On exact solutions of the multi-constellation GNSS navigation problem

In Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) positioning, the receiver measures the pseudorange with respect to each observable navigation satellite and determines the position and clock bias. In addition to the GPS, several other navigation satellite constellations including Glonass, Galileo and Compass can/will also be used to provide positioning, navigation, and timing information. The paper is concerned with the solvability of the navigation problem when the receiver attempts to process measurements from different constellations. As two different constellations may not be time-synchronized, the navigation problem involves the determination of position of the receiver and clock bias with respect to each constellation. The paper describes an analytic approach to account for the two-constellation navigation problem with three measurements from one constellation and two measurements from another constellation. It is shown that the two-constellation GNSS navigation problem becomes the solving of a set of two simultaneous quadratic equations or, equivalently, a quartic equation. Furthermore, the zero-crossover of the leading coefficient and the sign of the discriminant of the quartic equation are shown to play a significant role in governing the solvability, i.e., the existence and uniqueness of the navigation solutions.