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Satellite Navigation: GPS Inadequacies: Comparative Study into Solutions for Civil Aviation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 October 2009

J. -M. Durand
J. -M. Durand
Affiliation:
(Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales)
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Abstract

The Global Positioning System (GPS) will be an extremely high-performance satellite-based navigation system which is expected to provide a sole means air navigation service for most aeronautical flight phases. It will be particularly suitable for ‘en route’, ‘terminal’ and ‘non-precision approach’ phases, thus providing substantial savings on aircraft operating costs.

However, GPS has three major disadvantages for civil aviation: (1) Insufficient system integrity, since satellites can transmit erroneous information for two hours before being repaired or neutralized. In such an event, the many simultaneous users of the satellite that has lost its integrity can derive false positions and remain unaware of the problem. (2) Availability constrained by the limited number of satellites. Users are then unable to obtain a position fix or else obtain a result with significantly degraded performance. (3) Deliberate spatio-temporal degradation (selective availability) of system performance, the characteristics of which are not fully known or defined.

Many solutions to these problems have been put forward. One concept uses the redundancy of the GPS system itself (receiver autonomous integrity monitoring). Another set of solutions is based on complementary information from autonomous navigation equipment (altimeter, clock, inertial system) or external navigation systems already available or being developed (Omega, Loran-C, GLONASS). A third type of solution is to implement a system by which to monitor the status of the GPS satellites and broadcast the information to users.

This paper reports on the different techniques put forward and uses different qualitative criteria (technical feasibility, cost, political independence, etc.) to assess their suitability for civil aviation applications. The comparison leads to the recommendation of a system to monitor the status of the GPS satellites and broadcast the information to users. The characteristics of such messages would be as similar as possible to those of GPS messages.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Navigation , Volume 43 , Issue 1 , January 1990 , pp. 8 - 17
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Institute of Navigation 1990

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