Distributed Processing for Large Geodetic Solutions

Abstract

This paper reports on the activities of the IAG Working Group 1.1.1 on combination and comparison of precise orbits based on different space geodetic techniques. It will focus on the Dancer project which implements a distributed parameter estimation process that is scalable in the number of GPS receivers, so that an arbitrarily large number of receivers can be processed in a single reference frame realization. The background of this project will be summarized and its mathematical principles will be explained, as well as the essential aspects of the involved internet communication. It will show that the workload for data processing at a single participating receiver remains independent of the network size, while the data traffic only grows as a logarithmic function of the network size. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2013.