Author Description

New applications for GPS have driven a demand for increased positioning accuracy. The emerging GPS technology particularly affects the test community. The testing equipment and method must provide a solution that is an order of magnitude more precise than the tested equipment to achieve the desired accuracy. Carrier-phase differential GPS methods using a network of reference receivers can provide the centimeter-level accuracy required over a large geographical area. This thesis evaluates the performance of a 5-receiver network over a 50 km x 120 km area of New Mexico, using a GPS network algorithm called Net Adjust. The percentage of time a fixed integer solution was available for a kinematic baseline was investigated for three types of measurements. Results showed that the virtual reference receiver method using Net Adjust-corrected measurements outperformed the raw and Net Adjust-corrected file results. However, these results were only obtained for the shortest baseline receivers. The receivers with longer baselines did not experience the same degree of success, but did lead to several important insights gained from the research. Most importantly, the accuracy of the reference receiver coordinates is critical to the performance of a reference receiver network. Further testing must be accomplished before a full implementation is recommended. This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work. This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entit