Evaluation of NRTK positioning using the RENEP and RAP networks on the Southern border region of Portugal and Spain

Abstract

Nowadays, the Continuously Operating Reference Station (CORS) network, combined with network RTK corrections (NRTK solution), is a widely used technique for high-accuracy positioning in real time. This “active” network realizes a reference frame and propagates it to the users. In border regions the coherence between the reference frames propagated by neighboring active networks is a critical problem. In this study the test results of post-processed and simultaneous NRTK positions at six test points located in the border region between Portugal and the Community of Andalusia, in the south west of the Iberian Peninsula, are presented. The analysis is based on two GNSS active networks present in this border region, namely RENEP (Portugal) and RAP (Community of Andalusia, Spain), a national and a local RTK network respectively, with similar characteristics. Upon comparing the post-processed position for each test point, as estimated with respect to each of the two active networks analyzed, the discrepancies found in 3D were less than 2 centimeters. The results of network-based RTK positioning were found to be successful within a 2 cm precision level in the east and north components and 4 cm for the up component. The results also confirm that the NRTK positioning accuracy is about 2 cm in horizontal and 4 cm in vertical, which can satisfy the requirement of real-time positioning users at a centimetric accuracy level, even in border regions considering extrapolated NRTK solutions.