Performance Comparison of Differential GNSS, EGNOS and SDCM in Different User Scenarios in Finland
Performance Comparison of Differential GNSS, EGNOS and SDCM in Different User Scenarios in Finland
Abstract—Positioning errors of stand-alone GNSS can be EGNOS performance is monitored at RIMS (Ranging and
reduced with different real-time augmentation approaches. For many Integrity Monitoring Stations) stations and results are also
navigation and positioning applications, Satellite-Based publicly visible at European Satellite Services Provider’s
Augmentation System (SBAS) and Differential code-based GNSS (ESSP’s) web pages [2]. The EGNOS performance analysis at
(DGNSS) can offer substantial improvement in the positioning RIMS stations are very optimistic, mainly for two reasons: i)
accuracy. Finland is covered by EGNOS (European Geostationary these stations’ GNSS pseudorange data are utilized to compute
Overlay Service) even though it is lying at the north-east margin of the corrections, and ii) the stations are stationary and located
the coverage area. In addition to EGNOS, the neighboring SBAS
usually outdoor with very good sky visibility. Therefore, the
system SDCM (System for Differential Corrections and Monitoring)
EGNOS accuracy reported in ESSP may not always reflect the
has monitoring stations near Finland. In this work, the researchers at
the Finnish Geospatial Research Institute (FGI) conducted some field
real picture of the expected accuracy within its area of
experiments with mentioned SBASs and National Land Survey of coverage. In recent years, researchers in Norway have been
Finland’s (NLS) DGNSS service in order to find out reachable monitoring EGNOS performance [5], [6] with the PEGASUS
accuracies and rough estimates of availability in varying positioning software [7]. It was shown in [5] that the EGNOS performance
conditions. Interest to SDCM grew due to its vicinity from Finland can be degraded adversely by ionospheric disturbances at high
and also partly due to its ability to provide GLONASS corrections latitudes. In addition, the geometry of GPS satellites can
which EGNOS has not yet been able to offer. sometimes be poor at northern latitudes, contributing to
degraded positioning performance. Recently, Finland has also
Keywords—SBAS, EGNOS, DGNSS, SDCM, positioning undertaken a similar project entitled ‘Finland’s EGNOS
accuracy, GPS, GLONASS, availability Monitoring and Performance Evaluation (FEGNOS)’ in order
to monitor the performance of EGNOS in Finland [8].
I. INTRODUCTION In this work, the researchers at Finnish Geospatial
Standard Positioning Services (SPS) of GNSS (receiver in Research Institute (FGI) conducted some field experiments
stand-alone mode) can be augmented with code-based with EGNOS, SDCM and National Land Survey of Finland’s
Differential GNSS (DGNSS) or with Satellite-Based (NLS) DGNSS service in order to find out reachable
Augmentation System (SBAS). In general, augmentation accuracies and rough estimates of availability in varying
system offers higher positioning accuracy than positioning positioning conditions. At first, a brief description about
made in stand-Alone mode. In addition, SBAS offers different GNSS augmentation services is presented in Section
information on availability and integrity of corrections and II. In the next section, equipment setup and coordinate
SPS ensuring positioning in safety critical applications. transformation related details are presented. In Section IV,
This paper tries to clarify the achievable real-time experimental details are illustrated, followed by results
accuracy in different user scenarios with the state-of-the-art analysis and interpretation in Section V. Finally, some
geodetic GNSS receiver in Finland with corrections from concluding remarks are made in Section VI based on the
Finnish National Land Survey’s (NLS) Differential GNSS findings of the experiments.
(DGNSS) Service, from European EGNOS (European
Geostationary Overlay Service) [1], [2] service and from
Russian SDCM (System for Differential Corrections and II. AUGMENTATION SERVICES
Monitoring) service [3], [4]. Accuracies are determined based
on the data obtained from a series of test measurements. Tests A. NLS’s DGNSS Service
are performed in both static and dynamic modes. In the beginning of 2014, FGI opened a positioning service
based on the Differential GNSS (DGNSS) corrections for GPS
and GLONASS [9]. The positioning service is based on real
The user of the open positioning service can either choose III. EQUIPMENT AND COORDINATES
to use correction from a single station (nearest or any selected)
or correction interpolated from multiple station data to certain A. Equipment Setup
spot nearby the user (rover). Corrections enhance the L1 code- Experiments were performed with Javad Delta receivers
based positioning solution and they include differential (Delta-G3T), which were connected via signal splitters to one
pseudorange corrections both for GPS and GLONASS single antenna. The antennas used in the tests were NovAtel
satellites seen by the reference station(s). The DGNSS service GPS-702-GG and Javad JPL designed choke ring antenna with
sends this information in an RTCM 2 message, specifically ‘Dorne Margolin’ elements. During the static tests, the
types 1, 3 and 31. Corrections are provided to users via NovAtel antenna was mounted on a tripod, and on a specific
internet using the NTRIP-protocol [13]. metal plate in Masala rooftop at the FGI premises. At all
The GNSMART software is also capable of providing FinnRef stations, Javad JPL antennas are mounted on top of
different types of RTK corrections. These corrections are, at three meter steel masts. During all kinematic tests, NovAtel
the moment, generated only for research purposes and are not antenna was mounted on the roof-rack of a passenger car.
provided in the public positioning service. In this work, we High quality coaxial antenna cables were used to connect the
antenna with the receiver. Furthermore, we also needed a Metsähovi, visibility was good. Photos from some of the test
computer with internet connection to feed DGNSS and sites are shown in Fig. 3.
Network RTK corrections in real-time. We used GNSSSurfer
(V1.08) to send corrections to the receiver. Corrected Static accuracy of EGNOS and SDCM were tested in
coordinates and other information were written to a file in Masala rooftop and in forest conditions. In addition,
Javad’s proprietary text message format. 10° satellite cut-off simultaneous tests at two permanent FinnRef stations were
angle was used in all the tests. Dynamic positioning mode was conducted. In these tests, two receivers were left in station
configured in the receiver while doing kinematic tests and TUO2 (at Tuorla) and other two in VIR2 (at Virolahti). The
static mode was configured for static measurements. idea behind this was to find out if there was any reference
Positioning interval was set to 1 second. Maximum allowed station distance dependency in EGNOS or SDCM. TUO2 lies
correction age (DGNSS, EGNOS and SDCM) was set to 30 in the middle of LAP and GVL RIMS stations (280 and 290
seconds for all the tests. km) and VIR2 just beside the LAP RIMS station at Virolahti.
For SDCM, test sites were located respectively about 400 kms
and 120 kms outside from the nearest monitoring station
B. Coordinate Reference Frames (Svetloe). Receivers were connected via splitters to antennas
The coordinates were obtained in the form of geographical of permanent FinnRef stations.
coordinates (Latitude, Longitude and Ellipsoidal Height).
Network-RTK reference coordinates (in case of kinematic
tests) and DGNSS coordinates were obtained in EUREF-FIN,
but EGNOS and SDCM solutions were obtained in WGS84
coordinates. Geographical EUREF-FIN coordinates were
converted to planar ETRS-TM35FIN coordinates with official
formulas. Geographical WGS84 coordinates were converted
with same formulas to planar coordinates, but due to
difference of EUREF-FIN and WGS84 we also considered
offset between these systems by adding certain values for
North, East and Up. Offset-values were calculated from the
known differences between WGS84 and EUREF-FIN at all
FinnRef stations. For each test point or Test Drive (TD), the
nearest station offsets were directly applied. Uncertainty of
final transformed coordinates was assessed to be within some
centimeters.
IV. EXPERIMENTS
accuracy statistics for this test case are shown in Table V and
TABLE III. SBAS ACCURACY IN STATIC, GOOD CONDITION the corresponding horizontal position error plot in Fig. 7.
EGNOS SDCM
Horizontal/Vertical Error [m]
TABLE IV. DGNSS AND SBAS ACCURACY IN STATIC, CHALLENGING
Site 95 % Max 95 % Max CONDITION
EGNOS SDCM
B. Static, Challenging Condition
Masala (Forest) 1.66/3.46 15.91/67.82 1.52/2.58 22.51/24.72
Positioning accuracy in challenging environment decreases
with all the tested augmentation services. But DGNSS loses
relatively the most of its accuracy, about four to six times, TABLE V. NETWORK DGNSS AND SBAS ACCURACY IN KINEMATIC,
while EGNOS and SDCM only about two times. One single GOOD AND CHALLENGING CONDITIONS
major deflection was in vertical accuracies where SDCM
Horizontal/Vertical Error [m]
reached clearly the best value. Occurrences of larger errors
became more common in challenging condition. Maximum Site 95 % Max 95 % Max
error values of DGNSS stayed the smallest. Accuracy statistics
Network DGNSS EGNOS
are shown in Table IV and horizontal scatter plots in Fig. 6.
Field Road
0.54/0.43 0.62/0.88 2.03/4.79 2.13/6.14
(TD 1)
C. Kinematic, Good Condition High-
Like the previous test cases, here also Network DGNSS /Motorway 2.91/3.61 6.18/8.99 5.90/9.42 12.48/53.03
offered better accuracy than EGNOS. During the test there (TD 3)
was a drop in number of satellites which may have at least EGNOS SDCM
partly affected the EGNOS vertical accuracy. With network High-
DGNSS, the number of satellites also dropped, but due to /Motorway 7.43/4.24 7.93/4.87 4.64/5.13 18.07/23.51
support of multi-GNSS (GPS+GLONASS), there were still (TD 4)
enough satellites visible than in the GPS-only case. The
Fig. 7. Horizontal (black dots) and vertical (red) positioning errors during Fig. 9. Horizontal (black dots) and vertical (red) positioning errors during
test drive in good condition (TD 1). Number of satellites is presented with test drive in a typical Finnish road environment in eastern Finland (TD 4).
line.
E. Availability
D. Kinematic, Challenging Condition
In challenging environments, the availability of augmented
All the tested augmentation services lose their accuracy the solutions was low due to the poor visibility of the SBAS
most in challenging kinematic condition and the offered satellites. The poorest performance was obtained in city center
accuracy from each system varies a lot during every drive. The condition. In this condition, SBAS performs poorly due to lack
best accuracy was obtained with Network DGNSS. EGNOS of corrections coming from one or two satellites. DGNSS
and SDCM performance was fairly similar. The results were solutions were then more often available as the receiver
analyzed only from drives at main roads. For the city center received corrections via the internet connection. The
condition, we did not really get enough RTK-GNSS fixed availability statistics are shown in Table VI. In Masala
solutions for reference. Thus, accuracy was not possible to be (rooftop), full availability was not achieved with DGNSS most
measured reliably with this test configuration. The accuracy probably due to a gap in the internet connection.
statistics are shown in Table V. Positioning error plots for TD
3 and TD 4 are shown in Figs. 8 and 9, respectively.
TABLE VI. NETWORK DGNSS AND SBAS AVAILABILITY
Availability [%]
Network
EGNOS SDCM
DGNSS
Masala (Rooftop) 98.08 99.99 99.54
Static
Masala (Forest) 100.00 95.40 77.11
VI. CONCLUSIONS
DGNSS solutions offer better accuracy and availability in
almost all the test environments as compared to SBAS. In
kinematic mode in good environments, the DGNSS accuracy
was almost as good as in static tests. The SBAS accuracies in
kinematic mode were not as good as compared to the results
Fig. 8. Horizontal (black dots) and vertical (red) positioning errors during
obtained in the static mode. Additionally, the Network RTK
test drive in a typical Finnish road environment from Raasepori to Tuorla (TD
3). used as a reference solution performed really well in good
signal condition.
Availability of SBAS is limited in challenging condition [11] Kirkko-Jaakkola, M., Söderholm, S., Honkala, S., Koivula, H., Nyberg,
like in typical road environments or in urban/sub-urban streets. S. and H. Kuusniemi, 2015. Low-Cost Precise Positioning Using a
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ACKNOWLEDGMENT
This research has been conducted within the FEGNOS
(Finland’s EGNOS Monitoring and Performance Evaluation)
project, funded by the Finnish Transport Agency and the
Finnish Geospatial Research Institute. We would like to thank
Mr. Antti Laaksonen for driving preliminary tests, Mr. Ari
Huvinen and Mr. Marko Halmelahti for their help to make test
measurements possible in Lahti, Dr. Kaj Wiik and the other
staff in Tuorla observatory for their help with practical
matters.
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