object:
 Then I am on a circle which is the intersection of two
spheres

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How Does GPS Work?
 If I know the distance to a thrid object:
 Then I am on one of the two points which are at the
intersection of three spheres

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How Does GPS Work?

 To find the distance to a satellite “Signal

Time of Transmission” is used

 How is Signal Time of Transmission

calculated?

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How Does GPS Work?
 GPS receiver generates the same signal
that is coming from the satellite (C/A -
Code) starting at the same time.
Satellite

Receiver

 But the code coming from the satellite is

delayed because it travels the distance
between the satellite and the receiver.
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How Does GPS Work?
 GPS receiver shifts the internally
generated code until it matches with the
received one and finds Δ T, Signal Time of
Transmission
T
Code generatede by the
receiver

Code generatede by
the sattelite

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How Does GPS Work?
 Signal Time of Transmission is actually an
indication of the distance between the receiver
and the satellite
 Signal travels with the speed of light and in Δt
time travels a distance of
Pr= C. ΔT
(C = Speed of light)

Pr - Pseudo-Range

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How Does GPS Work?
 Pr is the “Pseudo-Range”
 It is called Pseudo-Range because it is not
the real range between the receiver and
the satellite due to uncertainties such as:
 Synchronisation error between the receiver
and satellite clocks
 Change in the medium in which the signal
travels

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How Does GPS Work?

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How Does GPS Work?
 The dominant source of error in Pseudo-
Range calculation is the synchronisation
between the receiver and the satellite
 Satellites have very accurate and very
expensive atomic clocks
 It is not practical to use atomic clocks in
the receivers. Standard crystal oscillators
are used instead

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How Does GPS Work?
 This syncrhronisation error is called Clock
Bias
 To eliminate clock bias a forth satellite is
used
4 unknowns (3 dimensional position + Clock
Bias)
 4 equations

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How Does GPS Work?
P1  ( X  X 1 ) 2  (Y  Y1 ) 2  ( Z  Z 1 ) 2  b
P2  ( X  X 2 ) 2  (Y  Y2 ) 2  ( Z  Z 2 ) 2  b
P3  ( X  X 3 ) 2  (Y  Y3 ) 2  ( Z  Z 3 ) 2  b
P4  ( X  X 4 ) 2  (Y  Y4 ) 2  ( Z  Z 4 ) 2  b
Pi = Pseudo-Range to satellites
Xi , Yi , Zi = 3 Dimensional satellite cartesian coordinates
X , Y , Z = 3 Dimensional satellite cartesian coordinates

b = Receiver clock bias (in terms of distance)

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How Does GPS Work?
 These 4 non-linear equations are solved
and receiver coordinates and clock bisa
are obtained
 These equations are in ECEF (Cartesian)
Coordinates
 Latitiude, Longitude and hight values can
be obtained by a transformation

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How Does GPS Work?
ECEF and Latitude / Longitude
LOCAL
Z Meridian User position

GREENWICH
Meridian h Pz

R
Y
O
Px
Px: ECEF Pos x (M)
Py Py: ECEF Pos y (M)
Pz: ECEF Pos z (M)

X Equator
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GPS Error Sources

 SA (Selective Availability)
 Satellite clock errors
 Satellite orbit errors
 Atmospheric effects
 Receiver noise
 Multipath
 Number of satellites in range
 Satellite geometric
configuration

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GPS Error Sources
 DOP (Dilution of Precision)
 GDOP - Geometric DOP
 It is a metric to define the effect of the satellite
geometry on the accuracy of the solution:

 PDOP – Position DOP (3 D Position)

 HDOP – Horizontal DOP (Horizontal position)
 TDOP – Time DOP (Time)

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Ideal Satellite Geometry
N

W E

S 49 / 55
Good Satellite Geometry

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Good Satellite Geometry

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Poor Satellite Geometry
N

W E

S 52 / 55
Poor Satellite Geometry

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Poor Satellite Geometry

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GPS Error Sources
 Satellites close to each other have larger uncertainty

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 GPS Error Sources
 Satellites far away from each other have less uncertainty

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GPS Error Sources
 1 signifies the ideal situation

 Satellites grouped on the same

side cause larger DOP – Bad
accuracy

 Well distributed, smaller DOP –

better accuracy
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Common Problems - Errors

Satellite

n al
d Si g

al
ec te al

ig n
fl g n
Re tS
i

S
c
re
Di

ted
ec
GPS

fl
Antenna

Re
Hard Surface 58 / 55
GPS Error Sources
GPS Pseudo-Range Error Budget
Error contribution (m,
Segment Error Source %95)
P-Code C/A-Code
Frequency stability 6.5 6.5
D-Band Delay 1.0 1.0
Space
Satellite acceleration uncertainty 2.0 2.0
Other 1.0 1.0
Ephemeris Estimation 8.2 8.2
Control
Other 1.8 1.8
Ionospheric Delay compensation 4.5 9.8 – 19.6
Troposphere Delay compensation 3.9 3.9
User Receiver noise 2.9 2.9
Multipath 2.4 2.4
Other 1.0 1.0
Total System Error (m, %95) 13.0 15.7 - 23.1
Reference: Navstar GPS User Equipment Introduction
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Differential GPS - DGPS

 Used for applications where GPS accuracy is

not enough
 In a typical DGPS application
 There is a reference receiver (base receiver) at an
exactly known location
 And there are other receivers (rover receivers) that

can receive the correction signals sent by the base

receiver.

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Differential GPS - DGPS

DGPS Correction Signals

GPS DGPS Transmitter

GPS &
Referance DGPS Receiver
Station

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Differential GPS - DGPS
 Since the exact location of the reference station
is known it can calculate the distances to
satellites accurately
 It compares these distances with its own
solutions as a GPS
 Calculates corrections from these
measurements
 Sends these corrections to the rover receivers
from a different frequency than the GPS
frequencies.

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Differential GPS - DGPS
 Transmission is usually over a FM channel
 The rover receivers are able to receive
these corrections and they use them to
correct their solutions
 Corrections are valid within a certain range
 Referance and rover receivers must have
the same satellites in view

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Application of GPS Technology
 Private and recreation
 Traveling by car
 Hiking, climbing, biking
 Vehicle control
 Mapping, survey, geology
 English Channel Tunnel
 Agriculture
 Aviation
 General and commercial
 Spacecraft
 Maritime

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Thanks for your interest in the
Global Positioning System

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 Differential leveling for height measurements
(Mean Sea Level is the starting point for the height measurements)

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Relationships between the earth's surface, the geoid
and a reference ellipsoid 69 / 55
 P
Surface of the
Earth

CG Geoid

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 CG

geoid

Globally Fitting Ellipsoid

(Geocentric) e.g., WGS - 84

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 Locally
Fitting
Ellipsoid
CG
Area of
geoid Best Fit

Locally Best Fitting

Ellipsoid
e.g., EVEREST
SPHEROID 72 / 55
 N N

INDIA
N.
AMERICA

S.
AMERICA

The geoid and two best fitting local

ellipsoids for a chosen region 73 / 55