Analysis of the Beidou navigation satellite system: Interoperability and performance

Abstract

Based on the new trends and requirements introduced by the development of the international navigation satellite systems from the single global positioning system (GPS) era to the multiple global navigation satellite system (GNSS) era, the Beidou-3 navigation satellite system (BDS-3) has been designed to ensure compatibility and interoperability with other GNSS systems based on four features, i.e., constellation, signal, time, and coordinate. In terms of constellation design, the BDS-3 constellation orbit altitude and inclination design consider the constellation complementary requirements with the GPS, GLONASS, and Galileo systems. Thus, the PDOP of GNSS improves by 37.9% on average. BDS has acquired interoperability with respect to the signal structure; therefore, it is in agreement with other systems using a similar frequency and spectrum. Thus, users can simultaneously use the navigation services of each major system without changing the hardware design. In terms of time and coordinate, BDS has realized a reference system that is considerably consistent with the systems used on an international scale, resulting in a time difference offset of 50 ns with international UTC and GLNT, which is consistent with the international ITRF 2014 coordinate parameter accuracy. Thus, BDS-3 has achieved interoperability with other GNSSs based on the four aforementioned aspects and can provide better service to global users in combination with other GNSSs.