B1I Signal Research Articles

An Adaptive Indicator Optimization Ensemble Empirical Mode Decomposition Method and Its Application on the Denoising of BeiDou B1I Signal

An Adaptive Indicator Optimization Ensemble Empirical Mode Decomposition Method and Its Application on the Denoising of BeiDou B1I Signal

Contribution of BDS-3 observations to the precise orbit determination of LEO satellites: a case study of TJU-01

The precise orbit determination (POD) of scientific low Earth orbit (LEO) satellites is a prerequisite for the successful implementation of scientific missions. In recent years, global navigation satellite systems have become the main means of determining the orbits of LEO satellites. The global navigation satellite system receiver onboard the Tianjin University No. 1 (TJU-01) satellite receives both GPS and BDS-2/3 signals, with the addition of BDS-2/3 observations playing an important role in improving the POD of LEO satellites. This study comprehensively analyzes the spaceborne GPS/BDS data quality, including BDS-2/3 and GPS code multipath errors. Appreciable code multipath errors are found for the B1I signal of BDS-2 medium Earth orbit (MEO) satellites at elevations higher than 40°, whereas slight near-field relevant multipath errors of both frequencies are found for GPS and BDS-3 MEO satellites. The GPS and BDS-2/3 code multipath errors are estimated through elevation/azimuth-relevant piece-wise modeling and applied in the POD calculations. Several schemes, namely GPS-based, BDS-based, BDS-based without geo-synchronous (GEO) satellites, and GPS/BDS combined schemes, are designed to evaluate the POD performance. Fourteen days of data are calculated and the average three-dimensional (3D) orbital root mean square (RMS) of orbit overlapping differences obtained from GPS-based and BDS-based POD (without GEO satellites) solutions are 37.4 and 27.1 mm, respectively. The BDS-based solutions are obviously better than the GPS-based solutions, mainly owing to better data availability. The GPS/BDS combined solutions have the best accuracy, with a 3D RMS value of 20.6 mm. In addition, when BDS GEO satellites are included, the 3D RMS of the overlapping orbit differences reduces to 32.9 and 27.4 mm for BDS-based and GPS/BDS combined solutions, respectively. Double-difference (DD) and single-difference (SD) integer ambiguity resolution (IAR) are adopted to further improve the POD performance. The fixed orbit of the TJU-01 satellite is solved through DD IAR and SD IAR, and the contribution of the TJU-01 satellite to ambiguity fixing is analyzed. Relative to the float solution, the improvements made using the two ambiguity fixing approaches are equivalent, both being approximately 13%. The importance of this research is not only the precise determination of the orbit of TJU-01 for occultation service but also the demonstration of the contribution of BDS observations to the performance of the POD of LEO satellites.

Acquisition of Weak BDS Signal in the Lunar Environment

Autonomous navigation using the GNSS has been increasingly used in lunar exploration missions, as it is considered an efficient method for spacecraft to operate without relying on ground facilities. However, so far, only GPS and Galileo have been studied and implemented in lunar missions, whereas the potential of BDS-3 for such missions remains largely unexplored. This paper presents an analysis and evaluation of the navigation service capabilities for spacecraft at lunar altitudes by utilizing existing GNSS satellite resources in orbit. In detail, we investigate the number of GNSS signals received by low lunar orbit (LLO) receivers, as well as the carrier-to-noise ratio (C/N0), Doppler shift, and geometric dilution of precision (GDOP) of the received signal. Additionally, a digital intermediate frequency (IF) signal simulation program to emulate the BDS B1I signal is utilized, which allows to freely set the carrier-to-noise ratio, Doppler shift, and code phase. Based on this framework, we discussed a high-sensitivity BDS B1I signal receiver and validated its performance with simulated signals. We verified the capabilities of coherent integration, non-coherent integration, differential integration, and semi-bit methods to detect weak BDS B1I signals in a lunar environment. The results indicate that the semi-bit coherent differential integration method is still capable of acquiring signals at a C/N0 of 15 dB-Hz and can effectively suppress the navigation data bit sign transition.

BDS-3 B1I Signal Tracking Error Characteristic and Its Advantage in PPP Under Ionospheric Scintillation at Low Latitudes

BDS-3 B1I Signal Tracking Error Characteristic and Its Advantage in PPP Under Ionospheric Scintillation at Low Latitudes

Signal-in-space range error and positioning accuracy of BDS-3

Being the first mixed-constellation global navigation system, the global BeiDou navigation system (BDS-3) designs new signals, the service performance of which has attracted extensive attention. In the present study, the Signal-in-space range error (SISRE) computation method for different types of navigation satellites was presented. The differential code bias (DCB) correction method for BDS-3 new signals was deduced. Based on these, analysis and evaluation were done by adopting the actual measured data after the official launching of BDS-3. The results showed that BDS-3 performed better than the regional navigation satellite system (BDS-2) in terms of SISRE. Specifically, the SISRE of the BDS-3 medium earth orbit (MEO) satellites reached 0.52 m, slightly inferior compared to 0.4 m from Galileo, marginally better than 0.59 m from GPS, and significantly better than 2.33 m from GLONASS. The BDS-3 inclined geostationary orbit (IGSO) satellites achieved the SISRE of 0.90 m, on par with that (0.92 m) of the QZSS IGSO satellites. However, the average SISRE of BDS-3 geostationary earth orbit (GEO) satellites was 1.15 m, which was marginally inferior to that of the QZSS GEO satellite (0.91 m). In terms of positioning accuracy, the new signals B1C and B2a are considered together with the transition signals B1I and B3I. The overall three-dimensional single-frequency standard point positioning (SPP) accuracy of BDS-3 B1C, B2a, B1I, and B3I gained an accuracy level better than 5 m. Moreover, the B1I signal exhibited the best positioning accuracy in the Asian-Pacific region, while the B1C signal set forth the best positioning accuracy in the other regions. Owing to the advantage in signal frequency, the dual-frequency SPP accuracy of B1C + B2a surpassed that of the transitional signal of B1I + B3I. Since there are more visible satellites in Asia–Pacific, the positioning accuracy of BDS-3 was moderately superior to that of GPS. The precise point positioning (PPP) accuracy of BDS-3 B1C + B2a or B1I + B3I converged to the order of centimeters, marginally inferior to that of the GPS L1 + L2. However, these three combinations had a similar convergence time of approximately 30 min.

The analysis and evaluation of the multipath error of the BDS marine measurement

Marine measurements are generally with more multipath effects than land measurements. The characteristics of the multipath error from the different antennas and different types of signals are also worthy of investigation, and the new signals delivered by BDS-3 (the 3rd generation BeiDou system) have the better feature. Especially, the performance of new signals, B1C and B2a, for anti-multipath needs to be further investigated. The experiments with the same type of receivers connected to different antennas in the oceanic environment were conducted. The signal power and the multipath of the different signals are compared. Moreover, to explore the correlation between the multipath of the code and carrier, the normalization principle is firstly executed to archive the uniform variable, and correlation coefficients are counted after that. The research results show that in the same observation scene, the B1I signal power of the Multipath Suppression Antenna (MSA) is bigger than that of the Normal Geodesy Antenna (NGA), whereas the other signals, such as B3I, is contrary. It reflects weighting only by C/N0 in the positioning is not accurate. The B1C and B2a have a prominent difference in the aspect of the signal power, and this difference is not obvious between the legacy signals. On the other hand, the MSA has a prominent effect on the BDS-3 new signals in the aspect of the anti-multipath. Concerning the correlation, though the code is modulated on the carrier, the multipath of the code and phase are uncorrelated from the statistics, and the different codes are weakly correlated.

A Study on Pseudorange Biases in BDS B1I/B3I Signals and the Impacts on Beidou Wide Area Differential Services

Due to satellite signal deformations, there are different constant biases in the same satellite signal that are measured by different technical types of receivers and different satellite signals that are measured by the same type of receiver, which are named pseudorange biases. These biases cannot be transmitted to users with existing navigation parameters, such as satellite time group delay (TGD) and receiver differential code biases (DCB). With the improvement of the signal-in-space accuracy of the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS), the pseudorange bias has become one of the primary error sources affecting the accuracy of GNSS services. To ensure the accuracy for users under the wide area differential services (WADS), we extracted the pseudorange biases of Beidou Satellite Navigation System (BDS) B1I, B3I and B1I/B3I signals and analyzed the impact of those biases on users under the WADS. Finally, we tried to eliminate this influence. The results show that the pseudorange biases of the B3I signal are smaller than those of the B1I signal at the centimeter level, but the pseudorange biases of the B1I/B3I signal can reach the meter level. Due to the large pseudorange bias of the B1I/B3I signal, the average user equivalent ranging error (UERE) under the WADS is 1.19 m, which is no better than the average UERE under open services (OS). Influenced by the pseudorange biases, the average positioning accuracies of the B1I/B3I signal are 4.17 m and 4.24 m under the WADS and the OS. When the pseudorange biases are deducted, these accuracies are 3.03 m and 3.50 m, respectively.

A signal optimization strategy for next generation navigation and communication integration applications

For 6G and future communication technologies, integration of navigation and communication has become a hot research topic, which can greatly improve the transmission data rate and can be applied to self-driving vehicles. In former research, a novel integrated navigation and communication signal has been designed by combining traditional global navigation satellite system (GNSS) and cyclic code shift keying (CCSK) signals. In this paper, we design an enhancement strategy for this signal, optimizing the number of cyclic shifts of the CCSK signal, which can make larger values of cross-correlation function align with the peak value of self-correlation function to overcome the cross-correlation interference and improve communication performance. Simulation results validate that the proposal not only can avoid interference between navigation and communication signals, but also can improve the signal detection probability and reduce the transmit error rate. Taking Beidou B1I signal as an example, when the signal to noise ratio (SNR) is set to -27 dB, the detection probabilities for the navigation and communication signals increase about 11.4% and 13.5%, respectively, while the symbol error rate (SER) for the navigation and communication signals decrease about 16.3% and 17.8%, respectively.

Using BDS MEO and IGSO Satellite SNR Observations to Measure Soil Moisture Fluctuations Based on the Satellite Repeat Period

Soil moisture is an important geophysical parameter for studying terrestrial water and energy cycles. It has been proven that Global Navigation Satellite System Interferometry Reflectometry (GNSS-IR) can be applied to monitor soil moisture. Unlike the Global Positioning System (GPS) that has only medium earth orbit (MEO) satellites, the Beidou Navigation Satellite System (BDS) also has geosynchronous earth orbit (GEO) satellites and inclined geosynchronous satellite orbit (IGSO) satellites. Benefiting from the distribution of three different orbits, the BDS has better coverage in Asia than other satellite systems. Previous retrieval methods that have been confirmed on GPS cannot be directly applied to BDS MEO satellites due to different satellite orbits. The contribution of this study is a proposed multi-satellite soil moisture retrieval method for BDS MEO and IGSO satellites based on signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) observations. The method weakened the influence of environmental differences in different directions by considering satellite repeat period. A 30-day observation experiment was conducted in Fengqiu County, China and was used for verification. The satellite data collected were divided according to the satellite repeat period, and ensured the response data moved in the same direction. The experimental results showed that the BDS IGSO and MEO soil moisture estimation results had good correlations with the in situ soil moisture fluctuations. The BDS MEO B1I estimation results had the best performance; the estimation accuracy in terms of correlation coefficient was 0.9824, root mean square error (RMSE) was 0.0056 cm3cm−3, and mean absolute error (MAE) was 0.0040 cm3cm−3. The estimations of the BDS MEO B1I, MEO B2I, and IGSO B2I performed better than the GPS L1 and L2 estimations. For the BDS IGSO satellites, the B1I signal was more suitable for soil moisture retrieval than the B2I signal; the correlation coefficient was increased by 19.84%, RMSE was decreased by 42.64%, and MAE was decreased by 43.93%. In addition, the BDS MEO satellites could effectively capture sudden rainfall events.

Design and Performance Analysis of BDS-3 Integrity Concept

Compared to the BeiDou regional navigation satellite system (BDS-2), the BeiDou global navigation satellite system (BDS-3) carried out a brand new integrity concept design and construction work, which defines and achieves the integrity functions for major civil open services (OS) signals such as B1C, B2a, and B1I. The integrity definition and calculation method of BDS-3 are introduced. The fault tree model for satellite signal-in-space (SIS) is used, to decompose and obtain the integrity risk bottom events. In response to the weakness in the space and ground segments of the system, a variety of integrity monitoring measures have been taken. On this basis, the design values for the new B1C/B2a signal and the original B1I signal are proposed, which are 0.9 × 10−5 and 0.8 × 10−5, respectively. The hybrid alarming mechanism of BDS-3, which has both the ground alarming approach and the satellite alarming approach, is explained. At last, an integrity risk analysis and verification work were carried out using the operating data of the system in 2019. The results show that the actual operation of the system is consistent with the conceptual design, which satisfies the integrity performance promised by BDS-3 in the ICAO SAPRs.

An Unbiased Multiparameter Algorithm of Retrieving Sea Surface Height Using Coastal GNSS Reflectometry

Due to the diffuse scattering on sea surface and dynamic geometry of coastal GNSS- R, the altimetry performance is strong dependent on elevation angle. As elevation angle decreases, the bias in retrieved height using DER and HALF retracker increases. In this paper, an multi-parameter estimator is proposed to combine the DER retracker and several HALF retrackers to obtain unbiased height. The simulated results show that the bias of the uncalibrated height using proposed algorithm has no significant dependence on elevation angle, but the RMSE for the low elevation angle case still are larger than that of the high elevation angle. In addition, the calibrated performance depends on the used fractional values so that proper fractional values should be chosen. The data from Dongying experiment acquiring GPS L1 CA and L5 signal and Qingdao experiment for BeiDou B1I signal are used to demonstrate proposed algorithm. After calibrating using proposed algorithm, regardless of GPS L1 CA, L5 or BeiDou B1I signal, the calibrated heights all are agreement with in-situ heights. Finally, the calibrated heights from BeiDou B1I signal are used to retrieve sea surface height. The results show that retrieved sea surface heights from GEO and IGSO/MEO satellites all appear the same trend with in-situ ones, furthermore, GEO satellites can provide the better retrieved performance than IGSO/MEO satellites. Through averaging the heights from several satellites and smoothing with the half-hour span, compared to in-situ sea surface height the RMSE of 0.67 m is obtained.

BDS B1I multipath channel statistical model comparison between static and dynamic scenarios in dense urban canyon environment

Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) multipath channel models are fundamental and critical for signal simulation and receiver performance evaluation. They also aid the designing of suitable multipath error mitigation algorithms when the properties of multipath channel are available. However, there is insufficient existing research on BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS) signal multipath channel models. In this study, multipath channel statistical models are established on the basis of extensive datasets of the BDS B1I signal. A multipath parameter estimation algorithm is designed to extract information of multipath rays from the intermediate frequency data. The delay, power loss, Doppler fading frequency, and lifetime distribution models for static and dynamic vehicle platforms are established and compared, and the effects of the satellite orbit type and platform speed on the models are analyzed. The results reveal the detailed distribution and variation characteristics of the multipath parameters and are valuable for the development of accurate urban navigation systems.

Fine Doppler shift acquisition algorithm for BeiDou software receiver by a look-up table

The BeiDou software receiver uses the fast Fourier transform (FFT) to perform the acquisition. The Doppler shift estimation accuracy should be less than 500 Hz to ensure satellite signals to enter a locked state in the tracking loop. Since the frequency step is usually 500 Hz or larger, the Doppler shift estimation accuracy cannot guarantee that satellite signals are brought into a stable tracking state. The straightforward solutions consist in increasing the sampling time and using zero-padding to improve the frequency resolution of the FFT. However, these solutions intensify the complexity and amount of computation. The contradiction between the acquisition accuracy and the computational load leads us to research for a more simple and effective algorithm, which achieves fine acquisition by a look-up table. After coarse acquisition using the parallel frequency acquisition (PFA) algorithm, the proposed algorithm optimizes the Doppler shift estimation through the look-up table method based on the FFT results to improve the acquisition accuracy of the Doppler shift with a minimal additional computing load. When the Doppler shift is within the queryable range of the table, the proposed algorithm can improve the Doppler shift estimation accuracy to 50 Hz for the BeiDou B1I signal.

Evaluation of GBAS flight trials based on BDS and GPS

Ground-based augmentation systems (GBASs) are widely used augmentation systems using satellite navigation. GBAS can improve the performance of BeiDou navigation satellite system (BDS) in civil aviation application. Evaluation is necessary before using a GBAS. On the basis of the flight trials conducted at the Dongying airport, evaluation results show that based on both the global positioning system (GPS) L1 signal and BDS B1I signal, ground accuracy designators (GADs) of four reference receivers are consistent with GAD-C levels. The improvement in accuracy obtained with GBAS differential process is ∼60%, and the differential position error based on the BDS B1I signal is 40% greater than that of the GPS L1 signal, because currently incomplete BDS satellites distribution is worse than that of GPS. Airborne protection levels assessments show that the approach trials based on the BDS B1I signal exhibit several false alarm events. Further analysis indicates that BDS vertical protection levels were larger because of larger pseudoinverse S result from low elevation angle and unsatisfactory geometric distribution of BDS satellites. Besides, monitors show that BDS B1I signal is more affected by ionospheric delay than GPS L1 signal, which can also contribute to false alarm events.

Grouping FFT Based Two-Stage High Sensitivity Signal Acquisition With Sign Transitions

The acquisition performance of weak global navigation satellite system signals, especially those with secondary codes, is susceptible to sign transitions. To better understand and overcome the negative impact of sign transitions, this paper derived a new receiver auto-correlation function. The straightforward formula shows that sign transitions can reduce the accuracy of the Doppler estimate. To meet the initialization requirements of the tracking block, a two-stage high-sensitivity acquisition frame is proposed based on sign combinations search using matrix notation. The first stage adopts the conventional non-coherent combination (NC) algorithm to obtain the coarse code phase. And the second stage achieves high-resolution frequency estimation through fast Fourier transform (FFT). Besides, a novel grouping FFT algorithm is proposed to reduce the complexity of the second stage. The Beidou navigation satellite system (BDS) B1I signal is used as an example to verify the performances. Compared with conventional NC algorithm, the statistical performance of the new algorithm, in terms of the detection probabilities and frequency errors, can be greatly improved. To be specific, the proposed algorithm can actualize the 90% detection possibility of BDS B1I signal at a carrier-to-noise ratio (C/N0) of 23.9 dB-Hz within 200 ms with a Doppler accuracy of about 31 Hz. And the computing load of the second stage is reduced by about 11.6% compared with the conventional FFT approach. Actual data test further verifies the superiority of the new method. Inevitably, the total processing time increases by about 30%.

An Analytical Model for BDS B1 Spreading Code Self-Interference Evaluation Considering NH Code Effects.

The short spreading code used by the BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS) B1-I or GPS Coarse/Acquistiion (C/A) can cause aggregately undesirable cross-correlation between signals within each single constellation. This GPS-to-GPS or BDS-to-BDS correlation is referred to as self-interference. A GPS C/A code self-interference model is extended to propose a self-interference model for BDS B1, taking into account the unique feature of the B1-I signal transmitted by BDS medium Earth orbit (MEO) and inclined geosynchronous orbit (IGSO) satellites—an extra Neumann-Hoffmann (NH) code. Currently there is no analytical model for BDS self-interference and a simple three parameter analytical model is proposed. The model is developed by calculating the spectral separation coefficient (SSC), converting SSC to equivalent white noise power level, and then using this to calculate effective carrier-to-noise density ratio. Cyclostationarity embedded in the signal offers the proposed model additional accuracy in predicting B1-I self-interference. Hardware simulator data are used to validate the model. Software simulator data are used to show the impact of self-interference on a typical BDS receiver including the finding that self-interference effect is most significant when the differential Doppler between desired and undesired signal is zero. Simulation results show the aggregate noise caused by just two undesirable spreading codes on a single desirable signal could lift the receiver noise floor by 3.83 dB under extreme C/N0 (carrier to noise density ratio) conditions (around 20 dB-Hz). This aggregate noise has the potential to increase code tracking standard deviation by 11.65 m under low C/N0 (15–19 dB-Hz) conditions and should therefore, be avoided for high-sensitivity applications. Although the findings refer to Beidou system, the principle weakness of the short codes illuminated here are valid for other satellite navigation systems.

The Ionospheric Scintillation Effects on the BeiDou Signal Receiver.

Irregularities in the Earth’s ionosphere can make the amplitude and phase of radio signals fluctuate rapidly, which is known as ionospheric scintillation. Severe ionospheric scintillation could affect the performance of the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS). Currently, the Multiple Phase Screen (MPS) technique is widely used in solving problems caused by weak and strong scintillations. Considering that Southern China is mainly located in the area where moderate and intense scintillation occur frequently, this paper built a model based on the MPS technique and discussed the scintillation impacts on China’s BeiDou navigation system. By using the BeiDou B1I signal, this paper analyzed the scintillation effects on the receiver, which includes the acquisition and tracking process. For acquisition process, this paper focused on the correlation peak and acquisition probability. For the tracking process, this paper focused on the carrier tracking loop and the code tracking loop. Simulation results show that under high scintillation intensity, the phase fluctuation could be −1.13 ± 0.087 rad to 1.40 ± 0.087 rad and the relative amplitude fluctuation could be −10 dB to 8 dB. As the scintillation intensity increased, the average correlation peak would decrease more than 8%, which could thus degrade acquisition performance. On the other hand, when the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) is comparatively lower, the influence of strong scintillation on the phase locked loop (PLL) is much higher than that of weak scintillation. As the scintillation becomes more intense, PLL variance could consequently results in an error of more than 2.02 cm in carrier-phase based ranging. In addition, the delay locked loop (DLL) simulation results indicated that the pseudo-range error caused by strong scintillation could be more than 4 m and the consequent impact on positioning accuracy could be more than 6 m.

Analysis of Adaptive Detection Threshold for High Sensitivity Compass Navigation Receiver

Compared with fixed detection threshold, adaptive detection threshold substantially improves the reception sensitivities in high sensitivity receivers. The optimal detection threshold depends on probability distribution of the received signals. The out-of-phase auto correlation values and cross correlation values of Chinese Compass B1-I signal were analyzed, and the probability distribution of the signal with the differential correlation technique was provided. Then the optimal detection threshold and the sensitivity gain that can be obtained by the adaptive detection threshold were provided.