Use of Mass-Market Wide-Area Correction Networks for Traditional Centimeter-Accurate GNSS Applications in Construction, Survey, and Farming

Mike Horton

Abstract:	Recently, several new wide-area mass-market GNSS correction services have been announced in the United States promising to enable low-cost consumer-oriented applications such as improved mobile phone location, assisted driver automation systems, and high-precision IoT devices such as delivery robots. Will these new mass-market services disrupt traditional RTK applications or are the accuracy of these services limited to the aforementioned consumer applications? This paper first analyzes the applicability and maturity of such low-cost correction services for direct use with existing GNSS receivers found in farming, construction, surveying and scientific research. The paper reports accuracy results for survey-grade RTK-enabled receivers on three GNSS receiver independent services with coverage over the continental USA. These services are SwiftNav’s Skylark, Sapcorda, and Verizon’s Hyper Precise services. Tests results are collected in three major cities/regions within the United States and segments achieved performance into centimeter, decimeter, and sub-meter performance grades. The paper will then review the influence of network architecture, correction format standards, and network density on the realized position accuracy performance as well as general ease-of-use/compatibility with existing RTK receivers. Finally, the paper analyzes under what conditions these mass-market correction services combined with low-cost, consumer-grade receivers can achieve centimeter grade results relevant to traditional applications.
Published in:	Proceedings of the 34th International Technical Meeting of the Satellite Division of The Institute of Navigation (ION GNSS+ 2021) September 20 - 24, 2021 Union Station Hotel St. Louis, Missouri
Pages:	679 - 696
Cite this article:	Horton, Mike, "Use of Mass-Market Wide-Area Correction Networks for Traditional Centimeter-Accurate GNSS Applications in Construction, Survey, and Farming," Proceedings of the 34th International Technical Meeting of the Satellite Division of The Institute of Navigation (ION GNSS+ 2021), St. Louis, Missouri, September 2021, pp. 679-696. https://doi.org/10.33012/2021.17912
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