Unit 6 Basic GNSS

Introduction to GNSS, History and Development of GNSS, Different

Components of GNSS, Types of Navigation System: GPS, GLONASS, Galileo
etc.
Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS)
• GNSS stands for Global Navigation Satellite System.
• It is a satellite-based navigation system that enables users to determine their precise location
and track their movement anywhere on Earth.
• GNSS systems use a network of satellites in orbit to provide positioning, navigation, and timing
information to receivers on the ground, in the air, or at sea.
• The most well-known GNSS is the Global Positioning System (GPS), which is operated by the
United States.
History Of GNSS
• On 4 October 1957, the launch of Sputnik 1 was the start of the Space Age.
• In December 1958, the US Department of Defense (DoD) funded the project, and development
began in 1959 under the title 'TRANSIT', to determine an accurate position on the Earth from
Doppler signals received from a satellite in a known orbit.
• TRANSIT satellites were in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) on a circular polar orbit at an altitude of
about 1,000 kilometers and transmitted on two frequencies, 149.99 and 399.97 MHz.
• TRANSIT was declared operational in January 1964 and was released for civilian use in July
1967 .
• The TRANSIT project demonstrated that spacecraft could be very reliable; some operated for
more than 15 years.
• The project also enabled major advances in the development of algorithms for satellite orbit
prediction.
• TRANSIT ceased operations on 31 December 1996 and all transmissions were shut down.
• The Global Positioning System (GPS) was developed by the U.S. Department of Defense and
became operational in the late 1970s.
• GPS initially had military applications but was later made available for civilian use.
• The system consisted of a constellation of satellites in medium Earth orbit (MEO).
• The Soviet Union (later Russia) developed the GLONASS (Globalnaya Navigazionnaya
Sputnikovaya Sistema) system, which became fully operational in the 1980s.
• GLONASS initially served military purposes but was later made available for civilian use.
• China started developing the Beidou Navigation Satellite System (BDS) in the early 2000s.
• Beidou began providing regional coverage in Asia-Pacific and expanded to global coverage.
• The European Union's Galileo system, aimed at providing an independent GNSS capability,
became operational in the 2010s.
• Galileo was developed to offer global coverage and to complement existing GNSS systems.
• The QZSS project began with the launch of the first experimental satellite, named "QZS-1" or
"Michibiki," in September 2002
• In November 2018, Japan declared that the QZSS system had reached initial operational
capability.
• The Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS) also known as NavIC (Navigation
with Indian Constellation) was initiated by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) in
2006.
• In April 2018, the IRNSS was declared operational, and it was officially named NavIC
(Navigation with Indian Constellation).
• NavIC is designed to provide accurate positioning and timing information over India and the
surrounding region.
Components Of GNSS
• The GNSS consists of three main satellite technologies: GPS, GLONASS, and Galileo. Each of
them
• Consists mainly of three segments:
1). Space Segment, 2). Control Segment 3). User Segment.
• These segments are almost similar in the three satellite technologies, which all together make
up the GNSS.
1). Space Segment
 The space segment of GPS consists of the 24-satellite constellation, orbiting in six
orbits with four satellites in each orbit.
 A minimum of 4 satellites must be viewed by the receiver (user) for accurate 3D coordinates.
 Each GPS satellite transmits a signal, which has several components:
• two sine waves (also known as carrier frequencies),
• two digital codes and a navigation message
 The codes and the navigation message are added to the carriers
 The carriers and the codes are used mainly to determine the distance from the user's receiver
to the GPS satellites.
 No. of satellites: 31 currently (minimum 24 operational)
 Orbit Type: Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) of average radius 20200 km above the Earth
 Satellite Arrangement: 6 orbits (4 satellites per orbit) (more satellites for better coverage)
 Orbital inclination: 55° to equatorial plane
 Speed of satellite: approx. 4 km/s
 Orbital period: Half of the sidereal day = 11 hours 58 mins 2 secs (orbits the Earth twice a
day)
2). Control Segment
 The control segment of the GPS consists of a:
• worldwide network of tracking stations,
• With a master control station (MCS) located in the United States at Colorado Springs;
Colorado, Monitor Stations, and ground antennas
 The primary task of the operational control segment is tracking the GPS satellites to
• determine and predict satellite locations
• system integrity
• behavior of the satellite atomic clocks
• atmospheric data
• the satellite almanac
 The monitor stations (Control station) receive all satellite signals, from which they determine
the pseudo ranges to all visible satellites and transmit the range data along with local
meteorological data (air temperatures, humidity, and wind speeds.) via data link to the Master
Control Station.
 From these data the MCS computes satellite ephemerides (position) and the behavior of the
satellite clocks and formulates the navigation data (message).
 The message data are transmitted to the ground antennas and uplinked to the satellites in view.
 Because of the global distribution of the upload antennas (ground antenna) at least three
contacts per day can be realized between the control segment and each satellite.
 The Master Control facility is responsible for the overall management of the
remote monitoring and transmission.
 Monitor Stations check the exact altitude, position, speed, and overall health of the orbiting
satellites. These stations are distributed properly so that all the satellites can be tracked by their
network. The precise coordinates of these stations are already known.
 Ground Antennas transmit correction information to individual satellites.
 In the case of GPS, the control segment consists of a Master control station, an alternative
Master control station, 16 Monitoring stations, and 11 command and ground antennas.
3). User Segment.
 The user segment includes all military and civilian users.
 With a GPS receiver connected to a GPS antenna, a user can receive GPS signals, which can
be used to determine his or her position anywhere in the world.
 GPS is currently available to all users worldwide at no direct charge.
 User segment consists of a GPS receiver that receives signals from the satellite and uses the
transmitted satellite to calculate the position of the user, velocity, and time.
 Also includes a display for showing location and speed information to the user.

Types Of Navigation System

1). GPS (USA)
2). GLONASS (Russia)
3). Galileo (Europe)
4). BeiDou (China)
5). IRNSS (India)
6). QZSS (Japan)
1). GPS (USA)
• The Global Positioning System (GPS) is a satellite-based radio-based navigation system that
was developed by the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) in the early 1970s.
• Initially, GPS was developed as a military system to fulfill U.S. military needs.
• However, it was later made available to civilians and is now a dual-use system that can be
accessed by both military and civilian users.
• GPS is currently operated by the United States Air Force.
• GPS provides continuous positioning and timing information, anywhere in the world under any
weather conditions.
• GPS satellites also called NAVSTAR (Navigation Satellite Timing and Ranging), the official
U.S. DOD name for GPS
• As GPS serves an unlimited number of users as well as being used for security reasons, it is a
one-way-ranging (passive) system i.e. user can only receive satellite signals.
• The GPS is a space-based all-weather radio navigation system that provides quick, accurate,
and inexpensive time, position, and velocity of the object anywhere on the globe at any time.
• It uses satellite signals, accurate time, and sophisticated algorithms to generate d.istances to
triangulate positions anywhere on the Earth.
• The system provides accurate, continuous, worldwide, three-dimensional position and velocity
information to users with the appropriate receiving equipment
2). GLONASS (Russia)
• Russian satellite navigation system operating as part of a radio navigation satellite service.
• It provides an alternative to Global Positioning System (GPS) and is the second navigational
system in operation with global coverage and of comparable precision.
• The satellites are in a middle circular orbit at 19,100 km (11,900 mi) altitude with a 64.8°
inclination and a period of 11 hours and 15 minutes.
• Satellite navigation devices supporting both GPS and GLONASS have more satellites
available, meaning positions can be fixed more quickly and accurately, GLONASS
supplementation of GPS systems also improves positioning in high latitudes (north or south)
• The constellation operates in three orbital planes, with eight evenly spaced satellites on each.
• A fully operational constellation with global coverage consists of 24 satellites,
while 18 satellites are necessary for covering the territory of Russia.
3). Galileo (Europe)
• Galileo is a global navigation satellite system (GNSS) that went live in 2016, created by the
European Union through the European Space Agency (ESA).
• As of February 2023, 24 launched satellites operate in the constellation.
• The use of basic (lower-precision) Galileo services is free and open to everyone.
• A fully encrypted higher-precision service is available for free to government authorized users.
• As of 2012, the system was scheduled to have 15 satellites operational in 2015 and reach full
operation in 2020 with the following specifications:
 30 in-orbit spacecraft (24 in full service and 6 spares)
 Orbital altitude: 23,222 km (14,429 mi) (MEO)
 3 orbital planes, 56.0° inclination, ascending nodes separated by 120.0° longitude (8
operational satellites and 2 active spares per orbital plane)
 Satellite lifetime: >12 years
4). BeiDou (China)
• The BeiDou Navigation Satellite System is a Chinese satellite navigation system.
• BeiDou-1 was an experimental regional navigation system, which consisted of
our satellites (three working satellites and one backup satellite).
• BeiDou-1 used satellites in geostationary orbit
• BeiDou-1 was decommissioned at the end of 2012 after the BeiDou-2 system became
operational.
• BeiDou-2 (formerly known as COMPASS) is not an extension of the older BeiDou-1 but rather
supersedes it outright.
• The third phase of the BeiDou system (BDS-3) includes three GEO satellites, three IGSO
satellites, and twenty-four MEO satellites.
• The new system is a constellation of 35 satellites, which include 5 geostationary orbit satellites
for backward compatibility with BeiDou-1, and 30 non-geostationary satellites (27 in medium
Earth orbit and 3 in inclined geosynchronous orbit), that offer complete coverage of the globe.
5). IRNSS (India)
• The Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS), with an operational name of NavIC
('Navigation with Indian Constellation) is an autonomous regional satellite navigation system
that provides accurate real-time positioning and timing services.
• The constellation consists of 7 satellites. Three of the seven satellites are in geostationary orbit
(GEO) approximately 36,000 km (22,000 mi) above Earth's surface.
• The remaining four satellites are in inclined geosynchronous orbit (GSO).
6). QZSS (Japan)
• QZSS or Michibiki (to guide, to show the way) is a regional navigation satellite system
commissioned by the Japanese government in 2002 as a National Space Development Program.
• In the beginning, the system was developed by the Advanced Space Business Corporation
team.
• In 2007, the work was taken over by JAXA together with the satellite Positioning Research and
Application Center.
• The goal of QZSS is to provide highly precise and stable positioning services in
the Asia-Oceania region, compatible with GPS.
• QZSS uses one geostationary satellite and three satellites in Tundra-type highly inclined,
slightly elliptical, geosynchronous orbits.
• Altitude 32,000 km to 40,000 Km.
• QZSS signal is designed in such a way that it is interoperable with GPS.
• QZSS is visible near zenith; improves visibility & DOP in dense urban area.