Global Navigation Satellite Systems Engineering, Policy, and Design
HERE, a navigation platform with its map data services found in 150 million vehicles worldwide, and what3words, an addressing system which has divided the world into a grid of millions of 3-meter squares, have partnered to offer precision in-car navigation.
By Inside GNSS
Swift Navigation announced that its production-grade State Space Representation (SSR) GNSS corrections service is available in extensive coverage areas: across the continental United States and Europe and in Japan, South Korea and Australia, with plans underway to expand globally.
By Inside GNSS
Six months ago, the FCC unanimously granted Ligado’s amended license modification applications to deploy a low-power terrestrial nationwide network in the L-Band. Petitions for reconsideration remain pending, interest groups continue to agitate for change, Congress awaits answers to conflict-of-interest questions—and Ligado presses forward as planned.
By Dawn M.K. Zoldi (USAF, Ret.)
The GNSS User Technology Report 2020 from the European GNSS Agency (GSA) analyzes the latest GNSS trends and developments as the GNSS industry broadly adopts multifrequency receivers across market segments.
By Inside GNSS
A broad cross-industry coalition sent a strongly worded letter to the Senate Commerce Committee warning that the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC’s) Ligado Order that impacts GPS, if left in place, “would upend decades of sound spectrum policy, negatively impact a significant cross-section of commercial, federal, and academic users who rely on the many different L-band satellite services, and threaten the safety of most Americans.”
By Inside GNSS
Hexagon | NovAtel has announced a firmware release for its OEM7 and PwrPak7 receivers that enables tracking of BeiDou B2b GNSS signals on Phase III satellites. The 7.08.00 (OM7MR0800RN0000) release allows the receivers to track all of the new BeiDou B1C, B2a and B2b signals.
By Inside GNSS
Tallysman Wireless Inc., a manufacturer of precision GNSS antennas and related components, has been acquired by Calian Group Ltd, a publicly owned Canadian company. Both companies are based in Ottawa, Canada.
By Inside GNSS
The family eagerly climbed into the sparkling latest-model SUV and drove off the lot for a test cruise around town. With pent-up demand after months of isolation, they were primed to purchase a new car with the latest safety, efficiency and driver-assistance features. This was it. The dealer anticipated a quick sale.
In a feelgood two-and-a-half minute video cartoon aimed well below its audience’s head, the XinhuaNet.com news service explains BeiDou advantages over GPS and other GNSS. Principally, the script stresses the satnav system’s two-way short message service (SMS) texting capability that can stand in for cellular communications in remote areas and in case of natural disasters that may disable cellular base stations.
Set to a loping synthesized country rock soundtrack, the entertainment-with-a-message follows a passenger bus through a remote desert. When Buzz the Driver, spooked by a snake, deviates from his planned course, a BeiDou monitoring station quickly detects the error, generates an alarm and sends a message: “Hey, keep yourself focused!”
The animation gives a nod to other GNSS by stating that “Me and other family members are compatible and interoperable at the user level, which allows us to work together.”
Microchip Technology Inc. has released a software update for its BlueSky GNSS Firewall product, providing a higher level of resiliency against GPS vulnerabilities for systems dependent on GPS signal reception. Such critical infrastructure systems include power utilities, financial services, mobile networks and transportation, all relying on GPS-delivered timing to ensure ongoing operations.
By Inside GNSS
Swift Navigation has completed a 6,600-mile cross-country drive test measuring the efficacy of its Skylark cloud corrections service and demonstrating nationwide lane-level GNSS correction coverage at the accuracy, reliability and availability levels required by its customers.
By Inside GNSS
We cannot simply test-drive our way to safety. Instead, innovative methods of demonstrating safety and reliability must come into play immediately.
A free three-hour professional training over two days in June aims to show how.
By Inside GNSS
The Position Authenticated Tachograph foR OSNMA Launch (PATROL) project is developing the first external GNSS facility for smart tachographs, using Galileo’s new Open Service Authentication (OS-NMA). The tachograph, a device fitted to a vehicle that automatically records its speed and distance, together with the driver’s activity selected from a choice of modes, uses Galileo authentication to verify that the navigation data received from satellites is genuine.
By Inside GNSS