Integration of Satellite and Cellular Positioning Technologies

Ruizhi Chen

Abstract:	The positioning accuracy with the current cellular technologies is about ±50-100 meters in suburban areas. The accuracy will be improved in the future with 3G technologies. Although the positioning accuracy with cellular technologies is lower than that from GPS, the integration of these two technologies still makes senses especially in critical areas such as urban canyons, where the number of visible satellites is typically less than four. It is not always possible to locate the user with either GPS or cellular technologies under such circumstances. Even occasionally four or more satellites are available, the GDOPs defined by the visible satellites are typically poor because of the narrow streets and the high buildings along both sides of the streets in city canyons. Twelve integration scenarios, with different cell radio coverages, different building heights along both sides of the street, and different accuracies of the cellular measurements, have been investigated in this study based on a simulation of a cellular network in a simulated city canyon. The study results show that the integration can improve the positioning accuracy and availability significantly. By adding the cellular measurements to the GPS solutions, the average HDOP can be reduced from 6.8 to 2.8. Similarly, adding the GPS measurements to the cellular solutions can reduce the HDOP from 11.8 to 4.5 on average. Because the integration utilizes all the available measurements, it improves the positioning availability significantly too. The cellular measurements can improve the availability of HDOP <20.0 by 58.0%, while the GPS measurements can improve it by 40.9%.
Published in:	Proceedings of the 2002 National Technical Meeting of The Institute of Navigation January 28 - 30, 2002 The Catamaran Resort Hotel San Diego, CA
Pages:	312 - 321
Cite this article:	Chen, Ruizhi, "Integration of Satellite and Cellular Positioning Technologies," Proceedings of the 2002 National Technical Meeting of The Institute of Navigation, San Diego, CA, January 2002, pp. 312-321.
Full Paper:	ION Members/Non-Members: 1 Download Credit Sign In