Performance Evaluation of the Early CNAV Navigation Message

Abstract

Following an initial test campaign in June 2013, the GPS Directorate has initiated a pre-operational routine generation and transmission of the Civil Navigation Message CNAV starting on 28 April 2014. The new message is broadcast by Block IIR-M satellites on the L2C signal as well as the L2C and L5 signals of the Block IIF satellites. The improved resolution and larger number of parameters in the new CNAV ephemeris message offers a notably reduced ephemeris fitting error and largely avoids the discontinuities of consecutive ephemeris messages from the same upload.

CNAV data of the Block IIR-M and IIF satellites have been collected since the start of transmission using a small set of globally distributed receivers offering an almost continuous coverage. Based on comparison with precise ephemerides of the International GNSS Service (IGS), a Signal-in-Space Range Error (SISRE) of about 1.1 m is obtained for the CNAV message whereas it is 0.6 m for the legacy navigation message (LNAV). This degraded performance is related to less frequent CNAV updates resulting in prediction times of up to four days. For a three week period with a daily CNAV update rate almost the same SISRE is obtained as for LNAV.

Complementary to the SISRE analysis, the new Inter-Signal Corrections (ISCs) have been monitored, which enable users to correctly account for differential code biases (DCBs) when using other signals than the L1/L2 P(Y)-code observations in real-time positioning applications. The broadcast ISC values agree with DCBs derived in the frame of the IGS Multi-GNSS Experiment and DCBs from the Center for Orbit Determination in Europe on the 0.1 – 2 ns level depending on the ISC type. While users of the the civil L1C/A and L2C signals have, so far, experienced a notably degraded positioning, the ISCs now enable a single point positioning accuracy that is fully competitive with that of semi-codeless P(Y)-code receivers.