1.

INTRODUCTION

(GPS) technology is a great boon to anyone who has the need to navigate either great or small distances. The Global Positioning System (GPS) is a burgeoning technology, which provides unequalled accuracy and flexibility of positioning for navigation, surveying and GIS data capture. This wonderful navigation technology was actually first available for government use back in the late 1970s. The Global Positioning System (GPS) is a radio based navigation system that gives three dimensional coverage of the Earth, 24 hours a day in any weather conditions throughout the world. The technology seems to be beneficiary to the GPS user community in terms of obtaining accurate data upto about 100 meters for navigation, meter-level for mapping, and down to millimeter level for geodetic positioning. The GPS technology has tremendous amount of applications in Geographical Information System (GIS) data collection, surveying, and mapping. The first GPS satellite was launched by the U.S. Air Force in early 1978. There are now at least 24 satellites orbiting the earth at an altitude of about 11,000 nautical miles. The high altitude insures that the satellite orbits are stable, precise and predictable, and that the satellites' motion through space is not affected by atmospheric drag. These 24 satellites make up a full GPS constellation. The satellites orbit the Earth every 12 hours at approximately 12,000 miles above the Earth. There are four satellites in each of 6 orbital planes. Each plane is inclined 55 degrees relative to the equator, which means that satellites cross the equator tilted at a 55 degree angle. The system is designed to maintain full operational capability even if two of the 24 satellites fail. The GPS system consists of three segments: 1) The space segment: the GPS satellites themselves, 2) The control system, operated by the U.S. military, and 3) The user segment, which includes both military and civilian users and their GPS equipment. The GPS system is passive, meaning that the satellites continuously transmit information towards the Earth. If someone has a GPS receiver they can receive the signal at no cost. The information is transmitted on two frequencies: L1 (1575.42 MHz), and L2 (1227.60 MHz). These frequencies are called carrier waves because

they are used primarily to carry information to GPS receivers. The more information a receiver measures the more expensive the unit, and the more functions it will perform with greater accuracy. When one receiver is tracking satellites and obtaining position data, the information received has traveled over 12,000 miles and has been distorted by numerous atmospheric factors. This results in accuracy of about 25 meters. Moreover, the department of Defense (the agency running the GPS) degrades receiver accuracy by telling the satellites to transmit slightly inaccurate information. This intentional distortion of the signal is called Selective Availability (SA). With SA turned on and one receiver is used, the greatest accuracy a user can expect is 100 meters. To improve the accuracy of GPS, differential, or Relative Positioning can be employed. If two or more receivers are used to track the same satellites, and one is in a known position, many of the errors of SA can be reduced, and in some cases eliminated. Differential data can be accomplished using common code or carrier data (L1 or L2). The most accurate systems use differential data from a GPS base station that continually tracks twelve satellites and transmits the differential data to remote units using a radio link. With these systems centimeter accuracy and real-time navigation is possible.

All of these features make it a very desirable and useful technology for a mired of activities including Search and Rescue, Aviation and Nautical navigation, hiking, hunting, camping, fishing, and many more. All of these various GPS users have unique needs which require different levels of understanding and skill in using this technology. The Russian government has developed a system, similar to GPS, called GLONASS. The first GLONASS satellite launch was in October 1982. The full constellation consists of 24 satellites in 3 orbit planes, which have a 64.8 degree inclination to the earth's equator. The GLONASS system now consists of 12 healthy satellites. GLONASS uses the same code for each satellite and many frequencies, whereas GPS which uses two frequencies and a different code for each satellite.

2.

SYSTEM DETAILS

There are 3 main segments in a GPS system. They are

1.

Space segment (SS).

2.

Control Segment (CS).

3.

User Segment (US).

The Control Segment

The Control Segment consists of five monitoring stations (Colorado Springs, Ascesion Island, Diego Garcia, Hawaii, and Kwajalein Island). Three of the stations (Ascension, Diego Garcia, and Kwajalein) serve as uplink installations, capable of transmitting data to the satellites, including new ephemerides (satellite positions as a function of time), clock corrections, and other broadcast message data, while Colorado Springs serves as the master control station. The Control Segment is the sole responsibility of the DoD who undertakes construction, launching, maintenance, and virtually constant performance monitoring of the GPS satellites. The DOD monitoring stations track all GPS signals for use in controlling the satellites and predicting their orbits. Meteorological data also are collected at the monitoring stations, permitting the most accurate evaluation of troposphere delays of GPS signals. Satellite tracking data from the monitoring stations are transmitted to the master control station for processing. This processing involves the computation of satellite ephemerides and satellite clock corrections. The master station controls orbital corrections, when any satellite strays too far from its assigned position, and necessary repositioning to compensate for unhealthy (not fully functioning) satellites.

The Space Segment

The Space Segment consists of the Constellation of NAVASTAR earth orbiting satellites. The current Defense Department plan calls for a full constellation of 24 Block II satellites (21 operational and 3 in-orbit spares). Each satellite contains four precise atomic clocks (Rubidium and Cesium standards) and has a microprocessor on board for limited self-monitoring and data processing.

Satellite orbits.

There are four satellites in each of 6 orbital planes. Each plane is inclined 55 degrees relative to the equator, which means that satellites cross the equator tilted at a 55 degree angle. The system is designed to maintain full operational capability even if two of the 24 satellites fail. They orbit at altitudes of about 12000, miles each, with orbital periods of 12 sidereal hours (i.e., determined by or from the stars), or approximately one half of the earth's periods, approximately 12 hours of 3-D position fixes. The satellites are equipped with thrusters which can be used to maintain or modify their orbits. The next block of satellites is called Block IIR, and they will provide improved reliability and have a capacity of ranging between satellites, which will increase the orbital accuracy.

Satellite Signals

GPS satellites continuously broadcast satellite position and timing data via radio signals on two frequencies: L1 (1575.42 MHz), and L 2 (1227.60 MHz). These frequencies are called carrier waves because they are used primarily to carry information to GPS receivers. The radio signals travel at the speed of light (186,000 miles per second) and take approximately 6/100ths of a second to reach the earth. The satellite signals require a direct line to GPS receivers and cannot penetrate water, soil, walls or other obstacles. For example, heavy forest canopy causes interference, making it difficult, if not impossible, to compute positions. In canyons (and "urban canyons" in cities) GPS signals are blocked by mountain ranges or buildings. If you place your hand over a GPS receiver antenna, it will stop computing positions. Two kinds of code are broadcast on the L1 frequency (C/A code and P code). C/A (Coarse Acquisition) code is available to civilian GPS users and provides Standard Positioning Service (SPS). Using the Standard Positioning Service one can achieve 15 meter horizontal accuracy 95% of the time. This means that 95% of the time, the

coordinates you read from your GPS receiver display will be within 15 meters of your true position on the earth. P (Precise) code is broadcast on both the L1 and L2 frequencies. P code, used for the Precise Positioning Service (PPS) is available only to the military. Using P code on both frequencies, a military receiver can achieve better accuracy than civilian receivers. Additional techniques can increase the accuracy of both C/A code and P code GPS receivers.

The User Segment

The user segment is a total user and supplier community, both civilian and military. The User Segment consists of all earth-based GPS receivers. Receivers vary greatly in size and complexity, though the basic design is rather simple. The typical receiver is composed of an antenna and preamplifier, radio signal microprocessor, control and display device, data recording unit, and power supply. The GPS receiver decodes the timing signals from the 'visible' satellites (four or more) and, having calculated their distances, computes its own latitude, longitude, elevation, and time. This is a continuous process and generally the position is updated on a second-by-second basis, output to the receiver display device and, if the receiver display device and, if the receiver provides data capture capabilities, stored by the receiver-logging unit.

3.

GPS POSITIONING TYPES

Absolute Positioning

The mode of positioning relies upon a single receiver station. It is also referred to as 'stand-alone' GPS, because, unlike differential positioning, ranging is carried out strictly between the satellite and the receiver station, not on a ground-based reference station that assists with the computation of error corrections. As a result, the positions derived in absolute mode are subject to the unmitigated errors inherent in satellite positioning. Overall accuracy of absolute positioning is considered to be no greater than 50 meters at best by Ackroyd and Lorimer and to be + 100 meter accuracy by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Differential Positioning

Relative or Differential GPS carries the triangulation principles one step further, with a second receiver at a known reference point. To further facilitate determination of a point's position, relative to the known earth surface point, this configuration demands collection of an error-correcting message from the reference receiver. Differential-mode positioning relies upon an established control point. The reference station is placed on the control point, a triangulated position, the control point coordinate. This allows for a correction factor to be calculated and applied to other moving GPS units used in the same area and in the same time series. Inaccuracies in the control point's coordinate are directly additive to errors inherent in the satellite positioning

process. Error corrections derived by the reference station vary rapidly, as the factors propagating position errors are not static over time. This error correction allows for a considerable amount of error of error to be negated, potentially as much as 90 percent

GPS SETUP BLOCK DIAGRAM

4.

HOW IT WORKS

24 GPS satellites circle the earth twice a day in a very precise orbit and transmit signal information to earth. GPS receivers take this information and use triangulation to calculate the user's exact location. Essentially, the GPS receiver compares the time a signal was transmitted by a satellite with the time it was received. The time difference tells the GPS receiver how far away the satellite is. Now, with distance measurements from a few more satellites, the receiver can determine the user's position and display it on the unit's electronic map.

24 satellites revolving earth

A GPS receiver must be locked on to the signal of at least three satellites to calculate a 2D position (latitude and longitude) and track movement. With four or more satellites in view, the receiver can determine the user's 3D position (latitude, longitude and altitude). Once the user's position has been determined, the GPS unit can calculate other information, such as speed, bearing, track, trip distance, distance to destination, sunrise and sunset time and more.

Although four satellites are required for normal operation, fewer apply in special cases. If one variable is already known (for example, a ship or plane may have known elevation), a receiver can determine its position using only three satellites. Some GPS receivers may use additional clues or assumptions (such as reusing the last

known altitude, dead reckoning, inertial navigation, or including information from the vehicle computer) to give a degraded position when fewer than four satellites are visible.

5.

PRINCIPLES

A GPS receiver calculates its position by precisely timing the signals sent by the GPS satellites high above the Earth. Each satellite continually transmits messages containing the time the message was sent, precise orbital information. It might seem three satellites are enough to solve for position, since space has three dimensions. However a very small clock error multiplied by the very large speed of light the speed at which satellite signals propagate results in a large positional error.

The receiver uses a fourth satellite to solve for x, y, z, and t While most GPS applications use the computed location only and effectively hide the very accurately computed time, it is used in a few specialized GPS applications such as time transfer and traffic signal timing.

Using messages received from a minimum of four visible satellites, a GPS receiver is able to determine the satellite positions and time sent. The x, y, and z components of position and the time sent are designated as xi,yi,zi,ti ; Knowing the indicated time the message was received tr, the GPS receiver can compute the indicated transit time, tr-ti. of the message. Assuming the message traveled at the speed of light, c, the distance traveled, can be computed as . (tr-ti) c. GPS receiver is on the surface of a sphere centered at the position of a satellite. Thus we know that the indicated position of the GPS receiver is at the intersection of the surfaces of four spheres ( If no error )

Circle and sphere surfaces in most cases of practical interest intersect at two points, although it is conceivable that they could intersect at one pointor not at all. Another figure, Surface of Sphere Intersecting a Circle at Two Points, shows this intersection. The two intersections are marked with dots. Again trilateration clearly shows this mathematically.

The correct position of the GPS receiver is the intersection that is closest to the surface of the earth for automobiles and other near-Earth vehicles. The correct position of the GPS receiver is also the intersection which is closest to the surface of the sphere corresponding to the fourth satellite. (The two intersections are symmetrical with respect to the plane containing the three satellites. If the three satellites are not in the same orbital plane, the plane containing the three satellites will not be a vertical plane passing through the center of the Earth. In this case one of the intersections will be closer to the earth than the other. The near-Earth intersection will be the correct position for the case of a near-Earth vehicle. The intersection which is farthest from Earth may be the correct position for space vehicles.)

The method of calculating position for the case of no errors has been explained. One of the most significant error sources is the GPS receiver's clock. Because of the very large value of the speed of light, c, the estimated

distances from the GPS receiver to the satellites, the pseudo ranges, are very sensitive to errors in the GPS receiver clock. This suggests that an extremely accurate and expensive clock is required for the GPS receiver to work. On the other hand, manufacturers prefer to build inexpensive GPS receivers for mass markets. The solution for this dilemma is based on the way sphere surfaces intersect in the GPS problem.

6.

GPS SIGNALS

Each GPS satellite continuously broadcasts a Navigation Message at 50 bit/s giving the time-of-week, GPS week number and satellite health information (all transmitted in the first part of the message), an ephemeris (transmitted in the second part of the message) and an almanac (later part of the message). The messages are sent in frames, each taking 30 seconds to transmit 1500 bits.

Transmission of each 30 second frame begins precisely on the minute and half minute as indicated by the satellite's atomic clock according to Satellite message format. Each frame contains 5 sub frames of length 6 seconds and with 300 bits. Each sub frame contains 10 words of 30 bits with length 0.6 seconds each.

Words 1 and 2 of every sub frame have the same type of data. The first word is the telemetry word which indicates the beginning of a sub frame and is used by the receiver to synch with the navigation message. The second word is the HOW or handover word and it contains timing information which enables the receiver to identify the sub frame and provides the time the next sub frame was sent.

Words 3 through 10 of sub frame 1 contain data describing the satellite clock and its relationship to GPS time. Words 3 through 10 of sub frames 2 and 3, contain the ephemeris data, giving the satellite's own precise orbit. The ephemeris is updated every 2 hours and is generally valid for 4 hours, with provisions for updates every 6 hours or longer in non-nominal conditions. The time needed to acquire the ephemeris is becoming a significant element of the delay to first position fix, because, as the hardware becomes more capable, the time to lock onto the satellite signals shrinks, but the ephemeris data requires 30 seconds (worst case) before it is received, due to the low data transmission rate.

The almanac consists of coarse orbit and status information for each satellite in the constellation, an ionospheric model, and information to relate GPS derived time to Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). Words 3 through 10 of sub frames 4 and 5 contain a new part of the almanac. Each frame contains 1/25th of the almanac, so 12.5 minutes are required to receive the entire almanac from a single satellite.[23] The almanac serves several purposes. The first is to assist in the acquisition of satellites at power-up by allowing the receiver to generate a list of visible satellites based on stored position and time, while an ephemeris from each satellite is needed to compute position fixes using that satellite.

All satellites broadcast at the same two frequencies, 1.57542 GHz (L1 signal) and 1.2276 GHz (L2 signal). The receiver can distinguish the signals from different satellites because GPS uses a code division

multiple access (CDMA) spread-spectrum technique where the low-bit rate message data is encoded with a high-rate pseudo-random (PRN) sequence that is different for each satellite. The receiver knows the PRN codes for each satellite and can use this to reconstruct the actual message data. The message data is transmitted at 50 bits per second. Two distinct CDMA encodings are used: the coarse/acquisition (C/A) code (a so-called Gold code) at 1.023 million chips per second, and the precise (P) code at 10.23 million chips per second. The L1 carrier is modulated by both the C/A and P codes, while the L2 carrier is only modulated by the P code.[24] The C/A code is public and used by civilian GPS receivers, while the P code can be encrypted as a so-called P(Y) code which is only available to military equipment with a proper decryption key. Both the C/A and P(Y) codes impart the precise time-of-day to the user.

7.

SIGNAL STRUCTURE

L1 (1575.42 MHz): Mix of Navigation Message, coarse-acquisition (C/A) code and encrypted precision P(Y) code, plus the new L1C on future Block III satellites.

L2 (1227.60 MHz): P(Y) code, plus the new L2C code on the Block IIR-M and newer satellites.

L3 (1381.05 MHz): Used by the Nuclear Detonation (NUDET) Detection System Payload (NDS) to signal detection of nuclear detonations and other high-energy infrared events. Used to enforce nuclear test ban treaties.

L4 (1379.913 MHz): Being studied for additional ionospheric correction.

L5 (1176.45 MHz): Proposed for use as a civilian safety-of-life (SoL) signal. This frequency falls into an internationally protected range for aeronautical navigation, promising little or no interference under all circumstances. The first Block IIF satellite that would provide this signal is set to be launched in 2009.

8.

SOURCES OF ERRORS

User equivalent range errors (UERE) are shown in the table. There is also a numerical error with an estimated value of about 1 meter. The standard deviations, , for the coarse/acquisition and precise codes are also shown in the table. These standard deviations are computed by taking the square root of the sum of the squares of the individual components (i.e. RSS for root sum squares). To get the standard deviation of receiver position estimate, these range errors must be multiplied by the appropriate dilution of precision terms and then RSS'ed with the numerical error.

The main sources are

1.

Signal arrival time measurement

2. 3. 4. 5.

Atmospheric effects Multipath effects Ephemeris and clock errors Geometric dilution of precision computation (DOP)

9.

SOURCES OF INTERFERENCE

There are mainly two sources.

1. 2.

Natural sources Artificial sources

Natural sources Since GPS signals at terrestrial receivers tend to be relatively weak, natural radio signals or scattering of the GPS signals can desensitize the receiver, making acquiring and tracking the satellite signals difficult or impossible.

Artificial sources In automotive GPS receivers, metallic features in windshields, such as defrosters, or car window tinting film scan act as a Faraday cage, degrading reception just inside the car.

Man-made EMI (electromagnetic interference) can also disrupt, or jam, GPS signals. In one well documented case, the entire harbor of Moss Landing, Calif. was unable to receive GPS signals due to unintentional jamming caused by malfunctioning TV antenna preamplifiers. Intentional jamming is also possible. Generally, stronger signals can interfere with GPS receivers when they are within radio range

10. APPLICATIONS OF GPS

   

Agriculture (proper soil selection , Fertilizer application) Aviation (to view roots and air ports , pads etc) Environment (mapping , weather forecast ) Transportation (vehicle tracking, personal )

      

Marine (Root navigation, prediction of risks) Military (target navigation, mapping, routing) Rail (passage navigation, building up of new tracks) Space (Space research, forecasting) Surveying ( for survey purposes) Timing (for accurate time calculation) Industrial (for selecting plant locations, transportation, etc.)

CONCLUSION

The GPS is now changing the way we live, standards and very useful. There should be more and more applications for GPS in the future years. Also its available in any part of the world. GPS functionality has now started to move into mobile phones en masse. The first handsets with integrated GPS were launched already in the late 1990s, and were available for broader consumer availability on networks such as those run by Nextel, Sprint and Verizon in 2002 in response to US FCC mandates for handset positioning in emergency calls. Capabilities for access by third party software developers to these features were slower in coming, with Nextel opening up those APIs upon launch to any developer, Sprint following in 2006, and Verizon soon thereafter.