Available online at www.sciencedirect.

com

ScienceDirect
Advances in Space Research 55 (2015) 113124
www.elsevier.com/locate/asr

BDS/GPS relative positioning for long baseline with

undierenced observations
Min Wang , Hongzhou Cai, Zongpeng Pan
Zhengzhou Institute of Surveying and Mapping, No. 62 Kexue Road, Zhengzhou 450001, China
Received 22 July 2014; received in revised form 30 September 2014; accepted 1 October 2014
Available online 13 October 2014

Abstract
Before and after the ocial beginning of Beidou navigation satellite system (BDS) regional service on December 27, 2012, many applications based on BDS such as real-time kinematic (RTK) and precise point positioning (PPP) with real data have been considered in the
literatures. However, lack of precise satellite antenna correction and relatively low quality of BDS orbit and clock product is an obstacle
for PPP and relative positioning over long baseline using BDS observations. In this paper, the Double Station Observation Processing
(DSOP) method that directly uses undierenced data is applied to relative positioning. By estimating the satellite clock osets on-the-y,
the satellite dependent unmodelled error can be compensated. Moreover, the direct use of undierenced observation makes the method
easy to implement and exible to adapt observations of multiple systems. Experiment results demonstrate that relative positioning based
on BDS observations can be achieved at centimeter accuracy level which is better than conventional PPP results with limited computation burden increase. These results also indicate the promising potential of BDS to develop real-time service.
2014 COSPAR. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords: BDS/GPS; Long baseline; Undierenced observation; Real-time; Orbit prediction

1. Introduction
Chinese Beidou navigation satellite system (BDS) ocially began to provide regional service for Asiapacic
users on December 27, 2012. The operational constellation
of BDS includes 14 satellites, of which the satellites of C01
C05 are in geostationary orbit (GEO), the satellites of C06
C10 are in inclined geosynchronous orbit (IGSO) and the
satellites of C11C14 are in Medium Earth orbit (MEO).
Several approaches about the positioning algorithms and
applications of BDS have been considered in the literatures. Currently, BDS can provide applicable real-time
kinematic (RTK) positioning over baseline shorter than
20 km for AsiaPacic user. Combing the observations of
GPS with BDS, the RTK results are more reliable than
Corresponding author. Tel.: +86 15003990576.

E-mail address: difzibo@163.com (M. Wang).

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.asr.2014.10.001
0273-1177/ 2014 COSPAR. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

one system only (Deng et al., 2014; He et al., 2014; Shi

et al., 2013; Teunissen et al., 2014). Furthermore, all BDS
satellites broadcast signal in three frequencies, which
makes the assessment and study of triple-frequency positioning technique more feasible. Experiment results with
real data of BDS show that the success rate of the ambiguity xing of triple-frequency is higher than the dual-frequency case for baseline shorter than 43 km, which is
benecial to improve the positioning reliability (Li et al.,
2013a; Tang et al., 2014). Besides, an important benet
from triple-frequency GNSS is the enhanced capability to
detect phase slip (Teunissen and Bakker, 2013).
The results of BDS Precise Orbit Determination (POD)
are reported by scientists in China and abroad
(Montenbruck et al., 2013; Shi et al., 2013; Steigenberger
et al., 2013; Zhao et al., 2013). Current POD method for
BDS is essentially the same as that used for GPS POD.
Limited by the size of tracking station network and lack

114

M. Wang et al. / Advances in Space Research 55 (2015) 113124

of knowledge of satellite (such as phase center oset (PCO),

phase center variation (PCV) and solar radiation pressure
(SRP) model), BDS orbit is not as precise as GPS orbit
delivered as part of IGS (International GNSS Service) nal
product. Due to weak geometry of GEO satellites, the
GEO orbit accuracy is the worst among the three types
of satellites comprising BDS spatial segment.
Li et al. (2013b) experimentally adapted BDS into GFZ
real-time service that operates as a part of IGS real-time
service. They found that BDS could support real-time precise point positioning at decimeter or even centimeter accuracy level before the full constellation deployment was
nished. Wuhan University, as one of IGS-MGEX
(Multi-GNSS Global Experiment) analysis center
(Montenbruck et al., 2014), began to submit their BDS precise orbit and clock to IGS-MGEX archives since March
23, 2014, which is very important and helpful resource
for the research of BDS precise positioning (http://www.igs.org/mgex/ accessed on 2014/04/05).
Currently, unclear knowledge of satellite antenna and
relatively low quality orbit are limitations for relative positioning over long baseline and precise point positioning
(PPP) based on BDS. For PPP technique, the solution is
sensitive to orbit error and accuracy of PCO and PCV correction, so the BDS results need more time to converge
compared to GPS and GLONASS ones (Li and Zhang,
2014). As to BDS relative positioning, the result for baseline longer than 1000 km is rarely reported. With high
quality orbit and clock products and accurate PCO and
PCV correction, conventional double-dierenced process
can eliminate or decrease the satellite and receiver dependent errors in GPS observations, which is benecial to
exploit integer nature of phase ambiguity and makes the
result more stable and accurate. However, the lack of clear
antenna correction and relatively low quality of orbit make
above preconditions for double-dierenced relative positioning over long baseline no longer stand for BDS. Therefore, success rate of BDS ambiguity xing is lower than
GPS and little improvement of positioning accuracy for
BDS is achieved even after ambiguity xing procedure
(Feng et al., 2013).
In this paper, a Double Station Observation Processing
(DSOP hereinafter) method is introduced that enables precise relative positioning for baseline up to 2551 km. The
ambiguity is left as oat value and the satellite clock osets
are estimated on-the-y to absorb some satellite dependent
errors (such as orbit error and incomplete PCO correction)
that cannot be fully modeled. Because satellite clock oset
is estimated on-the-y, only predicted orbit and satellite
clock derived from broadcast ephemeris are used, which
makes relative positioning under real-time environment
possible. Moreover, the direct use of undierenced observation makes this method easy to adapt observations of
multiple systems and suitable for real-time application.
This paper is organized as follows: the methodology of
DSOP is introduced rst, followed by the assessment
experiments. In the experiments, user station coordinates

are estimated under post-processing and real-time environments, respectively. Finally, some conclusions and remarks
are given.
2. Methodology
The application of undierenced observation for data
processing is not a new idea. The direct adaption of undifferenced observation can avoid dierencing procedures
between observations of dierent stations and brings high
exibility for dierent applications. Several GNSS applications at network end like POD and high accuracy satellite
clock estimation directly use undierenced observation
(Laurichesse et al., 2009). At user end, PPP technique uses
undierenced phase and pseudorange observation for high
accuracy positioning without need for dense reference stations and communication links (Kouba and Heroux, 2001;
Zumberge et al., 1997). Salazar et al. (2010) introduced a
Precise Orbits Positioning (POP) technique, which
extended the concept of PPP by estimating satellite clock
on-the-y on a local station network base. This technique
yields a higher positioning rate and shorter convergence
time compared to PPP technique. At theory level, Xu
(2007) proves the equivalence of the dierenced and undifferenced data processing method.
In this paper, we apply the DOSP for the GPS/BDS relative positioning which is inspired by the POP method
introduced by Salazar et al. (2010). Dierent from POP
method, we limit POP to two stations observation processing to handle the relative positioning application and both
BDS and GPS observations are introduced in relative positioning. By estimating satellite clock oset on-the-y, the
unmodelled satellite dependent errors e.g. satellite antenna
phase center variation and orbit error can be compensated.
As a result, centimeter and millimeter accuracy level relative positioning for long baseline can be achieved with only
BDS observations.
2.1. Observation model
Without loss of simplicity, GNSS pseudorange and
phase observation model can be presented as follows (Jin
et al., 2008, 2010):


P ji;f qji c dti  dtj dtsys MdT i I ji;f eji;f
1


j
j
j
j
j
Li;f qi c dti  dtj dtsys MdT i  I i;f kf N i;f ei;f
2
P ji;f

where both Eqs. (1) and (2) are in units of distance,

and
Lji;f are the pseudorange and phase observation respectively, the subscript i and f denote the receiver and signal
frequency respectively, the superscript j denotes the satellite, qji is the geometry distance from receiver to satellite,
c is the light speed in vacuum, dti is the receiver clock oset,
dtj is the satellite clock oset, dtsys is the system time
dierence between GPS and other systems, this term exists
only when the equation does not belong to the GPS

M. Wang et al. / Advances in Space Research 55 (2015) 113124

observations, T i is the zenith troposphere delay (ZTD), M

is the troposphere mapping function, I ji is the slant ionosphere delay, kf is the wavelength of phase observation,
N ji;f is the phase ambiguity that is not integer since it
includes the receiver and satellite initial phase biases, eji;f
and eji;f contain noise and other unmodelled errors for
phase and pseudorange observation, respectively.
Two stations are involved in data processing of relative
positioning, and they are named as user station and reference station, respectively. The user station coordinates are
left for estimation and reference station coordinates are
xed to known values therefore no longer exist in the reference station equation. The ionosphere-free combination is
used to cancel out the ionosphere error (Jin and Najibi,
2014):


P ji;LC aP ji;1 bP ji;2 qji c dti  dtj dtsys MdT i eji;LC
3



j

Lji;LC aLji;1 bLji;2 qji c dti  dt dtsys MdT i

kLC N ji;LC eji;LC

where P ji;LC and Lji;LC are the pseudorange and phase

ionosphere-free observation respectively, a and b are the
f2

f 2

combination coecients and a f 2 f1 2 , b f 2 f2 2 , kLC and

1

N j;LC are the wavelength and phase ambiguity for

ionosphere-free phase observation respectively. Before the
coordinate estimation procedure, all the observation
corrections are performed as those used for conventional
PPP technique. After the observation combination and
linearization process, the observation models for reference
station and user station can be organized as follows:
Reference station:
ljB;LC cdtB  cdtj dtsys MdT B kLC N jB;LC

ljB;PC cdtB  cdtj dtsys MdT B

User station:
ljR;LC

ljR;PC

!
x0  xj
dx
qj0

!
y0  yj
dy
qj0

!
z0  zj
dz
qj0

cdtR  cdtj dtsys MdT R kLC N jR;LC

!
!
!
x0  xj
y0  yj
z0  zj

dx
dy
dz
qj0
qj0
qj0
cdtR  cdtj dtsys MdT R

where lj;LC represents the observation minus computation

(OMC) terms for phase observation, lj;PC represents the
OMC terms for pseudorange observation, the subscript B
and R represent the reference station and user station
respectively, x0 , y 0 and z0 are the prior coordinates for user
station, xj , y j and zj are the satellite coordinates for satellite
j, observation noise and unmodelled error items are ignored.
If both the receiver clock and satellite clock parameters
in Eqs. (7) and (8) are left for estimation, the resulting

115

normal equation matrix exhibits rank deciency of size

one. To solve this problem, one external constrain must
be add to the equation system. The receiver clock of reference station is forced to be zero as reference clock, and all
other clock osets are estimated respect to it. Hence, the
receiver clock items in Eqs. (5) and (6) can be cancelled out:
ljB;LC cdtj dtsys MdT B kLC N jB;LC
ljB;PC cdtj dtsys MdT B

9
10

Because only undierenced observations are involved in

Eqs. (7)(10), this equation system can be easily apply to
relative positioning with observations of multiple systems.
Furthermore, dierent from double dierenced observation
based technique, the troposphere delay and receiver clock
parameters are preserved, which can be useful information
for other application purposes e.g. weather monitoring and
time synchronization.
The connection between reference and user station is
achieved by simultaneous estimation of satellite clock osets (Salazar, 2010). The satellite clock oset can also
absorb some unmodelled errors at satellite end, which is
particularly important for BDS relative positioning. On
the other hand, because only prior values of satellite clock
osets are needed, the satellite clocks in broadcast ephemeris are accurate enough, which enables real-time application of this method.
2.2. Stochastic model
In the observation equation system described above, the
unknown state can be grouped as user coordinate, receiver
and satellite clock oset, real-valued ambiguity, zenith troposphere delay and system time dierence. The zenith troposphere delay contains Zenith Hydrostatic Delay (ZHD)
and Zenith Wet Delay (ZWD). Since ZHD values and
prior ZWD values can be corrected from observation with
empirical troposphere models like Saastamoinen model.
We only estimate the rest part of ZWD values actually.
The GPT model can be used to calculate the local temperature and pressure and then feed Saastamoinen model to
calculate ZHD and prior ZWD values (Kouba, 2009).
The Niell mapping functions are used to convert the zenith
troposphere delay to slant direction (Niell, 1996). Kalman
lter is used for unknown state estimation in this paper.
Dierent methods are used to model the stochastic characteristic of unknown states. White noise model is used to
model the receiver and satellite clock oset, so the transition matrix for clock oset is zero matrix, which means that
the clock oset of every epoch is treated as independent
time-discrete state. The process-noise matrix for clock osets are diagonal matrix and the diagonal values of them
are set to a relatively large value to adapt high temporal
variation characteristic of clock oset. For relative positioning of the static station, the user station coordinates
are modeled as constant state. The transition matrix of station coordinates is an identity matrix and their process-

116

M. Wang et al. / Advances in Space Research 55 (2015) 113124

Table 1
Stochastic model settings for dierent unknown states.
Unknown state

Transition coecient

Process-noise

ZWD
System time dierence
Receiver/satellite clock oset
Ambiguity

1
1
0
1 (continuously tracking)/0 (cycle slip
or beginning of observation)
1

2.7e7 m2/s  Dt
1e7 m2/s  Dt
1e10 m2
0 (continuously tracking)/4e8 m2 (cycle slip or
beginning of observation)
0

User station coordinate (static station)

noise is set as zero. The ZWD values and system time difference are estimated as random walk (RW) process. The
transition matrices for ZWD and system time dierence
are also diagonal matrices and the corresponding processnoise matrices Qstate is determined with Eq. (11):
Qstate qstate  Dt

11

where qstate is the spectral density for estimating state and

Dt is the estimation sample rate. Ambiguity state is modeled as constant state when the satellite is continuously
tracked. When cycle slip happens or the satellite rises, the
corresponding ambiguity is initialized. Detailed stochastic
model settings used in this paper are listed in Table 1.
3. BDS orbit prediction
The DSOP proposed in this paper decreases the accuracy need of satellite clock by estimating it on-the-y, but
the precise orbit is still needed for real-time application.
Fortunately, unlike the poor long period stability of satellite clock, satellite orbit is smooth and easy to predict with
high accuracy. The IGS ultra-rapid (IGU) product has
already served as a source of GPS orbit for real-time or
near real-time application for more than 10 years (Dow
et al., 2009). Each IGU product is composed of 24 h of
observed part and 24 h of predicted part. The orbit accuracy of predicted half IGU product is about 5 cm, which
is comparable to IGS rapid (IGR) product. The IGU product is released four times a day with a latency of 3 h at
03:00 UTC, 09:00 UTC, 15:00 UTC and 21:00 UTC.
As for BDS, such routine predicted product is not currently available, the precise orbits are used to predict for
real-time use. Precise orbits are re-expressed and tted in
a form of orbit elements and perturbation parameters.
After that, these parameters are used to predict orbit with
satellite celestial mechanics knowledge. The satellite movement acceleration can be described by the so-called equations of motion (Dach et al., 2007):
r
r GM 3 at; r; r_ ; p0; p1; p2; . . .
12
r
where GM is the product of the constant of gravity and the
mass of the earth, r is the length of geocentric radius vector
r of the satellite, the GM rr3 is the two-body term of gravity
eld, a is the perturbation acceleration characterized by
many parameters.

Fig. 1. Orientation axes of the spacecraft-centered reference frame used

for solar radiation pressure eects model.

In the case of orbit prediction, only the solar radiation

pressure is considered for perturbation inuence. The solar
radiation pressure term is characterized as Eq. (13):
2
3 2 3 2
3
2 3
Du
D0
DC
DS
6
7 6 7 6
7
6 7
4 Y u 5 4 Y 0 5 4 Y C 5  cosu 4 Y S 5  sinu
Bu

B0

BC

BS
13

where u is the argument of latitude for the satellite, Du,

Y u and Bu are three solar radiation pressure along three
axes dened in spacecraft-centered reference frame (Fig. 1),
D0;C;S , Y 0;C;S , C 0;C;S are nine parameters of solar pressure
model. Precise orbits are used as pseudo observations to
estimate six orbital elements and up to nine solar radiation
pressure (SRP) parameters that describe the satellite movement. Then the resulted parameters are used to predict
future orbit.
In this section, The BDS precise orbit of day of year
(DOY) 8699 generated by Wuhan University are used to
predict the BDS orbit. As presented in Fig. 2, not all
BDS satellites orbit are available in everyday IGS-MGEX
product, longer the orbit arc is needed, harder to nd a
consecutive arc for orbit prediction. Therefore, we use
the longest orbit arc as possible in past 72 h precise orbit
les to predict 9 h orbit of every satellite with six orbital
parameters and nine SRP parameters scenario (as depicted
in Fig. 3). The 39 h of predicted orbits are compared with
observed precise orbit to leave 3 h latency for simulating
routine real-time service operation. Since the precise orbit
and clock of BDS are not released with earth rotation

M. Wang et al. / Advances in Space Research 55 (2015) 113124

117

Fig. 2. Availability of BDS precise orbit delivered by Wuhan University.

Fig. 3. Schematic diagram of BDS orbit prediction.

parameters (ERPs), IGU predicted ERPs are used instead.

The predicted orbit results of six hours are merged for further positioning processing.
Figs. 4 and 5 present the averaged mean dierence and
RMS values in along-tracking, cross-tracking and radial
component of predicted orbits compared to precise orbit
for each satellite. It can be seen that the orbit prediction
accuracy evidently varies with the types of satellites.
Mainly due to relatively low accuracy of GEO satellite
(C01C05) both as observation for prediction and comparison values, the quality of predicted GEO orbit is the worst
among the three types of satellites. And no clear relationship of orbit dierences between dierent directions is
noticed. Except for GEO satellites, the along-tracking
and cross-tracking direction dierences of rest satellites
are comparable to each other and inherent with the POD
accuracy reported in Zhao et al. (2013).
It should be noticed that MEO and IGSO satellite orbits
of BDS can be predicted at centimeter accuracy level in
radial direction. The average RMS of radial direction for
IGSO satellite and MEO satellite are 7.39 cm and 2.86 cm,
respectively. Because positioning result is less sensitive to
orbit errors in along-tracking and cross-tracking direction
than in radial direction, IGSO and MEO satellites may play
a more important role in high accuracy positioning for users.
4. Experiments and result analysis
4.1. Data description and processing strategy
All the BDS observations used in this paper are collected by Beidou Experimental Tracking Network (BETN)

established by the GNSS Research Center, Wuhan University (Shi et al., 2012). All the stations of BETN are
equipped with UR240 GPS/BDS receivers manufactured
by Unicore Communications Incorporation. In our experiments, four BETN stations (BJF1, HRBN, CHDU and
HKTU) located in China are used and the observation period is from DOY 9198 in 2013. The sample rate of observation is 30 s.
As shown in Fig. 6, four baselines are composed with
the baseline lengths varying from 1049.3 km to
2551.1 km. All observations are processed on a day by
day basis. The weekly average solutions of conventional
PPP technique acquired with PANDA software package
developed by GNSS Research Center, Wuhan University
(Shi et al., 2008) using GPS observation and IGS nal
products are used as external reference values for station
coordinates. Coordinates of user stations are rstly estimated with BDS precise orbit generated by Wuhan University and IGS nal product to assess the positioning
accuracy in post-processing mode. Then predicted BDS
orbit and predicted part of IGU product are used to assess
the performance under real-time environment. Finally, the
convergence speeds of the solutions under dierent environments are discussed.
The PCO and PCV correction information of GPS satellite antenna generated and released by IGS in the form of
antex le is used for GPS observation. The IGS-MGEX
recommended values of satellite PCO correction is applied
for BDS observation (http://www.igs.org/mgex/Status_BDS.htm accessed on 2014/04/05). Due to lack of public correction values for receiver antenna, the PCO and
PCV correction of receiver antenna are ignored for both

118

M. Wang et al. / Advances in Space Research 55 (2015) 113124

0.5
Radial
Along
Cross

Mean of the orbit differences (m)

0.4

0.3

0.2

0.1

-0.1

-0.2

-0.3

C01

C02

C03

C04

C05

C06

C07

C08

C09

C10

C11

C12

C13

C14

Satellites
Fig. 4. The mean dierences of the predicted BDS orbits compared to the precise observation ones.

2
Radial
Along
Cross

RMS of the orbit differences (m)

1.8
1.6
1.4
1.2
1
0.8
0.6
0.4
0.2
0

C01

C02

C03

C04

C05

C06

C07

C08

C09

C10

C11

C12

C13

C14

Satellites
Fig. 5. The dierences RMS of the predicted BDS orbits compared to the precise observation ones.

GPS and BDS observations. All the observation processing

including DSOP and PPP presented below are performed
by the software GPAK (GNSS Processing and Analysis
Kit). GPAK is a scientic GNSS data processing software
developed by Zhengzhou Institute of Surveying and Mapping and has been tested by several scientic research and
development programs. Its main functions include PPP,
RTK, precise estimation of satellite clock and GNSS based
atmosphere monitoring.
As presented in Figs. 7 and 8, after the completion of
BDS constellation deployment for regional service, the
satellite visibility and geometry of BDS in China are comparable to those of GPS. For CHDU station, the average
PDOP value is 2.4, 3.0 and 1.5 for GPS, BDS and combined BDS/GPS respectively, and corresponding average

number of visible satellite is 7.7, 8.7 and 16.4. Due to internal tracking problem of receiver, the number of GPS satellite in 91 day is less than other days, which cause a
relatively large uctuation of PDOP value in 91 day.
4.2. Post-processing results
For post-processing experiment, BDS precise orbits and
clocks submitted to IGS-MGEX archive by Wuhan University and IGS nal product are used. The mean dierences and repeatabilities of the user station coordinates
are showed in Figs. 9 and 10, respectively. The correlation
of atmospheric parameters of reference station and user
station diminishes as the length of baseline increase, so
the positioning results of BDS over short baseline are more

M. Wang et al. / Advances in Space Research 55 (2015) 113124

50 N

HRBN
1049.3km

40 N

BJF1

2551.1km

1514.4km

30 N

CHDU
1368.9km

HKTU

20 N

100 E

110 E

130 E

120 E

Fig. 6. Baselines and stations processed from the test dataset.

accurate than the ones for long baseline. The minimum of

3D mean dierence is 0.57 cm for baseline BJF1HRBN,
the maximum 3D mean dierence is 2.17 cm for baseline
CHDUHRBN. The minimum 3D baseline repeatability
is 1.84 cm for baseline BJF1HRBN and the maximum
3D baseline repeatability is 2.90 cm for baseline CHDU
HKTU.
Because satellite phase center are well determined and
orbit quality is better, GPS results are more accurate than
the BDS ones. The 3D repeatability of GPS results is only
41% of BDS ones for baseline BJF1HRBN, 31% for baseline CHDUBJF1, 35% for baseline CHDUHKTU, and
22% for baseline CHDUHKTU, respectively. Since the
quality of GPS orbit is good enough and the satellite
PCO and PCV are precisely corrected, there is relatively
small room for estimating satellite clock to absorb satellite
dependent unmodelled errors compared to BDS case.

119

Therefore, similar correlation relationship of baseline

length and coordinate accuracy is not obvious for GPS
results, which conrms that the relatively large satellite
dependent error can be absorbed by the estimated clock
oset of BDS satellite. Adding GPS observations can
improve the accuracy of BDS results, but the current daily
results of combined BDS/GPS should not be expected to be
better than GPS based results.
The positioning results of user station HRBN are then
compared with those estimated by PPP technique (Table 2).
The observation preprocessing and error correction strategy applied in PPP processing is the same used for DSOP.
Limited by the size of tracking stations, current BDS orbit
and clock quality is worse than that of IGS product, especially for BDS GEO satellite. Therefore, the PPP results
accuracy is at centimeter level for horizontal direction
and over 10 cm for up direction.
User coordinates estimated with DSOP are one order of
magnitude more precise than PPP solution, possible reason
is that the strength of equation system can be augmented
by adding one more station to it and the on-the-y estimated clock oset could absorb some satellite dependent
unmodelled errors. Whereas, PPP technique xes the precise orbits and clock as reference and some unmodelled
errors like orbit error are directly reected in PPP solution.
For current BDS positioning applications where a remote
reference station is available, DSOP can provide better
position estimation accuracy with limited computation
burden increase compared to PPP technique.
4.3. Real-time results
For real-time experiment, we derive ERPs, GPS orbits
and clocks from predicted part of IGU product. BDS
orbits are predicted with six orbital elements and nine
SRPs scenario as presented in Section 3 and prior values

BDS
GPS
BDS+GPS

PDOP value

1
91

92

93

94

95

96

97

98

99

Day of year 2013

Fig. 7. PDOP values of BDS, GPS and BDS + GPS for station CHDU.

120

M. Wang et al. / Advances in Space Research 55 (2015) 113124

22

BDS
GPS
BDS+GPS

20

Number of satellites

18
16
14
12
10
8
6
4
91

92

93

94

95

96

97

98

99

Day of year 2013

Fig. 8. Number of visible satellites of BDS, GPS and BDS + GPS for station CHDU.

Mean of the position differences (m)

0.015

BDS N
BDS E
BDS U
GPS N
GPS E
GPS U
BDS+GPS N
BDS+GPS E
BDS+GPS U

0.01

0.005

-0.005

-0.01

-0.015

-0.02

BJF1-HRBN

CHDU-BJF1

CHDU-HKTU

CHDU-HRBN

Baseline name
Fig. 9. The mean position dierences of user station for four baselines under post-processing environment.

of BDS satellite clocks are derived from broadcast ephemerides. All the observations are organized and processed
epoch by epoch for simulating real-time one-way data
stream. Although the data processing is not nished
under actual real-time computation environment, the
results could demonstrate the real-time performance of
DSOP.
Real-time results are presented in Figs. 11 and 12. The
GPS only results do not undermine much as the orbit
source alternates from IGS nal product to IGU predicted
product. It is conrmed that even though the accuracy of
predicted IGU clocks is at nanosecond accuracy level
(Dow et al., 2009), they are precise enough for DSOP.
Whereas, BDS real-time results are worse than postprocessing ones. The BDS only 3D coordinate dierences

of all four baselines (in order of BJF1HRBN CHDU

BJF1 CHDUHKTU and CHDUHRBN) are 1.16 cm,
0.22 cm, 1.65 cm and 1.78 cm respectively and the corresponding 3D baseline repeatability are 2.07 cm, 2.78 cm,
3.37 cm and 4.07 cm.
However, the BDS positioning results with centimeter
accuracy level are still obtained in real-time, which is even
better than the results of post-processing PPP showed in
Table 2. Considering relatively low quality orbit we used
for BDS, these positioning results are promising. The relationship between baseline length and BDS only estimation
accuracy is more evident in real-time mode than post-processing mode, so estimating satellite clock oset on-the-y
is more important for strengthening the equation system in
real-time case.

M. Wang et al. / Advances in Space Research 55 (2015) 113124

0.03

BDS N
BDS E
BDS U
GPS N
GPS E
GPS U
BDS+GPS N
BDS+GPS E
BDS+GPS U

0.025

Coordinate repeatability (m)

121

0.02

0.015

0.01

0.005

BJF1-HRBN

CHDU-BJF1

CHDU-HKTU

CHDU-HRBN

Baseline name
Fig. 10. The user station coordinates repeatabilities of four baselines under post-processing environment.

Table 2
Comparison of BDS only user coordinate dierences estimated with PPP
technique and DSOP (unit: cm).
DOY

91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
Mean
Repeatability

PPP

DSOP

0.23
3.58
2.69
4.37
2.88
1.70
2.27
0.16
1.19
2.52

2.36
2.26
4.89
2.04
1.14
1.52
2.39
1.39
1.36
2.24

4.22
8.89
1.14
19.56
12.19
12.06
16.04
3.17
0.50
12.19

0.46
0.70
0.22
0.30
0.63
1.04
0.97
0.24
0.34
0.58

0.15
0.35
0.36
0.45
0.66
0.88
0.54
0.03
0.14
0.51

1.89
1.91
1.17
0.34
3.02
0.58
1.70
0.27
0.44
1.67

The bold values indicate the best result of DSOP during 8 days
experiment.

The combined BDS/GPS results are better than the

results based on BDS, but worse than the ones based on
GPS. Currently, combining GPS and BDS observation is
a feasible way to improve the accuracy of relative positioning using only BDS observation.
4.4. Convergence speed comparison
The convergence speed is also an important index especially for the time critical applications. The convergence
speeds of DSOP solutions under dierent computation
environments are presented and analyzed here. Fig. 13
shows the solution convergence for baseline CHDU
BJF1 in DOY 94, 2013. Because of relatively large orbit
error and slow changing satellite geometry, the positioning

Mean of the position differences (m)

0.04

BDS N
BDS E
BDS U
GPS N
GPS E
GPS U
BDS+GPS N
BDS+GPS E
BDS+GPS U

0.03

0.02

0.01

-0.01

-0.02

BJF1-HRBN

CHDU-BJF1

CHDU-HKTU

CHDU-HRBN

Baseline name
Fig. 11. The mean position dierences of user station for four baselines under real-time environment.

122

M. Wang et al. / Advances in Space Research 55 (2015) 113124

0.035

BDS N
BDS E
BDS U
GPS N
GPS E
GPS U
BDS+GPS N
BDS+GPS E
BDS+GPS U

Coordinate repeatability (m)

0.03

0.025

0.02

0.015

0.01

0.005

BJF1-HRBN

CHDU-BJF1

CHDU-HKTU

CHDU-HRBN

Baseline name
Fig. 12. The user station coordinates repeatability of four baselines under real-time environment.

0.5
BDS
GPS
BDS+GPS

0.45

3D position error (m)

0.4
0.35
0.3
0.25
0.2
0.15
0.1
0.05
0
00

02

04

06

08

10

12

14

16

18

20

22

00

Hour of day
Fig. 13. Comparison of real-time mode solution convergence speed of dierent systems for baseline CHDU-BJF1 in DOY 94, 2013.

solution of BDS needs more time to converge. It is noticed

that the 3D position bias of BDS needs more than 5 h to
reach centimeter accuracy level in real-time. Meanwhile,
the GPS and combined BDS/GPS solutions can reach the
same accuracy level in less than 1 h.
Comparing Fig. 13 with Fig. 14, the position solution
based on BDS needs more time to reach convergence in
real-time mode than in post-processing mode. But the
source for the orbits causes little inuence on the GPS
and combined BDS/GPS solutions compared with BDS
solution. It is worth noticing that, the bias jump of BDS
result caused by data problem at 3:45 is eliminated by adding GPS to the estimation. In addition, combined GPS/

BDS results are more stable both in real-time mode and

post-processing mode than one system only solution.
As showed in Table 3, the mean 3D biases of all four
baselines are less than 10 cm. But GPS only solution are
much accurate than BDS only ones. Except for baseline
BJF1HRBN, where the solution of combined GPS/BDS
is slightly worse than GPS only solution, other combined
GPS/BDS solutions are better than the results based on
single system. Like the role played by GLONASS observation in the PPP result based on combined GPS/GLONASS
(Cai and Gao, 2013), the addition of BDS observation to
GPS observation can speed up the convergence, but the
daily position accuracy may not be improved.

M. Wang et al. / Advances in Space Research 55 (2015) 113124

123

0.5
BDS
GPS
BDS+GPS

0.45

3D position error (m)

0.4
0.35
0.3
0.25
0.2
0.15
0.1
0.05
0
00

02

04

06

08

10

12

14

16

18

20

22

00

Hour of day
Fig. 14. Comparison of post-processing mode solution convergence of dierent systems for baseline CHDU-BJF1 in DOY 94, 2013.

Table 3
Comparison of position dierence after four hours for GPS, BDS and GPS + BDS (unit: cm).
Baseline

BJF1HRBN
CHDUHKTU
CHDUBJF1
CHDUHRBN

BDS

GPS

BDS + GPS

1.64
0.05
1.01
1.21

1.70
3.43
2.51
6.90

0.93
0.61
0.80
1.47

0.12
1.79
1.21
2.44

0.90
0.60
0.02
0.86

0.17
0.56
1.73
3.07

0.63
0.51
0.53
1.58

0.41
0.26
0.51
0.70

1.02
1.18
0.53
1.79

5. Conclusions
Although BDS has been providing regional service since
December 27, 2012, satellite phase center parameters of
BDS have not been published and quality of experimental
IGS-MGEX BDS orbit is worse than other routine IGS
product, which connes precise positioning using BDS
observations. A relative static positioning method that
directly uses undierenced observation is introduced. By
estimating the satellite clock oset on-the-y, the unmodelled satellite dependent errors can be compensated.
Corresponding assessment experiments are conducted in
post-processing mode and real-time mode with up to
2551 km long baseline. The results demonstrate that BDS
relative positioning can be achieved with DSOP at centimeter and millimeter accuracy level. Although satellite visibility and geometry of BDS are comparable to those of GPS
after the enouncement of BDS regional service, better quality of IGS product makes the GPS solutions more precise
than BDS ones. However, the convergence speed can be
improved by using combined BDS/GPS observations.
These results are promising. With the development of
better orbit and orbit prediction strategy, improved DSOP
solution with only BDS observation can be expected. On
the other hand, DSOP can be seen as the simplest form
of BDS real-time service that is composed with a reference
network of only one station and one user station. The

assessment of DSOP is a good capability indication of

BDS to develop real-time service.
Acknowledgements
This work is supported by China National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 41274045; 41374041 and
41374042). GNSS centre of Wuhan University is appreciated for providing BDS observation and product. IGSMGEX project is grateful for its valuable GNSS research
resource. Thanks also go to two reviewers for their valuable comments which have improved this paper
considerably.
References
Cai, C., Gao, Y., 2013. Modeling and assessment of combined GPS/
GLONASS precise point positioning. GPS Solutions 17, 223236.
Dach, R., Hugentobler, Urs., Fridez, P., Meindl, M., 2007. Bernese GPS
Software Version 5.0 Manual. Astronomical Institute, University of
Bern.
Deng, C., Tang, W., Liu, J., Shi, C., 2014. Reliable single-epoch ambiguity
resolution for short baselines using combined GPS/Beidou system.
GPS Solutions 18, 375386.
Dow, J.M., Neilan, R.E., Rizos, C., 2009. The international GNSS service
in a changing landscape of global navigation satellite systems. J. Geod.
83, 191198.
Feng, L., Zhou, W., Wu, X., 2013. Realization of high-precision relative
positioning using Beidou regional navigation satellite system. In: Sun,

124

M. Wang et al. / Advances in Space Research 55 (2015) 113124

J., Jiao, W., Wu, H., Shi, C. (Eds.), China Satellite Navigation
Conference (CSNC) 2013 Proceedings. Springer, Berlin Heidelberg,
pp. 197209.
He, H., Li, J., Yang, Y., Xu, J., Guo, H., Wang, A., 2014. Performance
assessment of single- and dual-frequency Beidou/GPS single-epoch
kinematic positioning. GPS Solutions 18, 393403.
Jin, S., Najibi, N., 2014. Sensing snow height and surface temperature
variations in Greenland from GPS reected signals. Adv. Space Res.
53, 16231633.
Jin, S., Luo, O., Park, P., 2008. GPS observations of the ionospheric F2layer behavior during the 20th November 2003 geomagnetic storm
over South Korea. J. Geod. 82, 883892.
Jin, S., Luo, O., Ren, C., 2010. Eects of physical correlations on longdistance GPS positioning and zenith tropospheric delay estimates.
Adv. Space Res. 46, 190195.
Kouba, J., 2009. Testing of global pressure/temperature (GPT) model and
global mapping function (GMF) in GPS analyses. J. Geod. 83, 199208.
Kouba, J., Heroux, P., 2001. Precise point positioning using IGS orbit and
clock product. GPS Solutions 5, 1228.
Laurichesse, D., Mercier, F., Berthias, J.-P., 2009. Real time precise gps
constellation orbits and clocks estimation using zero-dierence integer
ambiguity xing. In: 2009 International Technical Meeting of the
Institute of Navigation. Anaheim, CA, pp. 664672.
Li, P., Zhang, X., 2014. Modeling and performance analysis of GPS/
GLONASS/BDS precise point positioning. In: Sun, J., Jiao, W., Wu,
H., Lu, M. (Eds.), China Satellite Navigation Conference (CSNC)
2014 Proceedings, vol. III. Springer, Berlin Heidelberg, pp. 251263.
Li, J., Yang, Y., Xu, J., He, H., Guo, H., 2013a. GNSS multi-carrier fast
partial ambiguity resolution strategy tested with real BDS/GPS dualand triple-frequency observations. GPS Solutions.
Li, X., Ge, M., Zhang, H., Nischan, T., Wickert, J., 2013b. The GFZ realtime GNSS precise positioning service system and its adaption for
COMPASS. Adv. Space Res. 51, 10081018.
Montenbruck, O., Hauschild, A., Steigenberger, P., Hugentobler, U.,
Teunissen, P., Nakamura, S., 2013. Initial assessment of the COMPASS/Beidou-2 regional navigation satellite system. GPS Solutions 17,
211222.
Montenbruck, O., Steigenberger, P., Khachikyan, R., et al., 2014. IGSMGEX: preparing the ground for multi-constellation GNSS science.
Inside GNSS 9, 4249.

Niell, A.E., 1996. Global mapping functions for the atmosphere delay at
radio wavelengths. J. Geophys. Res. 101, 32273246.
Salazar, D., 2010. Precise GPS-based position, velocity and acceleration
determination: algorithms and tools. Department of Applied Mathematics IV and Applied Physics, Technical University of Catalonia,
Barcelona.
Salazar, D., Hernandez-Pajares, M., Juan, J., Sanz, J., 2010. GNSS data
management and processing with the GPSTk. GPS Solutions 14, 293
299.
Shi, C., Zhao, Q., Geng, J., Lou, Y., Ge, M., Liu, J., 2008. Recent
development of PANDA software in GNSS data processing. In:
International Conference on Earth Observation Data Processing and
Analysis (ICEODPA), pp. 72851S72851S-72859.
Shi, C., Zhao, Q., Li, M., et al., 2012. Precise orbit determination of
Beidou satellites with precise positioning. Sci. China Earth Sci. 55,
10791086.
Shi, C., Zhao, Q., Hu, Z., Liu, J., 2013. Precise relative positioning using
real tracking data from COMPASS GEO and IGSO satellites. GPS
Solutions 17, 103119.
Steigenberger, P., Hugentobler, U., Hauschild, A., Montenbruck, O.,
2013. Orbit and clock analysis of compass GEO and IGSO satellites. J.
Geod. 87, 515525.
Tang, W., Deng, C., Shi, C., Liu, J., 2014. Triple-frequency carrier
ambiguity resolution for Beidou navigation satellite system. GPS
Solutions 18, 335344.
Teunissen, P.J.G., Bakker, P.F., 2013. Single-receiver single-channel
multi-frequency GNSS integrity: outliers, slips, and ionospheric
disturbances. J. Geod. 87, 161177.
Teunissen, P.J.G., Odolinski, R., Odijk, D., 2014. Instantaneous Beidou + GPS RTK positioning with high cut-o elevation angles. J.
Geod. 88, 335350.
Xu, G., 2007. GPS Theory, Algorithm and Applications, second ed.
Springer, Berlin.
Zhao, Q., Guo, J., Li, M., et al., 2013. Initial results of precise orbit and
clock determination for COMPASS navigation satellite system. J.
Geod. 87, 475486.
Zumberge, J.F., Hein, M.B., Jeerson, D.C., Watkins, M.M., Webb,
F.H., 1997. Precise point positioning for the ecient and robust
analysis of GPS data from large networks. J. Geophys. Res. 102, 5005
5017.