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. 2022 Jan 20;22(3):786.
doi: 10.3390/s22030786.

Smartphone GNSS Performance in an Urban Scenario with RAIM Application

Antonio Angrisano  1 , Salvatore Gaglione  2
Affiliations

Smartphone GNSS Performance in an Urban Scenario with RAIM Application

Antonio Angrisano et al. Sensors (Basel). .

Abstract

In an urban scenario, GNSS performance is strongly influenced by gross errors in the measurements, usually related to multipath and non-line-of-sight phenomena. The use of RAIM algorithms is a common approach to solve this issue. A significant amount of the existing GNSS receivers is currently mounted on smart devices, above all, smartphones. A typical drawback of these devices is the unavailability of raw measurements, which does not allow fully exploiting the GNSS potential; in particular, this feature limits the use of RAIM algorithms. Since 2016, for few smart devices, it has been finally possible to access GNSS raw measurements, allowing the implementation of specific algorithms and enabling new services. The Xiaomi Mi 8 is equipped with the Broadcom BCM47755 receiver, able to provide dual-frequency raw measurements from quad-constellation GPS, Glonass, Galileo, BeiDou. In this work, the performance in an urban area of the Xiaomi Mi8 GNSS was analyzed. An important issue of smartphone GNSS is related to the antenna, which is not able to protect from the multipath phenomenon; this issue has a large probability to emerge in hostile environments like urban areas. As a term of comparison, the high-sensitivity receiver NVS NV08C-CSM, connected to a patch antenna, was used. In particular, the considered receivers were placed in the same location, and their positions were estimated in single point positioning, applying a classical RAIM algorithm. An error analysis was carried out, and the obtained results demonstrated the effectiveness of RAIM when applied to Xiaomi Mi8 GNSS measurements.

Keywords: RAIM; mass-market devices; smartphone GNSS; urban scenario.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Scheme of absolute positioning with pseudorange measurements (adapted from [15]).
Figure 2
Figure 2
Scenario of the test at the “Centro Direzionale”, Naples, Italy.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Devices used in the experiment.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Available satellites and C/N0. Frame (a) refers to GPS satellites available from Xiaomi Mi8. Frame (b) refers to GPS satellites available from NVS. Frame (c) refers to Glonass satellites available from Xiaomi Mi8. Frame (d) refers to Glonass satellites available from NVS.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Horizontal position with Xiaomi Mi8, with and without RAIM application.
Figure 6
Figure 6
Vertical solution with Xiaomi Mi8, with and without RAIM application.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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