A: System Categories

February 22, 2008

GLONASS CDMA Signals Near Approval

Russia appears ready to add code division multiple access (CDMA) signals to its frequency division multiple access (FDMA) GLONASS system.

A final decision is expected next week, according to Sergey Revnivykh, deputy head of the Russian GNSS Mission Control Center, in a February 20 presentation to the Munich Satellite Navigation Conference in Germany. Under the plan, CDMA signals would be introduced at L1 and L5 frequencies near GPS and Galileo signals, beginning with the GLONASS-K generation of satellites that will launch in 2010.

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By Inside GNSS
February 9, 2008

Ivanov GLONASS Flap Obscures Program Reality

Russian Deputy Prime Minister Sergey Ivanov’s criticism of Roscosmos and GLONASS continues to ripple in news columns around the world.
Widely reported in Russian media and picked up and amplified in derivative reports, Ivanov’s complaints focused on GLONASS’s relative inaccuracy, limited coverage, and lack of user equipment.

However, aside from the fact that the person making the remarks was Ivanov — a powerful figure once thought to be in line to succeed Russia’s President Vladimir Putin, none of this is really news. Rather, it seems like another example of the phenomenon that, when people learn of something for the first time, they assume it has just happened.

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By Glen Gibbons
February 8, 2008

New GPS Device Tracks Letters in the Mail

The Letter Logger

The new GPS Letter Logger (GLL-1000) by TrackingTheWorld uses a Texas Instruments microprocessor and a u-blox ANTARIS 4 GPS module to help the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) find out where and how long a piece of mail spends in one place.

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By Glen Gibbons
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February 7, 2008

CSR Announces GPS/Bluetooth Chip, eGPS Demo

CSR of Cambridge, UK, has announced its successful integration of GPS with cellular measurements to create eGPS (enhanced Global Positioning System) technology capable of providing accurate position information on demand in all environments, as well as availability of a single-chip GPS receiver with embedded Bluetooth and FM radio technologies.

CSR’s CEO, Joep van Beurden, says that the new developments advance his company’s goal of providing eGPS capabilities to cellular phones at an additional goal of less than $1 per unit.

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By Glen Gibbons

Spirent Enhances A-GPS Conformance Testing Product

Spirent Communications plc, Crawley, UK, has announced the availability of two new capabilities for its UMTS Location Test Solution (ULTS) that will affect assisted GPS (A-GPS) implementation in mobile communication devices and location-based services (LBS): enhanced testing of secure user plane (SUPL) and wideband CDMA (WCDMA) signaling conformance testing.

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By Glen Gibbons

President’s 2009 Budget Proposal Directs DHS to Implement eLORAN

Antiquated LORAN vacuum tube

The Bush administration appears to have finally made a long-delayed decision to complete implementation of an enhanced LORAN (LOng RAnge Navigation) system to serve, in part, as a back-up to GPS.

Late in the drafting process of the Fiscal Year 2009 (FY09) budget proposal that went to Congress earlier this week (February 4), officials added language “migrating” the LORAN-C system from the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) to the Department of Homeland Security’s National Protection and Programs Directorate (NPPD). A $34.5-million budget and 294 positions would take part in the migration.

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By Glen Gibbons
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February 5, 2008

NovAtel to Build Galileo Monitoring Sites

NovAtel Inc. will establish grounds sites in Canada to monitor the GIOVE (Galileo In-Orbit Validation Element) test satellites under a CDN$667,861 (US$671,568) contract recently awarded by the Canadian Space Agency (CSA).

The work includes a parallel cooperative effort to integrate the NovAtel Galileo Test Receiver (GTR), developed for the CSA, into the GIOVE-A Galileo Experimental Sensor Station (GESS), to upgrade the GTR capabilities and to field these GESS stations in Canada.

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By Glen Gibbons
February 4, 2008

CSR, Motorola Launch Enhanced GPS Forum

CSR (Cambridge Silicon Radio) and Motorola have announced launch of an industry group that seeks to promote the integration of GPS and other location technologies to create more robust, continuous positioning capabilities by mobile device users.

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By Glen Gibbons
February 3, 2008

Parliamentary Committee Proposal Would Abolish GNSS Supervisory Authority

A proposal before the European Parliament’s Industry Committee would abolish the European GNSS Supervisory Authority (GSA), turn responsibility for ensuring the Galileo system’s security requirements over to a new Committee on European GNSS Programs, and establish an Interinstitutional Monitoring Group (IMG) consisting of representatives of the parliament, the European Council’s Presidency, and the European Commission (EC).

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By Glen Gibbons
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