Spirent Communications has launched its GSS6700 Multi-GNSS Constellation Simulator with test test capability GPS, GLONASS, and the planned European Galileo system.

Spirent Communications has launched its GSS6700 Multi-GNSS Constellation Simulator with test test capability GPS, GLONASS, and the planned European Galileo system.

The GSS6700 is available with a range of software capabilities designed for differing test requirements. SimGEN is Spirent’s flexible simulator software suite and would typically be used in technology development and R&D applications. For environments in which repeat testing using the same test cases is needed — for example verification testing, Spirent offers SimREPLAY software, which can be specified with web-based or on-board limited scenario-generation capability.

In addition to GPS, GLONASS, and Galileo commercial signals, the GSS6700 supports augmentation system and interference testing. Space Based Augmentation System (SBAS) support for such systems as the GPS Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS) or The European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service (EGNOS). is a standard offering.

Options include dynamic and flexible interference signal generation, vehicle sensor emulation coherent with GNSS, and Local Area Augmentation System (LAAS) support.

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Blaupunkt GmbH, a leading automotive electronics manufacturer, has selected the NavX-NCS multiconstellation, multifrequency GNSS simulator from IfEN GmbH as the GPS reference for production testing of its car navigation systems.

The NavX-NCS RF constellation simulator supports all present and planned Galileo and GPS frequencies (E1/L1, L2C, E5AB/L5, E6) in one box, now including the composite binary offset carrier (CBOC) signal structure for the Galileo Open Service on E1.

Blaupunkt GmbH, a leading automotive electronics manufacturer, has selected the NavX-NCS multiconstellation, multifrequency GNSS simulator from IfEN GmbH as the GPS reference for production testing of its car navigation systems.

The NavX-NCS RF constellation simulator supports all present and planned Galileo and GPS frequencies (E1/L1, L2C, E5AB/L5, E6) in one box, now including the composite binary offset carrier (CBOC) signal structure for the Galileo Open Service on E1.

Blaupunkt, which launched the first European car navigation system in 1989, will use the IfEN simulator for final production testing of the new original equipment that use GNSS signals to provide positioning for map-based and turn-by-turn driver assistance systems.

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Encouraged by continuing progress on Japan’s Quasi Zenith Satellite System (QZSS), Spirent Communications has announced that its GSS8000 simulation system now supports QZSS in addition to GPS, Galileo, GLONASS, and satellite-based augmentation systems (SBAS) — reportedly the first RF constellation simulator to do so.

Encouraged by continuing progress on Japan’s Quasi Zenith Satellite System (QZSS), Spirent Communications has announced that its GSS8000 simulation system now supports QZSS in addition to GPS, Galileo, GLONASS, and satellite-based augmentation systems (SBAS) — reportedly the first RF constellation simulator to do so.

The QZSS system, currently under development, is designed to place three navigation satellites in high-altitude orbits to improve navigation performance in areas of Japan that prove difficult with GPS alone. Five of six QZSS signals will use the same signal structures, frequencies, spreading code families, and data message formats as GPS and GPS SBAS signals.

Under technical development led by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), which completed a critical design review of the first satellite — QZS-1 — in August, QZSS is drawing on the collaboration of four government agencies and private companies in a Satellite Positioning Research and Application Center (SPAC) established last year. A first QZSS satellite launch is expected in 2010.

An agreement between Japan and the United States, reaffirmed during a November 10 meeting in Tokyo, ensures that GPS and QZSS will be interoperable and compatible. The QZSS plan calls for GPS-interoperable signals at L1-C/A and L1C (center frequency 1575.42 MHz), L2C (1227.6 MHz), L5 (1176.45 MHz), according to Koji Terada, JAXA’s QZSS project manager.

An L1-SAIF (submeter-class augmentation with integrity function) signal at 1575 MH.42 will be interoperable with SBAS) such as the Federal Aviation Administration’s WAAS and Europe’s EGNOS. QZSS will also transmit an experimental signal (LEX) at 1278.75 MHz with a high data rate message (2 Kbps) that is interoperable with Galileo’s E6 signal.
Spirent will initially provide support for L1 C/A code and L1 SAIF QZSS signals and add other QZSS signals as the market develops, said John Pottle, marketing director at Spirent’s positioning technology division.

“Our customers can now test receivers, systems and applications that will use the QZSS signals,” Pottle added. “In addition, Spirent’s systems will combine QZSS with GPS and, if required, Galileo and GLONASS to provide a complete GNSS test bed.”

JAXA and the EU Galileo signal task force have had six coordination meetings to secure RF compatibility between QZSS and Galileo, Terada said. In addition to the E6 frequency, QZSS and Galileo occupy the same spectrum at L5–E5a and nearly the same at L1C–E1 Open Signal.

Since July 2007, coordination efforts are also under way to ensure RF compatibility between QZSS and China’s Compass system.

JAXA and the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) are now working together to allow JAXA to install a QZSS monitoring station on NOAA property in Guam in exchange for access to data collected there.

A similar effort between JAXA and the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is working to establish both a QZSS monitoring station and a two-way satellite time and frequency transfer station at a NASA facility in Hawaii, in support of Japan’s National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT) and the U.S. Naval Observatory (USNO).

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