Comparison of Single, Dual and Triple Frequency Cycle-Slip Detection Methods for Multi-GNSS

Abstract

Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) is now widely recognized as a revolutionary invention in navigation and precise positioning on the Earth. The development of positioning systems from space, which started with GPS and continued with GLONASS, BeiDou and Galileo, has now been an area that serves billions of users with number of satellites over a hundred and increased number of signal frequencies. Everyone living on the earth expects the solutions to be brought to their problems to be fast and with high accuracy, along with the rapid progress of technology. When this is the case, GNSS needs to maximize its positioning and navigation skills day by day. Carrier-phase measurements are the key to achieve high precision and accuracy in GNSS positioning. Discontinuities in a receiver's phase lock on a satellite's signal, i.e., cycle slips, degrades positioning accuracy if they are not detected. Cycle-slip detection has become relatively easy due to the incorporation of new frequencies and modifications to many of the existing methods. With this study, a new software called Cycle Slip Methods Comparison Tool (CSMCT) was developed to comparatively analyze the performance of the selected single, double, and triple frequency cycle slip detection methods, and their performances were examined by categorizing the artificial cycle slips added to the observation data based on the satellite elevation angles using multi-GNSS. For the time being, there is no software capable of analyzing cycle-slip methods, including single, dual, and triple frequencies. Using the CSMCT software, it is possible to determine the success rates of the cycle-slip detection methods with the desired data and test scenarios, which sheds light on the selection of the appropriate method for different kinds of applications. By analyzing the obtained datasets, it has been determined that the cycle slip detection methods demonstrate high success rates under test conditions. For multi-GNSS, cycle-slip methods have been tested for single, dual and triple frequency observations, and the results obtained for triple-frequency are found to be the most successful.