Performance Characterisation of Multi-Constellation GNSS-based Positioning for Maritime Applications

Maritime augmentation services are designed to satisfy increased accuracy and integrity requirements on positioning required for safe and efficient vessel's navigation in coastal areas. While currently these services support the usage of code based positioning, increasing accuracy requirements for maritime safety-critical applications demand a detailed analysis of the performance of solutions for multi-constellation based augmentation products, together with their respective integrity information. This paper discusses approaches for alternative multi-constellation GNSS-based positioning techniques through the characterisation of their performance regarding data processing layers of maritime GNSS augmentation services. Feasibility and effectiveness of error characterisation methods are analysed, and special attention is laid on the estimation of usable performance key identifiers for the real-time estimation of the current capabilities of the GNSS-based products, and their possible on-board utilisation.