Global Navigation Satellite Systems Engineering, Policy, and Design
As if a puzzling signal anomaly on the latest GPS Block IIR-M satellite and continued struggles in the long-delayed Block IIF schedule hadn’t created enough pressure, a recent U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) report sketches dire prospects for the GPS program.
By Inside GNSS
Ekahau Inc. has announced that its Wi-Fi location tracking software is being integrated into GPS receivers designed by NavSync Ltd. to enable customers to continuously track asset in indoor and outdoor environments.
Wi-Fi–enabled GPS tag combines NavSync’s NavTrac GPS module with Ekahau’s location protocol. The NavTrac module incorporates the CW85 16-channel GPS receiver/802.11b/g transmitter combination.
By Inside GNSS
Loctronix SCP technology[Updated 4/26/09] On March 31, the U.S. Patent Office granted Loctronix Corporation its first patent, which will provide the foundation for its Spectral Compression Positioning (SCP) technology that enables multi-source positioning capability in a single sensor. Subsequently, the company announced that it had successfully achieved meter-level ranging performance using CDMA cellular signals.
By Inside GNSS
SVN49 L1 C/A (red) and L5 Signals. Septentrio image.Septentrio reports success in tracking five signals being transmitted from the modernized GPS Block IIR satellite with the L5 demonstration payload launched on March 24.
Now designated space vehicle number 49 (SVN49), the satellite began broadcasting in the L1 and L2 band on March 28, shortly after the spacecraft reached its quasi-circular middle earth sorbit.
By Inside GNSS
Left) Zou Xiguang, chief representative of Topcon Corporation in China, and Li Qiang, director of China Crustal Movement Monitoring Research CenterThe China Earthquake Administration (CEA) of the People’s Republic of China has selected Trimble and Topcon Positioning Systems (TPS) to provide GNSS receivers for a new network set up to monitor crustal deformation and to predict earthquakes.
By Inside GNSS
Sea State MonitoringSurrey Satellite Technology Limited (SSTL) will lead a British project to exploit signals from GPS and other GNSS satellites that are reflected from the Earth for remote sensing purposes.
The project will investigate a prototype instrument capable of measuring the roughness of the sea and soil moisture content, providing data for atmospheric science and for operational ocean and weather forecasting.
By Inside GNSS
u-blox PCI-5S and PCM-5Su-blox has announced the immediate availability of a GPS “PCI Express Mini” card. The card enables laptops, netbooks, mobile Internet devices, and “Ultra Mobile” PC OEMs to provide GPS and location-based services such as personal navigation, services/people finder, and geo-tagging.
Sales of mobile PCs with integrated GPS are projected to grow from 3 million units in 2007 to 45 million units in 2011, according to the company.
By Glen Gibbons
CellGuide, a Rehovot, Israel–based fables semiconductor manufacturer of highly integrated host-based GPS/GNSS receivers, has introduced the RAMON GPS module.
Measuring 5.4 x 4.6 x 1.1 millimeters, the RAMON module includes both active and passive components in a single fully integrated package, meeting the demanding design and cost requirements of device manufacturers.
By Glen Gibbons
Rx Networks, Inc., a Vancouver, B.C., Canada–based provider of assisted-GPS (AGPS) technology has announced the availability of its GPStream Secure User Plane 1.0 Light Edition (SUPL 1.0 LE) data service. The company has also announced that Infineon Technologies AG uses an optimized version of the company’s GPStream Mobile Suite to work with Infineon’s next-generation XPOSYS GPS chipset technology.
By Glen Gibbons
Racelogic Ltd., of Buckingham, United Kingdom, has introduced LabSat, a one-box system designed to record and replay real-world GPS data for use in designing and validating GPS products.
By Glen Gibbons
CSR imageMerger plans recently announced by CSR (Cambridge Silicon Radio) plc and SiRF Technology Inc. connote more than the evolving fortunes and common future of a Cambridge, UK–based Bluetooth and WiFi provider and a San Jose, California GPS manufacturer.
It reaffirms the emergence of mobile phone handsets as a dominant location platform, the convergence of wireless communications and positioning at the chip level, and the trend toward absorption by semiconductor manufacturers of independent GPS technology providers who offer only single-frequency solutions.
By Glen Gibbons
GSG-L1Pendulum Instruments, of Stockholm, Sweden, has acquired the GSG-L1, a single-channel, single-frequency (L1) GPS signal generator, from Naviva, a Space Systems Finland (SSF) business unit.
The GSG-L1, which is designed for production test or R&D purposes, will be available for delivery in March. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
By Glen Gibbons
RF Micro Devices (RFMD), which last year announced plans to exit the GPS solutions business in order to focus on core semiconductor component opportunities, hasn’t abandoned the GNSS marketplace completely.
By Glen Gibbons
