International J ournal of Engineering Trends and Technology- Volume2Issue2- 2011

ISSN: 2231-5381 http://www.internationaljournalssrg.org Page 34

GPS User Position Using
Extended Linearization Technique
B.Hari Kumar
#1
, Dr. Dixit
#2
, N.Namassivaya
#3
, G.V.Chalapathi Rao
#4

Professor & Head, ECE Department, M.V.S.R.Engineering College, Hyderabad, A.P., India.
Professor, ECE Department, Allahabad University, Allahabad, U.P., India
Associate Professor, ECE Department, M.V.S.R.Engineering College, Hyderabad, A.P., India
Assistant Professor, ECE Department, M.V.S.R.Engineering College, Hyderabad, A.P., India


Abstract - The position of a GPS receiver can be determined by
obtaining pseudoranges from a minimum of four different GPS
satellites. The measured ranges do not represent the true ranges as
the signal coming from a GPS satellite will be contaminated by
various errors like Ephemeris error; Propagation error in the form
of I onospheric and Tropospheric delays; Satellite and Receiver
clock biases with respect to GPS Time (GPST); Multipath error
etc. Most of these errors can be estimated accurately and can be
accounted for. After making necessary corrections to the observed
pseudoranges the receiver position in ECEF coordinates (x
u,
y
u
, z
u
)
and the receiver clock bias with GPS Time (GPST) t
u
can be
determined either by using Linearization Technique [1] or Method
of least squares using Bancroft Algorithm [2]. As it is easy to
implement, most of the GPS receivers employ former method for
fixing the user position when a great degree of accuracy is not
required. The latter method is found to be more accurate when
pseudoranges from more than four satellites are considered [3]. So
far only Bancroft method has been suggested for an accurate
estimation of a GPS receiver position when more than four
satellites are observed. I n this paper we are proposing a new
technique namely, Extended Linearization Technique (ELT) for
the estimation of an user position. Results show that the accuracy
obtained using ELT is better compared to the Linearization
Technique and is on par with the Bancroft algorithm for over
specified cases when pseudoranges from more than four satellites
are observed. GPS data of Chitrakut station in RI NEX format has
been used for this purpose.

Keywords - Earth Centered Earth Fixed (ECEF), Global
Positioning System (GPS), GPS Time (GPST), Receiver
I ndependent Exchange (RI NEX).

I. INTRODUCTION
The Global Positioning System is all weather, space based
navigation system. It is a constellation of a minimum of 24
satellites in near circular orbits, positioned at an approximate
height of 20,150 km. above the earth. The satellites travel with a
velocity of 3.9 km/sec with an orbital period of 11 hours 58
minutes. The satellites transmit C/A (Coarse/Acquisition) and
P (Precision) codes, Navigation message, Clock parameters etc.
at two frequencies namely L
1
(1575.42 MHz) and
L
2
(1227.60 MHz). These signals can be received and processed
to obtain the user position in 3-D (latitude, longitude and
altitude), velocity and time accurately.
The user estimates an apparent or pseudorange to each SV
(Satellite Vehicle) by measuring the transit time of the signal.
The measured ranges do not represent the true ranges as the
signal coming from a GPS satellite will be contaminated by
International J ournal of Engineering Trends and Technology- Volume2Issue2- 2011

ISSN: 2231-5381 http://www.internationaljournalssrg.org Page 35

various errors. Most of these errors can be estimated accurately
and can be accounted for. After making necessary corrections to
the observed pseudoranges the receiver position in ECEF
coordinates (x
u,
y
u
, z
u
) and the receiver clock bias with GPS
Time (GPST) t
u
can then be determined. If the unknown
coordinates of the user position are represented by x
u
, y
u
and

z
u
and the known positions of Satellite Vehicles are with x
j
, y
j
,
z
j,
(

where j =1,2,3,4) in ECEF coordinate system, the user
position (in 3-D) and time offset t
u
are obtained by
simultaneously solving the nonlinear equations given below.
( ) ( ) ( )
u
2
u j
2
u j
2
u j j
ct z z y y x x + + + = ;
j =1,2,3,4. (1)
Where c is the free space velocity of electromagnetic wave in
m/s.
The measured ranges do not represent true ranges as the signal
coming from a satellite is affected by various errors like
ephemeris error, propagation error in the form of ionospheric
and tropospheric delays, satellite and receiver clock biases with
respect to GPST, multipath error etc. In order to determine the
receiver position accurately, all these errors have to be estimated
and compensated for. In this paper, the ionospheric delay is
estimated using Klobuchar model [4]. Hopfield model has been
used for the estimation of tropospheric delay [5]. Satellite
clock bias and the relativistic effects also have been estimated
and accounted for. Finally the user position is estimated using
the Linearization technique, Method of least squares using
Bancroft algorithm and also by the proposed Linearization
Technique. The results show that ELT is more accurate in
determining the user position than the linearization method and
is comparable to Bancroft algorithm.
II. EXTENDED LINEARIZATION TECHNIQUE (ELT)
If more than four GPS satellites are observed at a given epoch
time, using this proposed Extended Linearization Technique a
better accuracy can be obtained. Where as the Linearization
technique makes use of only four observables at a given epoch
time, this proposed technique makes use of all the observations
thereby accuracy in determining the position of a GPS user is
improved. To determine the user position in three dimensions
(x
u
, y
u
, z
u
) and the receiver clock offset t
u
, pseudoranges are to
be obtained from a minimum of four satellites.
( ) ( ) ( )
u
2
u j
2
u j
2
u j j
ct z z y y x x + + + = ;
j = 1,2,3,m. (2)
Where m is the number of satellites observed.
The resulting equations can be written as a function of user
coordinates and clock offset as
( )
u u u u j
t z y x f , , , = (3)
Using an approximate position location ) z , y , x (
u u u
and time
bias estimate
u
t

, an approximate pseudorange can be calculated

( ) ( ) ( )
u u j u j u j j
t c z z y y x x

2 2 2
+ + + = ;
j =1, 2, 3, -------, m (4)
=f )

u u u u
t , z , y , x (
The unknown user position and receiver clock offset are
considered to consist of an approximate component and an
incremental component as stated below.

u u u
x x x A + =

u u u
y y y A + =

u u u
z z z A + =

u u u
t t t A + =

This allows writing Eq. (3) as
( ) ( )
u u u u u u u u u u u u
t t z z y y x x f t z y x f A + A + A + A + =

, , , , , , (5)
This latter function can be expanded about the approximate
point using a Taylor series. It can be shown that
u u
j
u j
u
j
u j
u
j
u j
j j
t c z
r
z z
y
r
y y
x
r
x x
A A

+ A

+ A

(6)
International J ournal of Engineering Trends and Technology- Volume2Issue2- 2011

ISSN: 2231-5381 http://www.internationaljournalssrg.org Page 36

Where ( ) ( ) ( )
2 2 2

u j u j u j j
z z y y x x r + + =

j j j
= A (7)
j
u j
zj
j
u j
yj
j
u j
xj
r
z z
a
r
y y
a
r
x x
a

= (8)
Where a
xj
, a
yj
and a
zj
terms denote the direction cosines of the
unit vector pointing from the approximate user position to the j
th

satellite.
Rewriting Equation (6) results into
u u zj u yj u xj j
t c z a y a x a A A + A + A = A (9)
When pseudorange measurements are made to m satellites
(j =m), Equation (9) can be represented in matrix form as
(
(
(
(
(
(

A
A
A
A
= A
m

.......
3
2
1
will be m x 1 matrix;
x A =
(
(
(
(
(

A
A
A
A
u
u
u
u
t c
z
y
x
will be 4 x 1 matrix and
(
(
(
(
(
(
(

=
1
..... ...... ...... .....
1
1
1
3 3 3
2 2 2
1 1 1
zm ym xm
z y x
z y x
z y x
a a a
a a a
a a a
a a a
H will be m x 4 matrix.

We can obtain error matrix Ax from the following equation
A = A
1
H x (10)
As H is not a square matrix its inverse can be obtained using
Inv (H) = ( Inv (H' * H ) * H' ) (11)
where H' is the transpose of H.
This procedure is to be repeated for about 50 times until the
required accuracy is obtained.
III. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS
RINEX data from Chitrakut station (Near IIT Kanpur) is used
for this purpose [7]. The observation data of 3
rd
January 2006 at
(0 hrs. 0 min. 30 sec.) have been used. Seven satellites
(SV PRN. Nos. 3 13 16 19 20 23 27) are observed at the
epoch time. Algorithms have been implemented to sort out the
ephemeris data into matrix format and for the determination of
satellites position at the epoch time [6]. By using clock
correction parameters which are available as part of the
Navigation message, the satellite clock bias and error due to
relativistic effect have been obtained. The Ionospheric delay has
been estimated using Kloubachar model. All the eight
coefficients for the implementation of Kloubachar model are
available as part of Navigation message. The Tropospheric
delay has been estimated using Hopfield method. The estimated
errors and the corrected ranges have been represented in
Table 1. The receiver position is then determined using the
Linearization technique, Bancroft algorithm and also by the
proposed ELT. All the calculations have been carried out by
writing programs in MATLAB. The results are summarized
below. The (x, y, z) positions in meters of the seven observed
satellites with PRN nos. of 3 13 16 19 20 23 27 at 0 hours, 0
minutes and 30 seconds of 3
rd
January 2006 are found to be

1.0e+007 *
[-1.14435581932368 2.18537228998174 0.92840515634504
0.88498653721608 1.52115049991917 1.98379922835602
-1.28799462471086 0.84279115293681 2.17295977908060
-0.62238562333828 2.55024173739922 -0.38396284978272
1.04260459627803 2.18281560737286 -1.10756652807472
0.15114376130666 2.36981504953570 1.16498729017268
1.98311575365209 0.65606228041700 1.72062794938024]
International J ournal of Engineering Trends and Technology- Volume2Issue2- 2011

ISSN: 2231-5381 http://www.internationaljournalssrg.org Page 37

TABLE 1
ESTIMATION OF GPS ERRORS AND CORRECTION OF PSEUDORANGES
Sv.
no
Azimu
th
(deg)
Elevati
on
(deg)
Observed
Pseudoranges
(m)
Sv. clock+
relativistic
(m)
Iono
delay
(m)
Tropo
Delay
(m)
Corrected
Pseudoranges
(m)
3 89.75 46.29 21345372.96948 19048.06 1.9858 3.31 21364414.7719640
13 315 53.02 21123433.31848 9807.00 1.8118 2.996 21133235.1936572
16 45 21.03 23647148.85446 6064.55 3.1902 6.632 23653202.7278275
19 135 39.19 22030908.95548 -7308.55 2.2292 3.785 22023593.4330683
20 180 25.42 23234206.55447 -10893.93 2.9077 5.555 23223303.5998171
23 75.96 83.30 20047262.99349 46843.87 1.5062 2.412 20094101.9563987
27 296.5 23.79 23831204.72647 8954.52 3.0088 5.909 23840149.6080318


Using the corrected pseudoranges user position is determined and
the results are shown below:
Exact User Position as per the observation data:
X
u
=918074.1038m, Y
u
=5703773.539 and Z
u
=2693918.9285m.
User position by Linearization Technique:
X
u
=918050.65m, Y
u
=5703751.91m and Z
u
=2693899.70m.
User position by Bancroft Algorithm:
X
u
= 918075.38m, Y
u
=5703776.40m and Z
u
=2693918.73m.
User position using Extended Linearization Technique
X
u
= 918075.72 m, Y
u
= 5703777.12 m and Z
u
=2693918.91 m

Results show that the proposed method namely the Extended
Linearization Technique is more accurate compared to
Linearization Technique and is comparable to Bancroft algorithm
in determination of the user position when data from more than
four satellites are taken into account.

REFERENCES
[1] Kaplan, E. D., "Understanding GPS: Principles and
Applications", Artech House, 1996.
[2] Bancroft. S., An algebraic solution of the GPS equations,
IEEE Transactions on Aerospace and Electronic Systems
Vol. 21 (1985) pp: 5659.
[3] B.Hari Kumar and K.Chennakesava Reddy, Determination
Of GPS Receiver Position Using Linearization Technique
And Bancroft Algorithm, IETECH Journal of
Communication Techniques, Volume-2, Number-1,
pp-14-16, 2008
[4] Klobuchar J, Design and characteristics of the GPS
ionospheric time delay algorithm for single frequency
users, Proceedings of PLANS86 Position Location and
Navigation Symposium, Las Vegas, Nevada, November
4-7, pp: 280-286.
[5] Hopfield HS, Two quartic tropospheric refractivity
profile for correcting satellite data, Journal of Geophysical
research, Vol. 74, No. 18, pp: 4487-4499, 1969.
[6] Strang, G. and Borre, K., Linear Algebra, Geodesy, and
GPS,Wellesley-Cambridge, Wellesley, MA, 1997.
[7] http://home.iitk.ac.in/~ramesh/gps/gpsdata/gpsdata.html