Objectives The integration of low earth orbit (LEO) constellations into the BeiDou satellite navigation system has been under consideration, aiming to establish a global coverage space-time network through the fusion of high, medium, and low earth orbit constellations. However, it should be noted that the LEO constellation is currently in the construction phase, and there is a lack of comprehensive simulation and performance evaluation for the LEO-enhanced BeiDou system.

Methods Therefore, In this contribution, research is conducted centered around the highly realistic simulation and comprehensive performance evaluation of the LEO-enhanced BeiDou system, a sophisticated simulation model of the LEO constellation was developed by integrating actual measurement data and space physics theoretical models, and then a comprehensive performance evaluation method for the LEO-enhanced system was proposed, and an integrated space-ground platform for simulation and comprehensive performance evaluation of the LEO-enhanced BeiDou system was designed and established, the research findings revealed the performance enhancement effects of the LEO constellation on the existing navigation system.

Results The results indicate that, on the system-terminal, the LEO augmentation improves the precision of BeiDou's high-precision products while simultaneously reducing the limit on the number and distribution of ground stations. On the user-terminal, the inclusion of LEO satellites holds the potential to reduce the convergence time of BeiDou precise point positioning to less than 10 minutes.

Conclusions The research results provide theoretical and practical support for the development of the LEO-enhanced navigation system.