The Assessment of GNSS Measurements from Android Smartphones

Android, the most popular smart operating system with an approximately 86% market share, has been able to support devices in exporting GNSS raw measurement. Taking an example of Huawei P9 smartphone, the paper mainly illustrated the way to obtain GNSS raw measurements on Android OS platform. Moreover, the quality of the satellite signal, the accuracy of GNSS measurements obtained from Android smartphone were analyzed. It can be approved that under good observing conditions, the mean Carrier-to-noise Ratio (CNR) of the satellite signal received by smart mobile devices with Android operating system can usually reach above 25 dBHz, the pseudorange noise of each satellite is about 8–12 m, and the cycle clip ratio of carrier phase measurements is extremely high, the carrier phase range noise can be within 0.006 m when no cycle slip. Compared with common GNSS geodetic receivers, due to the smartphone’s hardware, the CNR is lower, and the quality of measurements needs to be improved.