Global Navigation Satellite Systems Engineering, Policy, and Design
A belated response from Julius Genachowski, Federal Communications Commission (FCC) chairman to Republican Senator Charles Grassley’s request for documents surrounding the LightSquared effort to broadcast near the GPS L1 band appears unlike to satisfy either Grassley or the GPS community.
By Inside GNSS
Las Vegas site for LightSquared/GPS testsTests of GPS receiver vulnerability to transmissions from terrestrial base stations in the proposed LightSquared 4G/LTE broadband service were scheduled to wrap up on May 27, but results as we post this message clearly indicate substantial adverse effects on GPS user equipment.
On June 1–2, the Technical Working Group (TWG) set up by the LightSquared-led working group mandated by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) will have its first face-to-face meeting since the trials began to sort out the results.
By Inside GNSS
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) report on the level of interference between LightSquared’s proposed mobile broadband network and GPS receivers is due in a couple of weeks. Meanwhile, the fight over final approval of the system has rolled into the halls of Congress.
On Thursday (May 26) the House approved an amended 2012 Defense Authorization bill requiring the Federal Communications Commission to withhold full approval of the LightSquared 4G-LTE system and disallow operations until interference issues with military receivers are resolved.
By Dee Ann Divis
An executive summary of a special report by RTCA Inc. Special Committee 159 released today (May 27, 2011) indicates that GPS aviation receivers would experience serious interference from transmission planned by LightSquared in the upper portion of the 1525–1559 MHz spectrum adjacent to the GPS L1 band.
By Inside GNSS
The National Space-Based Positioning, Navigation, and Timing (PNT) Advisory Board will meet in Arlington, Virginia, on Thursday, June 9 and Friday June 10. The sessions are open to the public.
Among the agenda items are GPS modernization, interoperability with other GNSS systems, and future challenges to PNT service providers and users, such as protecting the emerging role of PNT in cyber networks, including the need for backups.
By Inside GNSS
After a long series of fits and starts, the Department of Homeland Security is tackling the issue of interference to the GPS signal. The agency has launched a study to assess the risks to GPS service from a variety of sources — a study that, at least on paper, will lead to a plan to mitigate interference.
Unfortunately, the effort will not directly address the one potential problem consuming the thoughts of the GPS community — widespread receiver overload from the high-powered mobile broadband service proposed by the Virginia firm LightSquared.
By Dee Ann Divis
Brisbane City Botanic Gardens facing Alice Street(See Glen Gibbons’ report from APEC/GIT-14 in Seattle, June 2010)
The fifteenth meeting of APEC’s GNSS Implementation Team will be held June 13-16 at Sofitel Brisbane Central, All Saints Convention Center in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.
Online pre-registration is required and is limited to 50 delegates. Please contact either of the co-chairs if your password is not accepted on the GIT webpage registration screen.
By Inside GNSS
Tony Russo, Director, National Space-Based PNT Coordination OfficePressure is mounting on the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and proponents of LightSquared’s plan to operate high-powered ground transmitters in spectrum adjacent to GPS L1.
By Inside GNSS
Julius Genachowski, FCC ChairmanGPS supporters are trying to slow what appears to be a runaway LightSquared express bearing down on the civil L1 signal frequency and thwart the would-be 4G/LTE broadband cellular wholesaler’s effort shift the burden of proof and associated costs for mitigating interference onto the GNSS community.
By Inside GNSS
Funny thing about the U.S. Constitution: it address the activities of government officials and agencies — including restraints on those activities — but not the activities of commercial business and individuals. The latter are left to federal, state, and local laws.
So, when the government conducts warrantless surveillance using GPS, the issue may come before the U.S. Supreme Court or state and federal judges at other levels. If private companies do it, they may end up at a congressional hearing.
By Inside GNSS
Resolution of the between Congressional Republicans and Democrats that threatened a shutdown of the federal government has clarified the picture for military GPS programs in the coming year, although prospects for the civil side remain uncertain.
On April 15, 2011, President Obama signed the Department of Defense and Full-Year Continuing Appropriations Act, 2011 (H.R. 1473, Public Law 112-10), the last in a series of government-wide funding measures for Fiscal Year 2011 (FY11).
By Inside GNSS
Enterprise Baseline ScheduleCol. Bernie Gruber, commander of the GPS Directorate since June 2010, works in a busy place.
Through its various incarnations since being established in 1974 — as Joint Program Office, Air Force Wing, and now Directorate — the GPS program at the Space and Missile Systems Center (SMC), Los Angeles Air Force Base, California, has been at the center of the action.
By Inside GNSS
On Friday (April 15, 2011) the Obama administration asked the U.S. Supreme Court to take up the question of whether prolonged police surveillance using GNSS-aided tracking of a suspect requires a search warrant under the provisions of the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
By Inside GNSS
