Weighted DOP With Consideration on Elevation-Dependent Range Errors of GNSS Satellites

Abstract

This paper proposes the weighted dilution of precision (WDOP) with consideration of the satellite elevation angle in order to improve the performance of dilution of precision (DOP), which is a standard tool to quantify the positional precision of the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS). The WDOP is calculated by assigning different weights to visible GNSS satellites depending on their elevation angles. In order to demonstrate the effectiveness of WDOP, the conventional DOP and WDOP were mathematically analyzed and a comparative analysis was conducted using actual Global Positioning System data. Results showed that WDOP represents the position error trends more accurate than the conventional DOP, particularly when low-elevation measurements were used for positioning calculation. Therefore, the WDOP could be a promising replacement of DOP as a tool for representing and quantifying errors in GNSS positioning.