Precise positioning with current multi-constellation Global Navigation Satellite Systems: GPS, GLONASS, Galileo and BeiDou

TLDR

Satellite navigation is rapidly evolving with the emergence of multi‑constellation GNSSs, expanding from over 70 satellites currently in view to about 120 once all four systems are fully deployed, creating new opportunities and challenges for scientific and engineering applications. The authors develop a four‑system positioning model to fully exploit observations from GPS, GLONASS, Galileo, and BeiDou. The model integrates data from all four constellations to enhance satellite visibility, spatial geometry, dilution of precision, convergence, accuracy, continuity, and reliability. Analysis demonstrates that this multi‑GNSS approach markedly improves positioning performance, especially in constrained environments.

Abstract

Abstract The world of satellite navigation is undergoing dramatic changes with the rapid development of multi-constellation Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSSs). At the moment more than 70 satellites are already in view and about 120 satellites will be available once all four systems (BeiDou + Galileo + GLONASS + GPS) are fully deployed in the next few years. This will bring great opportunities and challenges for both scientific and engineering applications. In this paper we develop a four-system positioning model to make full use of all available observations from different GNSSs. The significant improvement of satellite visibility, spatial geometry, dilution of precision, convergence, accuracy, continuity and reliability that a combining utilization of multi-GNSS brings to precise positioning are carefully analyzed and evaluated, especially in constrained environments.