5GNSS: Fusion of 5G-NR and GNSS Localization for Enhanced Positioning Accuracy and Reliability

• Published in: IEEE transactions on vehicular technology Vol. 73; no. 9; pp. 13558 - 13568
• Main Authors: Campolo, Federico, Blaga, Andra, Rea, Maurizio, Lozano, Angel, Costa-Perez, Xavier
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York IEEE 01-09-2024; The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
• Subjects: 5G mobile communication; 5G-NR; Accuracy; autonomous driving; Clocks; Distance measurement; Error reduction; Estimation; Global navigation satellite system; GNSS; GNSS/5G integrated positioning; Localization; Location awareness; Performance evaluation; PRS; Satellite broadcasting; Satellites; System reliability
• ISSN: 0018-9545; 1939-9359
• DOI: 10.1109/TVT.2024.3396991

With the proliferation of connected devices and the increasing demand for more precise and reliable positioning information, the fusion of 5G and GNSS localization systems holds immense potential to overcome the current limitations of standalone approaches. In order to tackle this challenge, in this paper we explore the potential of the fusion of 5G-NR and satellite localization systems to jointly enhance their accuracy and reliability. The designed solution, termed 5GNSS , is explained in detail, describing its five main building blocks and corresponding mathematical foundations. An extensive performance evaluation has been conducted, considering urban, suburban, and rural vehicular scenarios, as well as a varying number of visible satellites and 5G base stations. Our results show that 5GNSS can outperform standalone GNSS, 4G-LTE and 5G-NR positioning systems consistently across all these scenarios with an average error reduction in the <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">\sim</tex-math></inline-formula> 60-40% range. Based on these results, we conclude that future positioning systems would strongly benefit from incorporating 5GNSS-like fusion solutions.