Satellite availability and positioning performance of uncombined precise point positioning using BeiDou-2 and BeiDou-3 multi-frequency signals

Abstract

To realize the smooth transition from regional BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS-2) to the global one (BDS-3), the integration of BDS-2 and BDS-3 is important for providing continuous, stable and reliable positioning, navigation and timing (PNT) services for global users. This work used 154 globally distributed multi-GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System) experiment stations spanning 30 days to analyze the satellite availability and positioning performance of uncombined precise point positioning (UC-PPP) under current BDS-2 and BDS-3 constellations. We focused on three issues: the influence of BDS-3 receiver tracking abilities, the positioning performance among different areas, and the benefit of multi-frequency observations. The results show that the elliptical zone caused by poor BDS-2 satellite visibility is disappeared when the evenly distributed BDS-3 medium earth orbit satellites are introduced. When BDS-3 are integrated with BDS-2, the area with the Position Dilution of Precision (PDOP) less than 2 can be expanded to 75° S-75° N and 30° E-150° W. The positioning performance of BDS-3 and BDS-2/BDS-3 UC-PPP are seriously affected by the receiver tracking abilities of BDS-3 signals. When the maximum pseudo-random noise sequences (PRNs) of BDS-3 satellites tracked by stations are within 30 or 37, the positioning accuracy of static UC-PPP can be improved by 22.94% or 8.27% due to the integration of BDS-2 and BDS-3. Besides, the most improvement of BDS-2 and BDS-3 integration is achieved in Asia-Pacific regions, especially for the kinematic UC-PPP or the poor receiver tracking abilities of BDS-3. Similar to the multi-frequency BDS-2 UC-PPP, the benefit of multi-frequency signals for BDS-3 or BDS-2/BDS-3 UC-PPP is also non-vital. The three-dimensional positioning accuracy of BDS-2/BDS-3 multi-frequency UC-PPP in static mode and kinematic mode are 2.24 cm and 5.39 cm, while the corresponding convergence time are 49.62 min and 73.80 min, respectively. Compared with BDS-2, both the positioning accuracy and the convergence time of BDS-2/BDS-3 joint UC-PPP are improved by approximately over 50%, which indicates that BDS-3 has a great potential to provide high-quality PNT services as other global navigation satellite systems.