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The National Land Surveying and Mapping Center (NLSC), Ministry of the Interior (MOI), Taiwan established a network-based system of continuous operating reference stations (CORS) called the e-GPS real-time kinematic positioning system (e-GPS) in 2004. The objective of the e-GPS was to monitor and maintain national coordinate reference frame and to provide high-precision real-time positioning service in all fields. Since January 1, 2009, the e-GPS has been providing three types of service, real-time kinematic positioning service, satellite observation data post-processing service, and CORS satellite observation data supply service. The high accuracy and performance of e-GPS has earned praises from sectors in all fields. To cope with the international trend of GNSS development, NLSC started a system modernization plan in 2012. NLSC then completed the upgrade of e-GPS to a GNSS system (GPS+GLONASS) on September 4, 2014 and formally renamed the e-GPS to e-GNSS. This upgrade has led Taiwan's satellite positioning technology into a new era to keep up with the international standards.
The virtual base station real-time kinematic (VBS-RTK) positioning technology was adopted to build the e-GNSS. For assessing the accuracy and feasibility of applying the VBS-RTK positioning technology to surveying and mapping, NLSC conducted a series of tests in April 2005. The test results showed that the accuracy of VBS-RTK positioning is better than 2cm horizontally and better than 5cm vertically, which verified that the e-GNSS is a platform with high efficiency and productivity to assist control point surveying and detailed mapping. By receiving continuous GNSS data to provide location-based services, the e-GNSS's real-time positioning service is expected to be much more widely applied in the maintenance and inspection of all orders of control points and in supplementing control points. The e-GNSS can also be applied in civil services such as navigation, dispatching, value-added applications that require geospatial information for decision making, and dynamic monitoring in the domain of transportation, water conservancy, agriculture and forestry, economic planning and development, national defense, environmental protection, and coast guard service.

e-GNSS; VBS-RTK; CORS