Evaluation of GBAS flight trials based on BDS and GPS

Abstract

Ground-based augmentation systems (GBASs) are widely used augmentation systems using satellite navigation. GBAS can improve the performance of BeiDou navigation satellite system (BDS) in civil aviation application. Evaluation is necessary before using a GBAS. On the basis of the flight trials conducted at the Dongying airport, evaluation results show that based on both the global positioning system (GPS) L1 signal and BDS B1I signal, ground accuracy designators (GADs) of four reference receivers are consistent with GAD-C levels. The improvement in accuracy obtained with GBAS differential process is ∼60%, and the differential position error based on the BDS B1I signal is 40% greater than that of the GPS L1 signal, because currently incomplete BDS satellites distribution is worse than that of GPS. Airborne protection levels assessments show that the approach trials based on the BDS B1I signal exhibit several false alarm events. Further analysis indicates that BDS vertical protection levels were larger because of larger pseudoinverse S result from low elevation angle and unsatisfactory geometric distribution of BDS satellites. Besides, monitors show that BDS B1I signal is more affected by ionospheric delay than GPS L1 signal, which can also contribute to false alarm events.