GPS World

Tag: regulation

  • Companies join on E112 caller location compliance for Europe

    Companies join on E112 caller location compliance for Europe

    Collaboration supports emergency services across the European Union

    Galileo-supported E112 will result in faster response times and more lives saved. (Image: EUSPA)
    Galileo-supported E112 will result in faster response times and more lives saved. (Image: EUSPA)

    Keysight Technologies Inc. is collaborating with DEKRA to ensure that chipset and device vendors can validate E112 caller location (universal European emergency number) functionality in compliance to a new European Union (EU) regulation.

    The collaboration leverages GNSS and c (LBS) to verify E112 regulatory test cases used to validate mobile phones sold into the European market. The new regulation supports emergency services across the European Union by reducing response times from rescue services to save more lives.

    “Keysight is pleased to expand the company’s collaboration with DEKRA,” said Muthu Kumaran, general manager of Keysight’s Device Validation Solutions business. “With Keysight’s test solutions, DEKRA supports a global ecosystem of smartphone vendors by validating that their products are in compliance to the new regulation, newly created to improve emergency services’ ability to locate individuals in need of assistance from the fire brigade, medical teams or the police.”

    Keysight’s network emulation solutions enable DEKRA to validate E112-related test cases regulated by an EU-issued guideline document to assist notified bodies in the assessment of E112 compliance. The new EU regulation (Delegated Regulation (EU) 2019/320) went into effect on March 17, 2022. It mandates that all new mobile phones sold in the EU need to support GNSS technology based on the Galileo constellation, advanced mobile location (AML) protocol and Wi-Fi communications technology. As a result, emergency response call centers can accurately pinpoint the caller’s location.

    “DEKRA is founded on the principles of safeguarding human interaction with technology and environment,” said Juan Carlos Mora, vice president, Business Line Connectivity of Service Division, Product Testing at DEKRA. “This is why we are pleased to extend our collaboration with Keysight, which offers DEKRA the regulatory device test solutions needed to quickly and confidently validate E112 caller location functionality per the EU’s latest mandatory requirements.”

    Keysight’s device test solutions for regulatory and conformance validation are based on common hardware and software platforms for comprehensive test-case coverage. Keysight’s LBS solutions also support assisted GNSS (A-GNSS) test functionality. This enables users to comprehensively address 5G new radio (NR) conformance requirements mandated by the Global Certification Forum (GCF) and PTCRB, an organization comprised of North American mobile operators.

    DEKRA uses Keysight’s RF/RRM DVT & Conformance Toolset, RF Automation Toolset and Wireless IoT Regulatory Test Solution to address 5G and internet of things (IoT) device regulatory requirements and SA8700A C-V2X Test Solution to certify cellular vehicle-to-everything (C-V2X) devices.

  • Opportunities for growth in the GNSS industry

    Opportunities for growth in the GNSS industry

    What is the greatest threat to GNSS over the next three years? (Source: GPS World 2018 State of the GNSS Industry report)
    What is the greatest threat to GNSS over the next three years? Click to enlarge. (Source: GPS World 2018 State of the GNSS Industry report)

    When we designed the survey of the global PNT community for the 2018 State of the GNSS Industry report, we put a couple of new wrinkles into the online questionnaire. We wanted to know, succinctly, what you felt was the number one obstacle to growth for your organization. And, with the same brevity, what you saw as the number one opportunity for growth.

    The answers most frequently given within each sector — mobile, OEM, survey, UAV, transportation, machine control, mapping and defense & government — appear on those respective pages in this issue. They weren’t the only answers, by far.

    Obstacles to Growth

    Other stumbling blocks that were called out included security, competitors (sometimes mentioned by name), politics (sometimes mentioned by party), budgets, funding, understanding, ignorance, management, bureaucracy, age, and that enduring favorite, time.
    The most frequently cited obstacles to growth were:

    • regulation, and
    • the lack of qualified staff, personnel, engineers.

    One ingenious survey-taker somehow found a way to cram 21 words into an answer box meant for only one or two. “In my industry, deep technical talent that addresses the specific issues. Without that, the ‘big picture’ judgments are often just wrong.”

    This problem is not new, nor is it particular to the GNSS/PNT industry. The fact that it is with us year after year suggests that it is not getting enough effective attention. Talented engineers can be imported, yes, if the homegrown supply falls short. In the current political climate, this may not be a strategy with legs. Even given a totally benign immigration regulatory landscape, it is far from a panacea. More on this in a moment.

    Growth Opportunities

    Various flavors of technology integration, both multi-GNSS and non-GNSS, led the pack in nearly every sector. Other popular answers included customization, broadband, autonomous navigation, Galileo, international markets, alt-nav, Brexit, the Cloud, M-code, anti-jamming, connectivity, flexibility, more clients, and, in riposte to the aforementioned obstacle: training, education, or simply engineering.

    The great American thinker Margaret Mead said, “We are continually faced with great opportunities which are brilliantly disguised as unsolvable problems.”

    If your organization encounters this perennial problem, this shortage of qualified staff that stifles innovation, inhibits growth, and causes you to pass on new ventures that are just out of reach, here’s the biggest whopping opportunity of all: get involved with higher education and engineering graduate schools in your area.

    The talent is there. If you’re not out actively cultivating, encouraging, training and recruiting it, those bright young engineering people will be drawn instead to Internet ventures or gaming software or other industries that sap the soul but nourish the pocket — and those are your true competitors.