Reliable GPS plus BDS RTK positioning with partial ambiguity resolution

Reliable carrier phase positioning requires the occurrence of incorrect integer ambiguity estimates to be limited to a maximum tolerable rate. In various simulation studies, partial ambiguity resolution (PAR) techniques were shown to be beneficial, since it is more likely that a subset of all ambiguities can be reliably resolved rather than the full set. Consequently, they allow for improved positioning capabilities such as faster solutions or a higher availability of instantaneous centimeter level coordinate estimates. We analyze the impact of PAR on the performance of single and combined GPS and BDS single-epoch dual-frequency real-time kinematic (RTK) positioning. It will be demonstrated that we can expect a wider range for reliable instantaneous RTK positioning when using PAR techniques. Real global navigation satellite system data from a 22.4 km baseline are used to verify the benefit of PAR. The availability of centimeter level positioning results will be shown to be significantly increased compared to conventional full ambiguity resolution.