Statistical analysis and effects of radio frequency interference in GPS signal quality in Thailand

Abstract

The radio frequency interference (RFI) in global navigation satellite system (GNSS) signals has recently received much attention in the GNSS community because of frequent jamming issues. The carrier-to-noise density ratio (C/N0) is one of the common parameters to indicate the signal quality. In this work, we propose a real-time RFI analysis based on windowing and normalization of C/N0 observations. Specifically, the percentage of RFI values are analyzed based on the modified RFI detection. The steps to analyze the RFI levels (low, medium, high) are highlighted. In addition, we analyzed the occurrences of local RFI effects in areas surrounding the Suvarnabhumi International Airport as well as remote areas. We validate the modified RFI detection by using the GNSS reference stations at the urban, suburban, and outside the capital city in Thailand. The user positioning errors with the high (severe) RFI levels are investigated based on the single point positioning (SPP) and real-time kinematics (RTK). From the experimental simulations, the high RFI levels at the urban are higher than those at the suburban. As expected, the statistical analysis covering COVID-19 (2019 to 2023) shows that the high RFI levels in June 2023 (post COVID-19) are more than those in June 2020 and 2021 (lockdown COVID-19) by about twofold. Additionally, the SPP positioning errors with the medium/high RFI levels are clearly seen. There are more floating solutions in the RTK system in the year with more RFI presence.