The mixed-receiver BeiDou inter-satellite-type bias and its impact on RTK positioning

The inter-satellite-type bias (ISTB) is a receiver-dependent hardware delay/bias between different satellite types. Our recent research revealed the existence of nonzero mixed-receiver phase ISTBs for the Chinese BeiDou system. Triggered by this finding, global navigation satellite system receiver manufactures, who are in the early stage of BeiDou-enabled receiver developments, are working toward a mutually consistent measurement extraction procedure. We analyze the long-term stability and current status of the mixed-receiver ISTBs, as well as study their impact on BeiDou stand-alone real-time kinematic (RTK) positioning. Our results confirm that a recent update in one of the receiver types has aligned it with one of the other receiver types. However, since not all receiver types are aligned yet, nonzero mixed-receiver ISTBs are shown to be still present. Analyses of BeiDou stand-alone RTK positioning using mixed-receiver types demonstrate that ISTBs could seriously affect the integer ambiguity resolution performance and that a priori correction for these biases will dramatically improve the success rate. Our analyses using real data from three different receiver types also demonstrate the long-term stability of the ISTBs, thus showing that such a priori calibration is indeed possible.