How accurate a GPS is?

Global Positioning System (GPS) is a navigation system (https://www.garminupdate.online/garmin-satnav.php) of satellites that gives information about the device location. It consists of a large number of satellites in various orbits having revolutions around the earth.

In the GPS System, a satellite transmits various data which consists of "Satellite position" as well as "the time message was transmitted".When the information data reaches on the earth's surface, a GPS unit receives this data and matches the time of "message received" with the time of "message transmission".The geostationary satellites are used to transmit the signals and calculate the accurate location of the device. Initially, the GPS was started for only military purpose and after that, it was also used for civilians for providing more facilities and comforts to them. It was in the 1990s, the GPS system was made available for civilian use.

GPS Terms:

• Pseudorange - The distance between the satellite and the receiver.

• GNSS - Global Navigation Satellite System (GPS being one of these, others include the Russian GLONASS, European GALILEO and Chinese BeiDou systems).

• Almanac - Approximate orbits of all known satellites.

• Ephemeris - Precise orbital information.

Mechanism of calculating the location:

It requires a minimum of four satellites to find the location of a device. The more the number of satellites to view the location of the device, the more will be its accuracy. The accuracy of the receiver can vary according to a large number of factors both technical as well as non-technical.

Accuracy of location :

The US govt in today's times claims the accuracy to be 4 meters RMS horizontal accuracy for the civilian device. But, the vertical accuracy is worse. The best accuracy a civilian can get is 2 meters with some algorithm for the more correct location. The most common causes for not having a more precise location detection can be attributed to factors such as signal reflection from large buildings, other manmade structures, concrete flyovers and natural resources such as trees, all of which create hindrance by coming in the way of the line of sight between satellite and devise. Radio interference, jamming of signals and intense solar rays can also be the reasons for the inaccurateness.

However, the good news is there for upcoming times. According to the new IEEE spectrum, a new mass-market GPS chip is launching very soon that can give accuracy up to 30 cm and also DGPS e.i Differential GPS can bring the accuracy up to 1 meter. The new technology is advanced as compared to the old one in terms of accuracy. It will enhance the accuracy features that will be very beneficial for civilians. Civilians will find them more comfortable while using this latest technology.

A newer satellite broadcast is responsible for this accuracy. It will provide extra information to the phone which after receiving that information can apply that data in increasing the accuracy of the location. According to news, there are currently 30 satellites that support this new technology. The new standard of technology is supposed to be launched this year. This will resolve the common problem of the telecom sector. The problem that arises due to the reflection of signals from buildings in big cities is supposed to be resolved very soon by this advancement in the technology of the telecom sector. As this is known that GPS is not very accurate in urban areas in terms of accuracy, the new technology will prove to be a boon for the present generation.NASA has developed algorithms for precise location calculations that will help the USA in strengthening the global positioning system.

According to ABI research, Qualcomm is the biggest name in terms of chips manufacturing and is supposed to bring this technology to a large scale and upgrade the current devices. The ground technology is also becoming advanced as Broadcomm recently announced the launching of technology that has the potential to pinpoint the device location up to 30 cm accuracy. The countries like India, the EU, Russia, and China have the potential to end the monopoly of the superpower US in terms of finding the location of the device. China developed its navigation system known as BeiDou system for its military, EU has Galileo both for the military as well as civilians while in 2012, Russia rebuilt GLONASS. India though location-specific built NAVIC e.i the Indian regional navigation satellite system which can at least cover India as well as 1500 km around its boundaries. It is not a surprise that Australia is also spending the US $193 million to invest in satellite infrastructure and the related technology to improve the location preciseness in GPS as part of its annual budget. Moreover, Uber is also investing in the accuracy of the GPS as its engineers have developed an algorithm that will be able to increase the preciseness in terms of location.

Measure how precise GPS is working on the device:

The best method for measuring the accuracy will include finding a fixed point on the map and visiting there and then, comparing the data with the known data. Various apps can be downloaded from play store in android devices. For iPhone users, applications can be installed and GPS accuracy can be determined similarly.

Shailendra Kumar is the owner of the company Garmin update (https://www.garminupdate.online/). He has a keen interest in technological work and this interest of him helped in establishing a company that provide all sort of Gps update solutions.