Preliminary Analysis of Intersystem Biases in BDS-2/BDS-3 Precise Time and Frequency Transfer

Abstract

The Chinese BeiDou global satellite system (BDS-3) and regional system (BDS-2) are predicted to coexist over the next decade. Intersystem biases (ISBs) in BDS-2/BDS-3 play a key role in maintaining the consistency and continuity from the BDS-2 to BDS-3 time transfer. Here, we discuss the temporal characteristics, parameter composition, generation mechanism, and the effect of ISBs in BDS-2/BDS-3 on time and frequency transfer. The satellite orbits and clock products from three international GNSS service analysis centers, namely Wuhan University (WUM, China), GeoForschungsZentrum Potsdam (GFZ, Germany), and the Center for Orbit Determination in Europe (CODE), were employed to investigate the time-transfer stability of ISBs when BDS-2 and BDS-3 were used in combination. We analyzed the intrinsic characteristics of ISBs, the receiver types, antennas, and frequency standards. Our first results showed that ISBs are stable for different analysis center products, although the mean values of daily results differed markedly for the three analysis centers. With respect to the relationship between station attribution and ISB difference for a time link, the receiver type, antenna, and frequency standard influence the ISB differences in time and frequency transfer. The effect of three ISB stochastic models was evaluated with respect to time and frequency transfer. The “walk” and “constant” schemes were slightly superior to “noise”, with the improvement in their frequency stability being approximately 5% compared with that of “noise”.