Urban GNSS Positioning for Consumer Electronics: 3D Mapping and Advanced Signal Processing

Smartphones, as ubiquitous consumer electronics de-vices, rely heavily on Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) for various applications, including navigation and location-based services. However, the small-sized and low-cost patch antennas used in smartphones are particularly susceptible to multipath ef-fects and signal degradation, posing significant challenges for ac-curate positioning in urban environments. To address these issues, this study introduces a 3D-mapping-aided Precise Point Position-ing (3DMA PPP) algorithm. The algorithm incorporates 3D build-ing models to exclude non-line-of-sight (NLOS) satellites, while mitigating potential multipath effects and thermal noise on line-of-sight (LOS) satellites using Doppler smoothing filters and an opti-mized carrier-to-noise ratio (C/N0)-dependent stochastic model. Experiments conducted with Xiaomi Mi8 and Huawei Mate40 smartphones demonstrate that the proposed method achieves po-sitioning errors within 2 m, while improving the positioning accu-racy of low-cost GNSS receivers to sub-meter levels. The results show a more than 50% improvement in positioning accuracy com-pared to conventional algorithms, significantly enhancing the util-ity of consumer-grade devices for urban navigation. This work highlights the potential for advanced GNSS techniques to em-power consumer electronics with precise and reliable positioning capabilities.