GPS

Components of the GPS

Space Segment Control Segment User Segment
GPS
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Space Segment:
24 GPS space
vehicles(SVs).
Satellites orbit the
earth in 12 hrs.
6 orbital planes
inclined at 55
degrees with the
equator.
This constellation
provides 5 to 8 SVs
from any point on
the earth.

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Control Segment:
The control segment comprises of 5 stations.
They measure the distances of the overhead
satellites every 1.5 seconds and send the corrected
data to Master control.
Here the satellite orbit, clock performance and
health of the satellite are determined and
determines whether repositioning is required.
This information is sent to the three uplink stations

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User Segment:
It consists of receivers that decode the signals from
the satellites.

The receiver performs following tasks:
Selecting one or more satellites
Acquiring GPS signals
Measuring and tracking
Recovering navigation data
GPS Satellite Signal:
L1 freq. (1575.42 Mhz) carries the SPS code and the
navigation message.
L2 freq. (1227.60 Mhz) used to measure
ionosphere delays by PPS receivers
3 binary code shift L1 and/or L2 carrier phase
The C/A code
The P code
The Navigation message which is a 50 Hz signal
consisting of GPs satellite orbits . Clock correction and
other system parameters
How does the GPS work?
Requirements
Triangulation from satellite
Distance measurement through travel time of radio
signals
Very accurate timing required
To measure distance the location of the satellite
should also be known
Finally delays have to be corrected
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Triangulation
Position is
calculated from
distance
measurement
Mathematically we
need four satellites
but three are
sufficient by
rejecting the
ridiculous answer
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Measuring Distance
Distance to a satellite is determined by measuring
how long a radio signal takes to reach us from the
satellite
Assuming the satellite and receiver clocks are sync.
The delay of the code in the receiver multiplied by
the speed of light gives us the distance
Getting Perfect timing
If the clocks are perfect sync the satellite range will
intersect at a single point.
But if imperfect the four satellite will not intersect at
the same point.
The receiver looks for a common correction that will
make all the satellite intersect at the same point
NMEA messages
Sample Message
$GPRMC,185203,A,1907.8900,N,07533.5546,E,0.00,121.7,221101,13.8,
E*55

$ Start of sentence
Type of sentence
UTC
Validity
Latitude & orientation
Longitude & orientation
Speed
Heading
Date
Magnetic variation and orientation
Checksum (followed by <CR> and <LF> )

Connections with the GPS
The signals available at the serial pins of the GPS are
TTL level.
To read the GPS output on Hyper terminal, the TTL
signal is converted into RS 232 using a Max 232 IC
or FTDI for USB interfacing