Research and simulation of LEO-based navigation augmentation

Abstract

The low Earth orbit (LEO) constellation satellite has natural features such as rapid geometric changes, strong signal power, and global space-based monitoring coverage. It can effectively supplement and enhance the global navigation satellite system (GNSS) in the mid-high orbit. Moreover, it can improve the accuracy, integrity, availability, and anti-interference capabilities of the positioning, navigation, and timing service, which has become an important development direction for next-generation satellite navigation systems. This paper summarizes the development status of the LEO constellations, designs the LEO constellations, and analyzes the navigation augmentation capabilities of the LEO constellations, such as improving the positioning accuracy, accelerating precision point positioning convergence, and global space-based monitoring. It focuses on illustrating the possibilities for the low-orbit constellation to break through the bottleneck of the existing mid-orbit and high-orbit GNSS technology and shows chances of the system incremental capabilities. The corresponding simulation results are specified to provide references and suggestions for the integration of the development of China’s low-orbit constellation and Beidou satellite navigation system.