PNT

Roundup
Companies
plan GPS
backup
demos

GPSWORLD.COM

LAY OF THE
GNSS LAND
Our Receiver Innovator Q&As
Log Trends & Product Launches

U.S. Air Force

reveals results of
Locata Network
timing tests

JANUARY 2020 | Vol 31 | No 1

CONSTRUCTION
VERIFICATION
SO PRECISE, SO FAST.

ANYTHING ELSE IS
LIKE USING TAPE.

LEARN MORE
 VO L . 3 0
1 NNO.
O. 19 GG
P SWO
P SWO
R LD.CO
R LD.CO
MM SEPTEMBER
JANUARY 2019
2020

Photo and cover: Trimble and Topcon

LAY OF
COVER STORY

28

THE LAND
Our Receiver Innovator Q&As
Log Trends and Product Launches
TOP RECEIVER
MANUFACTURERS DISCUSS
what’s on the horizon for GNSS receivers.
The companies reveal recent and upcoming
innovations, how to combat spoofing and
jamming, fusing GNSS with other sensors, and
the impact of increasing accuracy both for
professional surveyors and consumers.
BY Matteo Luccio

ALTERNATIVE PNT

34 FINDING TIME
AN ACCURACAY TEST OF THE LOCATA NETWORK
Photo: 746th Test Squadron

— a non-GPS-based positioning system installed at the U.S. Air Force

White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico — focused on timing down to the
nanosecond, with impressive results.
BY Christopher Black
Image: PrecisionHawk

LAUNCHPAD MARKET WATCH

16 OEM 42 SURVEYING
17 TRANSPORTATION 43 MAPPING
18 UAV 44 MOBILE
27 SURVEYING & 45 TRANSPORTATION
MAPPING 46 UAV

|
JANUARY 2020 WWW.GPSWORLD.COM GPS WORLD 3
 JANUARY 2020
OPINIONS AND DEPARTMENTS
6 FIRST FIX 14 FAA UPDTE
Working Together for a More Navigable World A New Era Begins: Geospatially Based Aviation
guest column by John Pottle BY William Tewelow

8 TAKING POSITION 48 RESEARCH ROUNDUP

Photo: Royal Institute of Navigation

Locata Automates Shipping Port Focus on Maritime

BY Tracy Cozzens BY Matteo Luccio

8 ADVISORY BOARD Q&A 49 AD INDEX

What improvements will GPS III bring to
high precision surveying? When? Will these 50 SEEN & HEARD
improvements require any changes in equipment Keeping Canoeists Afloat; GPS Spoofing Service;
and/or processes? Glonass Aims for Pedestrian Safety; ‘Spoofing Circles’
POTTLE OPENS the RIN Appear in China
Conference. WITH Miquel Amor
and Jean-Marie Sleewaegen

Map: Skytruth
10 SYSTEM OF SYSTEMS
GPS Pioneers Honored with Queen’s Award; Russia
Launches Glonass-M Satellite; China Completes Core
BDS-3 Constellation; In Memoriam

12 PNT ROUNDUP
GPS Backup Demonstration Projects Explained
BY Dana Goward

2019 Webinars Provide Rich, Expert Resource

T
his past year, GPS World hosted eight webinars, listed below, offering presentations from experts in
areas ranging from mapping on Earth to GNSS in space. All GPS World webinars are free to attend.
Past webinars are available free on demand. Go to www.gpsworld.com/webinars/ to review the
topics, speakers, original broadcast dates, sponsors and more.
■ 3D Imagery Workshop: Learn How to Visualize
Projects Clearly
■ Developments in Space GNSS Navigation
Photo: BNSF

■ How 3D is Changing the Way Business Gets Done

■ GNSS Hacking: From Satellite Signals to Hardware/
Software Cybersecurity
■ GPS/GNSS Spoofing & Jamming: Threats and
Countermeasures
■ Top 5 Things to Consider When Buying an INS/GNSS
Navigator
■ Advanced Simulation Test Systems for Controlled
Reception Pattern Antennas BNSF PRESENTATION from GNSS hacking
■ How 2D Turns Into 3D with HD Aerial Mapping webinar.

|
4 GPS WORLD WWW.GPSWORLD.COM JANUARY 2020
FIRST FIX Experts discuss GNSS/PNT news,
trends, obstacles and opportunities
Working Together
for a More Navigable World
BY John Pottle
GUEST COLUMNIST
“D
iverse teams bring diverse
ideas to the table, and that’s
the best way to progress.” So
said Professor Sheila Rowan, the UK
government’s chief scientific advi-
sor to Scotland, opening the Royal
Institute of Navigation’s 2019 Interna-
tional Navigation Conference. Profes-
sor Rowan’s comments set the scene
perfectly. Success in navigation is no
longer about just getting a fix, or even
an accurate fix. To succeed as a system
or application provider, diversity and
collaboration are key, whether it be
multiple disciplines and the skills that
go with them, or a mix of ages, beliefs
and backgrounds. So, what were some
key messages to emerge from four days
of working together?
More practical help for non-experts
wanting to improve resilience in posi-
tioning, navigation and timing (PNT)
is needed.. The top request from
delegates at the pre-conference short
course was for more detailed and spe-
cific information on threats to PNT.
Of particular interest were how to
measure the impacts and test the mer-
its of various mitigation approaches.
In other words: how to assess risk?
How to decide what steps to take?
User acceptance and regulatory/
legal structures for driverless vehicles
are greater challenges than the posi-
tioning and communications technol-
ogy. In the UK and across Europe,
projects are under way to evaluate
good practices for so-called “beyond
line of sight” drone flights. For driver-
less cars, while huge strides have been
taken to enable secure and resilient
absolute and relative positioning,
6 GPS WORLD WWW.GPSWORLD.COM
“
To succeed as a
system or application
provider, diversity and
”
collaboration are key.
much remains to be done. Practical
issues were highlighted, such as over-
cautious vehicles and a tendency for
driverless cars to make occupants feel
more travel sick. So work needs to be
done to avoid a stressfully slow and
sickly experience.
Skills and knowledge are chang-
ing — and education/training needs
to, too. A major developed-world
problem is that the experts with ex-
perience who have seen generation
after generation of technology evolu-
tion are now in their later careers
or retired. Because of the wealth of
knowledge vested in these individu-
als — we can all think of some, I’m
sure — organizations have tended to
over-rely on them. A key theme of the
conference closing plenary was that
the community wants to do more to
collaborate — that word again — to
define training needs and figure
out how to deliver the skills that are
needed today and tomorrow.
The next couple of years bring fewer,
bigger navigation conferences in Eu-
rope. European Navigation Conference
(ENC) 2020 takes place in Dresden,
May 11–14, organized by the Ger-
man Institute of Navigation, DGON.
ENC2021 will be combined with the
triennial global congress of the Inter-
national Association of Institutes of
Navigation (IAIN), Nov. 15–18, 2021,
in Edinburgh, organized by the Royal
Institute of Navigation. Please save the
dates — joining these events is reward-
ing and stimulating as we work together
toward a more navigable world.
John Pottle is director of the Royal Institute of
Navigation.
|
JANUARY 2020
WWW.GPSWORLD.COM
EDITORIAL
Editorial Director Marty Whitford
mwhitford@northcoastmedia.net | 216-706-3766
Senior Editor Tracy Cozzens
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dsofranec@northcoastmedia.net | 216-706-3793
Digital Media Manager Allison Barwacz
abarwacz@northcoastmedia.net | 216-706-3796
Art Director Charles Park
charlespark@gmail.com | 858-337-8847
CONTRIBUTING EDITORS
General Matteo Luccio | mluccio@northcoastmedia.net
Innovation Richard Langley | lang@unb.ca
Defense PNT Michael Jones | mjones@gpsworld.com
Professional OEM & UAV Tony Murfin | tamurfin@verizon.net
GeoIntelligence William Tewelow | wtewelow@gpsworld.com
Survey Tim Burch & Dave Zilkoski |
tburch@gpsworld.com & dzilkoski@gpsworld.com
BUSINESS
Publisher Marty Whitford
mwhitford@northcoastmedia.net | 216-706-3766
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mjoyce@northcoastmedia.net | 216-706-3723
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PUBLISHING SERVICES
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asanchez-perkins@northcoastmedia.net | 216-706-3750
Reprints & Permissions Brett Petillo
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Circulation/Subscriber Services
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NORTH COAST MEDIA LLC
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President & CEO Kevin Stoltman
kstoltman@northcoastmedia.net | 216-706-3740
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sgalperin@northcoastmedia.net | 216-706-3705
Editorial Director Marty Whitford
mwhitford@northcoastmedia.net | 216-706-3766
Vice President of Graphic Design & Production Pete Seltzer
pseltzer@northcoastmedia.net | 216-706-3737
MANUSCRIPTS: GPS World welcomes unsolicited articles but cannot be held responsible
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Published monthly
TAKING POSITION

Automated Shipping Moves Containers

BY Tracy Cozzens

Screenshot: Tom Scott

SENIOR EDITOR

A
t ION GNSS+ in September, I met with Nunzio
Gambale and Paul Benshoeff of Locata. They
were excited to share their news about the timing
tests conducted at White Sands Missile Range by the U.S.
Air Force’s 746th Test Squadron. In this issue, we share the
results of the tests (see page 34). The two also showed me
and Matteo Luccio, our contributing editor, a YouTube video
highlighting another Locata project: guiding 100-ton robots
around the Ports of Auckland, New Zealand. and work more steadily, increasing the capacity of the limited
The robots are straddle carriers, giant mechanisms that land space at the port. The A-STRADs can stack containers
are usually driven by a human. The carriers move and sort with the accuracy of a few centimeters. The automated
the shipping containers as they arrive from ships and leave system also allows stack shuffling, so that wear and tear on
via truck or train. In the new setup, Locata has made possible the asphalt is spread more evenly and requires fewer repairs.
the elimination of the human element with nanosecond- The Locata local positioning system uses synchronized
precision tracking. transmitters installed around the port, with two antennas
Tom Scott, a former Sky One television host and now host on each stradle carrier using the lightspeed delay from each
of a series of YouTube shows, highlighted the robotic system transmitter to find exact position. “They don’t just look at the
in April 2019 on his “Amazing Places” channel. Compared timing signal itself, they track the phase of each transmitter’s
to manned straddle carriers, the automated straddle carriers carrier signal,” Scott explained.
(A-STRADs) are able to stack the containers closer, higher Watch the video at https://youtu.be/kQ8WI3nc1l0.

PNT
EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD
What improvements will GPS III bring to high precision surveying?
When? Will these improvements require any changes in equipment and/or processes?

“ The biggest
impact of GPS
III to high precision
Miguel Amor
Hexagon Positioning
Intelligence
Jules McNeff
Overlook Systems Technologies “ Of all the
improvements
brought by
surveying will be a Terry Moore GPS III, the
full constellation of L5 Thibault Bonnevie University of Nottingham new L1C signal
SBG Systems
satellites. Triple frequency will bring will probably have the biggest
faster convergence times and better Bradford W. Parkinson impact on high-precision
Alison Brown Stanford Center for Position,
accuracy in more difficult conditions. NAVSYS Corporation Navigation and Time surveying. Compared to L1 C/A,
GPS III will better align with Galileo L1C brings better reception in
and BeiDou with L1C which means Ismael Colomina Jean-Marie Sleewaegen difficult environments, improved
better availability in restricted sky GeoNumerics Septentrio availability thanks to the
conditions. Users will want to have “pilot” component, enhanced
equipment capable of supporting Clem Driscoll Michael Swiek resilience to jamming attacks,
C.J. Driscoll & Associates GPS Alliance
these new signals, in antenna and and better interoperability with
receiver HW as well as the signal John Fischer Galileo, BeiDou and QZSS. Many
processing done on board.” Julian Thomas receivers do support L1C already,
Orolia
Racelogic Ltd.
but the benefits will become
Tony Agresta Ellen Hall more tangible as the GPS III
Nearmap Spirent Federal Systems
Greg Turetzky
Consultant constellation grows.”

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8 GPS WORLD WWW.GPSWORLD.COM JANUARY 2020
 SYSTEM
Policy and System
Developments
GPS Galileo GLONASS BeiDou

OF SYSTEMS
GPS Pioneers Honored with Queen’s Award

Photo: Jason Aldean

n Dec. 3, four U.S. engineers were awarded the
2019 Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering
during a ceremony at Buckingham Palace
for their work creating the first truly global,
satellite-based positioning system, GPS.
The QEPrize is the world’s most prestigious engineering
accolade, a £1 million prize that celebrates the global benefit
of engineering innovation on humanity. The honorees were
announced in February.
His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales presented the
trophy to Bradford Parkinson, Hugo Fruehauf, Richard
Schwartz and Anna Marie Spilker, who accepted the award
on behalf of her late husband, Professor James Spilker, Jr. QEPrize Winners: (from left) Browne, Schwartz, HRH The Prince
Bradford Parkinson — often regarded as the “father of GPS” of Wales, Parkinson, Fruehauf, Spilker.
— led the development, design, and testing of the system.
Hugo Fruehauf developed a highly accurate, miniaturized Lord Browne, chairman of the Queen Elizabeth Prize
atomic clock, a foundational component of the system. Richard for Engineering Foundation, highlighted the critical role
Schwartz engineered a satellite hardened to resist intense of collaboration in engineering, and in groundbreaking
radiation in space, with a lifespan three times greater than innovations such as GPS: “Our laureates’ success was the result
expected. James Spilker, Jr., was the main designer of the GPS of inter-disciplinary collaboration, a drive for excellence, and
civil signal and, with his team at Stanford Telecommunications, an ability to turn the fruits of scientific discovery into practical
built the receiver that processed the first GPS satellite signals. solutions. That is what engineers do,” he said.

Russia Launches Glonass-M Satellite IN MEMORIAM

On Nov. 25, a private plane piloted by

A
new Glonass-M navigation
satellite was launched
Dec. 11 to become part of
RussiaÕs GLONASS constellation.
The satellite was launched at 11:54
Moscow time aboard a Soyuz-2.1b
launch vehicle from the Plesetsk
cosmodrome, the Russian Ministry
of DefenseÕs Information and
Communications Department said.
The launch was initially scheduled
for the day before, Dec. 10, but the
launch was postponed for technical
reasons. ÒThe ground-based
automated spacecraft control complex
of the Russian orbital group controlled
the launch and flight of the rocket,Ó the
military department said.
T h e Fr e g a t b o o s t e r u n i t w a s
manufactured by NPO Lavochkin
(also called Lavochkin Research and
Production Association). The satellite
was produced by ISS Reshetnev
(Reshetnev Information Satellite
Systems).
Glonass-M satellites form the basis
of the GLONASS constellation; they
provide navigation information and
accurate time signals to land, sea, air
and space consumers. The launches on
May 27 and Dec. 11 will help sustain
the nominal constellation.
In 2020, the launch campaign for
the Glonass-M satellites will come to
its end. The Glonass-K satellites will
come on stage with the first launch
of Glonass-K-15 scheduled for the
beginning of the next year.
David Last, 79, disappeared from radar
and hit the sea two miles off the coast
of Wales. Now presumed lost at sea,
David Last was former president of
the Royal Institute of Navigation, a
consultant engineer and expert witness
in radio navigation and communications
systems, and a professor emeritus at
Bangor University.
ÒLast was one of the most respected
and well-loved figures in the worldwide
positioning, navigation, and timing
community. His loss creates a hole that
cannot be filled,Ó said Dana Goward,
president of the Resilient Navigation
and Timing Foundation. ÒDavid was a
close personal friend. Our grieving will
not be brief.Ó

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10 G P S W O R L D WWW.GPSWORLD.COM JANUARY 2020

China Completes Core BDS-3 Constellation
hina has completed its
core BeiDou Navigation
Satellite System (BDS)-3
constellation, following
two launches that sent
aloft four more satellites.
The launches took place Nov. 25
and Dec. 16 from the Xichang Satellite
Launch Center in Sichuan Province.
With the December launch, 24
medium Earth orbit (MEO) BDS-3
satellites have been successfully sent
into space. This means the deployment
of the core BDS-3 constellation system
has been completed, according to Yang
Changfeng, chief designer of the BDS.
In June, China stated its plan to
complete the BDS-3 constellation by
2020 with a total of 35 satellites.
China has deployed three systems —
BDS-1, BDS-2 and BDS-3 — to provide
SYSTEM
OF
SYSTEMS
Photo: XinhuaNet
accurate positioning and navigation
services. BeiDou-3 will provide better
coverage inside buildings and in urban
canyons, according to researcher Jin
Shuanggen, Shanghai Astronomical
Observatory.
“BDS will play a large role as
it is used in different scenarios
including smart city, agriculture and
meteorology, autopilot and intelligent
transportation,” said Jing Guifei, dean
of BeiDou Belt and Road School of
Beihang University.
The satellites launched in December
were sent aloft on a Long March-3A Two BDS-3 satellites are sent aloft Dec. 16,
carrier rocket. The two launched in 2019.
November were carried aloft on a Long
March-3B carrier rocket. and the China Academy of Launch
The satellites were developed by the Vehicle Technology under the China
Innovation Academy for Microsatellites Aerospace Science and Technology
of the Chinese Academy of Sciences Corp.
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JANUARY 2020 WWW.GPSWORLD.COM G P S W O R L D 11
 Inertial Ranging & eLoran
ALTERNATIVES TO GNSS
GPS Backup Demonstration Projects Explained
BY Dana Goward
GUEST COLUMNIST
O
n Nov. 4, 2019, t he
U. S . D e p ar t me nt of
Transportation awarded
contracts to 11 companies
to demonstrate their technologies’
ability to act as a backup for GPS.
We wanted to know a bit more
about what each of them were going
to demonstrate, so we asked each for an
explanation. Most provided just that, so
much of what appears here is in their
own words. A couple of companies sent
us a whole lot more than 100 words and
two did not respond. For those, we did
our best with the materials they sent us
and other publicly available materials.
Wi-Fi, Cellular, Ultra-Wideband
PhasorLab (www.phasorlab.com) plans
to demonstrate its Hyper Sync Net
(HSN) technology as a backup to
GPS-based PNT solutions. HSN is a
self-organizing mobile mesh network
capable of maintaining high-precision
time (<<1 ns) and frequency (<<1 ppb)
synchronization throughout the whole
network as well as an instantaneous
3D locational map of the whole mesh
network requiring as little as a single
master reference node.
The HSN can be deployed either as
a set of fixed reference nodes providing
time and positioning references to
other mobile UE clients, which is like
a terrestrial version of GPS, or as a
private ad-hoc mobile mesh network
where all members are expected to be
mobile.
Skyhook TechnologyÕs (www.skyhook.
com) system is powered by an immense
database — created and maintained
by Skyhook — that contains more
than five billion geolocated access
12 G P S W O R L D WWW.GPSWORLD.COM
Wi-Fi Bluetooth
TRX Systems’ NEON Personnel Tracker provides ubiquitous 3D location, tracking and mapping.
points and 200 million cell base station
IDs, enabling it to accurately locate
phones and devices worldwide. The
user is not required to be connected
to a Wi-Fi network for the system to
work. The scan will simply detect Wi-Fi
access points in the local area based
on signals sent periodically (or on
demand) according to the IEEE 802.11
specifications. Many devices will
acquire information on as many as 100
access points in the surrounding area.
Skyhook’s Wi-Fi positioning system
(WPS) will compute an estimated
end-user location based on each of
the signal sources independently, and
compute an optimal hybrid location
estimate from all sources.
Fiber/Network
OPNTÕs (www.opnt.nl) Global Terrestrial
Timing Service (GTTS) provides GPS-
independent timing-as-a-service over
global fiber-based networks. Trading
off cost versus service-level agreement
(SLA)-backed accuracy, standard
network connectivity offerings and
bidirectional fibers are combined to
|
JANUARY 2020
Screenshot: TRX Systems
meet application needs. As will be
demonstrated with simulations of
National Institute of Standards and
Technology (NIST) and the two U.S.
Naval Observatory (USNO) clocks,
OPNT’s fully redundant solution
receives its core Coordinated Universal
Time (UTC) timing directly from the
non-maskable interrupts (NMIs).
The demonstration will include
sub-nanosecond stability with fault
detection and glitchless recovery.
Using the precision-timed fiber base,
OPNT will also demonstrate precision
monitoring of wireless signals with
continuous, real-time corrections to
keep the wireless transmissions and its
local timing source in sync.
Seven SolutionsÕ (sevensols.com) core
technology is called White Rabbit
and was born at CERN. In this
demonstration, Seven Solutions plans
to showcase the performance of this
technology, both on local and wide-
area deployments, and explain the
capabilities in terms of interoperability
(integrating multiple synchronization
technologies, i.e. IEEE 1588 PTP, NTP,
PPS, 10-MHz clocks), scalability and
resiliency. The goal is to provide a
reference technology that can provide
very stable time references over fiber
in GPS-denied scenarios as a backup
source or to complement other PNT
solutions that need timing distribution
at their core.
eLoran
Hellen SystemsÕ (www.hellensystems.
com) team said it is excited by its
recent contract award to perform a
GPS back-up demonstration for the
Department of Transportation. Its
team plans to demonstrate advanced
eLoran technologies and offer resilient
PNT services. Its next-generation
solution will include a solid-state
eLoran transmitter from Continental
Electronics Corp. integrated with
advanced timing and frequency
products from Microsemi, a Microchip
company. Hellen Systems also plans
to deploy its proprietary receiver
and reference systems developed by
Microsemi.
Hellen Systems and program
integrator L3Harris will manage the
demonstration, with Booz Allen
Hamilton providing technical and
engineering leadership.
UrsaNav (www.ursanav.com) supplies
eLoran, LFPhoenix and low-frequency
technology for very wide-area, GPS-
independent, PNT data and frequency
services. UrsaNav was selected by the
Volpe Center to demonstrate wide-
area UTC time synchronization and
distribution utilizing the former Loran
site in Wildwood, New Jersey. UrsaNav
will provide innovative new eLoran
technology at the site in Wildwood
to broadcast a UTC-synchronized
eLoran signal. The demonstration
will be conducted at one of the Volpe
Center demonstration sites at Joint
Base Cape Cod in Massachusetts or the
Langley Research Center in Langley,
Virginia. Either site can be utilized in
the demonstration as eLoran signal
“ APS incorporates multiple features to assure
accurate PNT information under circumstances that
can challenge or disable GPS/GNSS technology.
transmissions from the Wildwood site
can easily cover 700 miles or more.
Serco (www.serco.com) recently
acquired Alion’s Naval Systems
Business unit. This included a group
working in New London, Connecticut,
that has previously worked with and
published on eLoran. While we did
not get a response from Serco to our
inquiry, eLoran is likely the technology
the company will demonstrate.
Satellite
Globalstar-Echo RidgeÕs ( w w w.
echoridgenet.com) system is based on
Augmented Positioning System (APS)
technology that uses ordinary signals
from communications satellites (not
special positioning/navigation signals,
such as those from GPS satellites) to
produce accurate position and timing
information in compatible user devices.
No new infrastructure is needed;
Globalstar’s constellation of 24 low-
Earth-orbit (LEO) satellites and Echo
Ridge software and compatible devices
at the user end provide the building
blocks for the APS-based system.
APS technology has been successfully
demonstrated in diverse environments
and incorporates multiple features
to assure accurate PNT information
under circumstances that can challenge
or disable GPS/GNSS technology.
Satelles (www.satellesinc.com)
provides unique timing and location
solutions delivered over the Iridium
constellation of 66 LEO satellites. These
timing and location signals are available
anywhere on Earth without the need
for local infrastructure, making the
system perfect for complementing GPS
and other location-based technologies.
Unlike standard GPS, these high-
power signals can reach into many
building structures. Most importantly,
|
JANUARY 2020 WWW.GPSWORLD.COM
”
Satelles has customized the Iridium
signal-in-space to provide a location-
specific signature that can reliably
prove (or authenticate) the location of
a mobile device or other equipment,
while being virtually impervious to
spoofing and other attacks.
Other
TRX Systems (www.trxsystems.com) is
the developer of NEON GPS-denied
location solutions, delivering 3D
location and mapping for dismount
personnel where GPS is not available
or is unreliable — including indoors,
underground, in dense urban areas,
and where GPS is found to be
erroneous. NEON delivers ubiquitous,
low-cost, GPS-denied location by using
advanced sensor fusion, ranging and
patented dynamic mapping algorithms
that improve safety and situational
awareness for military, public safety
and industrial personnel.
NextNavÕs (www.nextnav.com)
Metropolitan Beacon System (MBS)
is a 3GPP-compliant, terrestrial
network of long-range broadcast
beacons, transmitting a “GPS-like”
signal in licensed spectrum in the
sub-GHz range. The combination of
an on-board atomic clock and the
ability to self-synchronize allows the
system to operate independent of GPS
and provide full PNT services in its
footprint. The ability to integrate the
MBS signal in mass-market GPS and
LTE chipsets can provide a seamless
ability to provide full PNT services
in the presence and absence of GPS.
Because of its terrestrial nature,
MBS is able to work indoors, in
urban environments and outdoors;
for barometer-equipped devices,
MBS also enables floor-level altitude
determination.
G P S W O R L D 13
/ FAA UPDATE

A New Era Begins: Geospatially Based Aviation

BY William Tewelow

Image: FAA
CONTRIBUTING EDITOR, GEOSPATIAL SOLUTIONS

A
t any given moment, more than
5,000 airplanes are flying over
the United States. In a single
year, nearly 778 million passengers will
take to the skies — more than twice
the population of the U.S., and the
number increases each year. Aviation
is the safest form of transportation.
It is 100 times safer than driving, and
the Federal Aviation Administration
(FAA) is working hard to make aviation
even safer.
Safety is the FAA’s primary focus.
The FAA Strategic Plan FY 2019–2022
states its mission is to provide the safest,
most efficient aviation system in the
world. To achieve this goal, the FAA
is implementing several initiatives;
the technical aspects fall under a
framework called NextGen designed
to modernize the nation’s air traffic
control system. At its core, NextGen is
a geospatial framework with satellite
navigation as its backbone.
The integrated NextGen concept
improves the efficiency and safety of
flight operations both on the ground
and in the air. The use of geospatial
technology enables precision time-
management for controlling air traffic.
The system allows each airplane to
digitally coordinate with other aircraft
in the area, taking into account such
things as terrain and other known
hazards to safely reroute air traffic as
necessary. The FAA refers to this as
trajectory-based operations. Those with
a knowledge of GIS will recognize it as
four dimensional: it calculates direction,
speed, distance and time relative to
position in x-y-z, and coordinates that
information with other known data.
Additionally, the system uses historical
flight data and predictive analytics to
maximize airspace for routing air traffic
such as what is experienced during the
holidays.
NextGen also uses a system called
Optimal Profile Descents (OPD),
The Air Traffic Control System in action over the mainland United States.
which allows an airplane to trim its
engines and descend along a glide
slope from flight level into the airport.
The point at which a plane begins its
descent is a geospatial calculation to
determine the precise point in space
for the airplane based upon its altitude,
weight, glide slope and distance to
the airport. The benefits of OPD are
reduced engine noise, fuel savings,
less carbon emissions and a positive
economic impact.
NextGen revolutionizes aviation by
enabling digital data communication.
It replaces radar-based navigation
and tracking with satellite-based air
traffic control. The cornerstone is the
Automated Dependent Surveillance
Broadcast (ADS-B) system.
ADS-B is an aviator’s version of
Waze, but with a lot more information.
ADS-B(out) broadcasts an airplane’s
Flight ID, ICAO Code, speed and
location in three-dimensional space
to air traffic controllers and to everyone
who is equipped with ADS-B(in).
The combination of ADS-B(out) and
ADS-B(in) greatly increases situational
awareness for aviators.
On Jan. 1, 2020, all airplanes
operating in controlled airspace needed
to have ADS-B(out) installed. ADS-B
transforms the entire National Airspace
System into a satellite-based geospatial
network. It integrates multiple sources
of real-time data, such as weather, pilot
reports, aircraft positions, 3D airspace
information, and other sources of data,
which can be overlaid on top of various
basemaps and terrain elevation models,
allowing pilots to make more informed
and safer decisions.
Switching to ADS-B opens up more
capacity in already crowded skies
by decreasing the required vertical
and horizontal separation distances
between aircraft. At Hartsfield-Jackson
International Airport, the busiest
airport in the world, changing to
performance-based operations allowed
8 to 12 more departures per hour; and
in Memphis International Airport,
one of the busiest airports for cargo
operations, arrivals increased by 20%.
It also supports evolving technolo-
gies such as remote towers and the
integration of unmanned aerial systems
(UAS) into the airspace.
Read the full article at geospatial-solutions.com/faa-nextgen/.

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14 G P S W O R L D WWW.GPSWORLD.COM JANUARY 2020
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 LAUNCHPAD | OEM
1
2
1. HEAVY-DUTY ANTENNA
FOR CHALLENGING ENVIRONMENTS
The heavy-duty CHCNAV AT311T is
designed for demanding applications subject
to shocks and vibrations. With advanced
filtering and robust signal tracking, it
provides survey-grade GNSS signals to
enhance position reliability for marine
applications, machine control, precision
agriculture and industrial automation.
Features include multi-constellation GNSS
tracking using GPS, GLONASS, BeiDou,
Galileo, QZSS, IRNSS and SBAS. Its IP68
water-resistant design makes it safe to use in
extreme conditions with a wide temperature
range (–40° C to +85° C). Its internal
stacked structure enhances performance in
high-interference environments, and the
40-dB signal gains, advanced signal filtering
and multipath rejection design provide
superior and robust GNSS signal tracking in
challenging surroundings.
CHC Navigation, www.chcnav.com
2. UAV GNSS BOARD
COMPACT, HIGH-PRECISION FOR UAS
The UAS1 compact, high-precision GNSS
board was designed for unmanned aerial
systems (UAS). It allows UAS system
integrators to add upgradeable GNSS-based
positioning using rugged connectors and
Trimble’s software interface. Its 336-channel
GNSS engine is capable of tracking L1/
16 G P S W O R L D WWW.GPSWORLD.COM
L2 frequencies from GPS, GLONASS,
Galileo and BeiDou for centimeter-level,
real-time kinematic (RTK) positioning.
The compact board provides capabilities
from high-accuracy GPS-only to full
GNSS features. The receiver supports fault
detection and exclusion (FDE) and receiver
autonomous integrity monitoring (RAIM).
System integrators also have the ability to
detect interference with an RF spectrum
monitoring and analysis tool embedded in
the receiver. Trimble, trimble.com
3. UPGRADEABLE OEM BOARD
OFFERS SOFTWARE-ENABLED FEATURES
The Onyx multi-frequency GNSS OEM
board offers integrated StarFire/real-time
kinematic (RTK) GNSS capabilities. It
features 255-channel tracking, including
multi-constellation support for GPS,
GLONASS, BeiDou and Galileo. It provides
high performance in GNSS receiver
sensitivity and signal tracking as well as
patented multipath mitigation, interference
rejection and anti-jamming capabilities.
Through software options, the Onyx
,allows upgrades from free differential GPS
signal sources such as WAAS, to increased
accuracy services such as StarFire and RTK
Extend. The software-enabled features are
sold in bundles, but can also be purchased
individually to suit changing application
needs.
NavCom Technology, www.navcomtech.com
|
JANUARY 2020
3
4
4. NETWORK TIMING
SUB-MICROSECOND SYNCHRONIZATION
The OSA 5401 and OSA 5405 upgraded
PTP grandmaster clocks deliver precise,
robust timing in a compact form factor.
Oscilloquartz PTP timing technology
enables power utility and broadcast
networks to achieve sub-microsecond
synchronization. The pluggable OSA
5401 is a small PTP grandmaster clock,
and the OSA 5405 is an integrated PTP
grandmaster with dual GNSS antenna
and receiver. With spoofing and jamming
detection capabilities, they also provide
high availability. The OSA 5401 and
5405 provide new levels of accuracy
and resilience for infrastructure and
support emerging bandwidth-intensive,
latency-sensitive applications. With sub-
microsecond synchronization, smart
grids can perform flexible, real-time
decision making, as well as monitoring
and automated maintenance. The OSA
5401 and OSA 5405 comply with the latest
PTP profiles for time, frequency and phase
synchronization in both power utility and
broadcast networks. These include the
IEC/IEEE 61850-9-3 Power Utility Profile
for precise time distribution and clock
synchronization in electrical grids with
an accuracy of 1μs, and SMPTE 2059 for
synchronizing video and audio equipment
over packet networks.
Adva, www.adva.com
 TRANSPORTATION | LAUNCHPAD
1. AIRCRAFT GPS
HELPS WITH ADS-B OUT COMPLIANCE

The SBAS-capable CMA-5024 GPS has received U.S. Federal Aviation Administration
(FAA) approval for installation on Boeing 737 Next-Generation aircraft. It enables
B737NGs to comply with worldwide ADS-B Out mandates as well as SBAS/GPS
navigation, enabling the first localizer performance with vertical guidance (LPV)
approaches for B737NGs. The CMA-5024 GPS is a cost-effective alternative to replace
a multi-mode receiver (MMR). The approved DO-260B ADS-B Out positioning
source can be paired with any DO-260B compliant transponder, allowing operators
1 to meet FAA and EASA ADS-B Out requirements, the UAE’s ADS-B Out and RNP
requirements mandated by GCAA as well as India’s GAGAN requirements.
CMC Electronics, www.cmcelectronics.ca

2. ADS-B TRANSMITTER
RECEIVES FAA APPROVAL

The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has approved the VTU-20 automatic dependent
surveillance – broadcast (ADS-B) transmitter for airport surface management. Adhering to the
performance and design assurance specifications of FAA-E-3032, the externally mounted VTU-
20 ensures integration and interoperability with Airport Surface Detection Equipment, Model
X (ASDE-X), Airport Surface Surveillance Capability (ASSC) and ADS-B receiver surveillance
solutions for airport. The VTU-20 can be permanently or magnetically mounted to all airside
vehicles, including utility, emergency, snow-removal and maintenance equipment. Each vehicle is
clearly and uniquely identified, providing an essential addition to any surface movement guidance
and control system.
uAvionix, uavionix.com 2

GNSS Receiver Lab Testing is Outdated

Mobile test environments for onsite testing are the future you can buy today

Technology licensed by Fraunhofer IIS https://teleorbit.eu

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JANUARY 2020 WWW.GPSWORLD.COM G P S W O R L D 17
 LAUNCHPAD | UAV
1
1. AIRSPACE INTELLIGENCE
PROVIDES CRITICAL SAFETY DATA TO DRONE PILOTS

Skyward’s Advanced Airspace Intelligence drone airspace maps provide

airspace data combined with essential ground intelligence including 3D
views of key structures, transmission lines, and more than a million vertical
obstacles. The platform also provides access to LAANC, the Low Altitude
Authorization and Notification Capability program provided by the U.S.
Federal Aviation Administration. Data available for situational awareness
includes vertical structure obstacles, power lines, airports, runways,
national parks, stadiums, hospitals and schools.
Skyward, skyward.io

2. PPK FOR PHANTOM 4 RTK DRONES

PROVIDES RELIABLE CAMERA POSITIONING DATA

Hi-Target PPK GO precision add-on enables Phantom 4 RTK drones

to achieve the accurate and reliable camera positioning data in any
coordinate system without measure targets or ground control points.
With 2-centimeter accuracies on XYZ, the output text file with
position information or geotagged images can be used directly in major
photogrammetric mapping or 3D survey software. The add-on allows
selection of GPS/GLONASS/Beidou/ Galileo L1+L2+L5 and further
parameter adjustments for position calculation in the PPK process to ensure
the most reliable and accurate camera positioning even in poor single
satellite system signals.
Hi-Target, en.hi-target.com.cn 2

INSTITUTE OF NAVIGATION
April 20–23, 2020
Hilton Portland Downtown
Portland, Oregon
2020

IEEE/ION Position Location and

Navigation Symposium (PLANS)

PORTLAND ion.org/plans

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18 G P S W O R L D WWW.GPSWORLD.COM JANUARY 2020
 SURVEYING & MAPPING | LAUNCHPAD
1 3
4
1. GNSS RECEIVER
FULL-FEATURED POSITIONING SYSTEM
The next-generation R620 receiver is
designed for land and marine applications
requiring high-precision positioning.
It is a complete refresh of the previous
version (R330) and has a new low-profile
ruggedized enclosure. Customers can start
with sub-meter positioning accuracy and
upgrade the receiver through activations
and subscriptions to add functionality
and improve performance capability to
centimeter-level accuracy. Powered by
the Vega series, the R620 GNSS receiver
processes and supports more than 1,100
channels. It simultaneously tracks GPS,
GLONASS, BeiDou (including Phase 3),
Galileo, QZSS, IRNSS, SBAS and Atlas
L-band corrections. It has status LEDs , a
powerful WebUI, UHF (400-MHz and 900-
MHz) radio, cellular modem, Bluetooth,
Wi-Fi, Ethernet (including power over
Ethernet), CAN, serial and USB.
Hemisphere GNSS, hemispheregnss.com
2. RUGGED DATA COLLECTOR
FOR LAND SURVEYING AND GEOSPATIAL
INFORMATION SYSTEMS (GIS)
The rugged SXPad 1500 data collector
features an alphanumeric keypad and long-
range Bluetooth, and was designed to meet
the rigorous IP67 standard for challenging
field conditions. It has a 5-inch sunlight-
readable touchscreen. The SXPad 1500
2
5
can be connected to any GNSS receiver or
compatible robotic total station. Driven by a
1-GHz processor and the Windows Mobile
6.5 operating system, providing the power
to work with maps and large data sets in the
field. Its integrated cellular modem and Wi-Fi
provides wireless connectivity for internet
access and GIS data transfer — helpful for
configuring a real-time kinematic (RTK)-
compatible GNSS receiver. Equipped with
an internal memory of 1 GB (memory can
be expanded to 16 GB with an SD card), the
SXPad 1500 provides enough storage space
for data recording. Its high-performance
lithium battery allows uninterrupted field
operation for up to eight hours.
Geneq, sxbluegps.com
3. GNSS RTK TABLET
RECEIVES 184 CHANNELS
The LT700H RTK Android tablet is
designed to increase efficiency and
productivity of the mobile field workforce
in applications requiring centimeter-to-
decimeter positioning accuracy. Portable,
rugged and versatile, the LT700H enables
precision GIS data collection, forensic
mapping, construction site layout,
environmental surveys, landscaping and
earthmoving jobs. Powered by 184-channel
high-performance GPS, GLONASS,
Galileo and BeiDou module and a superior
tracking GNSS helical antenna, the LT700H
provides position availability in demanding
environments. Its integrated 4G modem
|
JANUARY 2020
ensures seamless communication from
field-to-office and robust connectivity to
RTK correction networks.
CHC Navigation, www.chcnav.com
4. REFERENCE RECEIVER
NOW SUPPORTS BDS-3 SIGNALS
The Trimble Alloy GNSS reference receiver
now supports BeiDou Generation III (BDS-
3) signals. This will enable operators to
meet the ongoing demand from surveyors,
mapping professionals and precision
farmers for accurate, reliable corrections
derived from real-time networks. Released
in 2018, the Alloy has the processing power
needed for high-quality data from multiple
constellations. Alloy version 5.42 firmware
tracks all available and planned GPS Block
IIIA L1C and BDS-3 signals.
Trimble, www.trimble.com
5. UTILITY MAPPING
GROUND PENETRATING RADAR
The Leica DSX utility detection solution
can be used together with Leica GPS/
GNSS systems to generate highly accurate,
georeferenced maps. The DSX uncovers
utilities for repair and maintenance, civil
engineering and surveying projects. The
ground-penetrating radar system includes
portable hardware and software that
automates data analysis and creates a 3D
utility map.
Hexagon, hexagon.com
WWW.GPSWORLD.COM G P S W O R L D 27
 /
COVERSTORY
COVERSTORY

LAY OF THE LAND

Our Receiver Innovator Q&As Log Trends and Product Launches
TOP RECEIVER MANUFACTURERS SHARE what’s on the horizon for GNSS receivers. The
companies discuss recent and upcoming innovations, how to combat spoofing and jamming, fusing GNSS with
other sensors, and the impact of increasing accuracy both for professional surveyors and consumers.

BY Matteo Luccio / G PS WO RLD CO N T R I B U TO R

G
PS receivers have been evolving steadily ever
since the very first one was made by Rockwell
Collins in 1977, which was six feet tall and had
two seats. What have been the most significant
innovations in the past three years and what might they
be in the next three? Top receiver manufacturers discuss
these questions, with special focus on four areas: jamming
and spoofing; integration with inertial measurement units
(IMUs) and other sensors; surveying; and consumer devices.
A wide range of approaches emerged, as well as a few trends.
With regard to jamming and spoofing, the preferred
approach is a combination of monitoring, detection and
filtering. However, shielding, the use of IMUs and other
third-party sensors, and advances in processing algorithms
also help mitigate interference. In a few years, hopefully,
encrypted or “watermarked” signals will substantially
reduce this problem.
IMUs and other sensors are now routinely integrated
with GNSS receivers, with their outputs fused. This trend
is largely propelled on the demand side by the needs of the

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28 G P S W O R L D WWW.GPSWORLD.COM JANUARY 2020
 Photo: Trimble
Topcon
Jamming and Spoofing. “We continue to develop and deploy
patented technology to detect spoofing,” said Alok Srivastava,
director, product management. “We already have cutting
edge GNSS antenna technology to provide stellar support for
interference rejection and filtering.” All Topcon end products
have this advanced antenena and filtering technology.
Sensor Fusion. “Topcon has been using inertial systems for
decades for a variety of positioning applications — such as
machine control, mobile mapping, and agriculture,” said
Srivastava. “In recent years, advancements in IMU technology
have progressed to where the size and cost of these sensors
are at levels to be utilized at a larger scale. For example,
the recently released Topcon HiPer VR takes advantage of
inertial technology to improve productivity in real time with
our Topcon Integrated Leveling Technology (TILT), which
compensates for mis-leveled field measurements out of plumb
by as much as 15 degrees.”
JANUARY 2020
emerging market for autonomous vehicles and on the supply
side by smaller, cheaper and more accurate IMUs and lidar
scanners. Meanwhile, developments in algorithms have
improved the modeling of errors to correct for the inherent
tendency of IMUs to drift. Additionally, digital cameras,
lidar, and other industry-specific sensors are increasingly
common, especially for collision avoidance in human-
machine interactions.
In surveying, the use of all constellations and frequencies,
as they become available, is an industry trend. Costs will
continue to drop as the growth in the adoption of GNSS
solutions enables manufacturers to take greater advantage of
economies of scale. Precise point positioning (PPP), which
benefits greatly from the growth in GNSS constellations, is
now giving real-time kinematic (RTK) positioning a run
for its money. Available applications enable Android mobile
devices to achieve centimeter accuracy, while innovations
continue in core positioning algorithms.
In the world of mobile consumer devices, dual-frequency,
multi-constellation GNSS chipsets are increasingly prevalent.
As increased accuracy fuels expectations for even higher
accuracy, precision positioning may become the norm in
the consumer space, and new applications for these devices
may emerge. Already, crowdsourcing the monitoring of both
GNSS signals and interference helps improve accuracy for
everyone, in a positive feedback loop.
Other notable trends include the introduction and
expansion of 5G data networks, the increased use of satellite-
based correction services, and continued efforts to develop
precise positioning for indoor areas.
Surveying. Topcon continues to invest in its core positioning
algorithms to innovate such features as quartz lock loop,
advanced multi-engine platform, and VHD heading
technology into its positioning engines, Srivastava said.
“We also produce solutions such as our Millimeter GPS and
Hybrid Positioning innovations, which are designed around
improving accuracy, higher reliability, and greater flexibility
by converging positioning technologies.”
Consumer Devices. “GNSS in consumer devices and other
commercial systems is used to aid other positioning sensors,”
Srivastava said. “So, it may not be in the best of interest to
offer that level of accuracy from GNSS alone.”
Other Challenges. Precise indoor positioning is a requirement
of the vertical construction industry. “Topcon’s combined
optical instrument takes a unique approach to solve that
problem by integrating a compact laser scanner with a fully
featured robotic total station,” Srivastava said.
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WWW.GPSWORLD.COM G P S W O R L D 29
 RECEIVERS

/
CHC Navigation
Jamming and Spoofing. CHCNav is currently taking a

Photo: CHC Navigation

twofold approach to GNSS interference, said François
Martin, vice general manager, International Division. “As
a GNSS system integrator, we focus our design around
strong electromagnetic shielding and sealed isolation
chambers.” Additionally, he pointed out, the advanced
filtering of GNSS signals and an antenna patch produce
optimal interference mitigation.

Sensor Fusion. Integrating interference-free, high-dynamic

IMUs instead of MEMS has brought the full benefits
of tilt compensation to users, Martin said. The latest
development in algorithms dramatically obviated the
need for the annoying process of initializing GNSS IMU
receivers and boosted the availability of GNSS RTK in
demanding environments.
Surveying. The fast adoption of GNSS solutions by large
user segments has reduced costs by enabling a sizable
manufacturing economy of scale, Martin pointed out.
“Tighter combination of embedded technologies such as
GNSS and connectivity modules are sustaining that cost
reduction process.”
Consumer Devices. “The emergence of dual frequency
multi-constellation GNSS chipsets supports the
development of untapped user segments, but the position
accuracy repeatability remains an issue,” Martin said. “The
integration of GNSS chipset and high-performance helical
antennas, as precision add-on modules, onto rugged
Android cell phone and tablets is creating a prosumer-
grade centimeter to decimeter accuracy answering to a
wide range of mobile workforce applications.”
Other Challenges. A growing number of positioning and
navigation applications require the fusion of technologies
to increase productivity, Martin said. “The integration
of advanced tightly integrated positioning algorithms,
scanners, IMUs, HDR cameras, IoT and cloud-based
connected solutions are a clear trend.” However, their
adoption by a large user base remains limited by their
current price point.

Septentrio
Jamming and Spoofing. “Recent
developments in receiver-antenna
combinations maximize the benefits
of anti-jamming techniques,” said
Gustavo Lopez, market access manager.
Third party sensors, such as IMUs, also
help mitigate interference, he pointed
out. “Septentrio’s advanced receiver
technology such as AIM+, a standard
feature on all the company’s products,
bring not only real time monitoring
but also jamming/spoofing mitigation.
Galileo and GPS have clear roadmaps
bringing signal authentication in order
to avoid spoofing.”
Sensor Fusion. Smaller IMUs with
higher grade performance now on
the market are enabling new use
cases in autonomous applications,
s aid L op e z. O t her i mp or t ant
elements are a new generation of
compact high-performance sensors
and the growing importance of
multi-sensor technology “to provide
even higher levels of positioning
integrity.” He cited Septentrio’s
AsteRx-i family of products as an
example of GNSS/INS integrated
solutions.
Surveying. A s a n e x a mp l e o f
Septentrio’s survey-specific products,
which “continuously benefit from
advanced developments being rolled
out in our platform,” Lopez cited the
Altus NR3.
Consumer Devices. The increasing
positioning accuracy of cell phones,
Lopez pointed out, “has spurred
innovations such as PPP and the
use of mobile phone measurements,”
as well as “other purposes, such
as interference detection and
crowdsourcing.”

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30 G P S W O R L D WWW.GPSWORLD.COM JANUARY 2020

Hemisphere GNSS
Jamming and Spoofing. “Hemisphere’s
new Lyra II ASIC platform used in our
Phantom and Vega series positioning
and heading boards,” said Miles Ware,
director of marketing, “introduces
new technology and filtering methods
to identify and mitigate known and
unknown interference sources that
typically have an adverse effect on
GNSS performance.”
Sensor Fusion. “Advancements in IMU
integration and sensor fusion,” Ware
said, “will continue to be a key focus
for Hemisphere to support the growth
Photo: Hemisphere GNSS
Other Challenges. “Sensor fusion is
a key element in positioning and
orientation,” Lopez said. “Easy
integration is a key element in this
trend. Also, integrity in error reporting
and positioning will be required as
well as reliable raw measurements
which can be integrated with other
sensors. This drives the requirement
for receivers capable of running
customer proprietary software.
Another important element will
also be the possibility of running
positioning algorithms on a third-
party processor.”
and adoption of the expanding
autonomous vehicle and application
marketplace. The positioning and
heading technology offered in our
Vega 28 will be a core component
for autonomous marine, machine
control, and agriculture solutions for
new and emerging markets.”
Surveying. “Access to modern and
future signals like BeiDou Phase
III, ALTBOC and BS-ACEBOC
s i g n i f i c a nt l y e n h a n c e G N S S
accuracy, especially in challenging
env ironments w here s atel lite
|
JANUARY 2020
RECEIVERS
/
visibility is compromised by the
topography and or the structures
present,” Ware pointed out. “Survey
solutions that can not only track
but also use all the available GNSS
measurements in their RTK solution
will have a substantial advantage in
the market.”
Consumer Devices. “As mobile phones
and consumer devices continue to
adopt hardware designs that can
access the latest GNSS signals,” Ware
said, “the opportunities for solutions
where high precision measurement
engines can be hosted within mobile
devices opens up a new realm of
solutions that can leverage the high
accuracy positioning performance
found in Hemisphere technology
and products. We see this as a very
exciting and emerging area.”
Other Challenges. Ware pointed to
“leveraging GNSS technology to
further support environmentally
friendly transportation solutions and
sustainable agriculture,” for which
GNSS continues to be an integral
component.
Photo: Septentrio
WWW.GPSWORLD.COM G P S W O R L D 31
 RECEIVERS
/
Unicore Communications
Sensor Fusion. “We are implementing
GNSS with different level IMUs,
including low-cost and high-end,
targeting automotive, intelligent
driving, and robot application
scenarios,” said Gao Jingbo, marketing
director. “The algorithm can also
integrate with the already-existing
sensors on the platform, such as IMUs,
cameras and odometers. The solution
can be done on the GNSS side, with
high information synchronization
accuracy, or processed on the
platform.”
Surveying. Products with Unicore
boards inside can provide centimeter-
to millimeter-level positioning
accuracy, said Jingbo. “Unicore’s high
precision boards and modules can
track all frequencies of all satellite
systems. The UGypsophila RTK
technology can make the most of
the observation data of all frequencies
in all systems even without the
observations of the base station in the
Trimble
Jamming and Spoofing. “Trimble’s latest
GNSS receivers leverage our seventh-
generation Maxwell technology,
which implements hardware- and
software-based techniques to detect
and mitigate spoofing,” said Stuart Riley,
vice president, GNSS Technology. “In
addition, Trimble continues to improve
the robustness of our GNSS receivers
with advances in processing algorithms
and hardware enhancements such as
the integration of inertial technology.”
Sensor Fusion. “For many years, IMUs
have been widely used in Trimble
agriculture and Applanix products,”
Riley said. “Over the past few years,
we’ve created a new line of lower-cost
inertially integrated board-level GNSS
32 G P S W O R L D WWW.GPSWORLD.COM
RTK solution, thus greatly improving
the usability, reliability and accuracy
of RTK.” The company is now also
working to reduce the dimensions
and cost of its products, Jingbo
pointed out. “With Unicore’s single
GNSS SoC on board, the UB4B0M
and UM4B0 modules are making
affordable high-end high precision
surveying possible.”
Consumer Devices. Algorithms and
hardware are ready now to implement
PPP+RTK in cell phones, Jingbo
said, and this increase in positioning
receivers. We have also integrated
inertial components into survey and
construction products, including tilt
compensation in the Trimble R10,
R12 and SPS986 receivers. Trimble
also combines its GNSS solutions with
optical, laser, lidar and other sensors.”
Surveying. Trimble’s GNSS products,
Riley pointed out, range from GIS
handhelds to high-performance mobile
mapping systems.
Consumer Devices. “The Trimble
Catalyst system uses Android-based
smartphones or tablets to run an
application that includes a software-
defined GNSS receiver,” Riley said.
“The recently introduced SiteVision
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JANUARY 2020
Photo: Unicore Communications
accuracy will enable many more
applications. “We have rich experience
in high precision GNSS, but the
antenna might be a challenge. Our
new generation 22 nm GNSS SoC
features low power consumption and
support of sensor fusion. Additionally,
true point technology by Rx-Networks
(also a BDStar company) can provide
sub-meter data service, which also
enables users to access centimeter-
level accuracy location data through
their mobile phones and wearable
technologies, without increasing the
demand for processing power.”
system builds on this ecosystem and
integrates Google’s ARCore platform
with precision GNSS to provide an
augmented reality solution for a variety
of professional applications.”
Other Challenges. To address signal
masking and multipath, Trimble has
“continued to improve performance
in difficult environments with
products such as the Trimble R12
receiver, which provides sophisticated
multipath mitigation and an advanced
precision processing engine.” Riley said,
“Trimble’s RTX Correction Services,
delivered via satellite, enable users to
achieve RTK speed and accuracy nearly
anywhere on the planet without the
need for local reference stations.”

NovAtel
Jamming and Spoofing. “The RF environment is at best
crowded and at worst hostile,” said Sandy Kennedy, vice
president of innovation, Hexagon’s Positioning Intelligence
division. “The NovAtel OEM7 generation of receivers was
launched in 2016, with interference detection and mitigation
as key features on every variant. Protecting authenticity,
availability, and precision for multifrequency measurements
is the challenge going forward — in all segments of the
system: constellation management and SIS, antenna, receiver
design and processing in FW/SW.”
Sensor Fusion. In the last three years, Kennedy pointed out,
IMU manufacturers have made significant improvements
in the performance offered in smaller, cheaper IMUs. “At
the same time, new methods to improve error modelling
(to control positioning errors) have been added to the
NovAtel SPAN product line, especially in SPAN Land profile.
Extended GNSS outages are easily handled now.”
Surveying. “PPP has become a strong competitor to RTK, as
convergence times have decreased, and this will continue in
RECEIVERS
Photo: NovAtel
/
service offerings like Terrastar-X from NovAtel,” Kennedy
said.
Consumer Devices. The devices, Kennedy said, offer “the
tantalizing promise of quality measurements from a common
utility device with huge computing horsepower and data
connectivity built in! It’s fun to watch, and we shall see if
accuracy is truly addictive enough to fuel development for
general use of precision positioning.”
Other Challenges. “In the past 20 years, users have moved
from awe and wonder that centimeter-level positioning
is possible — to utter contempt when it is not,” Kennedy
said. “This will continue, with an added requirement of
integrity and functional safety. Continuously available
positioning within a usable protection level is a requirement
for autonomous vehicles.”
 ALTERNATIVE PNT

All Photos and Diagrams: 746th Test Squadron

Technicians with the 746 TS re-aim a LocataLite antenna for an alternative TimeLoc configuration (left), and with USNO personnel
reconfigure the Master LocataLite site for the test.

FINDING TIME
AN ACCURACAY TEST OF THE LOCATA NETWORK — a non-GPS-based positioning system installed at the U.S.
Air Force White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico — focused on timing down to the nanosecond, with impressive results.
BY Christopher Black will be able to leverage this capability critical reliance on GPS for time
746 TH TEST SQUADRON, HOLLOMAN AIR FORCE BASE for programs requiring high-precision transfer continues to escalate, GPS
time and frequency distribution, remains susceptible to interference,

I
n 2018, the 746th Test Squadron
(746 TS) tested its Non-GPS-Based
Positioning System (NGBPS) at
White Sands Missile Range as an
alternative to GNSS for precise time
transfer and synchronization. This
was the first independently measured
and characterized testing program for
the NGBPS, which leverages Locata’s
radio-based position, navigation and
timing (PNT) technology to achieve
high accuracy independent of GPS.
Us i n g s p e c i f i c p a r a m e t e r s
and equipment configurations,
i n d e p e n d e nt e x p e r t s p r ov e d
Locata’s absolute and relative time
synchronization and frequency
stability performance. Under testing,
the NGBPS provided exceptional time
transfer and frequency stability across
large areas.
With these successful results in
hand, the U.S. Department of Defense
without relying on GPS alone. Plus,
the system is flexible — Locata’s area
of transmission can be increased to
cover substantially larger areas than at
White Sands for safety-of-life, military
or government-mandated systems.
BACKGROUND
Over the past two decades, the free
availability of GPS time has enabled
a plethora of time-dependent
applications. Time and frequency
synchronization between remote
locations is crucial for digital
communication systems, electrical
power grids and financial networks,
to name a few. Military operations
also require accurate and reliable
time information. Typically, these
applications require accurate time
synchronization ranging from 10
microseconds (μs) down to 100
nanoseconds (ns). Yet, while our
disruption or denial.
Locata. Locata Corp., a privately
owned Australian company with a U.S.
subsidiary, invented a radio-location
technology that provides precise PNT
for environments where GPS coverage
is unavailable. Locata ground-based
PNT technology delivers positioning
that, in many scenarios, far exceeds the
performance and reliability of GPS.
LocataNets, the company’s terrestrial
networks, function as local ground-
based replicas of traditional GPS
position and timing services. They
can be designed to reliably deliver a
powerful, controllable, tailored signal
as user applications require.
A LocataNet consists of
synchronized LocataLite tranceivers,
all-in-one units that transmit and
receive out of the same 10 x 5 x 1-inch
box. Cables are connected to antennas
for signal reception and transmission.

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34 G P S W O R L D WWW.GPSWORLD.COM JANUARY 2020

Locata Rovers are mobile receivers
within the network that use these
synchronized LocataLite signals to
calculate an accurate PNT solution.
The 746 TS employs the basic
LocataNet laydown — multiple Slave
LocataLites receive signals from a single
Master LocataLite transceiver. The
patented process by which slaves are
synchronized to the master (or other
slaves) is known as TimeLoc.
Until these new tests were run, the
squadron’s attention had primarily
been focused on the high-accuracy
use of Locata’s position and navigation
solution as an alternative to GPS when
it is jammed, deceived or unreliable.
But because all LocataLites are precisely
synchronized via TimeLoc, network
synchronization is a natural extension
of Locata technology’s core capabilities.
In October 2015, GPS World reported
that the United States Naval Observatory
(USNO) showed LocataLites are a
viable option for a stable 1 pulse per
second (1 pps) distribution setup within
an urban environment, where it can
support applications such as cell-tower
synchronization in GPS-challenged
environments. The USNO tests
demonstrated synchronization of less
than 200 picoseconds — significantly
better than any other known wireless
network synchronization methodology,
including GPS. If clear line-of-sight is
available between a master and Slave
LocataLite, precision is 50 picoseconds
with frequency stability to 1x10-15 —
better than a Stratum One atomic clock.
Because of the USNO’s timing
expertise and familiarity with Locata
TimeLoc testing, the 746 TS tasked
the USNO to conduct independent
synchronization experiments at White
Sands, with the following objectives:
■ Evaluate the Locata master, slaves
and non-Locata timing receiver at
the master site in reference to USNO
master atomic clock time.
■ Determine the Locata network’s in-
ALTERNATIVE PNT
ternal, independent synchronization 1
stability and accuracy.
■ Determine the Locata Rover’s 1 pulse
per second (PPS) time stability and
accuracy, for use in time transfer
applications.
The primary purpose of the tests was
to show that nanosecond-level time
transfer is possible over significantly
wide areas by using Locata, and that 2
TimeLoc technology offers a relatively
easy means of supporting exceptionally
high-precision time and frequency
distribution over large broadcast areas.
SYNCHRONIZATION METHOD
Since Locata technology was originally
developed as an RF-based high-
precision non-GPS-based positioning
and navigation system, the time 3
synchronization accuracy requirements
for a LocataLite transceiver are very
4
high. If centimeter positioning precision
is desired for a Locata receiver, every
small fraction of a second is significant;
for instance, a 1-ns error in time
equates to an error of approximately
30 centimeters (because of the speed
of light).
TimeLoc is a patented high-accuracy 5
wireless synchronization method
developed by Locata Corp. It allows
LocataLites to achieve high levels of
synchronization without atomic clocks,
external control cables, differential
corrections or a master reference
receiver.
The TimeLoc procedure is described
in the following steps for synchronizing
two LocataLites (see FIGURE 1).
1. LocataLite A transmits a unique 6
signal (code and carrier).
2. The receiver section of LocataLite
B acquires, tracks and measures the
signal generated by LocataLite A.
3. LocataLite B generates its own unique
signal (code and carrier) which is
transmitted, but, importantly, it is
also received by the receiver section
of LocataLite B. Figure 1. The TimeLoc process.
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JANUARY 2020 WWW.GPSWORLD.COM G P S W O R L D 35
 ALTERNATIVE PNT
Figure 2. Locata network at White Sands Missile Range.
Slave LocataLite site layout.
4. LocataLite B calculates the difference between the signal
received from LocataLite A and its own locally generated
and received unique signal. Ignoring propagation errors,
the differences between the two signals are due to
the clock difference between the two devices and the
geometric separation between them.
5. LocataLite B adjusts its local oscillator to bring the
differences between its own signal and LocataLite A to
zero. The signal differences are continually monitored
and adjusted so that they remain zero. In other words,
the local oscillator of B follows precisely that of A.
6. The final stage is to correct for the geometrical offset
(range) between LocataLite A and B, using the known
coordinates of the LocataLites. When this step is
accomplished, TimeLoc has been achieved.
The only requirement for establishing a LocataNet using
TimeLoc is that LocataLites must receive signals from
one other LocataLite. However, received signals do not
have to come from the same central or Master LocataLite,
because this may not be possible in difficult environments
or when propagating the LocataNet over large areas.
Instead, a LocataNet can “cascade” TimeLoc through
intermediate LocataLites. For example, if a third LocataLite
C can only receive the signals from B and not Master
LocataLite A, it can use B’s signals for time synchronization
instead of A’s, provided that B has already TimeLoc’d to the
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36 G P S W O R L D WWW.GPSWORLD.COM JANUARY 2020
network. Therefore, by using “cascaded TimeLoc,” there is
theoretically no limit to the number of LocataLites that can
be synchronized.
TEST ITEM DESCRIPTION
The NGBPS at White Sands consists of an operational
LocataNet, where each node (a site instrumented with a
LocataLite) is synchronized via Locata’s patented TimeLoc
technique. The LocataNet, combined with a mobile Rover, is
a subsystem of the 746 TS Ultra-High-Accuracy Reference
System (UHARS), which provides PNT information in
GPS-denied environments. The NGBPS operates in the
2.4-GHz industrial, scientific and medical band, which is
far enough away from GPS frequencies to be unaffected by
GPS jamming. Although it is currently used as a source of
position truth during GPS jamming, the 746 TS understands
that the NGBPS is potentially a source of high-accuracy
timing data as well.
The UHARS is in the northern portion of White Sands
Missile Range. It typically consists of 16 LocataLite sites.
The master site is at North Oscura Peak, or NOP (labeled
Northridge in FIGURE 2); all other sites are time synchronized
to that master site.
Each LocataLite site consists of:
■ one LocaLite
■ two monuments—pillars for antenna placement (Note:
The two new sites lack the permanent monuments for
antenna placement)
■ two transmit antennas
■ one receive antenna
■ one meteorological station—for meteorological data
■ one communication antenna
■ one trailer for power and transport
The communications antenna at each site is attached to a
UHF modem that is used for 746 TS remote control of the
LocataNet. This allows remote data logging, reconfiguration
or monitoring of the network without having to drive to each
site. However, it should be noted that no communications
system whatsoever is required for the Locata NGBPS
TimeLoc capability to run.
To support the timing tests, the LocataNet was
reconfigured several times to meet requirements of specific
test objectives. These configurations are described below.
STATIC GROUND TESTS
Static ground tests involved multiple configurations. The
first (FIGURE 3) consisted of two LocataLites (master and
terminal slave) collocated at NOP close enough that their
respective PPS outputs could be compared in a single time
interval counter. A terminal Slave LocataLite was installed
 ALTERNATIVE PNT

at NOP specifically for this test.

This setup also facilitated simple network reconfiguration
to change the number of LocataLite sites being tested. By
programming LocataLites to TimeLoc to specific sites at
White Sands and redirecting their respective antennas
accordingly, the TimeLoc chain under test could be expanded
to have multiple sites between the LocataLite master and
the collocated terminal slave without changing measuring
equipment instrumentation at NOP. This means that the
time transfer could hop, or cascade, between one or more
sites and be measured with the same test instrumentation.
Configuration 2 consisted of three LocataLites: The
master at NOP, a slave at Gran-Jean and the terminal slave at Figure 3. LocataLite Configuration 1: North Oscura Peak (NOP)
NOP. Again, the master and terminal slave were collocated site test instrumentation.
close enough to each other that their respective PPS outputs
could be compared in a single time interval counter, but this Configuration 3 consisted of four LocataLites: The master
time the network was configured to cascade the TimeLoc at NOP, a slave at Gran-Jean, a slave at Missy-Scenic and
signal through the slave at Gran-Jean, 29.20 km away. Since the terminal slave at NOP. This configuration forced the
the TimeLoc signal now had to cascade through two sites TimeLoc signal to cascade through three sites and travel a
and travel from the master at NOP to Gran-Jean and back total distance of 73.84 km (FIGURE 5).
to the terminal slave at NOP, the effective TimeLoc travel
distance was 58.40 km (FIGURE 4).

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JANUARY 2020 WWW.GPSWORLD.COM G P S W O R L D 37
 ALTERNATIVE PNT
Figure 4. LocataLite Configuration 2: Total TimeLoc distance is
58.40 km.
GROUND VEHICLE TEST
For Configuration 4, a Locata Rover was instrumented on
the squadron’s Small Test Vehicle (STV), which drove all
accessible roads within the LocataNet’s coverage (FIGURE 6).
During this mobile test, the LocataNet was configured with
10 active LocataLites. The Locata Rover in the vehicle used
Locata signals from available nodes to calculate Locata
network time, which was synchronized to the GPS timing
receiver at NOP. The data collected determined how well
network time is synchronized while in a moving vehicle.
TEST RESULTS
To collect the required data, USNO first had to characterize
the performance of the master site’s GPS timing receiver at
NOP, and then synchronize it to two separate USNO atomic
clocks that could be used as remote timing references for the
tests. The GPS timing receiver is equipped with a rubidium
oscillator, which produces a GPS-disciplined 1 pps output
signal. Its internal rubidium clock is a stable source of time
with an advertised UTC (USNO) offset of a best case 15-ns
root mean square (RMS) and a worst case 100-ns RMS. The
cesium clocks output 5- or 10-MHz sinusoids and a 1 pps
Figure 6. Rover test installation on Small Test Vehicle.
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38 G P S W O R L D WWW.GPSWORLD.COM JANUARY 2020
Figure 5. LocataLite Configuration 3: Total TimeLoc distance is
73.84 km.
signal. The cesium clocks output 5- or 10-MHz sinusoids
and a 1 pps signal and were characterized relative to the
USNO correction receiver, which USNO personnel had
characterized relative to UTC. Correction data available
from a time interval counter could then be applied to tie the
timing receiver back to USNO time. The measurements at
NOP recorded the difference between the timing receiver
and the cesium clocks. Using the relationship between the
cesium clocks and UTC (USNO), one could characterize
the timing receiver’s time relative to USNO time.
The USNO calibrated measurements at the nanosecond
level using two methodologies. The most common approach
was simply to compare two 1 pps signals, a method known as
“tick-tick.” Another important methodology is referred to as
a “tick-phase,” which is a measurement of a sinusoidal signal
compared to a 1 pps reference. Some timing equipment
will have discrete time jumps with certain tick-phase
measurements, because of how narrow the distance between
the rising edges of a sine wave is compared to a 1 pps signal.
There’s a chance that the 1 pps signal is close to two rising
edges of a sine wave, causing the signal to jump back and
forth in its timing measurement, depending on which rising
edge of the sine wave it uses.
Measurements were further complicated by the delicate
nature of cesium clocks, which perform best under finely
controlled laboratory conditions. Each cesium reference
exhibits its own characteristics that must be observed,
measured, and accounted for. Moreover, transporting
them to White Sands Missile Range for this test where
temperature fluctuations, moving vehicle vibrations, and
altitude variations among devices were introduced made
synchronization of these clocks particularly challenging.
For example, USNO discovered that the Cesium Clock #1
had its internal batteries disconnected — possibly through
the original shipment to White Sands, the constant vehicle
vibrations while driving on the range, a faulty wiring

Table 1 USNO compared to Locata system tabulated values and
statistics.
Table 2 LocataNet internal synchronization.
in the battery terminals, or possibly a combination of
all. This problem induced a random offset in the clock,
and calibration had to be re-accomplished to reestablish
traceability back to UTC (USNO).
FIGURE 7 shows each cesium clock’s measured drift rate in
nanseconds/second and its corresponding linear fit. This
trendline can then be used to project cesium clock #2 to the
P2 Series
GNSS Sensor
Single or dual-antennas,
optional 4G and UHF modems.
Ethernet, CAN bus, 1 PPS
and RS232 for seamless integration.
www.chcnav.com
WWW.CHCNAV.COM
JANUARY 2020
ALTERNATIVE PNT
past and compare it to the measurements of cesium clock #1.
FIGURE 8 shows the relationship between the timing receiver
and USNO master clock and its linear fit. Performing linear
fit approximations of the cesium clocks likely introduced
unknown errors, potentially increasing the variance of the
1 pps differences.
Comparing the 1 pps outputs of the LocataLite master
and collocated LocataLite slave to the master site reference
clocks (CS2 or timing receiver 1 pps out), the data is traceable
back to USNO using the linear fits found for both the USNO
timing receiver and cesium clock #2 (FIGURE 9).
LocataLite timing measurement bias was within 40 ns,
and the stability was within 3.7 ns of the reference clocks
(see TABLE 1). The stability of the system is encouraging,
as the mean offset can be driven down by more precise
measurements and more precise calibrations such as
using a two-way satellite time-transfer calibration method
(TWSTT).
In TABLE 2, we compare measured data of the 1 pps outputs
of the LocataLite master to the collocated LocataLite slave
and compute the Locata network internal synchronization
in each of the network configurations tested. The data
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WWW.GPSWORLD.COM G P S W O R L D 39
 ALTERNATIVE PNT
Figure 7. USNO cesium clocks with trendlines.
Figure 8. USNO versus timing receiver with linear fit.
Figure 9. USNO compared to Locata system for May 9, 2018, time
interval counter measurements.
reveals that the network synchronization accuracy is
≤ 2.1 ns. Unfortunately, during Configuration 2 testing,
which propagated the TimeLoc signal from NOP to
Gran-Jean and back (a total distance of 58.40 km), a
technician inadvertently obstructed line-of-site between
Locata antennas and consequently temporarily disturbed
TimeLoc. Those data points were not removed before this
analysis, which is why the reported standard deviation
in that configuration, although quite good at 2.1 ns, is
nevertheless uncharacteristically high.
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40 G P S W O R L D WWW.GPSWORLD.COM JANUARY 2020
Finally, FIGURE 10 shows the timing measurements
between the USNO master clock and the mobile Locata
Rover, via the cesium clock #1 linear fit. Unlike in the
LocataLite tests, the Rover is not TimeLoc’d to the
network. Instead, it simply calculates its time from
LocataLite signals within its line of sight, similar to how
a GPS device will calculate its time from satellite signals.
During this test, the Rover’s calculated timing accuracy
showed a mean of 5.4 ns and stability within 9.7 ns of the
USNO master clock, while driving all over the northern
portion of the range. To produce the plot, 927 outliers
were removed (3 sigma). The outliers occurred at the
beginning and ending of the test, when the vehicle was
moving from its parking location at Stallion Range Center
(outside the operational LocataNet) to the test route and
back. The buildings in the area obstructed line of sight
and induced significant multipath, which degraded the
Rover’s calculations.
CONCLUSION
This endeavor for USNO to characterize the 746 TS NGBPS
was met with many challenges, which emphasize the real-
world difficulty of measuring time at these extremely fine
levels in the field using atomic clocks. The USNO found
that some non-linearity started occurring in the USNO –
Cesium Clock #2 measurements because of the container of
Cesium Clock #2 not being ideal for temperature stability.
They also discovered that Cesium Clock #1 had its internal
batteries disconnected due to an unknown cause. However,
because of deliberate measurements between Cesium
Clock #1 and Cesium Clock #2, the USNO was still able
to provide calibration measurements but with degradation
in the measurement clarity.
From the data collected, USNO personnel found:
1. The GPS timing receiver at NOP produced 1 pps timing
accuracy consistent with its 15-ns RMS specification.
Therefore, the reference time delivered to the Master
LocataLite was synchronized to UTC within 15 ns.
2. A standard deviation measurement from Master
LocataLite to UTC of under 4 ns.
3. Locata’s master-to-slave internal time synchronization
(independent of GPS) was measured to be between
100 ps and 2.1 ns in 3 different Locata network
configurations spanning distances up to 73.84 km
(45.88 miles).
4. The timing measurements in the mobile Rover test
show its ability to provide accurate time with a standard
deviation of around 10 ns.
Many lessons learned throughout this experiment could
be implemented to get more accurate measurements,
 ALTERNATIVE PNT

especially when looking at the accuracies of the GPS

time transfer throughout the NGBPS. Looking ahead,
more accurate calibration values for both the GPS
timing receiver and the Master LocataLite could be made
by using a TWSTT method. This would simplify the
number of measurements and provide a 1 pps signal of
USNO’s master clock, resulting in up to 1 ns of accuracy
in the reference time delivered to the Master LocataLite.
Depending on the requirements of customers needing
NGBPS time at White Sands, the 746 TS and USNO can
potentially recharacterize the NGBPS timing accuracy
and stability using this methodology. Figure 10. USNO LocataLite Rover via CS1 linear fit.

MANUFACTURERS
The LocataLites and Rovers that create much of the
746 TS NGBPS are manufactured by Locata Corp. The
NGBPS synchronized to GPS time via a Microsemi
ATS6501 timing receiver. The cesium clocks were
Hewlett-Packard 5071A cesium primary frequency
standard devices. The USNO used a Novatel ProPak3
for correction data, measured using a Keysight 53230A
time interval counter.
Christopher Black earned a B.S. and M.S. in electrical and computer
engineering from New Mexico State University. In November 2017
he joined the 746th Test Squadron, Holloman Air Force Base, as
a navigation warfare analyst. Now, as lead reference engineer,
he heads up research, development and maintenance of the
squadronÕs reference systems, including UHARS.
This article has been approved by the USAF for public release,
#AEDC2019-205.

G P S W O R L D B U Y E R S G U I D E .C O M
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JANUARY 2020 WWW.GPSWORLD.COM G P S W O R L D 41
 MARKET Segment Snapshot:
Applications, Trends & News

SURVEYING WATCH 2
Eos, Esri Help Users Peer Below
Underground Infrastructure Tool Maps Buried Assets

Photo: Eos Positioning

os Positioning Systems has
released an underground
utility asset-mapping
solution: Eos Locate for
Collector for ArcGIS. The product
enables utilities to map buried assets
with submeter or centimeter accuracy.
Eos Locate for Collector combines
Eos Arrow GNSS receivers, Esri
Collector, and the Vivax-Metrotech
vLoc Series of locator devices. Using
it, one field worker can collect both
GNSS locations and locator data
(such as depth below cover) for any
buried asset including water, sewer,
electric, cable, gas, fiber infrastructure
and more. They can do so quickly,
accurately and without the need for
additional field or office support.
“We are giving our Arrow GNSS
customers a solution that allows from the locator and GPS devices that it’s accurate to under an inch.”
them to combine both locator data within ArcGIS. Looking Ahead. The initial release
and high-accuracy locations in web Early Adoption. Earlier in 2019, of Eos Locate for Collector runs on
maps,” Eos CTO Jean-Yves Lauture Indiana American Water approached Apple’s iOS iPhones and iPads and
said. “This greatly simplifies their Eos to seek a solution that consolidated supports the vLoc Series from Vivax
workflow by allowing one person their utility-locate workflow with their Metrotech. Future releases of Eos
to do underground locates and GIS Arrow and Collector field work. Locate for Collector will support
mapping simultaneously.” “We had the manpower to put paint additional locator models including
“This is a big step forward for utility down,” said Todd Chapman, Indiana the vScan series.
organizations who need to gain better American Water Senior GIS Analyst. With accurate digital twins of their
visibility of their infrastructure,” said “But we would need to hire another buried infrastructure, utilities across
Doug Morgenthaler, Esri program person to map the locations with our sectors can expect improvements
manager. “With today’s technology, Arrow Gold GNSS receivers.” to safety, damage prevention, field
utilities can already see where new Chapman estimates Eos Locate efficiency and regulatory compliance.
assets are being put in the ground. for Collector will cut their field time “Not only does this mean quicker
The challenge historically has been in half as well as enable the creation responses to 811 tickets and fewer
figuring out where existing assets are.” of ext remely acc urate bur ie d- liabilities during field digs,” Lauture
Eos Locate for Collector not only infrastructure maps in ArcGIS. said. “But it also constitutes a
streamlines underground-asset “Previously, we were seeing that our major step for ward toward the
mapping, but also improves office old water mains could be off by up to highly efficient future of 3D asset
production times. It eliminates the 20 feet,” Chapman said. “With the new management and viable augmented-
need to manually combine datasets Eos Locate for Collector, we’re seeing reality workflows.”

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42 G P S W O R L D WWW.GPSWORLD.COM JANUARY 2020

MAPPING 2
Delving into a Jungle Mystery
E
arlier this year, a drone pilot and two data scientists
from PrecisionHawk traveled to the Philippines for
a unique mission — to fly drones equipped with
lidar sensors over a dense rainforest to map ancient
trade paths. The aim was to find buried treasure left by the
Japanese during World War II.
PrecisionHawk was approached by the producers of
a new History Channel show to help them navigate the
Filipino rainforests. Through the combination of air and
UNESCO Sites Get Precise Imagery
V
erified photomontage is an important planning
tool to envision how proposed surrounding
development plans would affect UNESCO World
Heritage sites. Verified photomontage demands the best
accuracy for the best visualization to determine what a
development may look like to a person standing at the
photographic viewpoint.
For MS Environmental (MSE), selected to provide verified
photomontage for multiple UNESCO World Heritage sites,
including in the UK Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew and
the City of Bath, the Spectra Geospatial SP80 GNSS receiver
enabled the highest quality visualization.
Photo: Spectra Geospatial/MSE
The SP80 at the UNESCO World Heritage site of Valletta, Malta.
JANUARY 2020
MARKET WATCH
Images: PrecisionHawk
ground sensors, including a DJI M600 UAV equipped with
a Riegl miniVUX lidar sensor and a Sony a6000 camera,
PrecisionHawk staff produced a colorized 3D map of the
forest.
The History Channel aired the series premiere of ÒLost
Gold of World War IIÓ on March 19, 2019; all eight episodes
are now available for streaming. The second episode
features visuals generated by PrecisionHawk, as well as
interviews with the drone pilot and data scientists.
“The one-centimeter accuracy delivered by the SP80
is essential,” said Mike Spence, a verified photomontage
specialist and founder of MSE. “The highest level of accuracy
in the relationship between the actual camera location and
the 3D model camera gives confidence in the visualization.
In addition, The SP80 offers both simplicity and a robust
design; though it’s taken a few knocks over the years, it gives
us the confidence we can use the equipment anywhere in
the world and get the best results.”
At Kew Gardens, MSE was commissioned to produce
accurate visualizations of views from within the UNESCO
World Heritage Site, because of concern about how
development proposals in west London might affect
historic views.
The work culminated in a public inquiry, where evidence
was presented that showed how views would change as a
result of the proposed development. “Without the level of
accuracy provided by the SP80 together with a transparent
technical methodology it would have been unclear precisely
how these historic views would change,” Mike Spence said.
At the UNESCO World Heritage City of Bath, the Bath
and North East Somerset Council commissioned MSE to
produce technical photography from strategic views around
the World Heritage City to show how development proposals
would affect strategic views across the city.
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WWW.GPSWORLD.COM G P S W O R L D 43
 MARKET WATCH

MOBILE 2
Rohde & Schwarz Drone Verifies 5G Coverage

T
est and measurement specialist Rohde & Schwarz

Photo: Rohde & Schwarz

has supplied mobile network testing tools used
in drone-based network coverage, performance
and operation tests managed by Ericsson, a global
leader in network infrastructure.
Testing mobile coverage. A project team based in Jorvas,
Finland, and led by EricssonÕs 5G Readiness Program RAN
Technical Lead Richard WirŽn, has developed— together
with Centria University of Applied Sciences — a novel system
for testing cellular mobile network coverage.
The new system uses mobile network-testing scanners
and smartphones from Rohde & Schwarz mounted on a
drone that can be programmed to execute automatic tests signal received power (RSRP) and signal-to-interference-
with considerable flexibility, for example for precise route plus-noise ratio (SINR) in accordance with 3GPP standards.
selection and drone speed control. When combined with the R&S QualiPoc Android
This solution is especially valuable for industrial use smartphone-based optimizer, IP trace, application quality
cases. It also has the advantages over traditional walk and of service (QoS) metrics such as serving cell parameters are
drive tests by providing unprecedented repeatability and possible. The solution currently uses LTE user equipment (UE)
positional accuracy with the ability to verify beamforming but will soon be further developed to include 5G UEs such as
and map coverage in 3D. the Samsung S10 5G.
Drone-mounted scanner. The R&S TSMA6 network scanner Repeatable tests. The drone can be programmed to follow
is mounted on a drone and is able to simultaneously verify an exact three-dimensional route. More than 20 successful
important LTE and 5G NR coverage metrics such as reference measurement flights have been conducted so far.

Flowfinity Streamlines with Leica 3GPP Approves NaVIC

F
lowfinity Wireless offers Global mobile wireless
Photo: Leica

new functionality that standards body 3GPP has

allows field users to
collect highly precise GNSS
location data via external
Zeno GG04 plus smart
antennas in Flowfinity
applications.
The Zeno GG04 plus is
a rugged, flexible antenna
from Leica Geosystems,
part of Hexagon. It uses
RTK technology and precise
point positioning (PPP) to
make high-accuracy data
collection possible in real
time, even in demanding
locations, without the need
for a mobile data connection.
The ne w Flow f i nit y
capability is designed to help
organizations in engineering,
environmental consulting,
construction and public
utilities that use custom
mobile data collection
apps built with Flowfinity
to survey and inspect work
sites. The update is expected
to save hours in the field
while providing location
data accurate to five decimal
places for analysis in the
office.
For example, if an
environmental consulting
firm needs survey-quality
GNSS data to be collected
and submitted during site
inspections, they can now
deploy field workers with
Leica GG04 plus Smart
Antennas to record data
directly into their Flowfinity
mobile applications, rather
than performing manual data
entry or relying on much less
precise data from internal
mobile device sensors.
given its approval to the
regional navigation system
created by the Indian Space
Research Organization (ISRO),
known as NaVIC. The approval
was given for the systemÕs
use in Rel-16 LTE and Rel-17
5G NR specifications, paving
the way for wider commercial
adoption of NaVIC and allowing
it to be integrated with 4G,
5G and internet of things
technology (IoT). Once these
specifications are adopted
by Telecommunications
Standards Development
Society, India (TSDSI), IoT
devices in India can make a
switch from GPS to NaVIC.

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44 G P S W O R L D WWW.GPSWORLD.COM JANUARY 2020
 MARKET WATCH

UAV 2
TRANSPORTATION 2
DeepRoute Releases L4 Sensing Solution
A

utonomous vehicle startup
DeepRoute is now offering its
sensing solution DeepRoute-
Sense. DeepRoute is a CES 2020
Innovation Award Honoree.
DeepRoute-Sense is an L4-level self-
driving solution that aims to enable
the autonomous vehicle industry to
achieve quicker sensor deployment.
It includes a lightweight rooftop box
and sensor-fusion calibration service.
The box consists of GNSS, eight
vehicle cameras, three lidars and other
sensors to help correspondence and
data synchronization between the
controllers.
DeepRoute designed the mechanical
structure of the roof box, which has
Photo: DeepRoute
outstanding diversion, heat dissipation
and sealing functions. The box is
lightweight and has high impact
resistance. With four tripods, the box
can be mounted to the roof of different
vehicle models for sensor deployment.
The solution uses a Deep-Route-
developed in-vehicle camera that
features anti-glare, anti-ghosting and
reliable signal detection.
The box has been developed
to accommodate extreme weather
conditions, whether it be during intense
sunlight or nighttime high-beam
illumination, and can stably handle
the exposure and avoid overexposure.
The set-top box includes a sensor
data-processing device, the ADS
Synchronous Controller. It is pre-
processed and fused with the massive
data from GNSS, cameras, lidars and
other sensors through high-precision
time and space synchronization. The
ADS Synchronous Controller also
supports DNN and SLAM hardware
acceleration.

Scanning/GNSS System Trucks Ahead

G
ermanyÕs Federal Highway Research Institute (BASt) is
using a specialized semi-truck to analyze and map road
surfaces. The research vehicle uses GNSS, scanner and
camera equipment to record the condition of road surfaces DON’T MISS OUT!
and the substance of the asphalt surface, providing the basis 2020 Spirent Federal GNSS simulator training seminars
for optimum maintenance planning.
The truck is part of the BAStÕs MESAS program, which
began in 2018. For the program, innovative measurement
technology was installed on a single-axle semi-trailer, with all
measurement systems synchronized and georeferenced using
a GNSS system. At speeds of up to 80 km/h, MESAS records
road condition parameters with high precision.
During test runs, the vehicle system successfully measured
more than 11,000 kilometers of the countryÕs trunk-road
network. Now it begins regular operation.

Visit www.spirentfederal.com/gps/meeting to register for

the nation’s best GNSS simulator training seminars. And
did we mention they’re FREE?
March 3 - Washington DC
March 5 - Huntsville
March 10 - Los Angeles
March 12 - Dallas
Photo: BASt

Spirent Federal, 801-785-1448, www.spirentfederal.com

Spirent, +44-1803-546325, www.spirent.com/pnt

|
JANUARY 2020 WWW.GPSWORLD.COM G P S W O R L D 45
 MARKET WATCH
UAV 2
First Responders Value Drone Data
E
mergency response professionals
participating in a Design Thinking
workshop organized by the
ResponDrone Project have
indicated that they would like to use
drones to gather and distribute crucial
information and provide communication
networks in disaster areas.
The workshop, held in Thessaloniki,
Greece, in November, was attended by
representatives from first-responder
organizations and industry partners of
the ResponDrone consortium.
ResponDrone is an international
project co-funded by the EU and the
Korean government, which aims to
develop an integrated solution for first
responders to easily operate a fleet
of drones for multiple synchronized
missions to enhance their situation
assessment capacity and their own
protection.
GE, Hybrid Project Aim for High-Endurance UAV
G
E Aviation has teamed with
Hybrid Project to provide a
vertical takeoff and landing
(VTOL) UAV, designed for high-
endurance commercial applications at
scale. Flight testing is underway, with
commercial availability targeted for the
first quarter of 2020.
The agreement enables Hybrid
Project’s 35-pound hybrid-powered
SuperVolo VTOL UAV with a full
stack airborne computing hardware
platform, flight and safety management,
and integration from GE Aviation and
Auterion.
GE Aviation’s computing platform
enables flight control and airborne
computing power at the edge while
maintaining an independent and
authoritative safety controller. Auterion’s
Enterprise PX4 operating system resides
46 G P S W O R L D WWW.GPSWORLD.COM
drones in disaster management
Photo: Alpha Unmanned Systems
missions.
First responders said they would like
the ResponDrone system to:
¥ provide reliable and validated real-
time information
¥ be flexible and open to information
from already existing data sources
The Alpha 800 unmanned helicopter ¥ be able to visualize different
could provide data in real time. information layers in a customizable
The aim of the ResponDrone project manner
is to develop and evaluate a situation ¥ be fast and easy to deploy
awareness system for first responders ¥ be able to provide near future
in emergency situations. The system predictions regarding the
will provide crucial information and d e ve l o p m e n t o f t h e d i s a s t e r
communication services to all relevant situation.
stakeholders in a disaster situation. Workshop participants included state,
Results from the workshop indicate regional and national authorities in
that first responders view the constant charge of first response, rescue services,
provision of real-time information in and fire departments from Greece,
crisis situations as one of the most France, Armenia, The Netherlands,
valuable benefits arising from using Latvia, Bulgaria and Israel.
Photo: Ben Herndon/Hybrid Project
on the vehicle, in the cloud, and the
ground station.
The integration is the result of an
agreement announced earlier this year
between GE Aviation and Auterion
to provide all-in-one hardware and
software platform for commercial
drones.
“ The combination of Hybrid
Project’s SuperVolo airframe, GE The SuperVolo VTOL UAV takes flight.
Aviation’s computing platform, and of maintenance and modularity. The
Auterion’s software stack enables an system’s technologies and services
all-in-one solution that readily scales could enable commercial operations
for commercial applications,” said in complex environments while meeting
Matt Vacanti, product leader, Avionics regulatory and mission outcomes.
Systems for GE Aviation. “A highly The SuperVolo is expected to
integrated system is critical to achieving “increase commercial operator
scalable commercial UAV operations.” flexibility, efficiency, and overall
Hybrid Project’s SuperVolo has been performance to a level not previously
designed from the ground up with an available in its class,” said Ryan Pope,
emphasis on endurance flight, ease co-founder of Hybrid Project.
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JANUARY 2020
 MARKET WATCH

UAV 2
UK Report Recommends Drone Regulations
A
committee of the United
KingdomÕs House of Commons
issued a report Oct. 8 calling for
greater drone regulations, including
registration, drone ID transmission, and
geofencing around sensitive locations.
The 73-page report was issued by the
Science and Technology Committee.
The report summary cites drone
sightings at Gatwick Airport in
December 2018 that caused Òsignificant
disruption and highlighted the need for
further recognition of the substantial
rise in the purchase and use of
commercial and civilian drones more
widely.Ó
Restricted Airspace. The report calls
for more studies, such as on airport/
drone collisions. It recommends that the
government complete an assessment of
the risks that drones pose to manned
commercial aircraft and publish the
findings by the end of 2020.
ÒThe committee is concerned that
there is no agreed position on the likely
consequences of a drone-airplane
impact,Ó the report says.
The committee also recommends
temporary drone flight restriction zones
House of Commons
Science and Technology
Committee
Commercial and
recreational drone use
in the UK
Twenty-Second Report of Session
2017–19
around helicopter landing zones and
said the government should consider
geo-fencing as a compulsory measure
around prisons and high security areas.
ÒThe government should commission
the production of a standardised and
unified system through which drone
operators can request access to
Flight Restriction Zones. This could be
achieved by working with National Air
Traffic Services on its development of
an Airspace UserÕs Portal. This should be
completed no later than summer 2020.Ó
Drone Registration. The report
recommends that the government
begin a UAV registration system,
enabling identification of lawful drone
operators. Those registering would
also have to pass a knowledge test.
It also recommends that drones be
Òelectronically conspicuousÓ with
some form of electronic ID within two
years. Both ID and geofencing should be
standard in drones, the report said, with
penalties for disabling these features.
If a drone user doesnÕt register, ÒWe
recommend a sliding scale of penalties
for failure to register, starting with a
warning, and culminating in a fine and
a prison sentence,Ó the report states.
BVLOS and UTM tech testing. A beyond-
visual-line-of-sight (BVLOS) testing
facility should be established so that
unmanned traffic management (UTM)
systems and related technologies can
be tested, the report recommends.ÓClear
plans should be set out for this as soon
as possible and further testing should
begin no later than Summer 2020.Ó
The report asks for Òa white paper
by summer 2020 that outlines the
vision for how drones will be integrated
into UK communities over the coming
years.Ó

DroneSentry-X Designed for Vehicles

D
roneShield has releasee a vehicle-mounted drone
Image: DroneShield

detection and defeat product, DroneSentry-X.

Lightweight at about 10 kilograms, it can be easily
mounted on most vehicles. DroneShield expects the product
to be of interest to military, law enforcement, security
and VIP the markets. The product is suitable for both
vehicle/convoy and fixed site installations. The product
was developed in response to substantial customer interest,
according to the company.
“Vehicle market for counterdrone protection is rapidly
rising,” said DroneShield’s CEO Oleg Vornik. “In addition to
catering for that segment, DroneSentry-X provides a more
affordable detect-and-defeat solution for price-sensitive suite of detection and defeat solutions to our customers,
customers as an alternative to purchasing full-functionality and this new product covers the customer need which we
DroneSentry product from us. DroneShield offers a complete identified in our recent engagements.”

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JANUARY 2020 WWW.GPSWORLD.COM G P S W O R L D 47
RESEARCH Roundup
FOCUS ON MARITIME
BY Matteo Luccio
GPS WORLD CONTRIBUTING EDITOR
O
f the 273 papers researchers presented this year at
the Institute of Navigation’s annual ION GNSS+
conference, which took place in Miami on Sept.
16–20, the following five focused on maritime issues. Papers
are available at www.ion.org/publications/browse.cfm.
AUTOMATING THE SHARING
OF OCEAN WEATHER DATA
The Automatic Identification System (AIS) — mandatory for
large ships and used by many mid-sized ones — was designed
to help avoid collisions, enable shore authorities to provide
vessel traffic services, and allow coastal states to monitor their
waters. It also may be used to transmit other information
between AIS stations onboard and ashore.
In the aftermath of the sinking of the container ship El Faro
in 2015, the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB)
and U.S. Coast Guard found a contributing factor was lack
of reliable weather forecasts. The NTSB then recommended
to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
(NOAA) that it determine whether AIS could be used to share
weather data collected by ships, to supplement the Voluntary
Observing Ship (VOS) program where ships voluntarily
submit weather observations to NOAA. The paper describes
a successful test of this concept.
Citation. Gregory Johnson, Ken Dykstra, Gaurav Dhungana
and Brian Tetreault, “Sharing Ships’ Weather Data via AIS.”
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48 G P S W O R L D WWW.GPSWORLD.COM JANUARY 2020
Photo: Igor Grochev/Shutterstock.com
EGNOS FOR MARITIME NAVIGATION
The European Geostationary Navigation Overlay System
(EGNOS), which has been providing guidance to civil aviation
since 2011, also can support maritime, railway and road
applications. This paper assesses its use for maritime navigation
compliant with International Maritime Organization (IMO)
requirements for harbor entrances, harbor approaches and
coastal waters: 99.8% of signal availability, 99.8% of service
availability, 99.97% of service continuity, and 10 meters
of horizontal accuracy. A kinematic test campaign was
conducted in the waters of the Canary Islands using a geodetic
multi-frequency, multi-constellation receiver-antenna pair
installed aboard two vessels. The EGNOS Maritime Service
met all IMO requirements by achieving a signal availability
of 99.999%, a service availability in 99.9% of a predefined
rectangular region, and 1.06 meters of horizontal accuracy
at the 95th percentile. The service continuity requirement,
however, was met in only 62.50% of the predefined region.
Therefore, the paper concludes that the continuity risk is the
most limiting factor for expanding the EGNOS Maritime
Service along the coastal waters of the Canary Islands.
Citation. Deimos Ibáñez Segura, Adria Rovira Garcia, Jaume
Sanz, José Miguel Juan, Guillermo González Casado, María
Teresa Alonso, José A. López Salcedo, Huamin Jia, Francisco
Javier Pancorbo Garcia, Carlos Garcia Daroca, Irene Martin
Calle, Santos Rodrigo Abadía Heredia and Manuel López
Martínez, “A Kinematic Campaign to Evaluate EGNOS 1046
Maritime Service.”
OPTIONS FOR INTEGRITY
Many maritime authorities are considering how to maintain
the integrity of navigation systems as their infrastructure ages,
especially given that the need for integrity in the user position
is expected to increase with e-navigation services and for
autonomous vessels. In harbor entrances, harbor approaches
and coastal waters, the International Association of Marine
Aids to Navigation and Lighthouse Authorities (IALA)
prescribes an absolute horizontal accuracy of ≤10 meters 95%
of the time, with an integrity risk of 99.99999%. Today’s GNSS
more than meets that accuracy requirement, so the driver is
integrity. Options for integrity are marine radiobeacon DGPS/
DGNSS, the primary augmentation system in use today;
receiver autonomous integrity monitoring (RAIM); satellite-
based augmentation systems (SBAS); and others (such as
commercial services or inertial.). The European MarRINav
project is investigating resilient PNT options to support UK
Critical National Infrastructure. Part of this work is comparing
EGNOS and marine radiobeacon DGPS performance to
inform international discussions and receiver standardization.
Citation. Alan Grant, George Shaw and Martin Bransby,
“Considering SBAS and marine radiobeacon corrections to
support safe maritime operations.”
GNSS + INS FOR ATTITUDE DETERMINATION
Attitude determination (AD) is an important navigation
component for ships and spacecraft. GNSS enables resolving
their orientation in a precise and absolute manner, by employing
multiple antennas rigidly mounted on the vessel. This requires
carrier-phase observations, with the consequent added
complexity of resolving integer ambiguities. Inertial aiding
has been extensively exploited for AD, because it enables
tracking fast rotation variations and bridging short periods
of GNSS outage. In this paper, the fusion of inertial and
GNSS information is exploited within the recursive Bayesian
estimation framework, applying an Error State Kalman Filter,
which, unlike common Kalman filters, tracks the error or
variations in the state estimate, posing meaningful advantages
for AD. The results show that the inertial aiding, along with a
constrained attitude model for the float estimation, significantly
improve the performance of attitude determination compared
to classical unaided baseline tracking.
Citation. Daniel Medina, Vincenzo Centrone, Ralf Ziebold,
and Jesús García, “Attitude Determination via GNSS Carrier
Phase and Inertial Aiding.”

EVALUATION OF WAAS FOR USE ADVERTISER INDEX: COMPANIES FEATURED IN THIS ISSUE
Editor’s Note: This ad/edit index is for reader convenience only.

IN CANADIAN WATERS Publisher accepts no responsibility for errors or omissions.

Mariners navigating in Canadian waters use a ground-based ADVERTISER PAGE(S)

augmentation system (GBAS) that provides differential CAST NAVIGATION INSIDE FRONT COVER
corrections and integrity monitoring of GPS. This GBAS
has been provided since 1994 by the Canadian Coast Guard CHC NAVIGATION 39
(CCG) in the form of a differential GPS (DGPS) broadcast GEICO 15
service. The service is only provided south of latitude 60°N in
collaboration with the U.S. Coast Guard. Before embarking on INTSTITUTE OF NAVIGATION (ION) 18
a recapitalization program of its 24-year-old DGPS, and given JAVAD 19-26
that the U.S. Coast Guard is progressively shutting down its
National Differential GPS sites, the CCG is evaluating options NOVATEL BACK COVER
for its own DGPS network. Options include the wide-area OROLIA 9, 33
augmentation system (WAAS), originally developed by the U.S.
Federal Aviation Administration for civil aviation. This paper RACELOGIC 7
describes the authors’ evaluation for the CCG to determine SBG SYSTEMS 11
the expected accuracy, integrity and availability of WAAS
throughout Canadian waters, concluding that the current SEPTENTRIO 37
WAAS provides acceptable accuracy and integrity for most of SPIRENT FEDERAL 5, 45
Canada, excluding the higher latitudes.
Citation. Gregory Johnson, Gaurav Dhungana and Jean TELEORBIT 17
Delisle, “An Evaluation of WAAS 2020+ to Meet Maritime TRIMBLE INSIDE BACK COVER
Navigation Requirements in Canadian Waters.”

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JANUARY 2020 WWW.GPSWORLD.COM G P S W O R L D 49
SEEN & HEARD
KEEPING CANOEISTS AFLOAT
The United KingdomÕs Hire a
Canoe company has installed
Kinesis trackers on its fleet to
manage transport of clients
to and from their water sport
activities. Real-time traffic
updates and live Estimated
Time of Arrival calculations
help manage riverside
customer pickup, while
advanced geofencing provides GLONASS AIMS FOR PEDESTRIAN SAFETY
instant notification if a canoe, Russian company Glonass is investing RUB
kayak or paddle board leaves a 4–5 million in a mobile application aimed at
defined zone during off hours. pedestrian safety, reports Telecompaper. The
app will warn pedestrians using smartphones
and headphones of approaching cars, based
on an AI collecting data from smart traffic
lights. Tests will take place in 2020 in the
Samara, Volgograd, Tomsk, Kursk, Tambov
and Moscow regions.

GPS SPOOFING SERVICE ‘SPOOFING

Virtual private network CIRCLES’ APPEAR
(VPN) Surfshark has IN CHINA
added GPS Spoofing to ÒGPS spoofing
its Android VPN. The circlesÓ have
new optional feature been discovered
allows users to shield at 20 locations
their online presence along the Chinese
from unsolicited coast, according
tracking by giving them to the non-profit
the ability to change environmental
their deviceÕs physical group Skytruth. Of the locations observed, 16 were oil terminals;
GPS location. The new the others were corporate and government offices. The spoofing
feature is for Òprivacy in Shanghai resulted in reported positions from ships, fitness
conscious peopleÓ who want Òto keep trackers and other GPS-enabled devices forming circles some
their physical location information only distance from the shore — a phenomenon first observed by
to themselves.Ó Instead of the userÕs the non-profit C4ADS. Professor Todd Humphreys briefed
location, the app provides one of the the phenomena at an Institute of Navigation conference in
Surfshark VPN server locations. September, and MIT Technology Review published an article about
it in November 2019.

PHOTO CREDITS: Canoeist: Kinesis; Moscow historical district: poludziber/iStock Editorial/Getty Images Plus; app illustration: Vladimir Obradovic/iStock/Getty Images Plus; Shanghai map: Skytruth

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