Real-Time Kinematic and Differential GPS

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DGPS
Source: GPS for Land Surveyors
 RTK and DGPS
Source: GPS for Land Surveyors

Most, not all, GPS surveying relies on the idea of differential positioning. The
mode of a base or reference receiver at a known location logging data at the
same time as a receiver at an unknown location together provide the
fundamental information for the determination of accurate coordinates. While
this basic approach remains today, the majority of GPS surveying is not done in
the static post-processed mode. Post-processing is most often applied to control
work. Now, the most commonly used methods utilize receivers on reference
stations that provide correction signals to the end user via a data link
sometimes over the Internet, radio signal, or cell phone and often in real-time.

In this category of GPS surveying work, there is sometimes a distinction made

between code-based and carrier based solutions. In fact, most systems use a
combination of code and carrier measurements so the distinction is more a
matter of emphasis rather than an absolute difference. Well, that's a bit of
discussion about static surveying, but as you know, a good deal of GPS these
days is done not static. Much work is now done with DGPS or real-time
kinematic, RTK.

Errors in satellite clocks, imperfect orbits, the trip through the layers of the
atmosphere, and many other sources contribute inaccuracies to GPS signals by
the time they reach a receiver.

These errors are variable, so the best to way to correct them is to monitor them
as they happen. A good way to do this is to set up a GPS receiver on a station
whose position is known exactly, a base station. This base station receiver’s
computer can calculate its position from satellite data, compare that position
with its actual known position, and find the difference. The resulting error
corrections can be communicated from the base to the rover. It works well, but
the errors are constantly changing, so a base station has to monitor them all the
time, at least all the time the rover receiver or receivers are working. While this
is happening, the rovers move from place to place collecting the points whose
positions you want to know relative to the base station, which is the real
objective after all. Then all you have to do is get those base station corrections
and the rover’s data together somehow. That combination can be done over a
data link in real-time, or applied later in postprocessing.

Real-time positioning is built on the foundation of the idea that, with the
important exceptions of multipath and receiver noise, GPS error sources are
correlated. In other words, the closer the rover is to the base, the more the
errors at the ends of the baseline match. The shorter the baseline, the more the
errors are correlated. The longer the baseline, the less the errors are correlated.

The base station is at a known point, whether it was on a building permanently

or it's a tripod mounted base station. The fact that it is in a known position
allows the base station to produce corrections. The constellation is telling the
base station that it is in a slightly different place, so corrections can be created
to sent to the rover at the unknown point. The corrections are applied in real
time.

Radial GPS
Source: GPS for Land Surveyors

Radial GPS
Such real-time surveying is essentially radial. There are advantages to the
approach. The advantage is a large number of positions can be established in a
short amount of time with little or no planning. The disadvantage is that there is
little or no redundancy in positions derived, each of the baselines originates from
the same control station. Redundancy can be incorporated, but it requires
repetition of the observations so each baseline is determined with more than one
GPS constellation. One way to do it is to occupy the project points, the unknown
positions, successively, with more than one rover. It is best if these successive
occupations are separated by at least 4 hours and not more than 8 hours so the
satellite constellation can reach a significantly different configuration.

RTK and DGPS are radial. You have a known point in the middle, the base, and
then the unknown points around it. This provides little geometric solidity. If
there's an error in one of these radial base lines, it would be tough to catch it
because there's no real redundancy. The illustration shows a way around this
difficulty. There are two receivers, A and B, and it's possible by double
occupation, one receiver going one way and the other going the other, by double
occupying the unknown points to get some redundancy and some checks against
the positions from a base. Another way to do it is to use one receiver. That
receiver would occupy each point twice with four to eight hours between the
first occupation and the second occupation on the point. Another way is to move
the base to another known point. Then if you have vectors from another base into
these points, you have a check. This approach allows a solution to be available
from two separate control stations. Obviously, this can be done with re-
occupation of the project points after one base station has been moved to a new
control point, or a two base stations can be up and running from the very outset
and throughout of the work as would be the case using two CORS stations. It is
best if there are both two occupations on each point and each of the two utilize
different base stations.

A more convenient but less desirable approach is to do a second occupation

almost immediately after the first. The roving receiver’s antenna is blocked or
tilted until the lock on the satellites is interrupted. It is then re-oriented on the
unknown position a second time for the repeat solution. This does offer a second
solution, but from virtually the same constellation.

More efficiency can be achieved by adding additional roving receivers. However,

as the number of receivers rises, the logistics become more complicated, and a
survey plan becomes necessary. Also, project points that are simultaneously
near one another but far from the control station should be directly connected
with a baseline to maintain the integrity of the survey. Finally, if the base
receiver loses lock and it goes unnoticed, it will completely defeat the radial
survey for the time it is down.

These are a few possibilities to consider when you are doing a real-time survey.

An advantage to continuously operating reference station network is that since

those bases are operating simultaneously and all the time, it's possible to
download the positions from more than one base and process your new position
based on these continuously operating reference stations and have some
redundancy.

DGPS vs GPS
The term DGPS is misused quite a bit in the UAV industry. DGPS, which
stands for differential GPS, refers to any system that provides
corrections to a GPS receiver based on a second GPS receiver at a
known location. The GPS receiver providing the corrections is called
the “reference station” and the GPS receiver using the corrections is
the “rover.” Because the reference station knows it’s location it can
calculate the amount of error in the signal from each satellite. The
errors are transmitted to the rover which uses them to improve the
accuracy of its position fix.

Any SBAS (Satellite-Based Augmentation System) such as WAAS, in the

USA, or EGNOS In Europe are a form of DGPS. The accuracy
improvement provided by these systems is modest. These GNSS
receivers still have several meters error in position even after the
corrections are applied.

RTK GNSS systems (also called carrier phase) are quite different. An
RTK GNSS system uses the phase of the radio signal broadcast by the
satellite when it is received to calculate a much more accurate
position fix than traditional GPS receivers. An RTK GNSS receiver can
calculate a position fix to an accuracy of a centimeter or so while a
traditional GPS receiver has an accuracy of a couple meters.

One drawback of an RTK GNSS receiver is that it must have

corrections from a reference station. This is due to the fact that the
phase angle the GNSS receiver measures repeats at multiple locations
spaced one wavelength of the carrier frequency apart. The receiver
needs the corrections from the reference station in order to figure out
which location corresponds to the receiver’s position.
 As RTK GNSS receivers must have corrections in order to operate,
often the term DGPS is used instead of RTK or carrier phase. Since
DGPS refers to a wide range of GNSS receivers, and not just RTK GNSS
receivers, it can lead to confusion; so, it’s best to be aware that DGPS
is often used when the term RTK is more appropriate.

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ifference Between GPS and DGPS

 BY ADMIN
 JUNE 17, 2017
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GPS: GPS known as Global Positioning System is a collection of number of

satellites in the space sending the precise location details in the space back to
Earth. Signals are obtained by the GPS instrument which uses to calculate
it's location, speed, time at the location, height of the location and other info.
It is very popular in the military world and was first developed by the USA
military during the Cold war period. After early 1980 GPS technology is
available to the public. Before the military use, 1960 was the year when GPS
was first used for ship navigation by USA navy.
Image: Animation showing 24 satellites revolving around earth and total satellites visible
to hand held GPS, source: Wikipedia

DGPS: Differential Global Positioning System (DGPS) is an enhancement to

the GPS (Global Position System). GPS system based on the satellite
technology can have the nominal accuracy of 15 meter whereas DPGS can
bring accuracy around 10 cm. DGPS uses the fixed ground based reference
stations to broadcast the difference between the coordinates from the GPS
and from the fixed position from the base station. The digital correction signal
is transmitted to all ground based transmitters called rovers. DGPS rely on
two stations one is base station and next is rover.
Image: How Differential GPS works

Difference Between GPS and DGPS

October 21, 2017 Leave a Comment
 The
GPS and DGPS are the satellite-based navigation systems. The basic difference between GPS
and DGPS lies on their accuracy, DGPS is more accurate than GPS. DGPS was intentionally
designed to reduce the signal degradation.

GPS provides the accuracy about 10 meters, but DGPS can provide accuracy around 1 meter,
even beyond that 10 cm.

Content: GPS Vs DGPS

1. Comparison Chart

2. Definition

3. Key Differences

4. Conclusion

Comparison Chart

BASIS FOR
GPS DGPS
COMPARISON

Number of Only one, i.e., Stand-alone GPS receiver Two, Rover and stationary receivers

receivers used

Accuracy 15-10 m 10 cm

Range of the Global Local (within 100 km)

 BASIS FOR
GPS DGPS
COMPARISON

instruments

Cost Affordable as compared to DGPS Expensive

Frequency range 1.1 - 1.5 GHz Varies according to agency

Factors affecting Selective availability, satellite timing, Distance between the transmitter

the Accuracy atmospheric conditions, ionosphere, and rover, ionosphere, troposphere

troposphere and multipath. and multipath.

Time coordinate WGS84 Local coordinate system

system used

Definition of GPS
Global Positioning System (GPS) provides the accurate position of an object to the earth. It
uses timely signals generated by satellites revolving around the earth. GPS includes a
constellation of 24 satellites and extra for backup purpose. Four satellites are used for getting the
precise position, this process is known as trilateration.

GPS technology uses standalone receivers, where the location is directly calculated. This
technique is prone to errors such as uncorrected satellite clock errors, orbital parameter satellite
error, ionospheric and tropospheric delays, multipath errors, geometric errors and datum
selection errors. To reduce these errors new technologies are evolved. GPS can gain nominal
accuracy of 10-15 meters.

Definition of DGPS
Differential Global Positioning System (DGPS) is an improvement to GPS. DGPS technology
can achieve accuracy up to 10 cm. It reduces or eliminates the signal degradation, resulting in
improving the accuracy. The goal of differential GPS is not to go directly for the location; rather
it finds the location relative to a fixed reference point. DGPS relies on two receivers rover and
reference receiver, rover is the user, and reference receiver is also known as the stationary
receiver.

A stationary receiver is fixed, and its position is known to the system. The satellite information is
continuously beamed towards the rover and the base station tower. Base station tower uses its
known position to calculate the accurate timing. The stationary receiver sends the information to
the rover receiver to rectify the measurements with the help of stationary receiver’s relative
position.

Key Differences Between GPS and DGPS

1. In GPS, there is a standalone receiver which receives signals from the satellite whereas in DGPS
there are two receivers, reference receiver and rover (user) where rover receives a calibrated
signal from the reference receiver (fixed base station).

2. The accuracy of GPS system is around 15 meters. On the other hand, DGPS is more accurate and
can achieve accuracy up to 10 cm.

3. GPS instruments cover the wide range and can be used globally while DGPS instruments cover a
short range up to 100 km, but this range could change according to the frequency band.

4. GPS system is less expensive as compared to DGPS system.

5. The signal frequency transmitted by satellites in GPS ranges between 1.1 to 1.5 GHz. On the
contrary, in DGPS the satellites do not transmit fixed range of frequency, the transmitted
frequency depends on the agencies.
 6. The factors that affect the accuracy of the GPS system are selective availability, satellite timing,
atmospheric conditions, ionosphere, troposphere and multipath. In contrast, the DGPS system is
affected by the distance between the transmitter and rover, ionosphere, troposphere and
multipath but at less extent.

7. The GPS uses WGS84 time coordinate system which is an earth-fixed terrestrial system, earth-
centred, and geodetic datum. As against DGPS uses a local coordinate system.

Conclusion
The Differential Global Positioning System (DGPS) is more accurate technology than its
antecedent Global Positioning system (GPS). The accuracy in DGPS is improved by using two
receivers instead of using one, which finds the precise location using relative positions.

Related Differences:
1. Difference Between Float and Double

2. Difference between 3G and 4G Technology

3. Difference Between Pointer and Reference

4. Difference Between Bandwidth and Frequency

5. Difference Between GPS and GPRS

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