Equivalence of network-solution and PPP-solution

Abstract

The technique of precise point positioning (PPP) is gradually becoming a popular method in GPS data-processing. In GPS observation equation, the unknown parameters can be separated into two parts: global parameters and local parameters. The global parameters include orbit, satellite clock and geodynamic parameters. The local parameters are site-occupation-spectific, such as position, tropospheric delay, etc. The formulas of local parameters are firstly derived under the network-solution and the PPP-solution conditions respectively. If the weight matrix of global parameters in PPP-solution is small enough, the cofactor matrices of local parameters are the same as that in network-solution. Then, 16 daily solutions are obtained in both PPP mode and network mode. Three sites are selected to compare the solutions. The experimental results demonstrated that the difference between two solutions in coordinates and tropospheric delays are only few millimeters. This level of difference can be neglected so that the solutions from both PPP mode and network mode can be taken as the same in the actual application.