Global Navigation Satellite Systems Engineering, Policy, and Design
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is weighing a request to waive spectrum rules for a new ultra-wideband (UWB) device that would operate across a wide swath of frequencies including those used by satellite navigation. The proposal has prompted a call for a wider reconsideration of ultra-wideband limits, a suggestion opposed by the GPS community.
By Inside GNSS
The federal government is once again approaching the end of its fiscal year without the appropriations necessary to keep the doors open come October 1 — a reality that could undermine GPS modernization and related programs.
Congress, now in the midst of its August recess, will have just 12 days to sort things out when members return after Labor Day. Under the best of circumstances, lawmakers would almost certainly need to pass a continuing resolution (CR) to extend current spending levels and buy themselves time to hammer out budgetary deals.
By Inside GNSS
China’s two most recently launched BeiDou navigation spacecraft have begun operating and established inter-satellite links in the nation’s GNSS constellation, the state news agency Xinhua announced on Friday (August 14, 2015).
By Inside GNSS
Only a small percentage of railroads are expected to obtain system certification and complete implementation of GPS-aided positive train control (PTC) systems by the current deadline at the end of this year, according to a recent report to Congress by the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA).
By Inside GNSS
The U.S. Air Force Global Positioning Systems Directorate is seeking public comment on proposed revisions to selected sections of the GPS Interface Specifications.
The GPS Directorate requests public comments on the following Proposed Interface Revision Notices (PIRNs) in preparation for a public meeting of the GPS Interface Control Working Group (ICWG) planned in December.
• PIRN-IS-705D-001 (L5 Phase Noise Plot)
• PIRN-IS-800D-001 (L1C Phase Noise Plot)
In the same week conflicting court filings underscored the intractability of the fight between LightSquared and GPS receiver manufacturers.
Meanwhile, a key technical group found that aviation likely would be hampered — yet not fully protected — by exclusion zones around wireless broadband transmission towers using, as LightSquared has proposed, frequencies adjacent to GPS bands.
By Inside GNSS
A “GPS market review” submitted to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) this week diverges in methodology and results from a preliminary study of U.S. benefits of the Global Positioning System provided earlier this year to the National Space-Based Positioning, Navigation, and Timing (PNT) Advisory Board.
By Inside GNSS
U.S. Representative John Garamendi. U.S. Publishing Office photoA quintet of well-placed lawmakers, tired of federal dawdling, are prepared to make the Pentagon responsible for building and maintaining eLoran as a backup system for GPS. The move could come by the end of the year, possibly through language attached to a must-pass bill.
Leading the bi-partisan charge are Duncan Hunter, R-California, chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, and the subcommittee’s ranking member John Garamendi, D-California.
By Inside GNSS
China has launched two new satellites yesterday (July 25, 2015) for the nation’s Beidou Navigation Satellite System (BDS).
The satellites were launched from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center, in southern China. They’re the 18th and 19th to join the satellite navigation system. The two satellites reached their target orbits three and a half hours after the launch, according to the Xinhua news agency.
By Inside GNSS
In sharp contrast to the strong support given to the military’s satellite navigation programs in the next fiscal year, Congress is considering cutting every GPS-related programs supported by the Department of Transportation (DoT).
By Inside GNSS
With just weeks to go before Congress disperses for a month-long break lawmakers have yet to finalize either a defense funding bill or legislation authorizing military spending for fiscal year 2016. The way forward looks particularly rocky as enacting both bills will require resolving a yearslong fight over spending caps.
By Inside GNSS
The U.S. stance on satellite navigation has long supported international cooperation and a degree of interoperability. In 2010 the Obama administration even adopted a space policy that said foreign satnav services could be used “to augment and strengthen the resiliency of GPS.”
That was easier in the abstract, however, when the only fully functional GNSS was GPS. Now, with other GNSS services coming online, American officials want to think things through again.
By Dee Ann Divis
At the European Economic and Social Committee’s Space & Society Conference, from left, Daniel Calleja Crespo, director general of European Commission’s DG Growth; EESC Space and Society Project Coordinator Edgardo Maria Iozia, and Giulio Bartolani di Montauto, European Space Agency’s Brussels office.Reporting from Brussels last year, we explained that the then–brand new EU GNSS Regulation had effectively put to bed years of wrangling over who does what in Europe’s GNSS programs. But the issue reared its head again in Brussels recently, in a highly charged discussion hosted by the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC).
By Peter Gutierrez
