Preliminary analysis of the quality and positioning performance of BDS-3 global interoperable signal B1C&B2a

Abstract

BeiDou-3 Navigation Satellite System (BDS-3) satellites are equipped with the new generation GNSS signals B1C and B2a, which support the interoperability with GPS and Galileo systems. In this study, the pseudo-range multipath error and carrier phase observation noise of the BDS-3 B1C and B2a signals were evaluated based on zero baseline measurements from the day of year (DOY) 113 to 116, 2020. Further, the precision and performance of the single point positioning (SPP) and precise point positioning (PPP) are assessed at 9 stations. This assessment manifests that the standard deviations (STDs) of the pseudo-range multipath error are about 0.09 ~ 0.22 m, while STDs of the carrier phase observation noise are about 0.075 mm. For the single-frequency SPP, its positioning precision is about 2.03 ~ 4.85 m and 3.29 ~ 10.73 m at the 99.99% confidence level in horizontal and vertical directions, respectively, while the dual-frequency SPP precision is about 1.92 ~ 8.02 m and 4.81 ~ 12.77 m in horizontal and vertical directions, respectively. For the daily static PPP, the convergence time is about 20 ~ 30 min, while the daily positioning precision can reach 1.38 ~ 4.42 cm and -1.31 ~ 4.34 cm in horizontal and vertical directions, respectively. In general, the quality and the SPP and PPP performance of the BDS-3 B1C&B2a signals are comparable to the GPS and Galileo.