Performance Evaluation of Precise Point Positioning for BeiDou-3 B1c/B2a Signals in the Global Range

Abstract

With the construction and development of the BeiDou navigation satellite system (BDS), the precise point positioning (PPP) performance of the BDS is worthy of research. In this study, observational data from 17 stations around the world across 20 days are used to comprehensively evaluate the PPP performance of BDS B1c/B2a signals. For greater understanding, the results are also compared with the Global Positioning System (GPS) and BDS PPP performance of different signals and system combinations. The evaluation found root mean square (RMS) values of the static PPP in the north (N), east (E), and upward (U) components, based on the B1c/B2a frequency of BDS-3, to be 6.9 mm, 4.7 mm, and 26.6 mm, respectively. Similar to the static positioning, the RMS values of kinematic PPP in the three directions of N, E, and U are 2.6 cm, 6.0 cm, and 8.5 cm, respectively. Besides this, the static PPP of BDS-3 (B1cB2a) and BDS-2 + BDS-3 (B1IB3I) have obvious system bias. Compared with static PPP, kinematic PPP is more sensitive to the number of satellites, and the coordinate accuracy in three dimensions can be increased by 27% with the combination of GPS (L1L2) and BDS. Compared with BDS-2+BDS-3 (B1IB3I), the convergence time of BDS-3 (B1CB2a) performs better in both static and kinematic modes. The antenna model does not show a significant difference in terms of the effect of the convergence speed, though the number of satellites observed has a certain influence on the convergence time.