MODE N

An Alternative
PNT System
for Aviation

THE INDUSTRY’S MOST TRUSTED RESOURCE SINCE 1990

INSIDE
THE BOX:
OEM boards power
myriad applications

+
eLORAN AWAITS
DEPLOYMENT

NOVEMBER 2021 | Vol 32 | No 11

GPSWORLD.COM
VO L . 32 N O. 11 G P SWO R LD.CO M
NOVEMBER 2019
2021

Avio (Italy)
COVER STORY

16 PEERING INSIDE THE BOX

OEM boards — the beating heart of the
industry — power an ever-growing list
of applications
by Matteo Luccio
In the GNSS industry, the purchasers of original equipment
manufacturer (OEM) boards are typically manufacturers of products
that require positioning or navigation capabilities, such as guidance
systems for tractors, UAVs or automobiles. In this month’s cover
story, executives at five companies explain how they define OEM,
what distinguishes their latest generation of OEM receiver boards,
and their markets for GNSS OEM boards.

17 JAVAD GNSS Ready for Lift-Off

18 New Leaders and Markets
19 JAVAD Board Guides ESA Vega Mission
20 GNSS Makers Share Insights
OEMs Discuss Their Boards, Markets and Company Growth

INNOVATION

28 MODE N
An Alternative Positioning, Navigation and Timing System for Aviation
by Brandon Weaver, Gianluca Zampieri and Okuary Osechas
Mode N could meet the need for a reliable alternative PNT system for aircraft navigation. It builds on aspects of
existing navigation systems and aviation-certified signals not originally intended for navigation, including some
used for communications and surveillance. In this article, a team of researchers from the German Aerospace
Center describe Mode N, looking at its signal format, required ground infrastructure, aircraft avionics and the
potential position accuracy this system could offer.

|
NOVEMBER 2021 WWW.GPSWORLD.COM GPS WORLD 3
 NOVEMBER 2021

ALTERNATIVE PNT

24 OPPOSITE AND COMPLEMENTARY

eLoran is Part of the Solution to GNSS Vulnerability
by Matteo Luccio
Though marvelous, GNSS are also highly vulnerable. eLoran, which has no common failure modes with GNSS,
could provide continuity of essential timing and navigation services in a crisis.

OPINIONS AND DEPARTMENTS

6 FIRST FIX 41 AD INDEX
What’s New?
by Matteo Luccio
42 SEEN & HEARD
Tesla’s Tussles • Maneuvering Indoors • Making Tracks with Sea
8 EAB PNT Q&A Otters • Night Vision? No Problem
The Fate of the SAASM P(Y) Code

Monterey Bay Aquarium

with John Fischer, Jules McNeff, Ellen Hall,
Bernard Gruber and Michael Swiek
10 SYSTEM OF SYSTEMS
Australia Launches GNSS Corrections Software • Earth Magnetic Field
Project Moves to New Phase • Europe Awards Contracts for A-PNT
Demos • NOAA, Los Alamos Release Ionosphere Data

LAUNCHPAD MARKET WATCH

12 OEM 34 SURVEYING 40 MACHINE CONTROL
13 SURVEYING 36 MAPPING 41 SIMULATORS
& MAPPING 38 MOBILE
14 TRANSPORTATION 39 DEFENSE
15 UAV

ON THE COVER
A JAVAD OEM GNSS board is at the heart of the navigation system of the Vega space vehicle developed by the European
Space Agency (ESA) to launch small satellites into low Earth orbit. It provides great flexibility of mission at an affordable cost
and represents the European solution for space accessibility. See story, page 19.

CORRECTION
Due to a layout error, a stray paragraph appeared at the top of an article by Oliver Montenbruck and Peter Steigenberger on page 22 of our October issue. It was not
written by the authors and had nothing to do with their article, which starts with the words “A year ago”. It was an accidental repeat of the leading paragraph of an
article in our June issue. GPS World regrets the error.

|
4 GPS WORLD WWW.GPSWORLD.COM NOVEMBER 2021
FIRST FIX
What’s New?
“
What’s new with GPS?” people
often ask me when I tell them
my job. Recently, I have been
responding by telling them about the
other three GNSS constellations now
fully available. However, as reflected
every month in these pages, that is but
one of many developments that combine
to make satellite navigation ever more
accurate, reliable and ubiquitous.
While the GPS program is old by
the standards of the digital age, it has
never been static. In the 1970s, when
GPS was developed, the expected
accuracy for civilians was tens of
meters, though pioneering commercial
users began right away to chip away at
the system’s limitations by developing
differential GPS (DGPS), carrier-phase
positioning, and other techniques. By
the end of the next decade, better signal
processing and the implementation of
DGPS had brought civilian accuracy to
about one meter. In the 1990s, phase-
ambiguity resolution made real-time
centimeter accuracy standard for
surveyors.
As the adoption of cell phones
exploded, it became imperative to
locate them to preserve the 911 system.
Initially, this was done using the time-
of-arrival of signals to handsets from
towers, because it was assumed that
GPS receivers could not be made
sufficiently small, cheap, fast, power-
efficient and accurate to work in cell
phones. The implementation of assisted
GPS, now standard in all smartphones,
largely solved those problems.
Precision for civil GPS users increased
by an order of magnitude in May 2000,
when President Clinton ordered the
removal of Selective Availability, and
substantially once enough satellites
began to broadcast the L2 civil (L2C)
code, enabling ionospheric corrections.
Later, the modernized signals in the
L5 band enabled sub-meter accuracy
without augmentations and very long-
6 GPS WORLD WWW.GPSWORLD.COM
range operations with augmentations.
There are now more than 80 signals in
that band, on GPS, Galileo and BeiDou
satellites. On the military side, the effort
to deploy M-code signals, cards and
receivers continues.
Over the years, in addition to
modernized satellites and signals,
improvements have included the
development of PPP, RTK and hybrid
techniques; the proliferation of local,
regional and global correction services;
improved jamming and spoofing
detection; and the increasing integration
of GNSS receivers with other RF
receivers as well as with inertial, optical,
radar, lidar and other sensors.
Future improvements may include:
■ signal authentication
■ commercial systems in low Earth
orbit that would have a signal
strength on the surface three orders
of magnitude greater than current
GNSS, greatly boosting indoor
reception and protection from
jamming
■ inertially aided extended coherent
integration, a.k.a. “supercorrelation,”
which makes moving GNSS receivers
more sensitive to signals they receive
directly than to reflected ones
■ 3D-mapping-aided GNSS, which
enhances the positioning algorithms
by identifying non-line-of-sight
signals; this is being pioneered by
Google in nearly 4,000 cities, relying
on its 3D city models and machine
learning.
The moment I send this month’s
issue to the printer, I will think of
more past and future improvements.
As soon as you receive it, many of you
will think of yet more. What’s new with
GPS? A lot.
Matteo Luccio | EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
|
NOVEMBER 2021
WWW.GPSWORLD.COM
EDITORIAL
Vice President of Content Marty Whitford
mwhitford@northcoastmedia.net | 216-706-3766
Editor-in-Chief Matteo Luccio
mluccio@northcoastmedia.net | 541-543-0525
Senior Editor Tracy Cozzens
tcozzens@northcoastmedia.net | 541-255-3334
Staff Editor Diane Sofranec
dsofranec@northcoastmedia.net | 216-706-3793
Art Director Charles Park
charlespark@gmail.com
CONTRIBUTING EDITORS
Innovation Richard Langley | lang@unb.ca
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
Associate Publisher Mike Joyce
mjoyce@northcoastmedia.net | 216-706-3723
Senior Account Manager Todd Miller
tmiller@northcoastmedia.net | 216-706-7921
Account Manager Nick Hartman
nhartman@northcoastmedia.net | 216-675-6000
Vice President of Marketing Michelle Mitchell
mmitchell@northcoastmedia.net | 216-363-7922
Event Manager Allison Blong
ablong@northcoastmedia.net | 216-363-7936
Marketing & Sales Manager, Buyers Guide Emily Adkins
eadkins@northcoastmedia.net | 216-675-6006
PUBLISHING SERVICES
Manager, Production Services Chris Anderson
canderson@northcoastmedia.net | 216-978-5341
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asanchez-perkins@northcoastmedia.net | 216-706-3750
Audience Marketing Manager Hillary Blaser
hblaser@northcoastmedia.net | 216-440-0411
Reprints & Permissions Wright’s Reprints
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Circulation/Subscriber Services
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NORTH COAST MEDIA LLC
1360 East 9th St, Tenth Floor
Cleveland, OH 44114, USA
President & CEO Kevin Stoltman
kstoltman@northcoastmedia.net | 216-706-3740
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sgalperin@northcoastmedia.net | 216-706-3705
Vice President of Content & Publisher Marty Whitford
mwhitford@northcoastmedia.net | 216-706-3766
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pseltzer@northcoastmedia.net | 216-706-3737
Vice President of Marketing Michelle Mitchell
mmitchell@northcoastmedia.net | 216-363-7922
MANUSCRIPTS: GPS World welcomes unsolicited articles but cannot be held responsible for
their safekeeping or return. Send to: 1360 East 9th St., Tenth Floor, IMG Center, Cleveland, OH 44114,
USA. Every precaution is taken to ensure accuracy, but publishers cannot accept responsibility for
the accuracy of information supplied herein or for any opinion expressed. REPRINTS: Reprints
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Media, 2407 Timberloch Place, The Woodlands, TX 77380. SUBSCRIBER SERVICES: To
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com, Wright’s Media, 2407 Timberloch Place, The Woodlands, TX 77380. INTERNATIONAL
LICENSING: E-mail gpsworld@gpsworld.com. ACCOUNTING OFFICE AND
OFFICE OF PUBLICATION: 1360 East 9th St., Tenth Floor, IMG Center, Cleveland, OH
44114, USA. GPS WORLD does not verify any claims or other information appearing in any
of the advertisements contained in the publication and cannot take any responsibility for any
losses or other damages incurred by readers in reliance on such content. The opinions expressed
by GPS World’s contributors are theirs and do not necessarily reflect the policy or position of this
magazine or of its publisher, North Coast Media.
Published monthly
 


   

 


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 PNT
EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD

The Fate of the SAASM P(Y) Code

The U.S. military is transitioning to M-code. When the transition is complete, what will become of the SAASM P(Y)
code? What should be done with it? Should the U.S. government use it as a public authenticated service?

“ “
In my opinion (not speaking on behalf of the Defense
Department), eventual use of the P(Y) code as a public
authenticated service is not feasible based on both
time and accessibility. Even with the transition to M-code,
the legacy P(Y) code will continue to be used by the U.S.
military and by U.S. allies and partner nations as long as there are military
requirements for it. More importantly, public access to the encrypted P(Y)
code would require general distribution of classified cryptographic keys
and associated hardware/software by the DOD. That will not happen, even
if the P(Y) code use is discontinued.”
— Jules McNeff
Broadly speaking, GPS user equipment security
architectures transition every 10 years (such as PPS-SM/
AOCs to SAASM to Modernized CGM/MSI.) It can be argued
that implementation of these security measures generally
takes 10 years or longer to implement. SAASM P(Y) receivers
will be around for a long time, implementation can be expensive, backwards
compatibility is critical. Personally, I would like to see SAASM architectures
evolve to support critical services within other U.S. government departments
first, and then determine a path that supports a public service as threats,
unfortunately, move forward.”
— Bernard Gruber

Tony Agresta John Fischer Bradford W. Parkinson

Nearmap Orolia Stanford Center for Position,
Navigation and Time
Miguel Amor Bernard Gruber
Hexagon Positioning Intelligence Northrop Grumman Stuart Riley
Trimble
Thibault Bonnevie Ellen Hall
SBG Systems Spirent Federal Systems Jean-Marie Sleewaegen
Septentrio
Alison Brown Jules McNeff
NAVSYS Corporation Overlook Systems Technologies Michael Swiek
GPS Alliance
Ismael Colomina Terry Moore
GeoNumerics University of Nottingham Julian Thomas
Racelogic Ltd.
Clem Driscoll Mitch Narins
C.J. Driscoll & Associates Consultant Greg Turetzky
Consultant

“ “
Why not? Authentication
protects against spoofing. I
don’t know all the obstacles
involved, but even if an internet
connection is required to
overcome the one-way limitation of GPS, that
isn’t a problem for most applications. Our credit
card transactions are secured this way, why
not our PNT information? Decades ago, the U.S.
Air Force gave the world a gift with the open
GPS signal; they could do it again with a secure
signal. The world would be a better place.”
— John Fischer
It’s premature to forecast
when military operations
will transition from P(Y) code
even after M-code operations
achieve Initial and Final Operating
Capability (IOC and FOC). SAASM P(Y) code will
continue to support military operations for an
extended period since all MGUE receivers (both
increments 1 and 2) are YMCA capable, meaning
they support P(Y) code, M-code and C/A code
operations. As a military-encrypted signal with
military utility, military leaders must carefully
weigh any potential P(Y) code transition and its
impact on military operations.”
— Michael Swiek
“
If P(Y) code is offered as a
new service to the public, it
will have to be maintained.
This carries a great cost. This
is a legacy product that had
a specific military need, which has been
replaced and improved upon by M-code. In
today’s uncertain times, we need to be wise
with our tax dollars. The cost to continue
both SAASM and M-code is greater than the
benefit to the public, in my opinion.”
— Ellen Hall

|
8 GPS WORLD WWW.GPSWORLD.COM NOVEMBER 2021
FOLLOW
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 SYSTEM
Policy and System
Developments
GPS GLONASS BeiDou Galileo

OF SYSTEMS
Australia Launches
GNSS Corrections Software

Geoscience Australia
eoscience Australia is developing open-
source software — named Ginan —
that will provide real-time corrections
to positioning signals of all the GNSS
constellations.
Ginan is named for a star that aided the First Australians
as they navigated across the continent.
Once operational, Ginan will improve the accuracy of
location data from 10 meters down to 3 to 5 centimeters
for users with a mobile internet connection. It will enable
companies to provide reliable centimeter positioning to GINAN CONCEPT OVERVIEW. This diagram illustrates how Australia’s
network of GNSS ground stations streams GNSS satellite observations
their customers, the agency said in a press release. for Ginan to process and analyze, providing correction data to users
“Ginan is part of an exciting and innovative Australian through an internet connection. Ginan 1.0 will be released in June 2022.
Government program to enable precise positioning
technology across the whole of the Australian continent,” mine sites through greater use of automation.
said Martine Woolf, head of Geoscience Australia’s “Ginan will allow Australians to enjoy the benefits of
National Positioning Infrastructure Branch. “It will precise positioning through the creation of new services
provide industry with the ability to use precise point and products, and in doing so, drive Australia’s economic
positioning, bringing significant economic and social growth,” Woolf said. “Our precise location data will
benefits to Australia.” inform of near real-time atmospheric conditions, which is
Examples of how this data could be used include already being used by the Bureau of Meteorology to assist
reducing fertilizer and chemical spray waste in agriculture. with their weather predictions." It will also provide insight
It could also improve the operational efficiency of large into earthquakes, sea-level changes and the atmosphere.

Earth Magnetic Field Project Moves to New Phase

T
he National Geospatial-
Intelligence Agency (NGA) has
launched the demonstration
phase (Phase 4a) of its MagQuest
Challenge to develop novel data-
collection approaches for the World
Magnetic Model (WMM).
The WMM ultimately ensures the
accuracy of navigation, because it
corrects for differences in magnetic
forces at a user’s location. The model
is used by thousands of systems for
mobile navigation apps and is critical
for military and commercial uses around
the world.
Produced since 1905, the WMM
originated with data collection from two
ships surveying 500,000 miles of ocean.
Today, the data is collected by satellites
operated by the European Space Agency
that will eventually reach the end of
their useful life.
NGA’s MagQuest Challenge is
p ro m o t i n g t h e d eve l o p m e n t o f
miniaturized solutions to determine
whether they can produce data
useful to support WMM production.
NGA has an extensive network of
government partners collaborating on
the WMM production, including the
National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration (NOAA), the British
Geological Survey, the Federal Aviation
Administration (FAA), the Department
of Defense (DOD), the United States
Geological Survey (USGS), and the
United States Naval Observatory
(USNO) among others.
MagQuest Demonstration Phase
4a will take place on HeroX, a social
network platform for crowdsourced
solutions.

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10 G P S W O R L D WWW.GPSWORLD.COM NOVEMBER 2021

Europe Awards Contracts for A-PNT Demos
A
notice of award was posted
Oct. 11 by the European
Un i on ( E U ) for s e ve n
contracts to six different companies
for demonstration of non-GNSS
positioning, navigation, or timing
solutions.
The awardees are OPNT BV from
the Netherlands; Seven Solutions
SL from Spain; SPCTime of France;
GMV Aerospace of Spain; Satelles
Inc. of the United States; and Locata
Corp. of Australia.
Locata received two separate
contract awards: one to demonstrate
delivery of time, and the other for
positioning.
According to the EU project officer,
Ignacio Alcantrailla-Medina, some
of the awardees will demonstrate
delivery of time, some positioning,
and some both. Locata received
separate awards because the company
provided separate responses for
timing and positioning.
E l e v e n d i f fe re nt c omp an i e s
responded to the tender, according to
the announcement. No information
was provided on the unsuccessful
bidders.
Announced in October 2020,
the goal of the project is to better
understand available non-GNSS PNT
technologies, and identify potential
backups for GNSS. All offered
technologies were required to be
able to operate independently from,
and have no common points of failure
with, GNSS.
Alcantrailla-Medina says the
SYSTEM
OF
SYSTEMS
demonstration project is expected
to last seven and a half months.
As part of this, a public event will
be held at the EU’s Joint Research
Center in Ispra, Italy, in March or
April 2022. This will be followed by
a consolidated report on the project
in May or June.
The consolidated report will
be used in the next edition of the
European Radionavigation Plan
due out next fall, according to
Alcantrailla-Medina.
Companies that did not respond
to the EU’s tender or were not
selected for a contract can still have
information about their products and
services included in the consolidated
report; email ignacio.alcantarilla-
medina@ec.europa.eu.

NOAA, Los Alamos Release Ionosphere Data

A
new data source to help scientists better

NASA
understand the ionosphere and its potential
impact on positioning, navigation and timing
(PNT) is now available to the public.
The data — collected by sensors on GPS satellites in
2018 — was released through a collaborative effort by Los
Alamos National Laboratory and the National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
“Radio signals from satellite or ground-based
transmitters can travel through the ionosphere or bounce
off of it, so ionospheric conditions have the potential to
disrupt communications depending on the density of
electrons,” said Erin Lay, a remote-sensing scientist at
Los Alamos who was a technical lead on the project. “This
new set of data will help us better model and predict
the behavior of the ionosphere and possibly improve THE SPACE WEATHER PREDICTION CENTER serves a huge customer base
the reliability of our communications and positioning, interested in space weather effects on communications and GPS-reliant
navigation, and timing services, which are critical for both technologies.
everyday life and national security.”
“We expect access to these Los Alamos data sets to im- waves that gets dispersed through the ionosphere before
prove the development, validation and testing of models it is detected on satellite receivers. Each measured flash
used at SWPC for characterizing and forecasting ionospheric provides a snapshot of the ionospheric conditions at that
disturbances,” said Bill Murtagh, program coordinator at instant, and many lightning measurements accumulated
NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center. over time provide a unique view of ionospheric weather.
The new data comes from unique measurements of This is the first global set of ionospheric electron density
lightning events, each of which produces a flash of radio data to use a naturally occurring source phenomenon.

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NOVEMBER 2021 WWW.GPSWORLD.COM G P S W O R L D 11
 LAUNCHPAD | OEM
1 2
1. SIMULATOR
DESIGNED FOR DESKTOP CONVENIENCE
The BroadSim Solo has a compact form factor designed to fit
comfortably at a typical desk or workstation. It shares the same Skydel
simulation engine that runs on a standard BroadSim, BroadSim
Anechoic and BroadSim Wavefront. It supports advanced scenario
creation features and the benefits provided by a software-defined
architecture such as high dynamics, a 1000-Hz iteration update rate
and ultra-low latency of 5 ms. Nearly all civilian GNSS signals can be
generated through the Solo’s single RF output (one frequency band at a
time), along with jamming or spoofing signals, and GPS AES M-code.
Orolia, orolia.com
2. 9-IN-1 ANTENNAS
SERIES OFFERS GNSS, 5GNR AND WIFI-6E COMBINATION
The Stellar series of antennas is designed for a large suite of devices with
a focus on GNSS, sub-6 GHz, 5G NR, 4G LTE, 3G, 2G and WiFi-6E
technologies. The series is suitable for law enforcement, medical
transportation, fire rescue and other mission-critical applications. The
series includes single or up to 9-in-1 configuration choices within the
range of 617 MHz to 7125 MHz frequency bands. The patent-pending
technology reduces the antenna footprint by 55% while implementing
a new double trifilar design and longitudinal resonances for MIMO/
ARRAY configurations that traditionally have more complex size
restrictions (such as B71 band/600 MHz). Each antenna configuration
uses symmetrical or asymmetrical resonators for negative sections
of the antenna, resulting in maximum performance at low and mid
frequencies.
2J Antennas, 2j-antennas.com
3. GNSS ANTENNA
FULL-BAND HELICAL DESIGN FOR PRECISE POSITIONING
The full-band GNSS HC990E embedded helical antenna is designed
for precise positioning, covering the GPS/QZSS-L1/L2/L5, QZSS-L6,
GLONASS-G1/G2/G3, Galileo-E1/E5a/E5b/E6, BeiDou-B1/B2/
B2a/B3, and NavIC-L5 frequency bands, including the satellite-based
augmentation system (SBAS) available in the region of operation
[WAAS (North America), EGNOS (Europe), MSAS (Japan), or
GAGAN (India)], as well as L-band correction services. The HC990E
embedded helical antenna is designed and built for high-accuracy
positioning. It is packaged in a very light and compact form factor,
making it suitable for a wide variety of applications, especially
lightweight UAV navigation. The HC990E is 60-mm wide and
|
12 G P S W O R L D WWW.GPSWORLD.COM NOVEMBER 2021
3 4 5
25-mm tall, weighing 12 grams. It features a precision-tuned helical
element that provides an excellent axial ratio and operates without
the requirement of a ground plane. The HC990E also features a low-
current, low-noise amplifier (LNA) and pre-filter to prevent harmonic
interference from high-amplitude signals, such as 700 MHz band LTE
and other nearby in-band cellular signals.
Tallysman Wireless, tallysman.com
4. CHIP-SCALE ATOMIC CLOCK
PROVIDES WIDER OPERATING TEMPERATURES, FASTER WARM-UP,
IMPROVED STABILITY
The SA65 chip-scale atomic clock (CSAC) provides precise timing
accuracy and stability in extreme environments. Designed for military
and industrial systems, it features ultra-high precision and low
power consumption. The SA65 CSAC delivers higher performance
than the previous SA.45s CSAC, including double the frequency
stability over a wider temperature range and faster warm-up from
cold temperatures. It has an operating temperature range of –40° C
to 80° C and a storage temperature range of –55° C to 105° C. The
warm-up time of two minutes at –40° C is 33% faster than that of the
SA.45s. These performance improvements benefit designers of highly
portable solutions for military applications such as assured positioning,
navigation and timing (A-PNT) and C5ISR (command, control,
communications, computers, cyber, intelligence, surveillance and
reconnaissance).
Microchip Technology, microchip.com
5. PROCESSOR
PROVIDES L1 RECEIVER FOR MOBILE, WEARABLES
Samsung Electronics is offering a new processor for wearables, the
Exynos W920. The new processor integrates an LTE modem and is
built with an advanced 5-nanometer (nm) extreme ultraviolet process
node, offering powerful yet efficient performance demanded by next-
generation wearable devices. The Exynos W920 is embedded with
a GNSS L1 receiver (GPS, GLONASS, BeiDou, Galileo) for tracking
speed, distance and elevation during outdoor activities. It also has a
4G LTE Cat. 4 modem. It has two Arm Cortex-A55 cores for high-
performing, power-efficient processing and an Arm Mali-G68 GPU
with CPU performance improved by 20% and 10 times better graphics
performance than its predecessor. The Exynos W920 supports a new
unified wearable platform that Samsung built jointly with Google, and
will be first applied to the upcoming Galaxy Watch model.
Samsung, samsung.com
 SURVEYING & MAPPING | LAUNCHPAD
1
4 5
1. GNSS RECEIVERS
LONGER BATTERY LIFE, MORE SIGNALS
The Arrow Gold+ and Arrow 100+ expand upon the features of the
Arrow Gold and Arrow 100. The Arrow Gold+ has a battery life 3.5
hours longer, for a total of 11 hours of field autonomy. It supports
concurrent use of BeiDou B3 and GPS L5 signals when using RTK
corrections, and the upcoming Galileo E6 High-Accuracy Service
(HAS). The Arrow 100+ has a battery life 6 hours longer than the
Arrow 100, for a total of 18 hours of field autonomy. It also supports
Atlas H50 (Basic) service subscriptions, which provide 30-50 cm
positioning accuracy worldwide when no SBAS or RTK network is
available. Both the Arrow Gold+ and Arrow 100+ use Eos Bridge
to connect with external sensors — multiple mobile devices can
connect to a single Arrow GNSS receiver via Bluetooth.
Eos Positioning, eos-gnss.com
2. 3D MESH CONVERSION
ENABLES NEW VISUALIZATION OF GEOSPATIAL DATA
EagleView’s high-resolution ortho and oblique imagery now can
be converted into 3D mesh layers with Skyline’s PhotoMesh and
viewed, edited and analyzed on Skyline’s TerraExplorer platform.
EagleView customers will be able to use Skyline’s TerraExplorer
web-based GIS viewer and editor to see, analyze and share their
imagery in an immersive environment. Accurately measuring
distance, area and volume is now easier than ever, which is critical
for planning and zoning to verify regulations or estimate the costs
of flattening a site. With floodplain analysis, disaster management
can identify flood risks before they happen, and with viewshed
calculations E911 can pre-plan for high-profile events. Other key
analytic features for customers include the ability to analyze shade,
view contour and slope maps, and view in underground mode. The
additional 3D Mesh capability is available as an add-on to any new
Reveal Essentials+ Property or Neighborhood image capture.
Skyline, skylinesoft.com; EagleView, eagleview.com
3. GROUND SURVEY APP
ENABLES GROUND SURVEYS ON KLAUPPK DRONE SETUP
The KlauPPK Phone App, designed for use on drones with KlauPPK
hardware and software, enables users to collect ground survey points
with a name, description, feature code and antenna height like a
NOVEMBER 2021
3
traditional survey controller. The app sends the information to the
operator’s computer for processing with the raw GNSS data logged
in the KlauPPK unit on the pole. After post processing, the accurate
survey data can be brought into CAD software to create points and
line strings. The app takes a photo of the point being captured, and
metadata is collected in the project. Users can place ground control
points or check points, pick up as-built data like roads and utilities,
and perform basic surveying. The system is compatible with the
hybrid PPP/PPK MakeItAccurate post-processing service.
Klau Geomatics, klauppk.com
4. GEOSPATIAL SOFTWARE
FOR COMMAND-AND-CONTROL APPLICATIONS
TerraLens 9.3 is a real-time software development toolkit for
geospatial visualization. This release improves performance
for 3D visualization for large viewports and multi-domain
visualization features for command-and-control applications.
It is significantly faster to enhance situational awareness. With
increased multithreading in its map handling, TerraLens can load
and display vector, raster and elevation formats smoothly without
pre-processing, suitable for applications with disk size constraints or
customers with a short turn-around time. A pre-processing option
is still included. Improved data culling ensures only visible items
will be rendered — especially noticeable when displaying large
numbers of dynamic tracks and objects. New tools and features
including support for OGC 3D Tiles for cityscapes, and a new API
to control resolution of terrain mesh. Elevation warnings can now
be displayed.
Kongsberg Geospatial, kongsberggeospatial.com
5. PANORAMIC CAMERA
NOW USABLE ON UAVS
The ZEB Vision 16MP panoramic camera is now available for pre-
order. Suitable for any ZEB Horizon, the new camera provides better
colorization, image walkthroughs and point-cloud measurements
using optional Draw software. Further updates mean GeoSLAM
customers now can take a ZEB Horizon from handheld to UAV
usage to get a more complete picture of projects. ZEB Horizon is
compatible with the DJI Matrice 300 UAV.
GeoSLAM, geoslam.com
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WWW.GPSWORLD.COM G P S W O R L D 13
 LAUNCHPAD | TRANSPORTATION
1 2
4 5
1. AUTO MODULES
ACCURATE NAVIGATION IN HEAT
A new series of automotive-grade positioning modules are operational
up to 105° C (221° F). The NEO-M9L modules and the M9140-KA-DR
chip are built on the u-blox M9 GNSS platform and use dead-reckoning
techniques to provide accurate position data when satellite signals are
compromised or unavailable. The NEO-M9L-20A and NEO-M9L-01A
modules, as well as the M9140-KA-DR chip, are specially designed for
first-mount automotive solutions. The NEO-M9L-01A variant offers
an extended operational temperature range up to 105° C, making it
suitable for integration on the roof, behind the windscreen, or inside
hot electronics control units. Applications include integrated navigation
systems such as in-vehicle infotainment (IVI) and head units,
integrated telematics control units and V2X.
U-blox, ublox.com
2. DEAD-RECKONING MODULE
PROVIDES POSITIONING ACCURACY IN TUNNELS, PARKING GARAGES
The PX1120D GNSS/inertial measurement unit (IMU) is suitable
for both automotive pre-installation and aftermarket. The robust
dead-reckoning module integrates a six-axis IMU and a concurrent
quad-GNSS chipset. It receives signals from GPS, GLONASS, Galileo
and BeiDou, as well as QZSS. The sensor-fusion module maximizes
positioning accuracy in challenging environments, providing
continuous navigation in tunnels and underground parking lots.
For automotive pre-installation applications where vehicle wheel-
tick signals are available, the PX1120D provides wheel-tick sensor
fusion with automotive dead-reckoning. In aftermarket applications
where wheel-tick signals are unavailable, the PX1120D provides an
untethered dead-reckoning sensor-fusion solution. A single PX1120D
module provides both automotive and untethered dead-reckoning
functionality, simplifying logistics. It is suitable for infotainment
systems, telematics control units, vehicle tracking, and advanced driver-
assistance systems.
SkyTraq Technology, skytraq.com.tw
3. SHARKFIN ANTENNA
FOR INTELLIGENT TRANSPORTATION AND PUBLIC SAFETY
The Trooper Max 5G FR1 antenna platform is a 5G configurable
and low-profile antenna platform for intelligent transportation and
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14 G P S W O R L D WWW.GPSWORLD.COM NOVEMBER 2021
3
public safety applications. Configurable and optimized for multiband
applications, the platform includes an option to add land mobile radio
connectivity through an external whip port. With a slender shark-fin
form factor, the Trooper Max is recommended for installation on public
safety fleets. It is compatible with cellular routers supporting 600-MHz
to 6-GHz frequencies. It also covers Wi-Fi 6 frequency ranges.
PCTEL, pctel.com
4. FLEET TRACKING
NEW FEATURES INCREASE FUNCTIONALITY FOR WINTER
OPERATIONS
Version 7.9 of the CompassTrac fleet and asset management solution
provides winter fleets with more detailed spreader controller
information and greater insight through enhanced dashboard and
reporting functions. Features include integration of numerous spreader
controllers for granular, pre-wet and liquid materials; a snow-fighting
dashboard consolidating key performance indicators; and a snow
materials report that delivers historical reporting of granular, pre-wet
and direct liquid material application rates and totals, including air and
road temperature (where available). The fleet-management solution
integrates GNSS, GIS and wireless networks, enabling end users to view
the real-time locations and status of vehicles, people, and other high-
value assets for full situational awareness.
CompassCom, compasscom.com
5. MARINE PLANNING APP
NEW DEPARTURE SCHEDULING CHARTS ROUTE, WIND, TIDES
Smartphone app Savvy Navvy now allows boaters to plan better
by visually showing the best time to depart given wind and tidal
implications, leading to more informed and cost-saving decisions for
journeys. By comparing passage times, as well as weather and tide
information, boaters can immediately make crucial decisions based
on safety, comfort, time and cost. Savvy Navvy is available on Android,
iOS, PC and Mac and can be used on an unlimited number of devices
simultaneously. It charts, weather, tide, marina details and passage
planning with full tidal vectors. Active GPS tracking shows vessel
position and enables boaters to instantly check course over ground
(COG) and speed over ground (SOG). The app uses UKHO, NOAA
and other official hydrographic charts from around the globe, as well as
tide data from 8,000 tidal stations.
Savvy Navvy, savvy-navvy.com

1 2
3 4
1. HEAVY LIFT PLATFORM
MULTI-PURPOSE, DUAL-ROTOR UNMANNED AIRCRAFT
The Anzen EG-1250 provides a heavy lift, multi-drop, long endurance
and flexible platform, expanding the services and operational support
offerings from UAS Global Services. With an endurance of six hours,
the EG-1250 can carry 75 pounds, cruise at 65 knots, in any weather
day or night. The EG stands for an electric and gas dual-engine
configuration, with the secondary engine able to power the aircraft
or act as a power boost for the primary Skypower rotary SP-180 SRE
engine. The Anzen EG-1250 is auto-rotation capable and offers an
optional safety parachute system. The flexible platform can support
industries such as maritime, agriculture, oil and gas, utility, cargo
delivery and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR).
UAS Global Services, uas-gs.com
2. VTOL DRONE
FIXED-WING DESIGN FOR LONG ENDURANCE
The P330 Pro is a high-performance vertical takeoff and landing
(VTOL) fixed-wing UAS for aerial surveying and mapping. It
provides high accuracy, long endurance and multiple payloads. It
features a 100-Hz differential module, which allows aerial mapping
operations at the centimeter level, and a flight endurance with
payload reaching more than 150 minutes. The P330 Pro can be used
to conduct small- and large-scale aerial surveys with extreme data
quality, and is an alternative to manned aircraft for surveying and
mapping, mining, construction and infrastructure, environmental
monitoring and agriculture.
CHC Navigation, chcnav.com
3. MINING SOFTWARE
CAPABILITY EXPANSION ENABLES M300 FOR DATA CAPTURE
Flight1x software now provides data-capture capabilities for the
DJI Matrice 300. The Skycatch High Precision Package provides
mining operations with cloud or edge-based data processing that
enables viewing terrain in 4D, automated RTK/PPK industrial drone
management, and fast edge processing with data visibility in minutes.
Built on technology adopted by large mining companies, Flight1x
includes purpose-built flight automation software for the M300,
leveraging DJI’s L1 and P1 sensors. Flight1x is part of the Skycatch
NOVEMBER 2021
UAV | LAUNCHPAD
5
High Precision Package, which provides mining operations with
cloud or edge-based data processing that enables viewing terrain in
4D, automated RTK/PPK industrial drone management, and fast edge
processing with data visibility in minutes.
Skycatch, skycatch.com
4. 5G DRONE PLATFORM
OFFERS 5G AND ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE CAPABILITIES
The Flight RB5 5G platform is designed to accelerate development
of commercial, enterprise and industrial drones. Powered by the
Qualcomm QRB5165 processor, it condenses multiple complex
technologies into a tightly integrated drone system. With 5G and
Wi-Fi 6 connectivity, the platform enhances critical flying abilities
beyond visual line-of-sight to support safer, more reliable flight.
High-performance computing provides power efficiency for artificial
intelligence and machine learning, enabling fully autonomous
drones. A secure processing unit supports cybersecurity protections.
New camera capabilities deliver premium image capabilities and
performance. The Flight RB5 5G drone reference design is available
through ModalAI. Use cases include mapping, inspection, film
and entertainment, defense, security and emergency response, and
delivery.
Qualcomm Technologies, qualcomm.com
5. CLOUD-BASED SERVICE
PREDICTS AERIAL TRAFFIC IN URBAN AREAS
Spirent GNSS Foresight lets operators know where and when
unmanned vehicles, air taxis and drones can operate safely and
dependably beyond visual line of sight, especially in urban areas
where buildings frequently obstruct GNSS signals. The cloud-based
solution can produce forecasts using data from any of the world’s
satellite constellations, and is of particular interest to the aviation,
UAS and automotive industries. Spirent GNSS Foresight’s ability
to accurately predict where and when autonomous systems will
perform enables users to scale operations or services by expanding
operational areas, reducing the number of system disengagements,
and providing a greater level of safety and reliability assurance when
reducing — or ultimately removing — human involvement in the
driving or piloting task.
Spirent Communications, spirent.com
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WWW.GPSWORLD.COM G P S W O R L D 15
 COVERSTORY

Avio (Italy)
/
COVERSTORY

PEERING INSIDE THE BOX

OEM boards — the beating heart of the industry —
power an ever-growing list of applications
/ BY Matteo Luccio
G PS WO RLD, E D I TO R- I N - CH I E F

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16 G P S W O R L D WWW.GPSWORLD.COM NOVEMEBER 2021

“O
riginal equipment manufacturer
(OEM)” is a widely used but poorly
defined term. In general, it refers
to a manufacturer that provides
components or sub-assemblies to another one for use in the
latter’s end products. In the GNSS industry, the purchasers
of OEM boards typically are manufacturers of products
that require positioning or navigation capabilities, such
as guidance systems for tractors, UAVs or automobiles.
Sometimes, such manufacturers integrate the OEM GNSS
receivers with other sensors, such as inertial measurement
units and lidar devices. Often, the OEM also will provide
technical support to the integrator.
Much of the OEM business is not visible to the end
user of the equipment that contains OEM components, let
alone to the casual observer, because those components are
“inside the box,” such as a guidance system, and “the box,”
in turn, is under the hood or in some other hidden place.
There is almost never a sticker on the outside analogous
to the one that says “Intel inside” on many computers
to distinguish the Intel CPU inside from, say, an AMD
processor. Furthermore, OEM sales are typically obscured
by confidentiality provisions in OEM licensing agreements
that also address issues of branding, payment, quality
assurance, and the timing of deliveries.
JAVAD GNSS READY FOR LIFT-OFF
J
AVA D G N S S h a s b e e n
transitioning to a new position
in the market since the passing
in May 2020 of its founder,
president and CEO Javad Ashjaee, a
giant of the GNSS industry. For several
decades, the company eschewed mass
TOM HUNTER production for such markets as the
automobile industry and cellular
phones, choosing instead to focus primarily on high-
accuracy surveying applications.
“Our founder really loved the surveying market, created
a lot of technology, and drove the rest of the industry
through the evolutionary process to where it is today,” said
Tom Hunter, the company’s chief sales officer. “You can see
a little bit of JAVAD GNSS in just about any GNSS-based
land survey product on the market today.”
At the heart of each of JAVAD GNSS’ OEM boards is a
proprietary ASIC. The boards it sells are the same ones it
uses in its own reference stations, land survey products and
NOVEMBER 2021
OEM
Integrators can choose from a wide variety of
OEM GNSS boards depending on their intended use;
the environment in which they will operate; their
performance requirements; and their size, weight, power
consumption and (of course) cost. OEM GNSS boards
range from development kits that assist users to integrate
GNSS into their product design to differential, multi-
frequency, and, increasingly, multi-constellation boards.
In the following pages, six GNSS OEM manufacturers
address these questions:
■ How do you define OEM?
■ What distinguishes your latest generation of OEM
receiver boards from previous ones?
■ What are the markets for your GNSS OEM receiver
boards? Which ones are growing the most?
Additionally, each one showcases a product.
17 JAVAD GNSS Ready for Lift-Off
18 New Leaders and Markets
19 JAVAD Board Guides ESA Vega
Mission
20 GNSS Makers Share Insights
marine systems, Hunter said. Aerospace is a key focus, an
industry that requires very high accuracy, precision and
reliability despite operating in environments of extreme
shock, vibration, acceleration and temperatures.
“Our successes have been in working with many of
the companies that build these very large launch vehicles
used to carry heavy payloads into orbit,” Hunter said.
“Our customers are companies such as Orbital, Northrop
Grumman and SpaceX.” Those heavy-duty launch vehicles,
he pointed out, must also follow a pre-described flight path.
“You don’t want to start another world war because another
country sees something heading its way.”
Tracing All Components. JAVAD GNSS’ boards “have
complete component traceability,” Hunter said. The
company does not buy any of its components from brokers.
“We have to buy either directly from the manufacturer
or from the manufacturers’ designated distributor, and it
has full part traceability in our own factory in San Jose,
California.” Should a component ever fail, the company
See JAVAD, page 18. >>
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WWW.GPSWORLD.COM G P S W O R L D 17
 OEM
/
JAVAD
<< Continued from page 17.
could quickly trace when and where it was made. “That’s
very important when we’re dealing with customers such
as NASA, the Air Force or Boeing, because the safety of
flight depends upon the performance and the quality of
the product.”
The company will soon supply a receiver that will spend
about four and a half to five years in orbit on a cluster of
small low-Earth-orbit satellites, Hunter said. (See “JAVAD
Board Guides ESA Vega Mission,” on facing page.)
To make sure none of its products are exported illegally
from the United States, JAVAD GNSS also traces where each
one ends up. “We know where every one of those boards is.”
J AVA D G N S S m u s t
guarantee its aerospace
customers, which have
invested millions of dollars
in designing their systems,
that each model of its devices
will remain exactly the
same. Hence, it bought from
JAVAD GNSS
some manufacturers their
entire inventory of certain
components, in case they
JAVAD’S TRE-3S OEM BOARD, discontinued making them,
launched this spring. and certifies each board
individually.
JAVAD GNSS’ products are more expensive than those
from other manufacturers because they are better, Hunter
claimed. “We use really high-performance, temperature-
compensated oscillators in our boards to make sure
we have precise timing. We use a custom ASIC that we
designed and built. Our receivers have 864 channels, so
they can receive just about anything broadcast in the L
band.” The company constantly upgrades its devices to
match modernization of the signal structures.
“I can remember when the rest of the industry was
saying, ‘You have a 12-channel GPS receiver? You’re nuts! I
mean, who uses that much information?’,” Hunter recalled.
“Today, we’re using every signal that comes out of GPS,
whether it be L1, L2, L5, L1C, and the same thing with
all of the GNSS constellations.” For example, when Japan
will begin to broadcast its new QZSS signal soon, “we’re
ready not only to find it, but to track it, decode it, and
utilize it for position and timing solutions.” Anti-jamming
and in-band interference rejection are standard in JAVAD
GNSS’ products, while those from other manufacturers
require external filtering or different types of antennas,
Hunter pointed out.
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18 G P S W O R L D WWW.GPSWORLD.COM NOVEMBER 2021
New Leaders and Markets
A
fter Javad Ashjaee — JAVAD GNSS’ founder, president
and CEO — died in May 2020, Tom Hunter, who co-
founded Ashtech with Ashjaee in 1987, returned to the
company after a five-year retirement.
“He left the company with an awful lot of technology, a lot
of patents, and a lot of people who knew how to design and
build products, not only for today, but for the future,” Hunter
explained. “They needed some guidance.”
So, in January, Nedda Ashjaee — Javad Ashjaee’s daughter
and his close collaborator for the previous 25 years — and
the board of directors asked Hunter to rejoin the company.
“They said that they wanted me to help them make sure that
we can be on a path where we can use our core technologies
and enter into new market segments and new marketplaces.”
Hunter added, “We made some changes to how we
introduce surveying products into the marketplace.” The
company no longer sells its products directly to end users.
Rather, it goes through a new process and channel for getting
products into the marketplace. It also brought on board a
new chief technology officer this summer who will be driving
engineering efforts. “We are becoming market driven. And
to do that we needed to expand our marketing, sales and
engineering capabilities. We are changing every aspect of
the company,” Hunter said.
JAVAD GNSS actually consists of two companies in
San Jose: JAVAD GNSS, which designs, markets and sells
products, and JAVAD GNSS EMS, which manufactures them.
It also has a presence in Moscow — the company hired many
engineers following the collapse of the Soviet Union, many of
whom had worked on GLONASS. “Javad looked at that as an
opportunity to hire them and use them to develop a multiple
constellation receiver,” Hunter recalled. However, as a
subcontractor for U.S. government projects, it is much easier
for JAVAD GNSS to operate on U.S. soil with engineers who
are U.S. citizens. “We’re expanding our San Jose operation to
include on-site engineering development, not only in RF, but
also in digital signal-processing software.” The company will
continue to receive schematics from its Russian subsidiary.
“Instead of exporting technology, we’re importing it.”
JAVAD GNSS is now moving into markets that did not
interest Javad Ashjaee. It recently launched new products
in the machine control, marine navigation and accurate
heading markets, as well as the agricultural and construction
markets, with integrated sensors that can be readily installed
on various machines. Other GNSS manufacturers have been
producing such devices for decades, Hunter acknowledges.
However, he adds, “ours will be able to use multiple sources
not only for satellite- and terrestrial-based corrections, but
a combination of those.”
 OEM

/
JAVAD Board Guides

GreenLake Engineering
ESA’s initial request was for a GNSS
ESA Vega Mission unit built with commercial off-the-
shelf components, thus maintaining

A JAVAD OEM GNSS board is at the

heart of the navigation system
of the Vega space vehicle developed
by the European Space Agency (ESA).
ESA developed Vega to launch small
satellites into low Earth orbit. It
provides great flexibility of mission
at an affordable cost and represents
the European solution for space
accessibility.
The JAVAD OEM GNSS board is
embedded in the gle/RGU/G2T/
HDA/MB1 — a cost-effective, high-
performance, compact and rugged
GNSS receiver specifically designed and
environmentally qualified. Installed on
the upper stage of the VEGA launcher, it
allows accurate trajectory verification
during the entire flight mission.
low costs, but which could still
operate in the extreme vibration and
shock conditions typical of a space
launcher. After an initial feasibility
analysis, GreenLake Engineering — a
subsidiary of Instrumentation Devices
— developed the unit mechanically
and electronically to satisfy ESA
technical specifications. Its biggest
challenge was to pass ESA’s extensive
qualification and quality process.
For many years, Instrumentation
Devices (based in Como, Italy) and
JAVAD GNSS have been partners.
Instrumentation Devices sub-
contracted for the Vega project with
Avio (based in Colleferro, near Rome),
which is the prime contractor with ESA.
Avio is an international group that
THE JAVAD OEM GNSS BOARD is embedded
in the gle/RGU/G2T/HDA/MB1 for space
missions.
designs and produces space launchers
and both liquid and solid propulsion
systems for space transportation.
ESA supervised the project and is
responsible for all activities relating
to flight safety and qualification of the
equipment installed on board. JAVAD
GNSS supported GreenLake Engineering
with the integration and low-level
configuration of the OEM board for this
challenging application.

0.05° 0.02° 1 cm
ATTITUDE HEADING POSITION

NEW ELLIPSE-D
The Smallest Dual Frequency
& Dual Antenna INS/GNSS
» RTK Centimetric Position
» Quad Constellations
» Post-processing Software

www.sbg-systems.com

|
NOVEMBER 2021 WWW.GPSWORLD.COM G P S W O R L D 19
 OEM

Hexagon | NovAtel
A MASSEY FERGUSON TRACTOR guided
by a NovAtel GNSS OEM receiver.

GNSS MAKERS SHARE INSIGHTS

OEMS DISCUSS THEIR BOARDS, MARKETS AND COMPANY GROWTH
Five prominent GNSS original equipment manufacturers discuss their current products and future markets.

JAVAD HEXAGON TRIMBLE HEMISPHERE SEPTENTRIO

TOM HUNTER NEIL GEREIN ED NORSE GNSS FRANÇOIS FREULON
CHIEF SALES OFFICER SENIOR DIRECTOR OF GNSS OEM PORTFOLIO KIRK BURNELL HEAD OF PRODUCT
MARKETING MANAGER SENIOR PRODUCT MANAGEMENT
MANAGER

How do you define OEM?
While all six manufacturers agree on the general definition
of OEM given above (see p. 17), they focus on different
aspects. OEM customers of JAVAD GNSS “require reliable,
accurate and stable high precision measurements for
positioning and timing,” Hunter said.
The performance of OEM products fom Hexagon |
NovAtel reflects on its customers and itself, Gerein said.
“Our OEM receiver cards are selected, valued and relied
upon as the core positioning elements in many applications
across vertical markets. We offer full rebranding options
with custom logos, colors and industrial designs to
seamlessly integrate our technology into their offerings.”
At Trimble, OEM customers “combine Trimble’s GNSS
technology with their domain expertise to deliver solutions
to the end customer,” Norse said.

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20 G P S W O R L D WWW.GPSWORLD.COM NOVEMBER 2021

For Hemisphere GNSS, OEM clients can range “from
a tinker/maker hobbyist working with GNSS, to a large
multi-national organization designing navigation solutions
for global clients,” Burnell said, but the company looks at
all of them “in the same light.” Additionally, “Some OEM
clients have all the tools they need already built into the
Hemisphere products, while others come to us looking
for advanced or custom features to help set their products
apart in the market.”
Septentrio has a worldwide support team that assists its
OEM clients “in all the stages of their integration process,
from validation to product release,” Freulon said.
What distinguishes your latest generation of OEM receiver boards
from previous ones?
Septentrio’s most recent OEM receiver boards integrate
the latest Septentrio GNSS and INS technology and
algorithms. AsteRx-m3 OEM receiver boards use all GNSS
constellations, can track all available satellites, and can be
used as a base station to deliver RTK corrections or as a
rover with a single or dual antenna.
Improvements include lower power consumption,
increased security with secure boot, and greater resilience
The Best Autonomous
Systems Navigate with
Tallysman XF Antennas
E: info@tallysman.com T: +1 613 591-3131
NOVEMBER 2021
OEM
/
with anti-jamming and anti-spoofing. Its new receiver
boards, Freulon said, “are backward compatible with
extended capabilities of the latest GNSS signals and several
variants of the inertial navigation system.” Upcoming
software releases will include Galileo’s free High Accuracy
Service (HAS) as well as OSNMA, the latest anti-spoofing
mechanism.
Trimble’s latest generation of OEM GNSS boards are
based on Trimble Maxwell 7 technology, which features
the company’s seventh-generation baseband GNSS ASIC
(application-specific integrated circuit). Trimble designed
the Maxwell family of products to maximize the quality of
observables derived from available signals transmitted from
all GNSS constellations as well as satellite-based augmentation
systems, Norse explained. This results in stronger signals,
greater availability, reduced power consumption, advanced
multipath mitigation and protection against spoofing.
The boards also run Trimble’s ProPoint positioning
engine, which improves performance in challenging
environments such as tunnels, urban canyons and tree
canopies and provides continuous RTK using a base station
or Trimble RTX correction services delivered via cellular
or satellite connections.
ΠCustomized GNSS Antennas
ΠHigh Precision Phase Tracking
ΠeXtended Filtering (XF):
Mitigating Interference
� tallysman.com/xf
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WWW.GPSWORLD.COM G P S W O R L D 21
 OEM
/
Hexagon | NovAtel
NOVATEL’S OEM7700 receiver board.
JAVAD GNSS’ latest OEM products
are “more cost effective” and integrate
an IMU with an 874-channel multi-
GNSS band module with up to 200Hz
positioning and data output. “All are
still proudly made in the United States,”
Hunter said.
NovAtel’s OEM7 receiver boards
feature added options for interference
robustness and situational awareness
“to help protect the user’s GNSS signals
from an increasingly crowded RF
spectrum and growing jamming and
spoofing threats,” Gerein said. The
company enhanced the sensor fusion
capabilities with SPAN GNSS+INS
technolog y, enabling a deeply
coupled integration with IMUs that
strengthens positioning through GNSS
interruptions and allows the rapid
reacquisition of signals post-outages.
The boards are compatible with PPP
TerraStar Correction Services “for
precise positioning anywhere in the
world.”
Hemisphere GNSS’ Phantom and
Vega series of OEM board products can
track all L-band GNSS signals, enabling
the company’s OEM clients to upgrade
the capabilities of their integrations
and “tap into the performance of multi-
GNSS, multi-frequency RTK and Atlas
PPP solutions,” Burnell said.
The boards consume less power
than the previous generation and
introduce Hemisphere’s Cygnus
automatic interference mitigation
technology, which monitors the
22 G P S W O R L D WWW.GPSWORLD.COM
GNSS signal bands for interference
and automatically deploys filters “with
no need for integrators or users to
understand signal theory,” Burnell
explained. Cygnus, which turns off
the filters when the interference
fades away, is “automatic interference
mitigation for the masses.”
What are your markets for your GNSS OEM
receiver boards? Which ones are growing
the most?
NovAtel said its receiver cards are highly
configurable and integrate easily across
a wide range of markets, including
survey, mobile mapping, agriculture,
defense, marine and autonomous
platforms for both on- and off-road
applications.
iXBlue
SEPTENTRIO’S AsteRX boards power the
Atlans A7.
In particular, the company’s OEM7
cards “uniquely support the defense
market and their requirements
for increased protection against
jamming and spoofing in mission-
critical applications.” The cards also
“meet the positioning availability and
increasingly rigid product quality
standards required in agriculture,
automotive and autonomous system
markets.”
Trimble lists precision agriculture,
construction, mining, forestry,
autonomous vehicles, port automation,
distribution centers and mobile
mapping among the uses of its GNSS
OEM receiver boards. “We are seeing
growth in markets where reliable,
robust and high-precision positioning
is required for a solution such as
autonomous platforms,” Norse said.
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NOVEMBER 2021
Septentrio reports growing demand
for its mosaic GNSS modules
“due to their small footprint and
impressive performance.” OEM
boards, Freulon said, “remain very
popular for applications where a quick
integration is needed or where ultimate
performance is expected.”
However, the most important
markets for its OEM boards remain
“UAV, together with industrial-
grade automations in agriculture,
construction or logistics.”
Septentrio sees an increase in “the
number of positioning and mapping
systems that require the ultimate
performance of our receivers, especially
when combined with other sensors,”
Freulon said. In particular, he cites the
performance of its single- and dual-
antenna AsteRx-m3 receiver boards
and of the AsteRx3i INS boards, which
“provide a solution which combines
industrial-grade IMU and GNSS
all on a single OEM board, greatly
simplifying the integration process in
systems where both positioning and
orientation are needed.”
Hemisphere GNSS, which has a
significant OEM presence in the
agriculture, marine, survey and
GIS markets, reports seeing growth
in several markets. “We have seen
significant growth in all aspects of
autonomous integrations, from ground
Trimble
TRIMBLE’S AX940i GNSS/INS smart antenna.
vehicles for on-road or off-road, to
in-flight applications with UAVs,
to maritime applications focusing
on dynamic positioning in both
nearshore and offshore environments,”

Hemisphere GNSS
THE HYDROBOARD II floatation platform contains the RiverSurveyor M9 acoustic device, which
measures the flow rates of rivers, streams and irrigation canals.
Burnell said. “There is a recognition
that using precision navigation
equipment benefits everyone and
protects our environment through
efficiencies of operation, either in
resource management or by improved
operational capacity.”
JAVAD GNSS l i s t s m a r i t i m e
positioning and docking, timing,
launch vehicle positioning and range
safety, autonomous vehicle testing,
in orbit positioning and drone
guidance among the markets for its
OEM receiver boards, with space-
related applications the fastest growing
market.
Briefly describe one of your GNSS OEM
receiver boards.
The OEM7700 receiver card from
NovAtel is used in agricultural auto-
steering applications. “The OEM7700
can receive all GNSS constellations
across all frequencies, enabling a highly
available position,” Gerein said. “When
combined with TerraStar corrections
and our SPAN GNSS+INS technology
for sensor fusion applications, the
OEM7700 ensures highly precise
positioning scalable from meter- to
centimeter-level accuracy.”
OEM7700 receiver boards help
the company’s agriculture customers
“solve the positioning challenge of
repeatable pass-to-pass accuracy for
auto-steering,” Gerein said. Plus, the
card meets their strict environmental
requirements for agriculture vehicles.
Septentrio’s OEM client iXblue uses
the company’s AsteRx OEM boards
inside its Atlans A7 positioning and
orientation system. “Atlans A7 was
developed in close cooperation with
Septentrio and is designed to provide
continuous and accurate positioning
in urban environments,” Freulon said.
Atlans A7 combines iXblue’s inertial
navigation system (INS), which is
based on a fiber-optic gyroscope
(FOG), with Septentrio’s multi-
frequency GNSS receiver technologies.
To develop this INS-GNSS mobile
mapping solution, experts from iXblue
and Septentrio worked closely with
the aim to develop a smart coupling
method that combines the advantages
of the two companies’ technologies.
The same smart coupling technique
is also applied in the post-processing
software for an optimal result. The
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NOVEMBER 2021
OEM
/
main advantage of Atlans A7 is to
maintain a high heading precision
in any circumstance, which “allows
precise georeferencing for both land
and air applications and drastically
limits the drift during GNSS outages,”
Freulon said.
At Trimble, Norse cites the case of an
agribusiness company that wanted to
make its robotic tractors able to drive
autonomously, requiring centimeter-
level positioning and orientation
at high update rates in challenging
environments. The company chose
the Trimble AX940i because of its
“combination of GNSS and inertial
technology in an easy-to-install smart
antenna.” The Trimble ProPoint engine
tightly couples the onboard IMU sensor
data with the GNSS observations to
provide up to 100-Hz outputs utilizing
the NMEA-2000 standard or other
interfaces. Additionally, Trimble VRS
Now service provides instant access
to RTK corrections and an operator
can use the built-in Wi-Fi to configure
and monitor the receiver from nearby.
Hemisphere GNSS’ Phantom 34 RTK
receiver and antenna is employed
by SonTek in its RiverSurveyor M9
product used by water districts and
the U.S. Geological Survey to help
monitor and manage water resources.
The M9 is one in a series of SonTek
products focused on determining flow
rates for rivers, streams and irrigation
canals. It consists of a small flotation
platform with an acoustic doppler
current profiler that measures the flow
rate of the water column underneath
it, a data telemetry system, and the
Phantom 34 RTK to pinpoint the data
collected.
The platform is floated from shore
to shore across a channel using a tether,
measuring along the way. “Using RTK
simplifies collecting measurements
as the survey will have continuous
velocity profile measurements the
entire way across the waterway,”
Burnell said.
WWW.GPSWORLD.COM G P S W O R L D 23
 ALTERNATIVE PNT
A DECK OFFICER ON A SHIP takes a relative bearing using a pelorus. Loran-C was developed in large part for maritime navigation.
OPPOSITE AND COMPLEMENTARY
eLORAN IS PART OF THE SOLUTION TO GNSS VULNERABILITY
Though marvelous, GNSS are also highly vulnerable. eLoran, which has no common failure modes with GNSS, could provide
continuity of essential timing and navigation services in a crisis.
by Matteo Luccio, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
G
PS fits Arthur C. Clarke’s famous third law:
“Any sufficiently advanced technology is
indistinguishable from magic.” Yet, it also
has several well-known vulnerabilities —
including unintentional and intentional RF interference
(the latter known as jamming), spoofing, solar flares, the
accidental destruction of satellites by space debris and
their intentional destruction in an act of war, system
anomalies and failures, and problems with satellite
launches and the ground segment.
Over the past two decades, many reports have been
written on these vulnerabilities, and calls have been
made to fund and develop complementary positioning,
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24 G P S W O R L D WWW.GPSWORLD.COM NOVEMBER 2021
aytugaskin/iStock/Getty Images Plus/Getty Images
navigation and timing (PNT) systems. In recent years,
as vast sectors of our economy and many of our daily
activities have become dependent on GNSS, these calls
have intensified.
A k e y c o m p o n e n t o f a ny c o n t i n e n t - w i d e
complementary PNT would be a low-frequency, very
high power, ground-based system, because it does not
have any common failure modes with GNSS, which are
high-frequency, very low power and space-based. Such
a system already exists, in principle: it is Loran, which
was the international PNT gold standard for almost 50
years prior to GPS becoming operational in 1995. At
that point, Loran-C was scheduled for termination at
the end of 2000. However, beginning in 1997, Congress
 ALTERNATIVE PNT

/
provided more than $160M to convert the U.S. portion of
the North American Loran-C service to enhanced Loran
(eLoran). In 2010, when the U.S. Loran-C service ended,
its modernized and upgraded successor was almost
completely built out in the continental United States and
Alaska. During the following five years, Canada, Japan,
Chaarles A. Schue
and European countries followed the United States’ lead
in terminating their Loran-C programs.
Today, however, eLoran is one of several PNT Dana Goward
Nuunnzziioo Gam
systems proposed as a backup for GPS. The National bale
Timing Resilience and Security Act of 2018 required
the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Transportation
(DOT) to “provide for the establishment, sustainment, 2008, and again in 2015, its intention to build
ld an
an eLoran
eLoran
and operation of a land-based, resilient, and reliable system, it has not done so yet.
alternative timing system” as a backup to GPS. In January
2020, the DOT awarded contracts to 11 companies Not Your Grandfather’s Loran
to demonstrate their technologies’ ability to act as a In the 1980s, I used Loran-C to navigate on sailing
backup for GPS. Of these companies, two were working trips off the U.S. East Coast. It had an accuracy of a few
on eLoran projects. hundred feet and required interpreting blue, magenta,
Technical advisers to the federal PNT Executive black and green lines that were overprinted on nautical
Committee have been advocating and recommending charts. The system was a modernized version, launched in
that the government implement eLoran for the past 1958, of a radio navigation system first deployed for U.S.
11 years. Yet, while the U.S. government announced in See OPPOSITE, page 26. >>

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NOVEMBER 2021 WWW.GPSWORLD.COM G P S W O R L D 25
 ALTERNATIVE PNT
/
OPPOSITE
<< Continued from page 25.
ship convoys crossing the Atlantic
during World War II. Its repeatability
was greater than its accuracy: lobster
trappers could rely on it to return to
the same spots where they had been
successful before, though they may
have had some offset from the actual
latitude and longitude.
By contrast, eL oran has an
accuracy of better than 20 meters,
and in many cases, better than 10
meters. It was developed by the
U.S. and British governments, in
collaboration with various industry
and academic groups, to provide
coverage over extremely wide areas
using a part of the RF spectrum
protected worldwide. Unlike GNSS,
eLoran can penetrate to some degree
indoors, under very thick canopy,
underwater and underground, and it
is exceptionally hard to disrupt, jam
or spoof. Unlike Loran-C, eLoran is
synchronized to UTC and includes
one or more data channels for low-
rate data messaging, added integrity,
differential corrections, navigation
messages, and other communications.
Additionally, modern Loran receivers
allow users to mix and match signals
from all eLoran transmitters and
GNSS satellites in view.
Finally, eLoran can be used for
integrity monitoring of GPS — and
vice versa. “Think of a resiliency
triad, consisting of GNSS (global),
eLoran (continental), and an inertial
measurement unit, a precise clock,
or a fiber connection,” said Charles
A. Schue, CEO of UrsaNav. “It is
extremely difficult to jam or spoof
all three sources at the same time, in
the same direction, and to the same
amount.”
For the eLoran system to cover the
contiguous United States, between
four and six transmission sites could
provide overlapping timing coverage,
26 G P S W O R L D WWW.GPSWORLD.COM
THE FORMER LORAN-C transmission antenna at Værlandet, Norway.
and 18 transmission sites could
provide overlapping positioning
and navigation.
U.S. Developments
The INVEST in Amer ica Ac t
authorizes $157 million for the
Department of Homeland Security
to conduct research in five separate
areas, one of which is positioning,
navigation and timing resiliency;
however, none of this money is for
eLoran per se. The regular DOT
appropriation for next year has $17
million for PNT-related research, $10
million of which is for “GPS Backup/
Complementary PNT Technologies
Research.” However, neither of these
bills has yet been finalized, let alone
passed into law, so they may change.
“These are very complex systems,
with five- to seven-year sales cycles,”
pointed out Schue, “and the process
is even slower now due to the
pandemic. With adequate funding,
eLoran signals could start becoming
available in the contiguous United
States within a year of a service
contract being signed. We should
recall that GPS—as, indeed all of
the GNSS—was brought online
gradually as satellites were developed
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NOVEMBER 2021
UrsaNav
and launched into space. There
should be no expectation that any
other nationwide system would be
available at the flip of a switch instead
of through gradual implementation.”
International Developments
L or an - C and e L or an op e r ate
internationally. Saudi Arabia, China
and Russia continue to operate
Loran-C or Chayka systems. In
October 2020, a Chinese paper
described how the nation is expanding
Loran to its west to cover the whole
countr y to protect itself from
disruptions of space-based services.
A previously published report made
it clear that they are upgrading or have
upgraded from Loran-C to eLoran.
South Korea has an ongoing project
to upgrade its Loran-C to eLoran.
It also seems the project will ensure
that the South Korean system will be
useable on its own, even if the Russian
and Chinese systems with which it
normally cooperates are not available
for some reason, according to Dana
Goward, president of the Resilient
Navigation and Timing Foundation.
The United Kingdom is still
committed to eLoran, and operates
one station that has been used as an

alternative time reference to GNSS. “However, as the sole
station still transmitting in that area of Europe it’s of no
use for positioning,” said Nunzio Gambale, CEO of Locata
Corporation. “Unfortunately, the EU’s shutdown of their
old Loran sites seems to have been completed, and no
EU-based Loran sites remain operational. Their actions
leave scant hope for Loran’s resurrection any time soon
as an alternative to GNSS positioning in Europe. That’s a
shame, because eLoran has beneficial PNT characteristics
that other alternate technologies will struggle to replicate.”
Advocacy
“There is fairly good agreement across the PNT community
that there is no sole solution [to GPS vulnerabilities],”
Schue said. “It needs to be a system of systems.” The
PNT community, he said, is working with Congress and
the administration “to move ahead with actual RFPs to
start the contracting process — instead of continuing to
admire the problem.” UrsaNav, NextNav, OPNT and other
companies and organizations “are working together as best
as we can to tell the federal government that we all believe
in a system-of-systems approach and that there ought to
be some tangible forward motion.”
NOVEMBER 2021
ALTERNATIVE PNT
/
eLoran has an accuracy
of better than 20 meters
and in many cases better
than 10 meters.
While DOT has the lead on providing PNT resiliency, it
and the departments of Defense and Homeland Security
need to cooperate on this, Schue argued. “Many, if not all,
of the other departments — such as Commerce, Energy,
State, Interior and Agriculture — also have a stake.”
GNSS will remain for a reason. “Unless a new national
terrestrial PNT system moves the game forward for
many markets, it’s just far too easy to remain with the
GNSS system, which is fundamentally free,” Gambale
said. “That’s a really difficult price point to compete
with, unless you’re delivering significant new value to
the market.”
The time to act is now. “This issue has been studied
to death for more than 20 years,” Goward said. “There
are technologies ready to deploy. It is time for action. A
failure of national PNT will be catastrophic.”
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WWW.GPSWORLD.COM G P S W O R L D 27

MODE N
An Alternative Positioning,
Navigation and Timing System for Aviation
BY Brandon Weaver, Gianluca Zampieri and Okuary Osechas
T
o accommodate the continued growth of air
traffic, air navigation service providers (ANSPs)
are planning and implementing programs to
increase the capacity and efficiency of airspace.
These programs, which include the Next Generation Air
Transportation System (NextGen) led by the U.S. Federal
Aviation Administration (FAA) and the Single European
Sky ATM (Air Traffic Management) Research Programme
(SESAR) commissioned by the European Union, heavily
rely on GNSS to enable certain capabilities to reach program
goals. While intended to serve as the primary source of
positioning, navigation and timing (PNT) for aviation
services going forward, GNSS is vulnerable to sources of
interference. For this reason, efforts have been taken to
identify and develop an alternative PNT (APNT) system that
can maintain capabilities supported by GNSS when a GNSS
outage occurs.
The ANSP for Germany, Deutsche Flugsicherung (DFS),
has proposed a concept for such a system that they call Mode
N. The proposed design leverages current navigation and
surveillance technology to provide a completely new solution
to navigation. As the current APNT environment is filled
with a variety of proposed solutions spanning the entire
field of communications, navigation and surveillance (CNS)
technologies, it is useful to describe Mode N within the context
of these other APNT systems. This contextual description
serves to highlight the interaction of Mode N with current
aviation systems — an important consideration for any system
intended to serve aviation users. Additionally, as the Mode N
design uses similar technological principles as other navigation
and surveillance systems, the extensive research performed
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28 G P S W O R L D WWW.GPSWORLD.COM NOVEMBER 2021
WITH RICHARD B. LANGLEY
Photo: guvendemir/E+/Getty Images. All figures provided by the authors.
for APNT can be applied to the Mode N design to provide
a preliminary assessment of its navigation performance over
Germany.
DEVELOPMENT OF APNT
The current state of aviation navigation can be simplified by
acknowledging that GNSS has replaced legacy navigation
systems such as Distance Measuring Equipment (DME) and
VHF Omnidirectional Range (VOR) beacons as the primary
method of navigation for aircraft. GNSS PNT services enable
many capabilities in the airspace that are relied upon by
modernization efforts to accommodate the expected increase
in air traffic in a safe and efficient manner. Because of GNSS
vulnerabilities outlined in the 2001 Volpe Report, it was
recognized that an alternative system that could enable the
same capabilities as GNSS would be necessary to continue
safe and efficient operation of airspace as envisioned if GNSS
is unavailable.
Proposed APNT solutions are generally sourced from the
existing CNS environment. A common strategy is to use an
aviation-certified signal not originally intended for navigation,
which we have termed repurposed aviation signals (RAS). Other
proposals include improving legacy systems, transmitting the
ground-computed position to an aircraft, and creating new
systems entirely. These sources of APNT are summarized in
FIGURE 1 with explanations of the abbreviations to follow.
A natural candidate for APNT is the use of existing non-
GNSS navigation infrastructure. Prior to GNSS, VOR beacons
providing beacon-relative heading information and DME
navaids supplying two-way range information were the primary
navigation infrastructure. Improvement in DME avionics
enabled tracking of multiple DME stations, providing a DME-
only position solution referred to as DME/DME. Adding DME
ground stations and upgrading existing hardware to increase
accuracy and coverage of DME/DME positioning was therefore
an attractive APNT option.
Another option sourced from the existing navigation
infrastructure was to use RAS for positioning. One such RAS
is that of the DME reply signal to a non-existent aircraft. By
triggering DME responses in a desired fashion, aircraft can use
the triggered responses for passive ranging without any change
to the DME ground stations.
Communication systems for aviation are also undergoing
modernization efforts. Future communication systems (FCS)
are being developed to provide broadband communication
capability between aircraft and controllers.
Surveillance is the domain of ground-based systems that
determine the position of remote objects and is fundamental
to allowing safe spacing of aircraft. Its origins reside in the
development of primary radar, which was then complemented
with secondary surveillance radar (SSR). Both primary radar
and SSR use a rotating antenna to measure range and bearing
to determine the location of the remote objects. Radar systems
tend to be clustered around airports, limiting their area of
coverage. To expand coverage in challenging terrain where radar
is difficult to install, a technique known as multilateration is
used, where a surveillance ground system can receive a signal
from an aircraft and determine its position by comparing
the time of arrival (TOA) of the signal between its ground
stations. These systems were considered as a source of APNT
by providing the aircraft position computed on the ground
back to the aircraft via data uplink, but timely authentication
and integrity concerns have stalled this approach in the United
States.
Surveillance RAS for APNT. The other branch of surveillance-
sourced APNT is by using RAS, and this is very relevant to the
design of Mode N. The system providing many of the RAS for
navigation is ADS-B. With this service, an aircraft broadcasts its
GNSS-derived position (ADS-B Out) to ground-based stations
and any aircraft capable of receiving ADS-B transmissions.
ADS-B is an important part of airspace modernization

INNOVATION INSIGHTS either shut down, reduced in their

BY RICHARD B. LANGLEY
IT’S A FACT. GPS and its brethren
global (and regional) navigation
satellite systems are susceptible
to outages caused by both natural
and engineered events. Several
reports issued in the past couple
of decades have documented the
vulnerability of GNSS. Twenty
years ago this past August, the U.S.
Department of Transportation’s John
A. Volpe National Transportation
Systems Center issued a report,
commonly referred to as the Volpe
Report, in which they found that
“GPS service is susceptible to
unintentional disruptions from
ionospheric effects, blockage from
buildings, and interference from
narrow and wideband sources.”
Although not explicitly mentioned in
the report, besides emissions from
communications systems, wideband
interference can come from solar
radio noise storms overpowering
GPS signals. The report also
highlighted that the “GPS signal
is subject to degradation and loss
through attacks by hostile interests.
Potential attacks cover the range from
jamming and spoofing of GPS signals
to disruption of GPS ground stations
and satellites.”
The Volpe Report recommended
a number of actions to mitigate the
vulnerabilities of the GPS signal to
disruption or loss, including the need
for backups for positioning, navigation
and timing — particularly for GPS
applications involving the potential
for life-threatening situations such as
the loss of GPS use for safety-of-life
navigation, which would include, for
example, aircraft navigation.
With the introduction of GPS
(and subsequently the other GNSS
and their augmentations) and
its widespread adoption by the
aviation industry, legacy navigation
systems such as Omega, aviation
radiobeacons, VHF Omnidirectional
Range (VOR) and Distance
Measuring Equipment (DME), were
number of installations, or displaced
as the primary method of navigation.
These systems could not offer the
same capabilities as GNSS, and that
has led to the high reliance now on
GNSS for getting aircraft safely from
one airport to another.
But as the Volpe Report pointed
out, GPS and (by inference) all other
GNSS are susceptible to outages,
and so a reliable alternative PNT
system that can be readily used
for aircraft navigation is needed.
Deutsche Flugsicherung, the German
air traffic control organization, has
proposed such a system, called
Mode N. It builds on some aspects
of existing navigation systems and
aviation-certified signals not originally
intended for navigation, including
some used for communications and
surveillance. In this month’s column, a
team of researchers from the German
Aerospace Center introduce us to
Mode N, looking at its signal format,
required ground infrastructure, aircraft
avionics and the potential position
accuracy this system could offer.

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NOVEMBER 2021 WWW.GPSWORLD.COM G P S W O R L D 29
strategies; it is mandated for aircraft operating in most U.S.
airspace, with European mandates following suit. ADS-B
ground stations, referred to as ground-based transceivers (GBT)
or radio stations (ADS-B RS), collect ADS-B Out messages
for use by air traffic operators. These ADS-B RS also provide
their own transmissions for use by aircraft that can receive
ADS-B broadcasts (ADS-B In capability) and include weather
information, nearby air traffic and so on.
ADS-B can use different protocols to transmit its signals.
The Mode S (S for selective) protocol was designed to allow
SSR ground stations to selectively interrogate aircraft in their
coverage area, reducing congestion on the reply frequency.
The Mode S reply format consists of a four-pulse preamble
and a data block containing either 56 or 112 information
bits for the aircraft to provide information dependent on the
interrogation received. Mode S is internationally standardized,
and an extended format known as Mode S Extended Squitter
was adopted for Automatic Dependent Surveillance Broadcast
(ADS-B) services. Mode S Extended Squitter or 1090ES (as
it’s transmitted exclusively on 1090 MHz) is also used by the
ADS-B RS that rebroadcast ADS-B Out (ADS-R) and provide
traffic information services (TIS-B) to nearby aircraft with
ADS-B In capability.
Another protocol, used in the United States, is the Universal
Access Transceiver (UAT) format. Like 1090ES, UAT is used by
certain aircraft to transmit their ADS-B Out messages. Similarly,
ADS-B RS transmits TIS-B and ADS-R messages with the UAT
protocol; it also includes additional information that it transmits
with the Flight Information Service – Broadcast (FIS-B). UAT
signals are transmitted in the United States on an unused
DME channel frequency of 978 MHz. FIGURE 2 summarizes the
relationship between these surveillance signals and the services
that use them.
Research investigating the ground-transmitted (ADS-B RS)
1090ES and UAT signals for ranging measurements greatly
supports the assessment of Mode N presented here, as the
FIGURE 1 Sources of APNT for navigation.
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30 G P S W O R L D WWW.GPSWORLD.COM NOVEMBER 2021
Mode N system operates on a similar basis with a signal that
blends characteristics of 1090ES and UAT.
MODE N OVERVIEW
Mode N (N for navigation) is a passive ranging system concept
from DFS that seeks to provide APNT while reducing the
spectrum congestion caused by existing aeronautical navigation
and surveillance systems. The design includes the possibility for
two-way and air-to-air ranging, but this overview focuses on the
preferred passive mode of operation. It is designed around the
Mode S format, which as mentioned, is used for SSR and ADS-B
services. Despite early references to an SSR/N system, Mode
N is not a new SSR mode but rather a new navigation system.
The basic concept is for Mode N ground stations to transmit
on a single frequency signals that include ground station ID/
coordinates, allowing aircraft with Mode N avionics to receive
those signals and determine position in a similar manner to
GNSS. As a single frequency is desired to minimize spectrum
usage, the ground stations would space their transmissions apart
to avoid intersystem interference. This scheme, known as time
division multiple access (TDMA), would require information
within the signal message on the scheduled time a ground
station transmits, which the Mode N format allows.
Because Mode N shares many design aspects with Mode S,
DME and other surveillance RAS, it is able to leverage previous
APNT work for the benefit of its own analysis. Therefore, the
overview of the design is described here relative to other APNT
systems, as this is the basis of the preliminary performance
assessment we present.
The Mode N Signal. The Mode N design proposes using the
Mode S downlink signal format as the basis for its ranging signal
to be used by the aircraft for passive position determination,
with some key differences. The frequency channel on 1090
MHz is too congested to accommodate more signals; thus, the
first difference is that Mode N intends to transmit on a different
frequency. While the channel selection is still ongoing, unused
DME channels have been identified as options for frequency
allocation.
The second difference is the message content. As the Mode S
downlink format transmits mainly aircraft-specific information,
Mode N ground transmitters would instead populate their
messages with information needed for passive ranging: ground
station coordinates and time of transmission (TOT). The
study of 1090ES messages (which also contain aircraft-specific
information despite being transmitted by ground stations) as
RAS required some special techniques to first identify which
station was transmitting the message. The TOT is not present in
1090ES signals, but more importantly the time of transmission
is not synchronized to any consistent reference. Aside from
transmission frequency and message content, the Mode N
signal design follows the Mode S downlink format (modulation,
pulse shape and so on).

FIGURE 2 Services using Mode S and UAT signal formats.
The Mode N signal also shares some aspects with the UAT
signal, particularly the FIS-B segment. First, UAT is also
transmitted in the United States on an unused DME channel.
The FIS-B message, which provides weather information,
transmits the ground station coordinates and information that
can be used to estimate the TOT. Specifically, UAT messages
are synced to UTC, and each ADS-B RS has a designated time
slot within a one-second interval where it transmits its FIS-B
message. This time slot is included in the message, and can be
used to determine the TOT of the signal. Mode N is designed
to work in this exact manner, minus the weather information.
One crucial difference between UAT and the Mode N design is
the type of modulation. Like Mode S, Mode N proposes using
pulse-position-modulation (PPM) or on-off keying (OOK). The
resulting wider bandwidth — estimated to be less than 4.6 MHz
at –3dB — has better resistance to multipath, whereas UAT is
frequency modulated to maintain a narrow bandwidth to avoid
interference with DME and is more susceptible to multipath.
Research on UAT signals for pseudoranging capability (also
determined at a higher update rate than once per second) would
be necessary for navigation, an important consideration for the
final Mode N design.
Ground Infrastructure. The Mode N design, while based on RAS
from the surveillance capability, requires new ground stations
to transmit the Mode N signal. Requirements for the ground
stations are that they provide adequate coverage to meet the
requirements of an APNT system and that they are sufficiently
synchronized in time. An initial time-synchronization scheme
is the use of a radio frequency (RF) network consisting of the
ground stations themselves, which requires radio line-of-
sight of stations throughout the network. DFS performed a
study and found that additional time-beacon stations would
be necessary to maintain this RF time network, even though
navigation coverage was provided using existing DME sites as
hypothetical Mode N stations. Since these aspects of the design
are still developing, the preliminary assessment we present
assumes a network layout and time synchronization tolerance.
As the Mode N design blends various CNS principles, a natural
baseline design for the ground station locations consists of
NOVEMBER 2021
existing DME and surveillance sites in Germany. Using these
locations for the ground stations enables computation of a
horizontal dilution of precision (HDOP) at discrete locations
throughout Germany. The assumed time synchronization is
discussed further when developing a model of the Mode N
ranging accuracy.
Avionics. An interesting aspect of the Mode N design is its
proposed avionics unit. The Mode N avionics must be capable
of receiving Mode N messages, which it can do with the existing
DME antennas on aircraft. The Mode N avionics unit must
then decode the messages for position determination. Its active
mode for two-way and air-to-air ranging would require the
Mode N avionics to transmit Mode N messages, again using
the existing DME antenna.
Recognizing the continuing investment in the DME network
by multiple countries, the Mode N avionics sensor is essentially
built around a fully functional DME unit. This is intended to
provide a seamless transition as Mode N stations are brought on
line. The design of the avionics has little effect on the coverage
assessment, aside from guaranteeing a minimum level of
performance based on the current DME network, but is an
important part of the implementation strategy. Furthermore,
this blend of avionics has also been proposed for a unit
compatible with DME and ADS-B (1090ES and UAT) signals.
PRELIMINARY COVERAGE ASSESSMENT
Preliminary coverage assessments are a typical method to
determine the feasibility of a proposed system to provide the
required level of performance over a given area. A simple
method of characterizing the position performance is in terms
of the linear relationship between range error and DOP, where
the range errors are assumed to be zero-mean, uncorrelated,
and have identical distributions.
As the aircraft is assumed to have additional sensors
for determining its altitude, HDOP is commonly used to
characterize the expected horizontal position performance.
With range measurements, HDOP is a function of the
transmitter geometry available to an aircraft at a given point.
It is a straightforward computation to perform for a grid of
points over the area of interest. The HDOP computation does
depend on the type of range measurement, so passive (pseudo-)
range, two-way range, and time difference of arrival (TDOA)
measurements all have their corresponding DOP computation.
Determining a model for the range error is less straightforward,
and assessing the coverage potential of Mode N requires an
estimation of the expected range error.
Modeling Mode N Range Accuracy. As Mode N is not an
existing system, abundant quantities of real measurements
are unavailable for empirically characterizing the range
performance. However, since Mode N is heavily based on the
Mode S signal format and functions similarly to the DME and
UAT signals, which all exist and have been measured extensively,
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WWW.GPSWORLD.COM G P S W O R L D 31
research investigating those signals can help derive the model
for the Mode N range performance.
An alternate approach is to reference the standards
for a specified performance level. For example, ICAO
documentation specifies that the Airborne Collision
Avoidance System (ACAS) logic use a zero-mean normal
distribution range error model with a standard deviation of 50
feet, or about 15 meters. As ACAS also uses the Mode S signal
format, this appears to be a reasonable source for the Mode
N range error. However, since ACAS is an airborne two-way
surveillance method, it does not exactly translate to a ground-
based passive TDOA system such as Mode N. The 15-meter
standard deviation is still useful, as it provides a check on the
estimated Mode N accuracy. Other specifications suffer from
similar drawbacks — Mode N does not directly apply to any
single system. Thus, we apply the blended approach using
previous APNT research.
The fundamental measurement for the passive ranging mode
of Mode N is the TDOA between pairs of ground stations.
This measurement is in seconds, and is translated to a range
difference by using the speed of radio signal propagation in a
vacuum. (See our conference paper for further details.)
Errors can be present in the TOA measurement,
synchronization of the nominal TOT of the signals, and
parsing of the time slot data field. The TOA measurement can
have errors by inaccurate determination of the actual TOA due
to noise or multipath and by the actual TOA differing from the
nominal arrival time of the signal due to atmospheric delay.
For terrestrial systems, propagation errors are considered to
be dominated by multipath, so we don’t consider atmospheric
affects here. Time synchronization errors are very important
to the ranging accuracy, but it is assumed the time slot data
field is parsed accurately. Other sources of error, such as
inaccurate ground station coordinates, can affect the position
FIGURE 3 Estimated position error (in meters) for aircraft within a 100 nautical
mile coverage radius using existing surveillance sites as installation locations for
Mode N ground stations.
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32 G P S W O R L D WWW.GPSWORLD.COM NOVEMBER 2021
error but have no effect on the range error. Additionally, the
error originating from the change in aircraft position between
reception of signals at ground stations is not considered in this
article. The model of range accuracy can then be expressed
as the root-sum-square (RSS) of the dominant individual
error components.
We studied each error component in isolation, selecting the
applicable APNT research to leverage based on the Mode N
design aspect that most corresponds with that error.
Since the Mode N design also uses a pulsed signal, the
evaluation of DME (specifically, DME/N) ranging performance
is the starting point for estimating the TOA noise error. Part of
the APNT effort was evaluating current DME performance,
as it was thought it exceeded the specified performance in
standards. A study found that current DME performance
allowed a budgeted TOA error of 15 meters, 2σ.
For the Mode N error model, a 7.5-meter error is an
attractive option to choose as it is the average of two other
sources and is the most recent. This value is a conservative
estimate of the TOA accuracy for Mode N because the Mode
N/S pulse shape is narrower than the DME pulse with a
greater bandwidth, improving theoretical accuracy. For the
preliminary coverage assessment, a conservative estimate is
desired, because the actual TOA accuracy will vary over an
area depending on transmitter distance — which impacts
the level of signal noise. Note that the DME TOA errors are
not divided by two as is done for the total DME error as they
apply to a one-way TOA measurement.
After assessing the relevant studies, we modeled the
multipath component of the error following that from Mode
S as 7 meters, 1σ.
The final error component to estimate for Mode N is that
of the synchronization of the ground stations. Based on the
results from studies of the UAT signal and those from eLoran,
we set a 15-meter maximum bias as a 2σ error component in
the Mode N error model.
Our error analysis is summarized in TABLE 1.
A total 2σ error for current DME performance of 92 meters
has been established, which translates to 46 meters of range
accuracy after dividing by two (since the DME signal is a two-
way range). A substantial part of this error derives from the
avionics bias, which is minimized for a “potential” DME error
budget due to an assumed improved avionics performance. This
results in a DME range 2σ error of 34 meters. We chose this
value to compare as the effect of avionics has less of an impact
in a passive ranging system such as Mode N.
Range performance for UAT signals was evaluated with
measurements showing 20-meter (1σ) error when compared
to GNSS truth, not including large biases attributed to ground
station synchronization or processing errors. The 1090ES
signals do not have an inherent ranging capability, so the
TDOA measurement error of two ground station signals to
 Error (1σ) Value (meters) To determine whether this level of accuracy is sufficient
TOA determination (noise) 7.5
for the airspace modernization efforts in Europe, the desired
Required Navigation Performance (RNP) accuracy requirement
Multipath 7 must be examined. For RNP 1.0, where 1.0 refers to the required
Ground station synch. 7.5 95% or 2σ total system error (TSE) accuracy in nautical miles,
σrange 13 the position error allocation is assumed to be 30% of the RNP/
TABLE 1 Predicted Mode N range accuracy. TSE value. The required position accuracy is shown in TABLE 3.
From Figure 3, aircraft at altitudes within the service volume
Range accuracy supported by a 100-nautical-mile coverage radius are capable of
Signal Notes
(2σ) meeting the accuracy requirement for RNP 1.0 and 0.3 within
Mode N (estimated) 26 m most of Germany. Coverage along the border is unavailable as
only German surveillance site locations were used.
Assuming improved
DME 34 m DME avionics.
CONCLUSIONS
Large biases not
UAT (from RS) 40 m Although our derivation of accuracy and the coverage assessment
included in value.
method we used made several simplifying assumptions, the
Does not include results indicate that Mode N has the potential to be a feasible
ground station
1090ES (from RS) 14 m synchronization APNT system. To be a part of the modern airspace navigation
errors. infrastructure, additional accuracy requirements must also be
Used in ACAS met. The integrity requirement is harder to meet than accuracy,
Mode S (standards) 30 m avoidance logic. and requires either redundant information available to the
TABLE 2 Comparison of Mode N with other APNT signals. aircraft for a receiver autonomous integrity monitoring-like
algorithm or a ground-based monitoring/augmentation system.
RNP designation TSE, 95% (2σ) Position Error (1σ) Perhaps the biggest challenge to implementing the Mode N
infrastructure is maintaining an RF-based time synchronization
1.0 1.0 nmi (1852 m) 0.3 nmi (556 m)
network. Convincing aircraft operators to update their avionics
0.3 0.3 nmi (556 m) 0.09 nmi (167 m) is another challenge to Mode N implementation, although the
TABLE 3 RNP required horizontal position accuracy. inclusion of DME functionality in the Mode N avionics seeks
to ease that transition.
one receiving station is difficult to measure. Instead, researchers
have measured the differential TOA (DTOA) of one ground DISCLAIMER
station signal received by two (GPS-synchronized) receiving The views expressed herein are those of the authors and are not
stations to first identify which station transmitted the signal. to be construed as official or reflecting the views of Deutsche
When compared to the true DTOA based on ground station Flugsicherung.
and receiving station coordinates, the measurements contained
small biases around 10 meters with a standard deviation also ACKNOWLEDGMENT
less than 10 meters. Being DTOA measurements, these do not This article is based on the paper “An Overview of the Proposed
contain ground station synchronization errors, so the reported Mode N System in the Context of Alternative Position,
standard deviations correspond mostly with propagation and Navigation, and Timing (APNT) Development” presented
determining TOA. The 10-meter DTOA 1σ error can still be at ION ITM 2021, the virtual 2021 International Technical
converted to a range error resulting in 14 meters (2σ). These Meeting of The Institute of Navigation, Jan. 25–28, 2021.
results are summarized in TABLE 2.
Coverage Assessment. With the estimated ranging accuracy, BRANDON WEAVER is a researcher at the German Aerospace Center (DLR)
and works on alternative navigation systems.
a preliminary coverage over Germany could now be assessed.
GIANLUCA ZAMPIERI joined the Alternative Navigation Systems Group at DLR’s
Using the current 29 surveillance site locations in Germany Institute for Communication and Navigation in 2019.
and assuming that a minimum of three stations is necessary for OKUARY OSECHAS leads the Alternative Navigation Systems Group in the
positioning, the estimated position accuracy is shown in FIGURE 3. Institute of Communications and Navigation at DLR.
The coverage assessment used a “flat” Germany model with
the estimated range accuracy from the preceding section (13 MORE ONLINE
meters, 1σ). Atmospheric and terrain considerations were not Further Reading
applied in the assessment. It is important to note that this level For references related to this article, go to gpsworld.com and click on "More" in
the navigation bar, then on "Innovation."
of coverage would degrade at lower altitudes.

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NOVEMBER 2021 WWW.GPSWORLD.COM G P S W O R L D 33
 MARKET Segment Snapshot:
Applications, Trends & News

SURVEYING WATCH 2

Javad GNSS Launches MCAnt-3S Receiver

Latest field device is based on company’s Triumph-3 chip

J
avad GNSS has launched

Javad GNSS
a new field receiver
based on the technology
implemented in its
Tr i u m p h - 3 c h i p , w h i c h w a s
introduced in May.
The MCAnt-3S receiver hosts
874 GNSS signal channels, allowing
it to track all current and future
GNSS signals. It can be mounted
on flat surfaces with four screws or
mounted on standard poles.
MCAnt-3S combines the receiver
with a high-performance GNSS
antenna in a compact and robust
housing that is easy to mount, making The MCAnt-3S is based on the company’s Triumph-3 chip.
it suitable for machine control
applications. Communication is The module contains two special- very long navigation signals (up to
provided via CAN 2.0, USB 2.0 and purpose filters: an anti-jamming 16,284 symbols) with a sensitivity of
RS-232/RS-422 interface. filter based on an adaptive LMS –150 dBm and run as the equivalent
Of the 874 channels in the algorithm and a classic FIR filter to of 130,000 correlators.
Triumph-3 chip, 864 are general- suppress static interference.
purpose GNSS channels and 10 are The fast-acquisition module
additional QZSS LEX channels. Each combines four independent
general-purpose channel consists of modules, each of which can search
10 correlators and a memory-code
engine that allows reception of all
existing GPS, GLONASS, Galileo,
QZSS, WAAS, EGNOS and BeiDou MCANT-3S 874
signals with BOC and Alt-BOC ALL-IN-VIEW CHANNELS
capability. The memory-code engine
is designed for existing truncated ■ GPS C/A, L1C (P+D) including TMBOC (6,1,4/33), P1, P2, L2C
PN-code signals as well as future (L+M), L5 (I+Q)
signals. • GLONASS C/A, P1, P2, L2C, L3 (I+Q)
Before reaching the GNSS • Galileo E1 (B+C) including CBOC (6,1,1/11), E5A (I+Q), E5B
channels, the navigation signal goes (I+Q), Alt-BOC, E6 (B+C)
through a sophisticated RF data- • QZSS C/A, L1C ( P+D) including TMBOC (6,1,4/33), L2C (L+M),
processing module. This module L5 (I+Q), L6 (L61/L62), L1S, L1Sb, L5S
performs digital filtering of input • BeiDou B1, B1C (P+D) including TMBOC (6,1,4/33), B2B (I+Q),
signals to divide the spectrum by B2, B2A (I+Q), AltBoc, B3
several frequency bands (L1, L2, • IRNSS L5
L5, etc.). • SBAS L1, L5 (P+D)

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34 G P S W O R L D WWW.GPSWORLD.COM NOVEMBER 2021
 MARKET WATCH

SURVEYING 2

Hi-Target Receiver Ready for the Field

Hi-Target
H
i-Target has introduced a new GNSS receiver, the
V200. The real-time kinematic (RTK) receiver V200 FEATURES
has an integrated nine-axis inertial measurement
unit (IMU) to provide superior performance and high ADVANCED RTK
efficiency in support of fieldwork. ■ Full constellation support (receives
The advanced RTK engine and new-generation nine- GPS, GLONASS, Galileo, BDS, QZSS,
axis IMU guarantees a 25% performance improvement SBAS, IRNSS)
over the company’s previous V100 model, even in • 800+ channels
demanding environments, Hi-Target said. It is designed • 9-axis IMU for better tilt survey
to be easy to use and carry. performance
A smart Hi-Fix function supports the receiver to • Increases productivity by 25%
increase stability. Hi-Fix enables continuous connectivity
and quality results even if the signal is lost while using OTHER FEATURES
an RTK base station or VRS network under extreme • Lightweight at 820 grams
circumstances. • Can work continuously for more than
The V200 represents a step forward in the development 12 hours The V200.
of GNSS receivers towards miniaturization, according to • Supported by the latest Hi-Survey Road
Hi-Target. software and smart Hi-Fix function

THE TRIMBLE DA2

RECEIVER boosts the
performance of the
Trimble Catalyst GNSS
positioning service.
Trimble

Trimble DA2 GNSS Receiver

Launched for Catalyst

T
rimble has launched the Trimble DA2 GNSS receiver
for its Catalyst positioning service. The DA2 — the
second-generation receiver and antenna for the
Catalyst service — includes the Trimble ProPoint GNSS engine
for enhanced performance. ProPoint technology reduces
convergence times and improves positioning accuracy when
operating near trees and buildings.
Trimble Catalyst is a subscription-based GNSS positioning
service for field applications. The service is available in
accuracy-based packages from centimeter- to submeter-level
for a wide range of mapping and mobile geographic information
system (GIS) data-collection projects. Catalyst continues to
support a broad range of GIS field applications, including
Trimble TerraFlex software, for form-based GIS data collection.
The DA2 also supports iOS devices.

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NOVEMBER 2021 WWW.GPSWORLD.COM G P S W O R L D 35
 MARKET WATCH

MAPPING 2

Septentrio, SBG Systems Partner on Post-Processing

SBG Systems
eptentrio will now offer post-processing solutions
for its GNSS/INS (inertial navigation system)
receivers, using SBG Systems’ Qinertia software.
The AsteRx-i3 Pro+ receivers are fully compatible
with Qinertia post-processing software, therefore no data
manipulation is required before the post-processing step.
Land or aerial mapping applications that do not have
access to real-time GNSS corrections benefit from post-
processing software for higher positioning and orientation
(heading, pitch and roll) accuracy. In case of GNSS outage
or correction link failure, post-processing recovers accuracy
for recorded positioning and inertial data. WITH THE ADDITION OF QINERTIA POST-PROCESSING, Septentrio GNSS/INS
After the mission, Qinertia gives access to real-time products cover the full mapping workflow.
kinematic (RTK) corrections from more than 8,000 base
stations to deliver centimeter level accuracy. Trajectory and accuracy, reliability, advanced quality-control indicators,
orientation are greatly improved by post processing GNSS and a modern application programming interface (API).
and IMU data forward and backward. The Qinertia GNSS/ Qinertia recently added an image geotagging feature, and
INS post-processed kinematic (PPK) solution provides specific outputs dedicated to photogrammetry.

NEWSBRIEFS
NEW POSPAC LICENSES EOS POSITIONING CERTIFIED

OFFERED FOR MAPS, UAVS
Applanix, a Trimble Company, has
introduced new term licenses with full
maintenance and support for its desktop
post-processing software — POSPac Mobile
Mapping Suite (POSPac MMS) and POSPac
Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (POSPac UAV).
The options offer lower upfront initial
investments and provide customers with full
access to future releases and 24/7 customer
support.
The POSPac PP-RTX for UAV subscription is
newly available with varying term lengths.
POSPac PP-RTX enables data processing
without a base station. The correction data
is available within minutes after mission
completion and requires a single button click
in POSPac to launch. Customers will be able
to process up to 30 minutes of dynamic data
from the UAV platform.
Topcon
Eos Positioning Systems, manufacturer of the
Arrow Series GNSS receivers, is now certified
on the U.S. Federal Contractor Registration
(USFCR) System for Award Management (SAM)
for NDAA 2019, Section 889. SAM registration is
required to bid on federal contracts.
TOPNET LIVE GNSS EXPANDS
Topcon Positioning Group has expanded its
Topnet Live GNSS network, with more types of
correction services and subscription options.
Topnet Live uses all four GNSS constellations:
GPS, GLONASS, Galileo and BeiDou to provide TOPNET Live uses all four GNSS.
continuous accuracy and always-on service
coverage. maintain connectivity if the customer
temporarily leaves RTK coverage. OEMs can
sell their hardware with correction services
Options include Realpoint (RTK) and Starpoint
(PPP). Each service has varying delivery onboard and preconfigured for use by
customers, regardless of geographic location,
methods, coverage and centimeter-level
accuracy. Skybridge — an RTK service with flexible subscription and licensing
options.
supported by PPP — also is available to

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36 G P S W O R L D WWW.GPSWORLD.COM NOVEMBER 2021
 MARKET WATCH

MAPPING 2

Connect 2.0 Improves Accuracy of GeoSLAM Scanner

T
he SLAM-based mapping system GeoSLAM

GeoSLAM
released a software update at the Intergeo 2021
trade show, held in September in Hannover,
Germany.
Connect 2.0 enables GeoSLAM scanners to achieve a
higher level of accuracy than the previous software release.
Colorization from the new ZEB Vision panoramic camera
provides more visual context to a point cloud, as well as
interactive “bubble” walkthroughs and measurements.
The update is powered with the next generation of the
GeoSLAM Beam algorithm, which includes new filtering
and georeferencing tools to help users get the best results THE LATEST VERSION of GeoSLAM’s software improves the output of its
from their datasets. scanner using an upated algorithm.
Connect 2.0 also simplifies data processing through
a series of workflow scripts, including automatic data capture or automated robotic navigation, users can see the
processing, stop-and-go georeferencing and stop-and-go point cloud and trajectory in real time. The ZEB Revo RT can
alignment. be used on and off a robotic platform.

REAL-TIME PROCESSING
GeoSLAM has also launched real-time SLAM processing
through remote access. Using an API for remote data
0/.-,+*)/)+()('-&-%$#")('-
*/#/$!+ !/%$!#0/-#0#-
CONNECT 2.0 FEATURES
#/-+0- )('$0/),
■ Intuitive interface. The Connect viewer is
integrated into the main software interface,
making it easy to view multiple point clouds
simultaneously and measure the distance
between data points.
• Change detection. Multiple point clouds can
be compared, and any areas that have changed
are automatically highlighted. Point clouds
also can be compared with CAD models to
track progress on a construction site or view
changes between scans.
• Floor slices. Horizontal and vertical slices
can be taken from any location within the
point cloud. Horizontal floor slices also can be
automatically taken at any given height above
the floor. ,- -- 
• Environmental presets. Data is processed
according to the environment in which it was %
 --


captured (indoor, outdoor, UAV or vehicle). ,--0-
-



• Draw 4.0. Draw projects can be created

- -
-
--


automatically for any dataset.


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NOVEMBER 2021 WWW.GPSWORLD.COM G P S W O R L D 37
 MARKET WATCH

MOBILE 2

Mowi Open-Source Board Ready for Septentrio Mosaic

owi is an open-source reference design for
Septentrio’s highly accurate GNSS module mosaic. It
offers Wi-Fi and Bluetooth communication, which
can be easily programmed for custom applications.
Septentrio, a manufacturer of high-precision GNSS
positioning solutions, has added to its open-source resources
for GPS/GNSS module receivers with mosaic wireless, which
it calls Mowi.
Mowi combines the Septentrio mosaic-X5 or mosaic-H
module receiver with a dual-mode Bluetooth and integrated
Wi-Fi from the well-known ESP32-WROVER programmable
module by Espressif Systems. It is an addition to the already
existing mosaicHAT board, designed on the Raspberry Pi
platform.
“We are excited about the Mowi project being part of the
GitHub and prototyping community,” said Gustavo Lopez,
market access manager at Septentrio. “The project is available
as open-source, thus empowering the community to easily
fit autonomous or robotic systems with communication and
highly accurate and reliable GNSS positioning technology.
Mowi empowers the native Ethernet features of the mosaic
module, the perfect tool for fast prototyping and developing
proof-of-concept projects in a simple and connected way.”
The Mowi project facilitates accurate and reliable GNSS
positioning for robotic and autonomous devices, on a hardware
level. Numerous engineers today use the ESP32 and the multiple
libraries available for internet-of-things (IoT) prototyping. The
Mowi board is an easy way for integrators to get started with
Septentrio
THE MOWI BOARD helps designers apply GNSS to IoT applications.
Septentrio’s mosaic-X5 or mosaic-H heading module receivers.
The Mowi board can be used on its own or plugged into
a mobile computer such as Raspberry Pi or Arduino to
deliver high-accuracy positioning with high update rates,
suitable for machine navigation, monitoring or control. The
internet connection via Wi-Fi or Bluetooth enables numerous
industrial IoT applications, simplifying the connectivity to
mobile data for the delivery of GNSS corrections needed for
centimeter-level RTK positioning.
On top of the wireless communication, the 47.5 x 70 mm
board can host IoT applications in its internal memory. It has
onboard logging and exposes interfaces such as USB, serial
communication and general-purpose pins. The schematic’s
reference design, PCB layout and documentation are openly
available for prototyping or further customization.
The Mowi open-source project is available to the community
on the Septentrio GitHub repository.

Broadcom Chip Designed for Wearables Telit Launches IoT Series

B T
roadcom has launched the
BCM4778, its lowest power L1/
L5 GNSS receiver chip optimized
for mobile and wearable applications.
Equipped with the latest GNSS
innovations, the third-generation
chip is 35% smaller and consumes five
times less power than the previous
generation.
Dual-frequency GNSS continues to
be an important location feature for
modern mobile and wearable devices,
providing greater positioning accuracy
for location-based applications. The
advanced L5 signal enables sidewalk-
level accuracy for pedestrian navigation
in urban environments, as well as lane-
level accuracy for vehicle navigation.
Reduction in GNSS power
consumption is crucial to extending
the battery life of a mobile or wearable
device. Compared to GNSS receivers
used in integrated platforms,
Broadcom’s single-chip BCM4778
delivers significantly lower power
consumption and higher performance
while offering more advanced GNSS
features, such as the next-generation
Grid Tracking urban multipath mitigation
technology.
elit has launched the SE150A4
system-on-module series with
an embedded multi-constellation
GNSS (GPS, BeiDou, GLONASS and
Galileo) receiver for high-performance
positioning and navigation. It features
the Android OS and the Qualcomm
QCM2150, and is designed to serve
internet of things (IoT) device makers
and customers. The series is designed
for bandwidth-intensive applications
such as live, high-definition (1080p/30
fps) video from law enforcement
cameras, home security systems and
robots.

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38 G P S W O R L D WWW.GPSWORLD.COM NOVEMBER 2021
 MARKET WATCH

DEFENSE 2

Drone Refuels Fighter Jet in Navy and Boeing First

Kevin Flynn/Boeing
he U.S. Navy and Boeing used the MQ-25 T1 test asset
on Sept. 13 to refuel a U.S. Navy F-35C Lightning II
fighter jet for the first time, demonstrating the aircraft’s
ability to achieve its primary aerial refueling mission.
This was the third refueling mission for the Boeing-
owned test asset in just over three months, advancing the
test program for the Navy’s first operational carrier-based
unmanned aircraft. T1 refueled an F/A-18 Super Hornet in
June and an E-2D Hawkeye in August.
“Every test flight with another type/model/series aircraft
gets us one step closer to rapidly delivering a fully mission- THE SEPT. 13 TEST FLIGHT: T1 soon will be used to conduct a deck handling
capable MQ-25 to the fleet,” said Capt. Chad Reed, the Navy’s demonstration aboard a U.S. Navy carrier.
Unmanned Carrier Aviation program manager. “Stingray’s successful wake survey behind T1 to ensure performance
unmatched refueling capability is going to increase the Navy’s and stability before making contact with T1’s aerial refueling
power projection and provide operational flexibility to the drogue and receiving fuel.
Carrier Strike Group commanders.” The T1 flight test program began in September 2019 with
During a test flight on Sept. 13, an F-35C test pilot from the aircraft’s first flight. In the following two years, the test
the Navy’s Air Test and Evaluation Squadron conducted a program completed more than 120 flight hours.

® January 24-27, 2022

Tutorials: January 24
INSTITUTE OF NAVIGATION
Long Beach, California
ion.org

NTERNATIO
IN ONAL TTECHNICAL
INTERNATIONAL CAL M
ECHNIC EETIN
NG
MEETING

PRECISE TIME AND TIME INTERVAL

SSYSTEMS
YST AND APPLICATIONS MEETING

One Registration Fee,

Two Technical Events
and a Commercial Exhibit Regi
Register
i now at ion.org
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NOVEMBER 2021 WWW.GPSWORLD.COM G P S W O R L D 39
 MARKET WATCH

MACHINE CONTROL 2
Outback Guidance MaveriX Offers Tablet Experience

H
emisphere GNSS has announced the Outback Guidance

MaveriX for precision agriculture. The solution is built
around the new MaveriX agriculture software platform
that provides guidance, steering and application control.
The MaveriX application software includes a new user
interface that provides a tablet-like user experience with
improved 3D graphics. Adjustable widgets give users the
freedom to customize the interface.
New M7 and M10 terminals (7 inch and 10 inch) are the
centerpiece of the MaveriX. The M-series terminals deliver
the latest display technology, provide enhanced situational
awareness, and includes features like auto-scaling and pinch-
to-zoom.
The MaveriX provides superior centimeter-level
performance via the new eDriveM1 steering controller. The
eDriveM1 offers AB Straight, AB Contour, Freeform Contour
and Circle Pivot guidance modes and supports Shuttle Shift,
Reverse Steer and the Outback Guidance eTurns feature for
automated headland turns.
The eDriveM1 can be paired with the proven ESi2 Electric
Hemisphere GNSS
THE MAVERIX for ag is avaialble in 7-and 10-inch versions.
Wheel, existing OEM Steer Ready, or hydraulic retrofit
interfaces.
The A631 GNSS smart antenna delivers GNSS performance
at scalable accuracy levels using real-time kinematic (RTK),
SBAS and Hemisphere’s Atlas L-band service. It supports RTK
base functionality when paired with the Outback RTK radio
option.
The powerful MaveriX technology platform supports the
AC110 Rate and Section control to maximize implement
functions during planting, spraying and application tasks.

NovAtel SMART7 Now on Fendt Tractors CHCNAV Introduces

F
NX510 Pro Auto Steer
Fendt/NovAtel

endt m a c h i ne s i n Nor t h
America, Europe and the Middle
East equipped with Fendt
Guide guidance systems powered by
Fuse Smart Farming now come with
NovAtel’s SMART7 GNSS receiver as
the default configuration choice.
“We have been working with Nov-
Atel for years, and their support and
willingness to adapt to meet our needs
makes them the key GNSS receiver
supplier for our Fendt Guide guidance
system,” said Bernhard Schmitz,
director, FendtONE Market Readiness
and Agronomy EME. “They are easy
to work with and have high-quality
products that integrate seamlessly into
our machines.”
The SMART7 combines a powerful
GNSS receiver with a precision antenna
in a durable, all-in-one enclosure
designed to stand up to the vibration,
weather and temperature demands
SMART7 PROVIDES Fendt tractors with access
to multi-frequency signals.
of harsh agricultural environments.
Delivering exceptional positioning,
the SMART7 is optimized to succeed
in demanding agriculture and off-road
applications.
The SMART7 uses multi L-band
tracking to access TerraStar Correction
Services globally, bringing repeatable
centimeter-level accuracy to any
application, anywhere in the world.
C HC Navigation (CHCNAV) has
re l e a s e d t h e N X 5 1 0 P ro , a
high-accuracy automated steering
system designed for tillage, seeding,
fertilization, pesticide application and
harvesting.
With a steering controller and full
GNSS RTK capability, the NX510 Pro
can be quickly and easily mounted to
various types of tractors and other
farming vehicles to achieve ±2.5 cm
pass-to-pass accuracy.
Powered by local, network or
satellite-based RTK corrections, the
GNSS+INS terrain compensation
technology ensures ±2.5 cm hands-
free accuracy on any terrain. The
advanced controller ensures full RTK
accuracy in seconds, provides smooth
auto-steering and ensures repeatable
long-term accuracy.

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40 G P S W O R L D WWW.GPSWORLD.COM NOVEMBER 2021

SIMULATORS 2
Spirent and Qascom Join on OSNMA Tools for Galileo
S
pirent Communications and Qascom have
announced a simulation test solution for the
Galileo Open Service Navigation Message
Aut hent icat ion (OSNMA) me chanism.
SimOSNMA is designed to work with Spirent’s GNSS
simulation platforms to test OSNMA signal conformance,
which will bring new levels of robustness for both civilian
and commercial GNSS uses.
SimOSNMA provides developers with new simulation
tools to test for OSNMA, the security protocol that
enables GNSS receivers to verify the authenticity of
signals distributed from the Galileo satellite constellation.
Designed to combat spoofing, OSNMA ensures the data
received is authentic and has not been modified in any
way. It is now completing the test phase before its formal
launch.
SimOSNMA — now in the GSS7000 and GSS9000 —
enables developers to simulate and test OSNMA signals
ADVERTISER INDEX: COMPANIES FEATURED IN THIS ISSUE
Editor’s Note: This ad/edit index is for reader convenience only.
The publisher accepts no responsibility for errors or omissions.
ADVERTISER
MARKET WATCH
and features, allowing GNSS receiver manufacturers
and application developers to assure development
programs.
Qascom helped create the main test vectors for early
testing of the Galileo OSNMA and led the Position
Authenticated Tachograph for OSNMA Launch (PATROL)
project, which is the procurement process the European
Union Agency for the Space Program (EUSPA) is using
to implement OSNMA into automotive and mass-market
GNSS receivers.
“During the development of the first OSNMA receiver
prototype, we needed a tool that would allow us to
run tests in a controlled and repeatable environment,
generate reference data, test corner cases and system
events that seldomly occur in reality,” said Carlo Sarto,
head of Security Engineering Domain Area, Qascom.
“SimOSNMA will allow industries and agencies to speed
up the development and qualification of their systems.”
PAGE(S)



CAST NAVIGATION INSIDE FRONT COVER

 





EOS POSITIONING 27


INSTITUTE OF NAVIGATION (ION) 39

 
JAVAD INSIDE BACK COVER

NOVATEL BACK COVER

RACELOGIC 5

SBG SYSTEMS 19

SKYTRAQ TECHNOLOGY 37
Spirent Alternative RF Navigation Simulation System
SPIRENT FEDERAL 7, 41
Test concurrent alternative RF navigation and
SUZHOU FOIF 35 GNSS signals
Pedestrian and ground vehicle trajectories
TALLYSMAN 21 Available to authorized users
Contact us to learn more
UNICORE COMMUNICATIONS 25
U.S. Gov/Defense: Spirent Federal | spirentfederal.com
Global: Spirent Communications | spirent.com/pnt

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NOVEMBER 2021 WWW.GPSWORLD.COM G P S W O R L D 41
SEEN HEARD
TESLA’S TUSSLES
Tesla has offered “full self-driving” on its cars since 2016, but
most owners have never come close to experiencing a self-driving
Tesla, with owners telling CNN Business that they’ve lost confidence
in CEO Elon Musk’s predictions. Incidents of Teslas involved
in accidents while on autopilot haven’t helped. In California in
September, authorities arrested a woman for a DUI while her Tesla
drove on autopilot, while in August, another Tesla on autopilot
hit a parked police car in Florida. Unsurprisingly, the autopilot
feature has increasingly come under scrutiny by U.S. regulators and
lawmakers. Meanwhile, Musk announced a “Tesla Bot” humanoid
robot prototype is coming in 2022.

MANEUVERING INDOORS
A robotic cane is being developed to help the visually impaired
navigate indoors. The cane is equipped with a color 3D camera,
an inertial measurement sensor and an on-board computer.
When paired with a building’s architectural drawing, the device
can accurately guide a user to a desired location with sensory and
auditory cues, while helping the user avoid obstacles such as boxes,
furniture and overhangs. Its development is funded by the National
Institutes of Health and other agencies. Details of the design were
published in the IEEE/CAA Journal of Automatica Sinica, under lead
author Cang Ye (pictured), Virginia Commonwealth University.

NIGHT VISION?
NO PROBLEM
Garmin has provided India’s
defense forces with two
handhelds equipped to
receive the country’s NavIC
signals. Both multi-GNSS
handhelds also are equipped
MAKING TRACKS WITH SEA OTTERS with altimeters, barometers
Space Shop, a 3D print shop at NASA’s Ames and three-axis electronic
Research Center in California, is printing a compasses. The GPSMAP
better tracker for wildlife. The prototype is 66sr model has specialized
being tested on sea otters at Monterey Bay military features, including
Aquarium with the help of USGS. The GPS- compatibility with night-
enabled tracker is lighter and more accurate vision goggles so troops
than current trackers; it costs less and is don’t have to remove their
solar powered. It withstands a salt-water goggles to use it. The Indian
environment, and the occasional chomping Space Research Organization (ISRO) has asked Garmin to integrate
from a sea otter’s strong teeth. NavIC into all of its upcoming satellite navigation devices.

PHOTO CREDITS: Car interior/Tesla • sea otters/Monterey Bay Aquarium • handhelds/Garmin • robot cane/Cang Ye, VCU/NIH
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42 G P S W O R L D WWW.GPSWORLD.COM NOVEMBER 2021

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