Development of a Simulation Tool to Evaluate GNSS Positioning Performance in Urban Area

With the rapid development of spatial infrastructure in US, Europe, Japan, China and India, there is no doubt that the next generation Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) will improve the integrity, accuracy, reliability and availability of the position solution. GNSS is becoming an essential element of personal, commercial and public infrastructure and consequently part of our daily lives. However, the applicability of GPS in supporting a range of location-sensitive applications such as location based services in an urban environment is severely curtailed by the interference of the 3D urban settings. To characterize and gain in-depth understanding of such interferences and to be able to provide location-based optimization alternatives, a high-fidelity 3D urban model of Melbourne CBD built with ArcGIS and large scale high-resolution spatial data sets is used in this study to support a comprehensive simulation of current and future GNSS signal performance, in terms of signal continuity, availability, strength, geometry, positioning accuracy and reliability based on a number of scenarios. The design, structure and major components of the simulator are outlined. Useful time-stamped spatial patterns of the signal performance over the experimental urban area have been revealed which are valuable for supporting location based services applications, such as emergency responses, the optimization of wireless communication infrastructures and vehicle navigation services.