DEAD RECKONING by GPS CARRIER PHASE

GPS Carrier Phase for Dynamics ?

The practice of dead reckoning (a figurative phrase of uncertain origin) is five centuries old.   In its original form, incremental excursions were plotted on a mariner’s chart using dividers for distances, with directions obtained via compass (with corrections for magnetic variation and deviation). Those steps, based on perceived velocity over known time intervals, were accumulated until a correction became available (e.g., from a landmark or a star sighting).

Modern technology has produced more accurate means of dead reckoning, such as Doppler radar or inertial navigation systems.   Addressed here is an alternative means of dead reckoning, by exploiting sequential changes in highly accurate carrier phase. The method, successfully validated in flight with GPS, easily lends itself to operation with satellites from other GNSS constellations (GALILEO, GLONASS, etc.).  That interoperability is now one of the features attracting increased attention; sequential changes in carrier phase are far easier to mix than the phases themselves, and measurements formed that way are insensitive to ephemeris errors (even with satellite mislocation,  changes in satellite position are precise).

Even with usage of only one constellation (i.e., GPS for the flight test results reported here), changes in carrier phase over 1-second intervals provided important benefits. Advantages to be described now will be explained in terms of limitations in the way carrier phase information is used conventionally.   Phase measurements are normally expressed as a product of the L-band wavelength multiplied by a sum in the form (integer + fraction) wherein the fraction is precisely measured while the large integer must be determined. When that integer is known exactly the result is of course extremely accurate.  Even the most ingenious methods of integer extraction, however, occasionally produce a highly inaccurate result.   The outcome can be catastrophic and there can be an unacceptably long delay before correction is possible.   Elimination of that possibility provided strong motivation for the scheme described here.

Linear phase facilitates streaming velocity with GNSS interoperability

With formation of 1-sec changes, all carrier phases can be forever ambiguous, i.e., the integers can remain unknown; they cancel in forming the sequential differences. Furthermore, discontinuities can be tolerated; a reappearing signal is instantly acceptable as soon as two successive carrier phases differ by an amount satisfying the single-measurement RAIM test.   The technique is especially effective with receivers using FFT-based processing, which provides unconditional access, with no phase distortion, to all correlation cells (rather than a limited subset offered by a track loop).

Another benefit is subtle but highly significant: acceptability of sub-mask carrier phase changes. Ionospheric and tropospheric timing offsets change very little over a second. Conventional systems are designed to reject measurements from low elevation satellites. Especially in view of improved geometric spread, retention here prevents unnecessary loss of important information.   Demonstration of that occurred in flight when a satelllite dropped to horizon; submask pseudoranges of course had to be rejected, but all of the 1-sec carrier phase changes were perfectly acceptable until the satellite was no longer detectable.

One additional (deeper) topic, requiring much more rigorous analysis, arises from sequential correlations among 1-sec phase change observables. The issue is thoroughly addressed and put to rest in the later sections of the 5th chapter of GNSS Aided Navigation and Tracking.

Dead reckoning capability without-IMU was verified in flight, producing decimeter/sec RMS velocity errors outside of turn transients (Section 8.1.2, pages 154-162 of the book just cited). With a low-cost IMU, accuracy is illustrated in the table near the bottom of a 1-page description on this site (also appearing on page 104 of that book). All 1-sec phase increment residual magnitudes were zero or 1 cm for the seven satellites (six across-SV differences) observed at the time shown. Over almost an hour of flight at altitude (i.e., excluding takeoff, when heading uncertainty caused larger lever-arm vector errors), cm/sec RMS velocity accuracy was obtained.