Ambiguity-Fixing in Frequency-Varying Carrier Phase Measurements: Global Navigation Satellite System and Terrestrial Examples

Abstract

<h3>Abstract</h3> Carrier phase signals are considered among the key observations in global navigation satellite systems (GNSSs) and several other high-precision interferometric measurement systems. However, these ultra-precise measurements are not fully exploited when the integerness of their inherent ambiguities is discarded during the estimation process. Provided that the integer-estimable functions of their phase ambiguities are properly identified, integer ambiguity resolution (IAR) can be utilized to benefit their parameter solutions. For the GNSS code division multiple access systems with transmitters that broadcast carrier phase signals on identical frequencies, these integer-estimable functions have been characterized and are well-known as double differenced ambiguities. However, this is not the case with “frequency-varying” carrier phase signals that are broadcast by GLONASS satellites, Low-Earth-Orbiting communication satellites, or cellular long-term evolution (LTE) transmitters. This study aims to present full-rank models that can be used to identify integer-estimable ambiguity functions, thereby bringing the observation equations of frequency-varying carrier phase measurements into an IAR-applicable form. Our analytical results are supported by several numerical examples, including GNSS and terrestrial-based IAR as well as a new set of “inter-frequency” integer ambiguities that this study discovers in Galileo multi-frequency carrier phase signals.