The usefulness of the MAFA method for smartphone precise positioning

Abstract The paper presents smartphone GPS positioning results, using phase observations on the L1 frequency. In this research, we used one Huawei P30 Pro mobile phone, one Samsung S22 Ultra, and one geodetic receiver (Javad Triumph-1) acting as the reference receiver. Smartphones were placed on an aluminum base at an equal distance of 0.34 m from this receiver. Such a close distance was used to achieve identical observation conditions. The analysis was carried out from static GPS positioning, using the Modified Ambiguity Function Approach (MAFA) method. The short baselines were used during the tests. For the first part of the test, 5-min static sessions were performed for both smartphones. For post-processing kinematic (PPK), 1, 3, 5, and 10-s solutions achieved decimeter-level accuracy, while 30 and 60-s solutions provided centimeter-level accuracy for N and E on both smartphones. The results obtained from both smartphones are very promising. The authors proved that the MAFA method can be used for precise mobile phone positioning for short baselines.