Leica Infinity

Training materials – GNSS

Processing
Ambiguity Statistics
Interpretation

Version 1.0
English
Introduction
In this document you will learn how to interpret ambiguity statistics available in the GNSS Processing Results report.

The first session describes the approach adopted by Infinity for the ambiguity resolution process. The second
session describes step-by-step how to arrive to the Ambiguity Statistic report. The final session is dedicated to
results discussion and interpretation.

The functionality discussed in this guide requires the GNSS Processing license.

The data from the following folder will be used in this tutorial:
 Data\ contains all GNSS raw data

Table of Contents
1. Ambiguity resolution process: how does it work?............................................................................................ 3
2. How to arrive at the Ambiguity Statistics report............................................................................................... 5
3. Interpreting Ambiguity Statistics ............................................................................................................................. 6

Leica Infinity, Ambiguity Statistics Interpretation

1. Ambiguity resolution process: how does it work?
In the ambiguity resolution process Infinity uses statistical techniques to determine the most correct solution.
According to this approach, the routine in charge of the ambiguity estimation (called ‘ambiguity searching
algorithm’) divides an interval into sub-set of observations (sub-intervals) and resolves the ambiguities for that sub-
data set.

The ambiguity values computed from one sub-dataset are then compared with the values obtained from the other
sub-dataset. If the values are identical then the results are considered to be correct.

As shown in the picture below, the global ambiguity resolution process segments the entire observation interval
into sub-interval (I1, I2, …, In). For each sub-interval an independent (with respect to the other sub-intervals)
ambiguity searching algorithm is run.

The final task of the ambiguity searching algorithm is to estimate the set of ambiguity values for each available
frequency of each available satellites (A1, A2, …, An), and declare as Fixed or Not Fixed the single sub-set of
observations.

The duration of each sub-interval is not constant, but is variable depending on data length, sampling rate and data
quality. In case of good data the ambiguity searching algorithm needs a minor number of epochs to arrive to a
fixed solution. Differently, in case of poor data the ambiguity searching algorithm will try to use more epochs to get
a fixed solution. If the ambiguity searching algorithms reaches the (pre-defined) maximum number of epoch (e.g.
for 1 second sampling rate, a maximum of 30 epochs can be used) without success, the ambiguity status for that
sub-interval will be declared Not Fixed.

Leica Infinity, Ambiguity Statistics Interpretation

After that the ambiguity searching algorithm is applied to the entire data (through the sub-interval approach), the
global ambiguity resolution process has the task to declare the final ambiguity status for the entire dataset. At this
stage, the independent result over each sub-interval are evaluated and compared in order to give more robust final
ambiguity estimation for the entire dataset. With regards to ambiguity estimation this would give the same
robustness as an independent measurement on the same points, but still benefiting from the accuracy
improvements by filtering over the whole interval.

In the ideal case of perfect data, each sub-interval could output a fixed solution: actually, if observations are
continuous without interruption or cycle slip, the result of the ambiguity searching algorithm for each sub-interval
is expected to be the same. The comparison of the result of each independent fix will be successful and the final
ambiguity status for the entire observation interval will be Fixed.

On the contrary, in case of fragmented observation and cycle slip, the results of the searching algorithm over each
sub interval could be Fixed or Not Fixed; moreover, fixed solutions could be in contrast each other. In this situation
the global ambiguity resolution process could declare the final ambiguity status for the entire observation interval
as Not Fixed: a fixed solution would not be reliable enough.

With respect to the described approach we can define the following quantities, used in the Infinity Ambiguity
Statistics report:

Number of Ambiguities:

- Total: is the total number of ambiguities which must be solved over the entire dataset. The values is
dependent on the total number of satellites, the number of frequencies for each satellites, the number of
cycle slips and the number of re-initialized ambiguities (deriving from an unsuccessful ambiguity searching
algorithm)
o The longer the dataset, the higher the total number of ambiguity
o In general, excellent data have a lower number of ambiguity to be fixed
o Poor and fragmented data have a higher number of ambiguity to be fixed
- Fixed: is the number of ambiguity which have finally been resolved to fixed values, all over the data set
o A fixed number of ambiguity close to the total number of ambiguity is an indicator of high
reliability
- Independently Fixed: is the number of independent sub-intervals whose ambiguities have finally been
resolved to a Fixed value.
o A number of Independently Fixed ambiguity close to the number of Possible Independently Fixed
ambiguity is an indicator of high reliability
- Possible Independently Fixed: is the total number of independent sub-intervals for which an independent
ambiguity searching algorithm is ran.

- Average time between independent fixes: is the duration of the data (in average) needed to perform
independent fixes. It can be associated with the average duration of each sub-interval and is correlated to
the sampling rate.
o Good data have a lower average time between independent fixed
o Poor and fragmented data have a higher average time between independent fixed

% of Epochs:

- Fixed: percentage of fixed epochs with respect to the total number of epochs (computed for each
frequency of each satellite)
- Not Fixed: percentage of not fixed epochs with respect to the total number of epochs (computed for each
frequency of each satellite)
Leica Infinity, Ambiguity Statistics Interpretation
 - Not Fixed – Contradiction: percentage of epochs declared as not fixed because the ambiguity value is
not confirmed from different independent ambiguity search (the result of the ambiguity search over
different sub-intervals leads to different values, in contradiction to each other). In such a case the
computed ambiguity value is not reliable, causing finally Not Fixed result.
- Not Fixed – Missing Phase: percentage of not fixed epochs (with respect to the total number of epochs all
over the dataset) because of missing phase observation in the raw data

Status
The table shows the final ambiguity statistic overview. It lists the time periods for which ambiguities have
successfully been resolved and confirmed to be correct, as well as the periods when no ambiguity resolution has
been available.

2. How to arrive at the Ambiguity Statistics report

1.1 Choose Home tab in the ribbon bar and select

Import. In the Import dialog navigate to the
Data directory.

Select all (Control+A) RINEX file (observation

and navigation file) and click Import.

Set RUTH as Reference, Set HEE0 as rover and

Process the data.

1.2 From the GNSS Result tab, drill in into to the

GNSS results. Right click with the mouse over
the results and open the Detailed GNSS
Report.

1.3 In the report move to the session Ambiguity

Statistics

Leica Infinity, Ambiguity Statistics Interpretation

3. Interpreting Ambiguity Statistics
In the GNSS Processing report, ambiguity statistics are mainly reported in three tables:
- Number of Ambiguities
- % of Epochs
- Status

Here after the content of each table is discussed, considering the results obtained following the steps described in
Session 2.

Number of Ambiguities: Total

The total number of GPS ambiguities comes from:

- The total number of GPS satellites in common between reference and rover (9 Satellites)
- The number of frequencies per each Satellite (2 frequencies, L1 and L2)
Each frequency brings an initial ambiguity. Since no cycle slip occurs for the GPS constellation, in the data set we
have 18 ambiguities to solve for the GPS constellation.

Leica Infinity, Ambiguity Statistics Interpretation

The total number of GLONASS ambiguities comes from:
- The total number of GLONASS satellites in common between reference and rover (6 Satellites)
- The number of frequencies per each Satellite (2 frequencies, L1 and L2)
- The presence of a Cycle Slip over the second frequency (L2) of Satellite R06 which causes a Re-
initialisation of the ambiguity search (RIA). Detailed information about the presence of cycle slip are in
the session ‘Cycle Slip’ of the GNSS Processing report
Each frequency brings an initial ambiguity. Since one cycle slip occurs for the GLONASS constellation, in the data
set we have 13 ambiguities to solve for the GLONASS constellation.

Leica Infinity, Ambiguity Statistics Interpretation

Number of Ambiguities: Fixed

All 18 ambiguities have been fixed for the GPS Constellation. 12 over 13 ambiguities have been fixed for the
GLONASS Constellation. As shown in the picture below, initial L2 phase observation for satellite R06 was not fixed
and not used in the final results computation.

Leica Infinity, Ambiguity Statistics Interpretation

Number of Ambiguities: Possible independently fixed/Independently fixed

Both for GPS and GLONASS constellations, the ambiguity searching algorithm is applied over 121 sub sets of
observation (possible independent fixed). For each sub set of observation the ambiguity searching algorithm lead
to a Fixed solution (121 Independently fixed solution) every 30 second in average (average time between
independent fixed).

Note: all subset of observation are fixed even if one single ambiguity is not fixed for the GLONASS constellation.

% of Epochs

For the GPS constellation, all epochs have been fixed for both frequencies. For the GLONASS constellation, L1 phase
observations have been fixed in all epochs. The 0.1 % of epochs with L2 observation is not fixed and not used in the
final coordinates estimation (as shown in the previously).
The % of ‘Not-fixed contradiction’ epoch is null, meaning that all sets of ambiguity values estimated in different
sub-set of observations are identical.
As the used dataset is complete and continuous (phase observation always available in the raw data), there are no
epochs marked as ‘Not fixed-missing phase’.

Status

For the entire time period, ambiguties have succesfully been resolved. The robustness of this ambiguity solution has
been confirmed 121 times which would translate into an extremly high reliability for this data set (close to 100%
reliability).

Leica Infinity, Ambiguity Statistics Interpretation

 Original text
Published in Switzerland
© 2016 Leica Geosystems AG, Heerbrugg, Switzerland

Leica Geosystems AG
Heinrich-Wild-Strasse
CH-9435 Heerbrugg
Switzerland
Phone +41 71 727 31 31
www.leica-geosystems.com