LEO navigation augmentation constellation design and precise point positioning performance analysis based on BDS-3

Abstract

Low Earth orbit (LEO) satellites have high signal strength and faster geometry changes over short periods, offering unique advantages in navigation augmentation. Integrating LEO satellites into the navigation system can help augment the performance of the global satellite navigation system and break the dilemma of the existing navigation system with limited services in challenging environments. Constellation design is the key before establishing a complete LEO navigation augmentation platform. Therefore, in this study, two LEO navigation augmentation constellations, Polar/Walker (S1) and Walker/Walker (S2) with different inclinations, are designed and optimized using the non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm III (NSGA-III). The global average geometric dilution of precision (GDOP) of BDS-3 is reduced from 1.56 to 0.92 and 0.95, and the average visible satellite number is improved from 11.74 to 27.83 and 25.72 with the navigation augmentation of the optimized constellations. To further validate the navigation augmentation effect of two LEO constellations on BDS-3 precision point positioning (PPP), nine stations at different latitudes were selected for LEO augmented BDS-3 PPP simulation experiments. The results show that after adding S1 and S2 constellations to BDS-3, respectively, the convergence times of the nine stations are reduced by 35.5%∼96.5% and 43.7%∼96.2%, and the positioning accuracy is improved by 5.7%∼71.9% and 24.2%∼69.5%, respectively. Overall, each S1 and S2 constellations can significantly improve the global service performance and PPP performance of BDS-3.