Global Navigation Satellite Systems Engineering, Policy, and Design
Here, in no particular order save vaguely chronological, are the editor’s picks for Top Twelve GNSS and PNT Tech Stories of 2020: those that heralded technical breakthroughs significant for their time, that will continue to roll out wide-reaching developmental advances in 2021 and beyond.
By Alan Cameron
The Military Division of the Institute of Navigation will host the 2021 Joint Navigation Conference (JNC 2021) for the Departments of Defense and of Homeland Security on August 24–26.
By Inside GNSS
ADVA launched a set network synchronization devices with enhanced capabilities for next-generation applications such as 5G. The latest Oscilloquartz products provide timing accuracy and resilience to edge networks. The OSA 5412 and 5422 offer precise phase, frequency and time-of-day synchronization and can be used for time-as-a-service applications.
By Inside GNSS
The Federal Aviation Administration has released its final Remote Identification (RID) Rule for unmanned aircraft (UA). While GPS/GNSS has been used to advantage aboard many UAVs, this means that a satnav receiver will be mandated aboard all UAVs governed by the Rule that wish to fly in U.S. airspace. Thus a promising potential market opens up into a virtually “guaranteed” — and very significant — market for the GNSS industry.
Swift Navigation announced the availability of its Precision GNSS Module (PGM), designed to offer fast evaluation and a quick path to production for those requiring a precise positioning solution.
By Inside GNSS
Tallysman Wireless introduced two lightweight, compact active Iridium helical antennas: the housed HC610 and the embedded HC610E. They receive the Iridium Satellite Time and Location (STL) signals, used by STL terminals to provide worldwide position, navigation, and timing independent of GPS/GNSS
By Inside GNSS
In the Port of Seville, Spain, pilots guiding large ships into docking use a portable pilot unit (PPU) incorporating GNSS corrections from the European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service (EGNOS) to obtain positioning accuracies of 50 centimeters
By Inside GNSS
The Space and Missile Systems Center bought two more GPS 3F satellites from Lockheed Martin, exercising an option under a September 2018 agreement to buy up to 22 satellites from the company for $7.2 billion.
By Inside GNSS
A software development kit for vertical positioning within multistory buildings enhances first responder safety, makes decision-making more efficient, and improves situational awareness.
By Inside GNSS
Pursuant to the 6-hour Galileo system outage on December 14, the European GNSS Agency (GSA) issued an update stating that the “service incident,” while still under investigation, “is confirmed to be related to an abnormal behaviour of a ground atomic clock in the time determination function of the system.”
By Inside GNSS
In an Android developers’ blog post titled “Improving urban GPS accuracy for your app,” satnav expert and a principal engineer at Google Frank van Diggelen reports that the company has addressed “the last great unsolved GPS problem”: the wrong-side-of-the-street position error.
By Inside GNSS
On Monday, December 14, the EU’s Galileo program posted an official notice advising users that Galileo service was degraded on all satellites until further notice. Nominal service was then resumed about six hours later.
By Peter Gutierrez
As 2020 comes to a close, the Ligado Networks LLC’s (Ligado) mobile satellite services (MSS) project remains at a standstill. While actions in the Federal Communication Commission (FCC) proceedings in the case have stagnated, Congressional action, funds and filings have flowed.
By Dawn M.K. Zoldi (Colonel, USAF, Ret.)
