Real-time Absolute Kinematic Positioning Using Galileo High Accuracy Service (HAS)

Galileo, the Europe’s Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS), provides a global real-time PPP service with its High Accuracy Service (HAS) that became operational in early 2023. The objective of this study was to assess the kinematic real-time PPP accuracy performance provided by the Galileo HAS satellite-based correction system. Within this frame, three realistic kinematic test measurements were carried out with a setup consisting of two different branded HAS-enabled high-end GNSS receivers under different GNSS constellations. The real-time PPP solutions were obtained by processing a combination of Galileo and GPS (E+G) and Galileo-only (E-only) corrections transmitted through the Galileo E6 signal. When E+G combined solutions were investigated, the service provided an accuracy of less than two decimeters in terms of Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) for horizontal and height components for both receivers. Unlike the E+G solutions, the E-only solution provided horizontal and vertical RMSE of 25 cm and 45 cm, respectively. The results show that the Galileo-High Accuracy Service provides dm-level accurate real-time positioning without additional reference station data or needing to retrieve any real-time PPP corrections that generally require external hardware, internet connection, or subscription fee. The study also showed that the real-time PPP accuracy effected by the receiver firmware that handles HAS corrections and the GNSS constellations used in the solution.