It seems that the vertical delays are VTECs observed over IPPs surrounding an IGP . These vTECs values are gathered in the observation vector I_v,ipp and needs to be developed in planar-fit expansion using a local Cartesian frame whose origin is at the IGP and whose x-axis aligns with the East direction at the IGP and whose y-axis aligns with the North.
sigma_bias_i,j is the measurement noise corresponding to the pair satellite(i)-receiver(j). The bias is the difference between planar fit estimator's expected value over IPP (sat i and receiver j) and its observed vTEC value.