Last week the “Father of GPS,” Dr. Brad Parkinson, renewed his call for PTA when it came to global navigation satellite systems (GNSS). When we hear “PTA” in the US, most of us have flashbacks to grade school and think “Parent-Teacher Association.” But what Dr. Parkinson was talking about was “Protect, Toughen and Augment” – a series of actions all nations need to take to ensure that our GNSS services remain viable and productive.
Protect – by doing things like designating PNT as critical infrastructure and ensuring we have sufficient laws and enforcement in place to deter and punish illegal interference;
Toughen – by making receivers less vulnerable to jamming and spoofing, and ensuring that critical infrastructure operators have backups for when GNSS is not available; and
Augment – with terrestrial, wide area, difficult to disrupt systems that have different failure modes that GNSS.
Not only are Dr. Parkinson’s recommendations common sense, but it’s hard to disagree about what is best for GNSS with the man who built the world’s premier system.
The RNT Foundation heartily endorses his PTA recommendations and have adapted them into an easy reference outline on our website for policy makers and GNSS professionals alike.
