Iridium/GPS Carrier Phase Positioning and Fault Detection Over Wide Areas

M. Joerger, J. Neale, B. Pervan

Abstract:	The iGPS high-integrity precision navigation system combines carrier phase ranging measurements from GPS and low earth orbit Iridium telecommunication satellites. Large geometry variations generated by fast moving Iridium spacecraft enable the rapid floating estimation of cycle ambiguities. Augmentation of GPS with Iridium satellites also guarantees signal redundancy, which enables fault-detection using carrier phase Receiver Autonomous Integrity Monitoring (RAIM). Over short time periods, the temporal correlation of measurement error sources can be exploited to establish reliable error models, hence relaxing requirements on differential corrections. In this paper, a new ionospheric error model is derived to account for Iridium satellite signals crossing large sections of the sky within short periods of time. Then, a fixed-interval positioning and cycle ambiguity estimation algorithm is introduced to process Iridium and GPS code and carrier-phase observations. A residualbased carrier phase RAIM detection algorithm is described and evaluated against single-satellite step and ramp-type faults of all magnitudes and start-times. Finally, a sensitivity analysis focused on ionosphererelated system design variables (ionospheric error model parameters, code-carrier divergence, single and dualfrequency implementations) explores the potential of iGPS to fulfill some of the most stringent navigation integrity requirements with coverage at continental scales.
Published in:	Proceedings of the 22nd International Technical Meeting of the Satellite Division of The Institute of Navigation (ION GNSS 2009) September 22 - 25, 2009 Savannah International Convention Center Savannah, GA
Pages:	1371 - 1385
Cite this article:	Updated citation: Published in NAVIGATION: Journal of the Institute of Navigation
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