Overview of Satellite Laser Ranging for BeiDou Navigation Satellite System

Satellite laser ranging(SLR)is an unambiguous measurement technique and generates high accuracy satellite orbit data.All satellites in the BeiDou navigation satellite system(BDS)carried laser retro-reflector arrays(LRAs),so they can be tracked by ground SLR stations in order to provide the accurate observation data.The Shanghai astronomical observatory(SHAO)designed the LRAs,and also developed the dedicated SLR systems using a 1 m-aperture telescope and a transportable cabin-based SLR system with a telescopes of 60 cm aperture.These enable BDS satellite ranging during daytime and nighttime with centimeter-level precision,allowing highly accurate estimations of satellite orbits.Moreover,some of the BDS satellites are also equipped with laser time transfer(LTT)payloads,which were developed by the SHAO and China Academy of Space Technology(CAST),providing a highly accurate time comparison between the satellites and ground clocks.This paper describes the dedicated SLR system and the design of the LRAs for BDS satellites,as well as global SLR measurements.The SLR tracking data is used for evaluating the orbit accuracy of BDS satellites and broadcast ephemeris,with an accuracy of less than 1 m.The LTT measurements to BDS satellites for a single shot have a precision of approximately 300 picoseconds,with a time stability of 20 picoseconds in 500 s.

A real-time performance improvement method for composite time scale

The composite time scale(CTS)provides a stable,accurate,and reliable time scale for modern society.The improvement of CTS’s real-time performance will improve its stability,which strengths related applications’performance.Aiming at this goal,a method achieved by determining the optimal calculation interval and accelerating adjustment stage is proposed in this paper.The determinants of the CTS’s calculation interval(characteristics of the clock ensemble,the measurement noise,the time and frequency synchronization system’s noise and the auxiliary output generator noise floor)are studied and the optimal calculation interval is obtained.We also investigate the effect of ensemble algorithm’s initial parameters on the CTS’s adjustment stage.A strategy to get the reasonable initial parameters of ensemble algorithm is designed.The results show that the adjustment stage can be finished rapidly or even can be shorten to zero with reasonable initial parameters.On this basis,we experimentally generate a distributed CTS with a calculation interval of 500 s and its stability outperforms those of the member clocks when the averaging time is longer than1700 s.The experimental result proves that the CTS’s real-time performance is significantly improved.

A step to the decentralized real-time timekeeping network

The composite time scale(CTS) provides an accurate and stable time-frequency reference for modern science and technology. Conventional CTS always features a centralized network topology, which means that the CTS is accompanied by a local master clock. This largely restricts the stability and reliability of the CTS. We simulate the restriction and analyze the influence of the master clock on the CTS. It proves that the CTS's long-term stability is also positively related to that of the master clock, until the region dominated by the frequency drift of the H-maser(averaging time longer than ~10~5s).Aiming at this restriction, a real-time clock network is utilized. Based on the network, a real-time CTS referenced by a stable remote master clock is achieved. The experiment comparing two real-time CTSs referenced by a local and a remote master clock respectively reveals that under open-loop steering, the stability of the CTS is improved by referencing to a remote and more stable master clock instead of a local and less stable master clock. In this way, with the help of the proposed scheme, the CTS can be referenced to the most stable master clock within the network in real time, no matter whether it is local or remote, making democratic polycentric timekeeping possible.

Key technologies implementation of high-repetition-rate satellite laser ranging

Satellite laser ranging （SLR） is one of the major space geodetic instruments, which has various applications in earth science. In this paper, we introduce several issues regarding the key technology implementation of high-repetition-rate SLR system. Compared with traditional technology, using kHz and 8ps pulse width laser component, the data quantity and quality of high-repetition-rate satellite laser ranging （SLR） can be significantly improved. The characteristics of high-repetition-rate laser ranging and the key technologies are presented, including the event timer with the precision of picosecond, the generation of range gate signal, and so on. All of them are based on the Field Programmable Gate Arrays （FPGA） and tested on China mobile SLR system-TROS1000. Finally, the observations of satellite Beacon-C are given.

Preliminary assessment of the navigation and positioning performance of BeiDou regional navigation satellite system

BeiDou regional navigation satellite system （BDS） also called BeiDou-2 has been in full operation since December 27, 2012. It consists of 14 satellites, including 5 satellites in Geostationary Orbit （GEO）, 5 satellites in Inclined Geosynchronous Orbit （IGSO）, and 4 satellites in Medium Earth Orbit （MEO）. In this paper, its basic navigation and positioning performance are evaluated preliminarily by the real data collected in Beijing, including satellite visibility, Position Dilution of Precision （PDOP） value, the precision of code and carrier phase measurements, the accuracy of single point positioning and differential position- ing and ambiguity resolution （AR） performance, which are also compared with those of GPS. It is shown that the precision of BDS code and carrier phase measurements are about 33 cm and 2 mm, respectively, which are comparable to those of GPS, and the accuracy of BDS single point positioning has satisfied the design requirement. The real-time kinematic positioning is also feasible by BDS alolae in the opening condition, since its fixed rate and reliability of single-epoch dual-frequency AR is comparable to those of GPS. The accuracy of BDS carrier phase differential positioning is better than 1 cm for a very short baseline of 4.2 m and 3 cm for a short baseline of 8.2 km, which is on the same level with that of GPS. For the combined BDS and GPS, the fixed rate and reliability of single-epoch AR and the positioning accuracy are improved significantly. The accu- racy of BDS/GPS carrier phase differential positioning is about 35 and 20 % better than that of GPS for two short baseline tests in this study. The accuracy of BDS code differential positioning is better than 2.5 m. However it is worse than that of GPS, which may result from large code multipath errors of BDS GEO satellite measurements.

High-precision orbit prediction and error control techniques for COMPASS navigation satellite

A new satellite orbit prediction method based on artificial neural network(ANN)model is proposed to improve the precision of orbit prediction.In order to avoid the difficulty of amending the dynamical model,it is attempted to use ANN model to learn the variation of orbit prediction error,and then the prediction result of ANN model is used to compensate the predicted orbit based on dynamic model to form a final predicted orbit.The experiment results showed that the orbit prediction error based on ANN model was less than that based on dynamical model,and the improvement effects for different satellites and different time were different.The maximum rates of improvement of predicting 8,15,30 d were respectively 80%,77.77%,85%.The orbit prediction error control technique based on the method of back overlap arc compare was brought forward to avoid the risk that the precision of predicted orbit is even worse after it is compensated by ANN model.The phenomena of failure were basically eliminated based on this technique,and the rate of failure was reduced from 30%to 5%.This technique could ensure that the engineering application of ANN model could come true.

Satellite-station time synchronization information based real-time orbit error monitoring and correction of navigation satellite in Beidou System

Satellite-station two-way time comparison is a typical design in Beidou System(BDS)which is significantly different from other satellite navigation systems.As a type of two-way time comparison method,BDS time synchronization is hardly influenced by satellite orbit error,atmosphere delay,tracking station coordinate error and measurement model error.Meanwhile,single-way time comparison can be realized through the method of Multi-satellite Precision Orbit Determination(MPOD)with pseudo-range and carrier phase of monitor receiver.It is proved in the constellation of 3GEO/2IGSO that the radial orbit error can be reflected in the difference between two-way time comparison and single-way time comparison,and that may lead to a substitute for orbit evaluation by SLR.In this article,the relation between orbit error and difference of two-way and single-way time comparison is illustrated based on the whole constellation of BDS.Considering the all-weather and real-time operation mode of two-way time comparison,the orbit error could be quantifiably monitored in a real-time mode through comparing two-way and single-way time synchronization.In addition,the orbit error can be predicted and corrected in a short time based on its periodic characteristic.It is described in the experiments of GEO and IGSO that the prediction accuracy of space signal can be obviously improved when the prediction orbit error is sent to the users through navigation message,and then the UERE including terminal error can be reduced from 0.1 m to 0.4 m while the average accuracy can be improved more than 27%.Though it is still hard to make accuracy improvement for Precision Orbit Determination(POD)and orbit prediction because of the confined tracking net and the difficulties in dynamic model optimization,in this paper,a practical method for orbit accuracy improvement is proposed based on two-way time comparison which can result in the reflection of orbit error.

Progress and performance evaluation of Bei Dou global navigation satellite system： Data analysis based on BDS-3 demonstration system

The first two Medium Earth Orbit(MEO) satellites of the third generation of Bei Dou satellite navigation System(BDS-3) were successfully launched on November 5, 2017. This historical launch starts the new era of the global navigation satellite system of Bei Dou. Before the first two satellites of BDS-3, a demonstration system for BDS-3 with five satellites,including two Inclined Geosynchronous Orbit satellites(IGSO) and three MEO satellites, was established between 2015 and2016 for testing the new payloads, new designed signals and new techniques. In the demonstration system, the new S frequency signal and satellite hydrogen clock as well as inter-satellite link(ISL) based on Ka-band signals with time-division multiple addresses(TDMA) were tested. This paper mainly analyzes the performances of the demonstration system, including the signalto-noise ratios, pseudorange errors and the multipath errors of the civilian signals of BDS-3. The qualities of signals in space,time synchronization and timing precision were tested as well. Most of the performances were compared with those of the regional Bei Dou satellite navigation system(BDS-2). At last, the performances of positioning, navigation and timing(PNT) of the future Bei Dou global system(BDS-3) were evaluated based on the signal quality of the present demonstration satellite system.

GNSS receiver autonomous integrity monitoring(RAIM)algorithm based on robust estimation

Integrity is significant for safety-of-life applications. Receiver autonomous integrity monitoring（RAIM） has been developed to provide integrity service for civil aviation. At first,the conventional RAIM algorithm is only suitable for single fault detection, single GNSS constellation. However, multiple satellite failure should be considered when more than one satellite navigation system are adopted. To detect and exclude multi-fault, most current algorithms perform an iteration procedure considering all possible fault model which lead to heavy computation burden. An alternative RAIM is presented in this paper based on multiple satellite constellations（for example, GPS and Bei Dou（BDS） etc.） and robust estimation for multi-fault detection and exclusion, which can not only detect multi-failures,but also control the influences of near failure observation. Besides, the RAIM algorithm based on robust estimation is more efficient than the current RAIM algorithm for multiple constellation and multiple faults. Finally, the algorithm is tested by GPS/Bei Dou data.

Applications of two-way satellite time and frequency transfer in the BeiDou navigation satellite system

A two-way satellite time and frequency transfer(TWSTFT) device equipped in the BeiDou navigation satellite system(BDS)can calculate clock error between satellite and ground master clock. TWSTFT is a real-time method with high accuracy because most system errors such as orbital error, station position error, and tropospheric and ionospheric delay error can be eliminated by calculating the two-way pseudorange difference. Another method, the multi-satellite precision orbit determination(MPOD)method, can be applied to estimate satellite clock errors. By comparison with MPOD clock estimations, this paper discusses the applications of the BDS TWSTFT clock observations in satellite clock measurement, satellite clock prediction, navigation system time monitor, and satellite clock performance assessment in orbit. The results show that with TWSTFT clock observations, the accuracy of satellite clock prediction is higher than MPOD. Five continuous weeks of comparisons with three international GNSS Service(IGS) analysis centers(ACs) show that the reference time difference between BeiDou time(BDT) and golbal positoning system(GPS) time(GPST) realized IGS ACs is in the tens of nanoseconds. Applying the TWSTFT clock error observations may obtain more accurate satellite clock performance evaluation in the 104 s interval because the accuracy of the MPOD clock estimation is not sufficiently high. By comparing the BDS and GPS satellite clock performance, we found that the BDS clock stability at the 103 s interval is approximately 10.12, which is similar to the GPS IIR.

Multi-channel signal parameters joint optimization for GNSS terminals

Traditional global navigation satellite system(GNSS)terminals for satellite navigation adopt independent channels to track the signals from different satellites, which results in a lack of information interaction between the channels. Inspired by the vector tracking idea, and drawing lessons from the principle that in the position domain the Taylor expanded pseudorange observations can be used for positioning via the least squares method, this paper proposes a novel least squares-based multi-channel parameter joint estimation(MPJE) method in the signal domain, which not only retains the advantages of channel fusion, but also maintains the flexibility and diversity of the localization algorithm. With achieving optimal carrier to noise ratio as the goal, the proposed method obtains the required code loop and carrier loop parameters for signal tracking in the domain of whole channels. Experimental results indicate that this method fully achieves the assistant fusion advantages of frequency lock loop(FLL), phase lock loop(PLL)and delay lock loop(DLL), making good use of the robustness and dynamic properties of the FLL and the measurement accuracy of the DLL, and is helpful for achieving stable and accurate signal tracking under weak signals and high dynamic stress environments.

Advances in BeiDou Navigation Satellite System(BDS)and satellite navigation augmentation technologies

Several noteworthy breakthroughs have been made with the BeiDou Navigation Satellite System(BDS)and other global navigation satellite systems as well as the associated augmentation systems,such as the commissioning of the BDS-3 preliminary system and the successful launch of the first BDS-3 GEO satellite which carries the satellite-based augmentation payload.Presently,BDS can provide basic services globally,and its augmentation system is also being tested.This paper gives an overview of BDS and satellite navigation augmentation technologies.This overview is divided into four parts,which include the system segment technologies,satellite segment technologies,propagation segment technologies,and user segment technologies.In each part,these technologies are described from the perspectives of preliminary information,research progress,and summary.Moreover,the significance and progress of the BeiDou Satellite-based Augmentation System(BDSBAS),low earth orbit augmentation,and the national BeiDou ground-based augmentation system are presented,along with the airborne-based augmentation system.Furthermore,the conclusions and discussions covering popular topics for research,frontiers in research and development,achievements,and suggestions are listed for future research.

The space-time references of BeiDou Navigation Satellite System

The BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS) is essentially a precise time measurement and time synchronization system for a large-scale space near the Earth. General relativity is the basic theoretical framework for the information processing in the master control station of BDS. Having introduced the basic conceptions of relativistic space-time reference systems, the space-time references of BDS are analyzed and the function and acquisition method of the Earth Orientation Parameters (EOP) are briefly discussed. The basic space reference of BDS is BeiDou Coordinate System (BDCS), and the time standard is the BDS Time (BDT). BDCS and BDT are the realizations of the Geocentric Terrestrial Reference System (GTRS) and the Terrestrial Time (TT) for BDS, respectively. The station coordinates in the BDCS are consistent with those in International Terrestrial Reference Frame (ITRF)2014 at the cm-level and the difference in scale is about 1.1 × 10^(−8) . The time deviation of BDT relative to International Atomic Time (TAI) is less than 50 ns and the frequency deviation is less than 2 × 10^(−14) . The Geocentric Celestial Reference System (GCRS) and the solar Barycentric Celestial Reference System (BCRS) are also involved in the operation of BDS. The observation models for time synchronization and precise orbit determination are established within the GCRS framework. The coordinate transformation between BDCS and GCRS is consistent with the International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service (IERS). In the autonomous operation mode without the support of the ground master control station, Earth Orientation Parameters (EOP) is obtained by means of long-term prediction and on-board observation. The observa-tion models for the on-board astrometry should be established within the BCRS framework.

Correction to: Advances in BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS) and satellite navigation augmentation technologies

Correction to:Satell Navig(2020)1:12 https://doi.org/10.1186/s43020-020-00010-2 In the original publication of this article(Li et al.2020),there are several corrections as below:1.In the first paragraph of this article,the sentence“In recent years,China has been actively promoting the con-struction and development of the BeiDou Navigation Sat-ellite System(BDS),and by the end of the year 2000 the construction of BDS-1 was complete and BDS-1 began to provide GPS services for China.”should be changed into“In recent years,China has been actively promoting the construction and development of the BeiDou Navigation Satellite System(BDS),and by the end of the year 2000 the construction of BDS-1 was completed and BDS-1 began to provide services for China.”The word“GPS”should be removed.

Classification of Arrhythmia Based on Convolutional Neural Networks and Encoder-Decoder Model

As a common and high-risk type of disease,heart disease seriously threatens people’s health.At the same time,in the era of the Internet of Thing(IoT),smart medical device has strong practical significance for medical workers and patients because of its ability to assist in the diagnosis of diseases.Therefore,the research of real-time diagnosis and classification algorithms for arrhythmia can help to improve the diagnostic efficiency of diseases.In this paper,we design an automatic arrhythmia classification algorithm model based on Convolutional Neural Network(CNN)and Encoder-Decoder model.The model uses Long Short-Term Memory(LSTM)to consider the influence of time series features on classification results.Simultaneously,it is trained and tested by the MIT-BIH arrhythmia database.Besides,Generative Adversarial Networks(GAN)is adopted as a method of data equalization for solving data imbalance problem.The simulation results show that for the inter-patient arrhythmia classification,the hybrid model combining CNN and Encoder-Decoder model has the best classification accuracy,of which the accuracy can reach 94.05%.Especially,it has a better advantage for the classification effect of supraventricular ectopic beats(class S)and fusion beats(class F).

A cellular wireless location algorithm based on RON online RBF neural network

A location and tracking algorithm with NLOS （Non-Line of Sight） errors for MS （Mobile Station） is proposed in this paper. A cellular localization algorithm based on the RON online RBF neural network is proposed. The measurement ofAOA, TOA and TDOA provided by mobile base station is fused to locate mobile. The location performance of RON online RBF neural network is simulated. The simulation results indicate that shrink, attenuation, shift or overlapping phenomenon is avoided when the network redundant hidden nodes appear. It＇ s location accuracy is significantly improved under complicated multi-path environment.

Orbit determination and prediction for Beidou GEO satellites at the time of the spring/autumn equinox

Geostationary(GEO) satellites form an indispensable component of the constellation of Beidou navigation system(BDS). The ephemerides, or predicted orbits of these GEO satellites(GEOs), are broadcast to positioning, navigation, and timing users. User equivalent ranging error(UERE) based on broadcast message is better than 1.5 m(root formal errors: RMS) for GEO satellites. However, monitoring of UERE indicates that the orbital prediction precision is significantly degraded when the Sun is close to the Earth's equatorial plane(or near spring or autumn Equinox). Error source analysis shows that the complicated solar radiation pressure on satellite buses and the simple box-wing model maybe the major contributor to the deterioration of orbital precision. With the aid of BDS' two-way frequency and time transfer between the GEOs and Beidou time(BDT, that is maintained at the master control station), we propose a new orbit determination strategy, namely three-step approach of the multi-satellite precise orbit determination(MPOD). Pseudo-range(carrier phase) data are transformed to geometric range(biased geometric range) data without clock offsets; and reasonable empirical acceleration parameters are estimated along with orbital elements to account for the error in solar radiation pressure modeling. Experiments with Beidou data show that using the proposed approach, the GEOs' UERE when near the autumn Equinox of 2012 can be improved to 1.3 m from 2.5 m(RMS), and the probability of user equivalent range error(UERE)<2.0 m can be improved from 50% to above 85%.

The method and experiment analysis of two-way common-view satellite time transfer for compass system

Time synchronization between ground and satellites is a key technology for satellite navigation system. With dual-channel satellite, a method called Two-Way Common-View(TWCV) satellite time transfer for Compass system is proposed, which combines both characteristics of satellite common-view and two-way satellite-ground time transfer. By satellite-ground two-way pseudo-range differencing and two stations common-view differencing, this TWCV method can completely eliminate the influence of common errors, such as satellite clock offset, ephemeris errors, troposphere delay and station coordinates errors. At the same time, ionosphere delay related to signal frequency is also weakened significantly. So the precision of time transfer is improved much more greatly than before. In this paper, the basic principle is introduced in detail, the effect of major errors is analyzed and the practical calculation model in the Earth-fixed coordinate system for this new method is provided. Finally, experiment analysis is conducted with actual Compass observing data. The results show that the deviation and the stability of the satellite dual channel can be better than 0.1 ns, and the accuracy of the two-way common-view satellite time transfer can achieve 0.4 ns. All these results have verified the correctness of this TWCV method and model. In addition, we compare this TWCV satellite time transfer with the independent C-band TWSTFT(Two-Way Satellite Time and Frequency Transfer). It shows that the result of the TWCV satellite time transfer is in accordance with the C-band TWSTFT result, which further suggests that the TWCV method is a remote high precision time transfer technique. The research results in this paper are very important references for the development and application of Compass satellite navigation system.

Integrity analysis of COMPASS and other GNSS combined navigation

The integrity requirement should be satisfied when GNSS is used in aviation.There are now two ways for integrity monitoring,that is,receiver autonomous integrity monitoring(RAIM) and GNSS integrity channel(GIC) based on augmentation system.The rapid development of the Beidou satellite navigation system(COMPASS) will significantly improve the satellite geometry.Besides,the effects of first order ionosphere delay will be mitigated by the combination of GNSS multi-frequency signals.The availability of RAIM will be enhanced,which makes it possible to provide a worldwide seamless integrity service for aviation by using RAIM.The contribution of COMPASS to the availability of RAIM is analyzed by simulation;and the integrity requirement of which aviation approaching phrase can be satisfied when using COMPASS single system and its combination with other satellite navigation system is analyzed.Moreover,the influence of user range accuracy(URA) of COMPASS on integrity performance is discussed.

Inter-satellite link augmented BeiDou-3 orbit determination for precise point positioning

Precise Point Positioning(PPP) requires precise products, including high-accuracy satellite orbit and clock parameters. It is impossible to obtain an orbit solution that is sufficiently accurate for PPP services with a regional tracking network;therefore, satellite orbits are usually estimated by a global tracking network with a large number of ground stations. However, it is expensive to build globally distributed stations. Fortunately, BeiDou-3 satellites carry an InterSatellite Link(ISL) payload, which can track the whole arc of the BeiDou-3 satellites and enhance the orbit determination accuracy with regional ground stations. In this contribution, a novel orbit determination strategy for BeiDou-3 PPP is proposed, in which the BeiDou-3 satellite orbits are enhanced by the ISL. First, the generation of precise satellite products is demonstrated in detail.In addition, the products are assessed by Satellite Laser Ranging(SLR) residuals and overlap comparisons. Moreover, the products are used for receivers in China's Mainland to carry out the static and kinematic modes to research the PPP performance of Bei Dou-3’s 3IGSO/24MEO constellation.The SLR validations of the satellite orbits demonstrate an accuracy better than 0.1 m in the radial component, and the orbit overlap comparisons show accuracies of 0.016 m in the radial component,0.088 m in the along-track component and 0.087 m in the cross-track component. The Standard Deviation(STD) in the differences in overlapping arcs for the estimated satellite clocks is approximately 0.10 ns. The static PPP results demonstrate that the error in both the horizontal and vertical components is smaller than 10 cm after 30 minutes of convergence. After 24 hours of convergence,the errors are 0.70 cm, 0.63 cm and 1.99 cm for the north, east and up components, respectively.The kinematic PPP experiment illustrates that the Root Mean Square(RMS) position errors in the north, east and up components are approximately 3.23 cm, 5.27 cm and 8.64 cm, respectively,after convergence. The obtainable positioning and convergence performances are comparable to those using products generated by global tracking networks.