Examples of DOP values:
PDOP:1.7 PDOP:4.3 PDOP:12.6
DOPvalueisokforgoodGPS
performance
DOPvalueisacceptablefora
goodGPSperformance
DOPtoohigh(allthesatellitesarein
astraightline),thiswilldegradethe
GPSperformance
Figure 4: Examples of DOP values
1.4.2 Multipath
Direct
Direct
Shadowing
Multipath
Figure 5: A multi-path environment
Amulti-pathenvironmentexistsifGPSsignalsarriveattheantennadirectlyfromthesatellite,(lineofsight,LOS)
andalsofromreflectivesurfaces,e.g.waterorbuildingwalls.Ifthereisadirectpathinadditiontothereflected
pathavailable,thereceivercanusuallydetectthesituationandcompensate
tosomeextent.Ifthereisnodirect
line of sight, but only reflections, the receiver is not able to detect the situation. Under these multipath
conditionstherangemeasurementtothe satellitewill provideincorrectinformationto thenavigationsolution,
resulting ina less accurateposition. If there are
onlyafew satellites in sight,the navigationsolution might be
wrongbyseveralhundredmeters.
IfthereisaLOSavailable,theeffectofmulti-pathisactuallytwofold.First,thecorrelationpeakwillbedistorted
whichresultsinalesspreciseposition.Thiseffectcanbecompensatedforbyadvanced
receivertechnologysuch
astheANTARIS
®
4tpatentedmultipathmitigationscheme.Thesecondeffectrelatestothecarrierphaserelation
ofthedirectandreflectedsignal,thereceivedsignalstrengthissubjecttoaninterferenceeffect.Thetwosignals
maycanceleachother(outofphase)oraddtoeachother(inphase).Evenifthe
receiverremainsstationary,the
motionofthesatellitewillchangethephaserelationbetweendirectandreflectedsignal,resultinginaperiodic
modulationoftheC/N
0
measuredbythereceiver.
GPSModules-SystemIntegrationManual(SIM)(incl.ReferenceDesign) GPSFundamentals
GPS.G4-MS4-05007-A1
Page 15