Joint L-/C-Band Code and Carrier Phase Linear Combinations for Galileo

Linear code combinations have been considered for suppressing the ionospheric error. In the L-band, this leads to an increased noise floor. In a combined L- and C-band (5010–5030 MHz) approach, the ionosphere can be eliminated and the noise floor reduced at the same time. Furthermore, combinations that involve both code- and carrier-phase measurements are considered. A new L-band code-carrier combination with a wavelength of 3.215 meters and a noise level of 3.92 centimeters is found. The double difference integer ambiguities of this combination can be resolved by extending the system of equations with an ionosphere-free L-/C-band code combination. The probability of wrong fixing is reduced by several orders of magnitude when C-band measurements are included. Carrier smoothing can be used to further reduce the residual variance of the solution. The standard deviation is reduced by a factor 7.7 if C-band measurements are taken into account. These initial findings suggest that the combined use of L- and C-band measurements, as well as the combined code and phase processing are an attractive option for precise positioning