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What’s New: The media outlet “GPS World” looking at non-GPS and non-GNSS systems. This because governments have long recognized that GPS/GNSS is not enough to support mission critical and safety of life applications.
Why It’s Important: One of the excuses for not implementing a complementary/ alternate/ backup system for GPS has been the lack of a suitable technology. Several points about that:
- There are almost too many technologies that are ready and can be used.
- True, none have all the features of GPS/GNSS.
- Also true, GPS/ GNSS do not have all the features other technologies have, especially not the ones needed to make societies safe
- An intelligent combination of systems, (a systems engineering approach), like the one proposed by the Dept of Transportation report mentioned in the article, is needed
What Else to Know:
- The below is a “cover article.” Six more in-depth pieces have been published, one for each of the companies/tech discussed.
- We will also post the GPS World articles that provide a more in-depth look at each of these companies and technologies. The one about Locata is already on our site.
PNT By Other Means
Image: Safran Federal Systems
Advanced industrial societies are increasingly reliant on the fantastic capabilities of global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) — GPS, GLONASS, BeiDou and Galileo — and, therefore, increasingly vulnerable to their weaknesses. From providing our position on a map on our smartphone to timing financial transactions, cell phone base stations, and the internet; from steering tractors in the field to guiding first responders; from giving surveyors sub-centimeter accuracy to monitoring continental drift; from providing navigation to ship captains and airplane pilots, to enabling automated control of earth moving machinery, GNSS have become a critical infrastructure. Yet their well-known vulnerabilities — such as jamming, spoofing, multipath and occultation — continue to fuel the development of complementary sources of positioning, navigation and timing (PNT) data, especially for new and rapidly expanding user segments such as autonomous vehicles.
In a January 2021 report, the U.S. Department of Transportation pointed out that “suitable and mature technologies are available to owners and operators of critical infrastructure to access complementary PNT services as a backup to GPS.”1
Several new PNT systems are being developed and deployed that are partially or entirely independent of the four existing GNSS constellations. This cover story focuses on the following companies, products and services:
- Safran Federal Systems (formerly Orolia Defense & Security) makes the VersaPNT, which fuses every available PNT source — including GNSS, inertial, and vision-based sensors and odometry. I spoke with Garrett Payne, Navigation Engineer.
- Xona Space Systems is developing a PNT constellation consisting of 300 low-Earth orbit (LEO) satellites. It expects its service, called PULSAR, to provide all the services that legacy GNSS provide and more. I spoke with Jaime Jaramillo, Director of Commercial Services.
- Spirent Federal Systems and Spirent Communications are helping Xona develop its system by providing simulation and testing. I spoke to Paul Crampton, Senior Solutions Architect, Spirent Federal Systems as well as Jan Ackermann, Director, Product Line Management and Adam Price, Vice President – PNT Simulation at Spirent Communications.
- Oxford Technical Solutions develops navigation using inertial systems. I spoke with Paris Austin, Head of Product – New Technology.
- Satelles has developed Satellite Time and Location (STL), a PNT system that piggybacks on the Iridium low-Earth orbit (LEO) satellites. It can be used as a standalone solution where GNSS signals will not reach, such as indoors, or are otherwise unavailable. I spoke with Dr. Michael O’Connor, CEO.
- Locata has developed an alternative PNT (A-PNT) system that is completely independent from GNSS and is based on a network of local ground‐based transmitters called LocataLites. I spoke with Nunzio Gambale, founder, chairman, and CEO.
Due to the limited space available in print, this article only uses a small portion of these interviews. For full transcripts of them (totaling more than 10,000 words) click here.
