Global Navigation Satellite Systems Engineering, Policy, and Design
When China joined the GNSS club in 2007, it turned a satnav triumvirate into a quartet.
But some of the limelight needs to fall a little further from center stage — out there where the Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS) and Japan’s Quasi-Zenith Satellite System (QZSS) are not waiting idly in the wings.
By Inside GNSS
It is by now well known that GNSS-based localization in built-up urban environments can be extremely inaccurate. This is a fundamental problem that hardware enhancements cannot solve.
A GNSS receiver estimates 3D location and timing from pseudoranges from four or more satellites, assuming that these pseudoranges correspond to direct line-of-sight (LOS) paths from each satellite. In urban canyons, however, the signal from a satellite to the receiver suffers from multipath propagation and shadowing.
By Inside GNSS
A GNSS single-antenna system can be compared to a single-pixel camera. Electromagnetic waves traveling 20,000 kilometers from every overhead direction can reach us. Yet once at the antenna, this diverse set of information is collapsed into a single magnitude and phase value, then sent off to the receiver so that value can be extracted.
By Inside GNSS
The GNSS User Meet 2015 will be jointly hosted at the ISRO Satellite Centre in Bengaluru by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and the Airports Authority of India on the theme, “Towards Self Reliance in Satellite Navigation."The technical program will include plenary talks, paper presentations, poster sessions, and panel discussions.
Participation is invited from the GNSS user community, including various government departments, academia, GNSS receiver manufacturers, research laboratories, and so forth.
By Inside GNSS
A Federal Register notice published yesterday (August 18, 2015) seeking comment on plans to shut down a large portion of the Nationwide Differential GPS (NDGPS) network marks the effective end of a program that spurred a hard-fought controversy in the era of Selective Availability (SA).
By Inside GNSS
In sharp contrast to the strong support given to the military’s satellite navigation programs in the next fiscal year, Congress is considering cutting every GPS-related programs supported by the Department of Transportation (DoT).
By Inside GNSS
New QinetiQ PRS-capable receiverBritish manufacturer QinetiQ has today (July 14, 2015) announced its progress in developing a GNSS navigation receiver that can process encrypted Galileo Public Regulated Service (PRS) signals.
The multi‑constellation, multi‑frequency receiver is a significant step in the company’s GNSS technology development, says QinetiQ, which expects to bring to market by 2020 end-user products for navigation, tracking, and timing based on the new receiver design. That timeline parallel’s the Galileo program’s current schedule for completing its satellite constellation.
The EGNOS Service Provision Workshop, the annual meeting for EGNOS policymakers, users and application developers, will take place on September 29 and 30 at the AC Hotel Bella Sky in Copenhagen, Denmark.
The event includes presentations, debates, updates and analyses from companies and agencies who use EGNOS in real applications, focusing on safety of life and other services in aviation.
The event is organized by the European Satellite Services Provider SAS (ESSP) and the European GNSS Agency (GSA).
By Inside GNSS
Aerial view of Boulder in OctoberThe tenth meeting of the International Committee on GNSS (ICG) will take place in Boulder, Colorado from November 1 through 6 2015. It will be hosted by the United States and organized by University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR) on behalf of the U.S. State Department.
It will take place at UCAR headquarters on the Center Green Campus in Boulder.
By Inside GNSS
IPIN 2015 will take place October 13-16 at the Banff Centre, a conference center and school for the arts location in the Rocky Mountain resort town of Banff, a 90 minute drive west of Alberta, Canada.
The indoor postioning and indoor navigation conference includes experts in electronics, surveying and informatics who will discuss this key issue in many emerging applications.
By Inside GNSS
Inside GNSS editor Glen Gibbons and HRH Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. Dan Charity photoInside GNSS editor and publisher Glen Gibbons has received a high honor from the United Kingdom’s Royal Institute of Navigation (RIN) for his "outstanding contribution to navigation" as a journalist and publisher.
The 2015 Harold Spencer-Jones Gold Medal was presented to Gibbons by Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh and husband of Queen Elizabeth II, on July 15 at the Royal Geographical Society in London. The duke is the patron of the institute.
By Inside GNSS
The availability of several GNSSes promises advanced positioning, navigation, and timing services with higher availability and improved accuracy. According to a European GNSS Agency (GSA) market study, nearly 60 percent of receivers, chipsets, and modules already support at least two GNSS constellations, showing that multi-constellation is becoming a standard feature across all market segments. That development brings up questions of law and regulation that require careful handling by GNSS manufacturers, service providers, and policy makers.
By Ingo Baumann
Figure 1The Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS) is an Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) initiative to build an independent satellite navigation system that provides precise position, velocity, and time (PVT) to users across the Indian region.
The primary objective of IRNSS is to achieve position accuracy of 20 meters (2σ) for dual-frequency users over India and the primary service area (a region extending to about 1,500 kilometers or 930 miles).
By Inside GNSS
