System using hybrid LEO-GPS satellites for rapid resolution of integer cycle ambiguities

Resolution of integer cycle ambiguities is a critical requirement for centimeter-level carrier-phase positioning. This paper investigates the issue of GPS rapid resolution of integer cycle ambiguities, where a Low Earth orbit (LEO) ranging satellite is utilized to obtain large satellite geometry variations generated by its fast-moving property. We define a new system by adding the LEO ranging satellite transmitting signals on the L1 and/or L2 band to the GPS to improve the ability to estimate the integer cycle ambiguities rapidly, and analyse the performance using canonical metrics, such as gain in baseline precision, ambiguity precision and correlation, and ambiguity dilution of precision. Furthermore, in terms of success probability, we evaluate the performance of the proposed scheme compared with that of GPS. In addition, the impacts of the altitude of LEO satellite orbit, the number of visible satellites, the LEO satellite´s L2 navigation frequency, and different locations of the receivers on the ambiguity resolution are further analysed. The performance of the proposed scheme is demonstrated through in-depth numerical simulations.