Performance of a FM Sub-Carrier (RDS) Based DGPS System

Lynn Weber and Anil Tiwari

Abstract:	With the completion of the GPS constellation no longer an impediment to the widespread use of GPS the remaining limitation for many applications is the accuracy of the solution. DGPS (Differential GPS) provides an excellent answer for those users who are able to provide the required communications facilities. However, a dedicated radio communications link for dynamic applications can be a costly undertaking and for many of the systems that have been proposed will require a relatively expensive radio receiver. This paper describes a system for distributing DGPS data to real time users by broadcasting the data on FM radio station sub-carriers. The RDS (Radio Data System) is a standardized method for distributing digital data on broadcast FM along with the conventional program material. The RDS has sufficient excess bandwidth to accommodate DGPS. The techniques described are broadly applicable because of the maturity of GPS, the worldwide presence of FM radio and the consistency of the coverage areas for FM with the utility of the DGPS data. Using an existing infrastructure of transmitters along with a very mature radio receiver technology provides excellent performance at a modest cost to the end user. A significant number of radio stations in the United States and Europe have RDS capability and will transmit DGPS. Performance and coverage data will be shown that supports a wide range of applications and demonstrates a very economical utility that is made possible by the fusion of these technologies.
Published in:	Proceedings of the 6th International Technical Meeting of the Satellite Division of The Institute of Navigation (ION GPS 1993) September 22 - 24, 1993 Salt Palace Convention Center Salt Lake City, UT
Pages:	1285 - 1292
Cite this article:	Weber, Lynn, Tiwari, Anil, "Performance of a FM Sub-Carrier (RDS) Based DGPS System," Proceedings of the 6th International Technical Meeting of the Satellite Division of The Institute of Navigation (ION GPS 1993), Salt Lake City, UT, September 1993, pp. 1285-1292.
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