Victorian High Precision Permanent GPS Tracking Network System

Kefei Zhang, Nick Talbot, Martin Hale and James Millner

Abstract:	Land Victoria, within the Department of Natural Resources and Environment in the State of Victoria, initiated an ambitious project in 1994 to establish a permanent GPS tracking network in Victoria. The system is termed GPSnet and is designed to enhance the Victorian geodetic framework and to provide an accessible, high precision location service for a wide user community across the State of Victoria, Australia. The average spacing of base stations is approximately 50km in the greater Melbourne region and 100km in rural Victoria. GPSnet is an integral part of the new geodetic strategy for Victoria and is being established in partnership with industry and academia. GPSnet currently consists of 15 operating base stations and will contain 20 stations upon completion. The GPSnet system currently records, distributes and archives GPS data for accurate position determination with post-processing techniques. This advanced geodetic framework provides a mechanism for centimetre-positioning relative to the Australian National Spatial Reference Systems (eg. Geocentric Datum of Australia). In the future it is possible that real time transmission of GPSnet data will enable near instantaneous centimetre-level accuracy positioning by a single GPS receiver in the field. Research is under way at the Department of Geospatial Science, RMIT University in collaboration with Land Victoria, to investigate the establishment of the GPS permanent tracking station network and development and use of GPSnet for high-precision real-time positioning applications in Victoria. This includes the investigation of the system architecture, configuration, instrumentation, software development and interface design, estimation of the atmosphere effects and evaluation of existing communication infrastructure. A prototype ship docking and intelligent transportation system will be designed and field trials conducted in collaboration with Victorian Channels Authority in Melbourne harbour. Real-time applications demand wireless delivery of data from GPSnet. Existing communication media will be analysed in terms of protocol, cost, coverage and portability of user equipment. The ultimate aim of the project is to develop a state-wide satellite based geodetic infrastructure capable of providing cost-effective location services with high precision.
Published in:	Proceedings of the 14th International Technical Meeting of the Satellite Division of The Institute of Navigation (ION GPS 2001) September 11 - 14, 2001 Salt Palace Convention Center Salt Lake City, UT
Pages:	3077 - 3085
Cite this article:	Zhang, Kefei, Talbot, Nick, Hale, Martin, Millner, James, "Victorian High Precision Permanent GPS Tracking Network System," Proceedings of the 14th International Technical Meeting of the Satellite Division of The Institute of Navigation (ION GPS 2001), Salt Lake City, UT, September 2001, pp. 3077-3085.
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