[Huawei Developers] John Wo:
In the mobile Internet era, users' locations are required for many services like location sharing, nearby place search, and route planning. However, positioning can sometimes be inaccurate due to satellite signal obstruction by high buildings. HUAWEI Location Kit is able to overcome this using the Super GNSS technology to provide you with a more convenient and accurate positioning service.

But before I go into detail about Super GNSS technology, let me explain something called an urban canyon. Today's cities are getting increasingly filled with tall buildings and skyscrapers. When we're in a street flanked by such buildings, all we can see is a small strip of sky, like in this picture. Such urban canyons are formed between blocks of buildings divided by city streets, and they exist in over 100 cities around the world, especially in the Kowloon and Central districts of Hong Kong, China, as well as Manhattan in New York.

The question is, why is satellite positioning inaccurate in urban canyons? The answer is that when satellite signals are transmitted from the sky to users' phones, some signals will be reflected by high-rise buildings. In this figure, the blue lines indicate satellite signals that are reflected once before being received by users' phones, and yellow lines indicate those that are reflected twice.

In actual urban canyons, most satellite signals are reflected at least once before being received by users' phones, creating a deviation of 50 to 200 meters between the pinpointed location and the user's actual location.

For example, when a user calls for a taxi using a ride-hailing app at the northeast corner of a crossroad, the app may be unable to obtain the precise location of the user and instead pinpoint the user location at the southwest corner. As a result, the taxi driver drives to the wrong pick-up location, disrupting the user's journey. Similarly, when a user searches for nearby restaurants in a lifestyle app, the app may pinpoint the user as being a block away from the desired restaurant, while the user is actually very close to the restaurant. In the end, the user is unable to find the restaurant, despite being so close. Clearly, positioning deviation in apps will greatly diminish user experience.

So, how does the Super GNSS technology solve this problem? First, ephemeris data is used to calculate the 3D coordinates of a satellite in the sky, and original GNSS measure information is used to calculate the actual position of the satellite. With this data, the transmission models of satellite signals received by users' phones can be calculated. Then, a ray tracing algorithm is established to track how the satellite signals are received by users' phones, predict satellite signal tracks based on the 3D model database of buildings, and convert the tracks into a linear pseudorange to improve the positioning precision.

What kind of improvements can Super GNSS bring? The Super GNSS technology can completely eliminate the satellite signal blocking effect of high-rise buildings. First, it provides a deep-learning model for target identification. This model can completely learn the bottom outline of a building, including the building's coordinates. Then, the building height can be calculated using the multi-spectrum analysis technology in remote sensing measurement. With the bottom outlines and heights of buildings, a 3D model database can be established for these buildings. The pseudorange can then be calibrated based on the 3D model database. At present, the 3D models in our 3D model database are accurate to the meter.

The Super GNSS technology can be applied in many scenarios. In the scenario where satellite signals are blocked on both roadsides, the Super GNSS technology can precisely trace the tracks of signals reflected once, and greatly improve the tracing precision of signals reflected twice. In addition, the technology can also precisely trace reflected signals in complex scenarios such as roads with high buildings on one side, crossroads, and three-way junctions. The tracing precision is as high as 90% for signals reflected once and 75% for signals reflected twice.

Next, let's take a look at a comparison between Huawei's product and other products in the industry when it comes to the roadside recognition precision in Tokyo and Frankfurt. During the test, the roadside recognition precision of HUAWEI Mate 30 phones with the Super GNSS technology reaches 90.77%, which is almost 4 times that of other products.

We've also conducted field tests all around the world. Here are test results for some typical cities, including Abu Dhabi in the UAE, Barcelona and Rome in Europe, Santiago in Chile, South America, and Beijing and Shanghai in China. In these figures, the blue dot indicates the actual location, the green dot indicates the location pinpointed using Super GNSS, and red dot indicates the location pinpointed without using Super GNSS. As you can see, the roadside recognition is far more accurate when Super GNSS is used.

To integrate HUAWEI Location Kit, you only need to perform 5 simple steps. You can then use Super GNSS without performing any additional operations. You only need to call APIs of Location Kit to use Super GNSS. The APIs automatically complete operations such as database preparation and location calculation. It's really as easy as that!

For more details, you can go to:

Our official website: https://developer.huawei.com/consumer/en/hms?ha_source=hms1

Our Development Documentation page, to find the documents you need: https://developer.huawei.com/consumer/en/doc/development?ha_source=hms1

Reddit to join our developer discussion: https://www.reddit.com/r/HuaweiDevelopers/

GitHub to download demos and sample codes: https://github.com/HMS-Core

Stack Overflow to solve any integration problems: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/tagged/huawei-mobile-services?tab=Newest