Objectives  For global navigation satellite system(GNSS), the ranging performance of observation would influence the system service capability.

  Methods  Parabolic antenna with large-diameter could greatly reduce the impact of the ground equipment and the environment on signal acquisition. Based on data from parabolic antenna, observation characteristics and ranging performance of BeiDou-3 global satellite navigation system(BDS-3) are analyzed.

  Results  The results show that, regarding the pseudorange deviation on BeiDou-3 satellite, no systematic deviation of the same magnitude, compared with BeiDou-2, is found on the signal of B1 I, B3 I, B1 C, B2 a, and B2 b. There are fluctuations on some signals. However, the correlation with elevation angle is not strong, and the average magnitude of all satellite fluctuations is 0.1 m. This paper analyzes the multipath variation and noise level of carrier observation for BeiDou-3 satellite of each signal using triple-frequency combinations. The fluctuations of carrier phase triple combination are of the millimeter level, and those fluctuations do not closely correlate with the elevation or time. The root mean square of the triple-frequency carrier combination from parabolic antenna is mostly less than 0.6 mm.

  Conclusions  The results indicate that no systematic bias occurs in code and phase observation of BDS-3, and the system has a good ranging performance.