Performance of DGPS Smartphone Positioning with the Use of P(L1) vs. P(L5) Pseudorange Measurements

Abstract

This paper presents numerical analyzes of code differential GPS positioning with the use of two Huawei P30 Pro mobile phones. Code observations on L1 and L5 frequencies were chosen for DGPS positioning analysis. For project purposes, we additionally used one high-class geodetic GNSS receiver (Javad Alpha) acting as a reference station. Smartphones were placed at the same distance of 0.5 m from the reference receiver. Such a close distance was specially planned by the authors in order to achieve identical observation conditions. Thus, it was possible to compare the DGPS positioning accuracy using the same satellites and the P(L1) and P(L5) code only, for single observation epochs and for sequential DGPS adjustment. Additionally, the precision of observations of the second differences in the observations P(L1) and P(L5) was analyzed. In general, the use of the P(L5) code to derive DGPS positions has made it possible to significantly increase the accuracy with respect to the positions derived using the P(L1) code. Average errors of horizontal and vertical coordinates were about 60–80% lower for the DGPS solution using the P(L5) code than using the P(L1) code. Based on the simulated statistical analyses, an accuracy of about 0.4 m (3D) with 16 satellites may be obtained using a smartphone with P(L5) code. An accuracy of about 0.3 m (3D) can be achieved with 26 satellites.