Investigating multi-GNSS performance in the UK and China based on a zero-baseline measurement approach

GPS is the positioning tool of choice for a wide variety of applications where accurate (cm level or less) positions are required. However GPS is susceptible to a variety of errors that degrade both the quality of the position solution and the availability of these solutions. The contribution of additional observations from other GNSS systems may improve the quality of the positioning solution. This study investigates the contribution of the GLONASS and BeiDou systems and the potential improvement to the precision achieved compared to positioning using GPS only measurements. Furthermore, it is investigated whether the combination of the satellite systems can limit the noise level of the GPS-only solution. A series of zero-baseline measurements, of 1 Hz sampling rate, were recorded with different types of pairs of receivers over 12 consecutive days in the UK and in China simultaneously. The novel part in this study is comparing the simultaneous GNSS real measurements recorded in the UK and China. Moreover, the correlation between the geometry and positional precision was investigated.
The results indicate an improvement in a multi-GNSS combined solution compared to the GPS-only solution, especially when the GPS-only solution derives from weak satellite geometry, or the GPS-only solution is not available. Furthermore, all the outliers due to poor satellite coverage with the individual solutions are limited and their precision is improved, agreeing also with the improvement in the mean of the GDOP, i.e. the mean GDOP was improved from 3.0 for the GPS only solution to 1.8 for the combined solution. However, the combined positioning did not show significant positional improvement when GPS has a good geometry and availability.