2.2. Private Wide-Area Real-Time GNSS
Networks The demand for precise GPS data in the surveying, engineering,
mapping, and related professions is continuously
increasing to meet the need for spatial data for lots of applications
especially in areas that have witnessed a boom
in real estate businesses. Traditionally, radio-based RTK
has been known to provide the most accurate positioning
as it corrects the inherent errors of the satellite system at
the location of a roving GPS receiver. Issues with radiocommunication
that relate to clear line-of-sight between
the locations of the base station and the rover as well as
short baselines inspired the development of more reliable
communication mechanism. The latest communication
techniques utilize wireless communication through ultrahigh-frequency
“UHF” radio, satellite, or cellular phone
modems. This section presents the concept and the applications
of privately operated wide-area GNSS network;
specifically a wireless-based network.
2.2.1. Working Principle of Private Wide-Area
Real-Time GNSS
GPS observation data from a set of fixed reference stations
is continuously transmitted to a central server. The
network processor performs integrity checks on all GPS
observables, carries out quality checks on the data, and
correct for cycle slips. The network processor resolves
the network ambiguities and computes atmospheric corrections
based on double-differencing concept after GPS
data integrity has been checked. Figure 1 below shows
an example of the general architecture of the wirelessbased
RTK network.
2.2.2. Wireless-Based Private Wide-Area Real-Time
GNSS Network
Wireless-based GNSS network is a wide-area, real-time
integrated GPS positioning system, consisting of GPS
hardware, software and wireless communication links.
The communication links such as ultra-high-frequency
“UHF” radio, satellite, or cellular phone are utilized by
the network to provide communication between the network
server and the reference stations to model errors
throughout the coverage area. This model is used; for
example, to create virtual reference stations (VRS) near
the user’s location which then provide a localized set of
standard format correction messages to the rover. To
enable the GPS modeling, the rover provides its approximate
position to the central server via a cellular modem.
The central server processes double-differenced data,
generates errors, creates a VRS, and interpolates and applies
corrections for the rover. The central server then produces
corrections as if they were coming from the VRS
and transmits them back to the receiver through the communication
links. This type of a wide-area network is managed by software packages available from; for example
Trimble® Navigation, including GPS BASE, GPS
NET, and RTK NET. GPS BASE provides continuous,
fully automatic operation of a single base station for post
processing of RTK or DGPS corrections within a local
area. GPS NET is designed to connect multiple base stations.
RTK NET uses real-time data from the GPS NET
software to generate corrections for high accuracy [13],
real-time Kinematic (RTK) corrections throughout the
network. RTK NET is the software that provides the
Virtual Reference Station (VRS) broadcast corrections.
The VRS is the oldest and one of five RTK wide-area
GNSS network correction methods including the FlächenKorrektur
Parameter (FKP), the Individualized MAC
(i-MAC), the Master Auxiliary Corrections (MAC), and
the Networked Reference System (NRS). Conceptually,
the VRS and i-MAC methods are not different, but the
i-MAC method generates corrections for a real station and
doesn’t create a VRS. Unlike the VRS and i-MAC, the
FKP method creates corrections in terms of simple planes
for a finite area around the closest reference station to the
rover. Also, the FKP method does not require the rover to
send its approximate position; instead, the server sends
the GPS data along with a distance-based error model of
the reference station to the rover [14]. The corrections
estimated by the server at the rover’s position in this
method are based on the assumption that the distancebased
errors between the references stations change linearly,
which can result in low quality position estimates. In
the MAC method, the server transmits the GPS data and
network information to the rover, which can then calculate
the corrections based on single- or multiple-baselines.
The advantage of this method is that the rover can recalculate
its position OTF with the RTK solution, but the
disadvantage is that the corrections are computed by the
rover at the user end; therefore the type, brand and quality
of the receiver becomes an issue. Networked Reference
System (NRS), is the newest RTK method and it uses a
sub-set of the network reference stations within a finite
area around the rover location to generate the error model
and it computes corrections for long baselines (up to 200
kilometres).
The VRS concept is mainly based on the elimination
of the residual double differenced errors for long-range
baselines between known and unknown stations, and an
optimum set of GPS data is selected from a combined
observations from several reference stations. Accordingly,
the methods for short-range baseline kinematic data
processing can be used to determine the position of a
long-range rover based on the VRS data. In order to create
a VRS near the receiver, approximate position must
be resolved at first from the observations of multiple stations
in the network. Then, the corrections for the rover location can be generated from the residuals in carrierphase
measurements, and accordingly corrections are computed
for the rover approximate position.