Performance Analysis of Zero-Difference GPS L1/L2/L5 and Galileo E1/E5a/E5b/E6 Point Positioning Using CNES Uncombined Bias Products

Abstract

The modernization of Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) including the transmission of signals on multiple frequencies has greatly promoted the development of the popular PPP (Precise Point Positioning) technique. A key issue of multi-frequency PPP is the handling of the observable-specific signal biases in order to allow for carrier-phase ambiguity resolution (AR). As a result, PPP modeling at a user side in the multi-frequency case varies depending on the definition of the applied phase bias products. In this study, we investigate the positioning performance of GPS L1/L2/L5 and Galileo E1/E5a/E5b/E6 undifferenced ionosphere-float model in the conventional PPP mode and the single-epoch mode using the uncombined code and phase bias products generated at the French CNES (Centre National D’Etudes Spatiales). A series of widelane ambiguities are configured in our multi-frequency PPP functional model instead of forming the classical Melbourne–Wübbena (MW) combination. The best integer equivariant (BIE) estimator is used for the ambiguity resolution in a conventional cascading scheme according to the wavelength of the combined ambiguities for each constellation. Real data collected at IGS stations with a 30-s sampling interval is applied to evaluate the above models. For the conventional kinematic PPP configuration, a significant accuracy improvement of 63% on the east component of the fixed solution is obtained with respect to the ambiguity-float solution. The PPP convergence is accelerated by 17% after the AR. Regarding the single-epoch positioning, an accuracy of 32 and 31 cm for north and east components can be achieved, respectively, (68th percentile) with the instantaneous widelane-ambiguity resolution, which is improved by 13% and 16% compared to multi-frequency code-based or float solution.