Global Navigation Satellite Systems Engineering, Policy, and Design
Though the FCC approved Ligado Networks’ request to use satellite frequencies to support terrestrial 5G, opposition to the move remains firm as everyone waits to see what kind of measures are included in the final decision to protect GPS from interference.
By Dee Ann Divis
The Department of Homeland Security is offering to test GPS equipment used in critical infrastructure to see how resilient it is against spoofing.
The effort is part of the GPS Testing for Critical Infrastructure or GET-CI program supported by DHS’s Science and Technology Directorate.
By Dee Ann Divis
The five members of the Federal Communications Commission voted unanimously to approve a request by Ligado Networks to use satellite frequencies neighboring those used by GPS to broadcast from ground antennas for 5G, the agency announced Monday morning.
By Dee Ann Divis
Federal Communications Chairman Ajit Pai’s step this week toward approving Ligado Networks’ request to use its satellite frequencies for a terrestrial 5G service comes after nearly a decade of testing that showed both versions of their proposal would interfere with GPS users.
By Dee Ann Divis
We stand at an existential crossroads while someone else decides our future. I don’t mean the choice of direction, currently roiling the front pages, that pits the national health against the national economy. No, this one doesn’t get the attention it deserves, outside of the PNT and the telecom communities, though arguably it could have equally long-running and widespread, perhaps catastrophic effects.
By Alan Cameron
“Ligado’s planned usage will likely harm military capabilities, particularly for the U.S. Space Force, and have major impact on the national economy,” two ranking Senators and a Representative wrote. The timing could not be worse, they said to allow what “is fundamentally a bad deal for America’s national and economic security.”
By Dee Ann Divis
Thirteen agencies responsible for much if not most of the nation’s military, civil, security and economic activity say Ligado Networks’ plan to use satellite frequencies for 5G communications would interfere with GPS users in general and DOD use in particular.
By Dee Ann Divis
JNC 2020, the largest U.S. military Positioning, Navigation and Timing (PNT) and GPS conference, has been rescheduled for September 8–11, 2020 at the same two locations near Cincinnati, Ohio.
By Inside GNSS
GPS keeps a digital twin sequestered in El Segundo, California. Galileo has an Earth-bound space vehicle in Noordwijk, the Netherlands, straining at its bonds, yearning to break free and fly with its brethren. Both constellation “ghosts” exist in an eerie testing twilight, being made to replicate the movements and reactions of their free-flying families. Their sacrifices could lead to better, more robust satellites in future generations.
By Alan Cameron
Knowledge gained in close study of post-processed GNSS/INS data from very high-dynamic aerial maneuvers can improve position monitoring in machine control, precision agriculture and other industrial applications.
The Space Force’s Space and Missile Systems Center (SMC) announced Tuesday it would reschedule the launch of the GPS III SV03 satellite “to minimize the potential of COVID-19 exposure to the launch crew and early-orbit operators.”
Originally scheduled for late April 2020 on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, the launch is now projected to go up no earlier than June 30.
By Dee Ann Divis
Readers of this website are familiar—perhaps overly familiar!—with the threats to resilient positioning and navigation that are posed by interference, intentional and unintentional. Timekeeping applications for critical infrastructure using GNSS must also protect themselves against jamming and spoofing.
Though the pandemic impacts federal workers and contractors across the country, the early-March testing of GPS backup technologies finished on time and the analysis is expected to be completed on schedule.
By Dee Ann Divis
