GNSS Receiver Performance: Dependency on Receiver Make, Model, & Sky View

C. Basnayake

Abstract:	Accuracy performance of a GNSS receiver is dependent on a variety of factors of which operating environment, hardware capabilities, and use of augmentation systems are the most notable. Measurement selection, measurement weighting, filtering, and other proprietary techniques used by individual receiver manufacturers also play a role in the accuracy characteristic of a receiver. Type and model-dependent receiver biases become especially evident and significant in applications that involve multiple users and when relative orientation of users is required. This paper investigates the implications of such incompatibilities on vehicle relative positioning in applications such as Vehicle-to-Vehicle (V2V) communications enabled Driver Assistance Systems. In the work presented in this paper, a GNSS L1 only record-replay setup was used to collect GNSS RF data in a set of driving environments. A high accuracy GPS/INS reference system was used to generate a reference vehicle state solution for all tests. The recorded RF data was replayed to multiple receivers with and without sky visibility limitations imposed on one of the receiver types. For these replays, certain satellites were removed from each receiver’s view by altering the satellites tracked or used by the receiver. The satellite selection was done to simulate typical conditions encountered under normal driving conditions. For instance, satellites in the Northwestern part of the sky were eliminated in one of the receivers. Although the sky view obstruction remains the same regardless of the vehicle orientation, this resembles a situation in which a vehicle drives next to a tall vehicle or a tall building. Analyzed data show receiver configuration dependent position errors in the order of tens of meters under certain simulated sky view conditions when considering a 3D solution. The paper presents position and velocity performance of four receivers used in the study under all-in-view conditions and when selected satellites are eliminated (sky view partly blocked). The receiver type dependent position and velocity error characteristics are also presented. Furthermore, this paper also discusses the benefits of adopting industry standards to overcome some of the limitations observed in this study. The paper also includes results of code and carrier based processing under the same conditions which show minimal or no impact of receiver configuration/sky view dependency.
Published in:	Proceedings of the 23rd International Technical Meeting of the Satellite Division of The Institute of Navigation (ION GNSS 2010) September 21 - 24, 2010 Oregon Convention Center, Portland, Oregon Portland, OR
Pages:	835 - 844
Cite this article:	Basnayake, C., "GNSS Receiver Performance: Dependency on Receiver Make, Model, & Sky View," Proceedings of the 23rd International Technical Meeting of the Satellite Division of The Institute of Navigation (ION GNSS 2010), Portland, OR, September 2010, pp. 835-844.
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