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Blog Editor’s Note: A very interesting article by Ramsey Faragher and Marek Ziebart.

We have written before about the differences between radionavigation and radiocommunication in conjunction with the Ligado controversy.

This is a very interesting discussion of the issue when it comes to satellites. Lots of things to consider.

One we hadn’t thought of before is how LEO communications satellites rely upon GNSS. From the article:

“…the OneWeb system currently depends upon GNSS receivers installed within the OneWeb communication receivers. The OneWeb receivers use the GNSS PNT solution to determine the current exact location and time and then use models of the OneWeb orbits to correctly set the correct radio frequency and frequency rate required by the receiver to acquire and lock onto the current serving OneWeb satellite as it whizzes across the sky with significant Doppler shift.”

Makes perfect sense, when you think about it.

So… LEO PNT from comsats, good for GNSS augmentation, but, at the moment, not good for GNSS alternatives.