GPS Satellites

Calculate indoor satellite coverage from the GPS satellite system.

GPS System Specifications

This project uses various Block II series satellites to form a GPS (Global Positioning System) as a site. These were the first full-scale operational GPS satellites designed to provide 14 days of operation without any contact from the control segment. Later series systems such as the Block IIA and Block IIR-M improved to 180 days of operation and contained military signals and more robust civil signals.

Model Type

The geometry is shown in Figure 1. The database can be viewed and edited in WallMan. The position of the building on Earth was defined when the database was created.
Figure 1. A 3D overview of the indoor database.


Sites and Antennas

The model contains nine different Block II GPS satellites. There are 5 satellites from the Block II-A series, 3 satellites from the Block IIR series, and 1 satellite from the Block IIR-M series. All the satellite antennas operate on the frequency of 1575.42 MHz. The transmitter power is 26.607 W.

Tip: Click Project > Edit Project Parameter and click the Sites tab to view the antenna settings.

Computational Method

The computational method is the standard ray tracing model (SRT).
Tip: Click Project > Edit Project Parameter and click the Computation tab to change the model.

Results

Propagation results show at every location the power received from each transmitting antenna by a hypothetical omnidirectional receiver. Figure 2 shows the received power results inside and outside the building. The satellite is located slightly south-east of the building resulting in short shadows to the north-west of the building.

Figure 2. Indoor and outdoor power coverage of the GPS satellite, BIIRM-1 (PRN 17).