RTK Rover Performance using the Master-Auxiliary Concept

Abstract

The Master-Auxiliary Concept, jointly proposed by Leica Geosystems and Geo++, is the basis of the soon to be released RTCM 3.0 network messages, the first industry standard for network RTK. The new standard, in addition to promoting increased compatibility and innovation in the industry, offers some distinct advantages to the end user over the previous generation of network corrections, such as VRS. With the Master-Auxiliary Concept complete information on the prevailing errors sources is made available to the rover, thereby facilitating the use of more intelligent positioning algorithms in the determination of the rover’s position. The net result is an increased robustness of the system and increased performance in terms of time to fix, reliability of the ambiguity fix and position accuracy. Empirical data from both Leica and third party reference station software and rover receivers is used to demonstrate the real world benefits of the Master- Auxiliary Concept in general and the Leica solution in particular. Clear improvements can be seen when combining the Leica GPS Spider network RTK software with the Leica System 1200 GPS receivers, even when using network correction data at a sampling rate of only 5s.