Assessment of Integrating Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS)

Abstract

Over the last decades, a wide range of applications that require positions relied on the Global Positioning System (GPS) established by the US Department of Defence (DOD). Thus, relying on a single constellation may not be sufficient to guarantee a successful positioning accuracy at any time. Consequently, having several constellations that can be used for positioning offers the opportunity to maintain continuous positioning. This became possible with the global coverage of other constellations such as GLONASS, established by Russia, Galileo, established by the European Union, and BeiDou, launched by China. In general, a more significant number of received satellite signals leads to better satellite geometry. Furthermore, multiple GNSS improve many applications. The orbit geometry is strengthened by the increased number of satellites, which leads to higher accuracy, reduction of the initialization times and improves overall availability. In this research, the accuracy of using each of these constellations individually and their combination are assessed and compared to the accuracy obtained from GPS to validate the possibility of using these constellations in positioning in the absence of GPS.