The United States Space Force’s Space and Missile Systems Center awarded the Military Global Positioning System User Equipment (MGUE) Increment (Inc) 2 Miniature Serial Interface (MSI) with Next-Generation Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) to BAE Navigation & Sensor System, L3 Technologies (now L3Harris) and Raytheon Technologies.
According to the U.S. Space Force, the three MSI contracts are valued at $552 million and will be executed as Middle Tier Acquisition rapid prototyping efforts. The first delivery is scheduled for early fiscal year 2026.
Enhanced processing and security features associated with M-code drove the decision to develop a smaller and more powerful receiver card for handheld and dismounted applications, the U.S. Space Force said. The MSI with Next-Generation ASIC will enable Military-Code GPS receiver production, mitigating the obsolescence issue of current ASICs and providing significant security and performance improvements for GPS-enabled weapons systems. MGUE Inc 2 will be compatible with all existing and future spacecraft and ground systems, it added.
MGUE Inc 2 enables military GPS user equipment to receive allied GNSS positioning, navigation and timing (PNT) signals to increase both the resilience and capability of military PNT equipment, and deter attacks on GPS, the U.S. Space Force said. These signals will supplement GPS-based PNT in accordance with Department of Defense policies regarding usage of allied GNSS signals, ensuring identification and mitigation of cyber risks, and compatibility with existing PNT equipment.
Spirent Federal Systems, provider of GPS/GNSS test equipment, has announced that its new M-code solution, SimMNSA, has been granted security approval by the Global Positioning System Directorate.
Spirent Federal is the first company to provide such a solution for simulating classified GPS signals, and is currently taking orders, the company said.
The GSS9000 simulator. (Photo: Spirent)
In 2017, Spirent Federal Systems partnered with Rockwell Collins to develop new software that will use the Modernized Navstar Security Algorithm (MNSA). This new approach of M-code simulation adds to Spirent Federal’s portfolio of classified signal simulation solutions, and will be available to authorized users of the GSS9000 series simulators.
“With the increased focus on M-code by the GPS Directorate, we are pleased that our team has paved the way in the development of SimMNSA,” said Ellen Hall, CEO of Spirent Federal Systems. “It was a great challenge to get to this point, but we are excited about what we have accomplished.”
The new test solution continues Spirent Federal Systems history of innovation and being first to market with M-code simulation software, the company said. Spirent’s GPS/GNSS solutions have supported numerous government, military and U.S. Department of Defense programs for more than 30 years.
United Technologies Corp. (UTC) has completed its acquisition of Rockwell Collins. The two companies will now combine to form Collins Aerospace Systems and be based in Palm Beach City, Florida.
Collins Aerospace Systems will have about 70,000 employees. Rockwell Collins CEO and President Kelly Ortberg will be the CEO of the newly formed company. UTC Aerospace President Dave Gitlin will serve as president.
There are no immediate changes planned as to how many employees will be based in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, or Collins Aerospace’s other locations in Eastern Iowa, said Collins Aerospace spokeswoman Pam Tvrdy-Cleary.
However, the company’s avionics and mission systems will be based in Cedar Rapids. Kent Statler, former Rockwell chief operating officer for commercial systems, will head the avionics unit, and Phil Jasper, former Rockwell chief operating officer for government systems, will be in charge of the mission systems.
The U.S. Air Force has selected an anti-jam GPS receiver from Collins Aerospace (through the division formerly known as Rockwell Collins) for Air National Guard and Air Force Reserve F-16 fighter aircraft.
The U.S. Air Force Life Cycle Management Center (USAF AFLCMC) chose Collins Aerospace to supply its latest-generation Digital GPS Anti-Jam Receiver (DIGAR), designed to prevent jamming of GPS signals.
The DIGAR receivers will provide highly reliable navigation for U.S. Air National Guard and U.S. Air Force Reserve F-16 aircraft operating in contested, electromagnetic environments.
This will be the first combat fighter aircraft to be installed with the latest version of the receiver.
“As enemies continue to find new ways to affect the ability to navigate, the latest DIGAR will provide the highest level of protection available so our warfighters can execute missions with precision and accuracy,” said Troy Brunk, vice president and general manager, Communication, Navigation & Electronic Warfare Solutions for Collins Aerospace.
Image: Collins Aerospace
Integration of the DIGAR requires no changes to existing operational flight programs or A-kit aircraft wiring, lowering the risk and cost involved to upgrade.
Built on an open systems architecture, the DIGAR is designed for use across a variety of aircraft platforms that include rotary wing, fixed-wing fighter, bomber, transport aircraft and small to large unmanned aerial systems.
DIGAR is a form, fit replacement for existing antenna electronic systems with demonstrated performance that exceeds legacy capability, the company said.
DIGAR Features
Superior digital beamforming or nulling anti-jam
Up to 16 simultaneous beams for superior jamming immunity to 125+ dB J/S performance (beamsteering mode, actual performance is classified.)
Two- to seven-element CRPA compatible
Simultaneous L1/L2 protection
Supports Y-code and M-code Anti-jam
Supports STAP/SFAP beamforming
Two form factors: DIGAR-200 (218 cubic inches) or DIGAR-300 (75 cubic inches)
The 2018 GPS World Leadership Awards, presented in September, recognized significant recent achievement in Satellites, Signals, Services and Products. The Awards Dinner and Ceremony was sponsored by Harris Corporation, Rockwell Collins and Spirent Federal Systems.
Check out a photo slideshow and videos from the event below, as well as speeches from each of the award winners.
Giuliano Gatti | Space Segment Procurement Manager, European Space Agency
Gatti received the award for his contribution to setting up the Galileo constellation from GIOVE-A and -B precursors through all Galileo operational satellites: Soyuz and Ariane 5 launches, a total of 26 Galileo satellites deployed in 7 years.
Javier Benedicto, head of the Galileo Programme and Navigation-related Activities, European Space Agency, accepted the award and delivered these remarks on behalf of Gatti.
Scott is the inventor of an asymmetric navigation security paradigm for civil GPS signals that avoids the need for secure key storage in civil receivers and allows for widespread adoption in applications without physical security capabilities.
John Raquet | Director, Autonomy and Navigation Technology Center (ANT), U.S. Air Force Institute of Technology
Raquet’s team has developed PNT sensors and systems utilizing GPS, GNSS, inertial, vision, lidar, magnetic field, pseudolites, radar, terrain mapping, signals of opportunity, star trackers, radio ranging, 3D audio, X-ray pulsars, clocks, and more.
Andrew Simsky, Wim De Wilde, Jean-Marie Sleewaegen and Tom Willems | Navigation Algorithms Software Engineer, System Designer, System Architect, and Senior Researcher, Septentrio
The Septentrio team received this award for developing the versatile PolaRx5 receivers, enabling many Earth-observing applications including worldwide ionosphere monitoring.
Click the symbol in the top left hand corner to choose the video you’d like to view.
Words from our sponsors
Satellites. “We have seen our military and professional users looking to greater flexibility in their use of GNSS, as new capabilities and constellations come on line. But with that flexibility, a retention of assurance and where possible, mitigation of threats. For this reason Rockwell Collins and QinetiQ signed an agreement to produce a new family of high-assurance, multi-constellation GNSS receivers for professional and military use.
“This new family of receivers, complementary to the current encrypted family of Rockwell Collins receivers in service across the globe, allows the customer to select level of capability and protection based upon their operational, political or even financial needs. The new MICRO family of GNSS receivers will offer a multi-constellation open service (MCOS) GNSS capability, which will initially provide two receivers; the Q40-MicroPNT will address dismounted low-dynamics requirements, and the Q40-MicroSTRIKE will be a gun-hard, high-dynamics receiver.” —Phil Froom, Rockwell Collins
Signals. “For over thirty years, we’ve overcome challenges and delivered GPS payloads that provide a technology the world uses every day. We’ve gotten to the point where we can honestly say, almost nothing works without GPS. The challenge that I see [for the future] is to overcome the politics: Where do governments of GNSS draw the line between doing what’s right for a PNT solution for the common good of humanity globally versus addressing your national security and protecting your own country? Truth is, because of politics, year after year our government has been forced to start the fiscal year with a continuing resolution because our politicians can’t approve a budget.” —Joe Rolli, Harris Corporation
Services. “We’ve been manufacturing GPS simulators for the past 30 years. This year we launch a new product, SimMNSA. We’re currently in the final test phase of this new M-code option and we’ll be delivering to several authorized customers by the end of the year. We also offer products that simulate all other GNSS signals, plus a variety of other sensors.” —Ellen Hall, Spirent Federal
An Air Force professor was honored for years of work exploring every PNT technology imaginable in conjunction with GPS; Rockwell Collins launched a new MicroSTRIKE multi-GNSS chip for military and professional applications, available globally on a non-ITAR basis; and Spirent Federal previewed its SimMNSA, a new M-code simulation option delivering to authorized customers by the end of the year.
John Raquet, AFIT, accepts 2018 Leadership Award for Services from Justin Eldredge, Spirent Federal. (Photo: Melanie Beus)
John Raquet, a professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the Air Force Institute of Technology, received the 2018 Leadership Award for Services. Raquet was recognized for work he and his team at the Autonomy & Navigation Technology (ANT) Center developed on PNT sensors and systems utilizing almost every available source, including GPS, GNSS, inertial, vision, lidar, magnetic field, pseudolites, radar, terrain mapping, signals of opportunity, star trackers, radio ranging, 3D audio, X-ray pulsars, clocks, and more.
Raquet has co-authored many defense-oriented technical papers over the past three decades. See the list at the end of this article for some of the most recent ones.
Justin Eldredge from Spirent Federal introduced Raquet and bestowed the award, after updating the audience on Spirent’s most recent advance: “This year we maintain our position of being first to market with new signals, with the launch of SimMNSA. We’re currently in the final test phase of this new M-code option and it will delivering to several authorized customers by the end of the year. If M-code signals aren’t in the spectrum of testing for you, we offer products that simulate all other GNSS signals, plus a variety of other sensors.”
SimMNSA was demo’d at the Spirent Federal Systems booth at the neighboring ION GNSS+ conference. A video presentation of SimMNSA (for Modernized Navstar Security Algorithm) is available here. Spirent’s new software will support M-code using MNSA. M-code is an updated GPS military signal that is being rolled out as part of the modernization of the current GPS constellation. Until now, AES and SDS have been the only methods authorized to be used within a GNSS simulator to produce M-code. As the long-awaited MNSA M-code signals become available, Spirent Federal Systems will make this capability available to authorized users on the GSS9000 series simulator.
ANT
After receiving the 2018 Leadership Award, Raquet spoke about his work at theAutonomy & Navigation Technology Center. “Sometimes I called the ANT the Crazy Idea Factory. We’ve tried lots and lots of things. I think I have the best job in the world, because I get to experiment with many, many things, and work with amazing people.”
John Raquet, U.S. Air Force Institute of Technology (Photo: Melanie Beus)
“This is not the kind of community where you build something once and you’re done, you put it away. This is a growing worldwide enterprise that takes new talent to come in and fill the spots that many of the people in this room have occupied. I’m privileged to see some of the students that we’ve worked with to then go on and fill some of the gaps, really do some amazing things.”
MicroSTRIKE, a non-ITAR GPS chip
Two awards prior to Raquet’s Services award, Phil Froom from Rockwell Collins, UK, spoke about an innovative venture from Rockwell and partners QinetiQ UK as he bestowed the Satellites award.
“For many years most of you here this evening will have known Rockwell Collins as a reliable partner in the delivery of Secure (encrypted) GPS receiver, and indeed, we are still the largest producer of encrypted military GPS solutions in the world. Our partners QinetiQ also have great expertise in the design and delivery of high assurance low SWAP GPS receivers, bringing together many years of expertise of our two companies in this new venture.
Phil Froom, business development lead for Rockwell Collins, Europe, Middle East and Asia (Photo: Melanie Beus)
“However, over the past few years we have seen our military and professional (government) users looking to greater flexibility in their use of GNSS, as new capabilities and constellations come on line. But with that flexibility, a retention of assurance and where possible, mitigation of threats. For this reason, last May, Rockwell Collins and QinetiQ signed an Alliance Agreement in London, to produce a new family of high-assurance, multi-constellation GNSS receivers for professional and military use.
“This new family of receivers is aimed to be complementary to the current encrypted family of Rockwell Collins receivers in service across the globe, but allow the customer to select his level of capability and protection based upon his operational, political or even financial needs. The new “MICRO” family of GNSS receivers will offer a multi-constellation open service (MCOS) GNSS capability, which will initially provide two receivers; the first, to be known as the Q40-MicroPNT, will address dismounted low dynamics requirements, and the second, the Q40-MicroSTRIKE, will be a gun hard, high dynamics receiver.
“You will note I said they are MCOS receivers. Therefore, they will not include an encryption device, will be Non-ITAR and will actually be produced in Europe, under the control of Rockwell Collins UK. QinetiQ are today working on the Q40 ASIC and, once available, this will be incorporated into these first two Micro Family receivers.
“These receivers will be of a common format to our existing and highly successful SAASM based MicroGRAM receivers and will offer users and OEMs the ability to select an MCOS receiver, or a SAASM (or ultimately M-Code) receiver, of a common form – factor, to meet their mission or platform needs. Thus allowing OEMs to reduce costs in integrating different form-factors, and to allow users to hold common hardware, but mounting mission specific receivers.
“We are of course extremely excited about this Alliance with QinetiQ and equally by the prospect of what it will bring to our existing and future users as we all move forward into this new era of GNSS capability.”
Check out videos from the event below. Click on the icon in the top left hand corner to choose which video you’d like to watch.
Recent technical papers co-authored by John Raquet.
• “Magnetic field navigation in an indoor environment,” Ubiquitous Positioning Indoor Navigation and Location Based Service, (Aiding an inertial navigation system when GNSS signals are not available, by taking advantage of the uniqueness of magnetic field variations);
• “Comparison of two image and inertial sensor fusion techniques for navigation in unmapped environments,” IEEE Transactions on Aerospace and Electronic Systems, (navigation of miniature aerial vehicles (MAVs) couplimng information from an IMU with visual information from an electro-optical camera);
• “Real-time UWB-OFDM radar-based navigation in unknown terrain,” IEEE Transactions on Aerospace and Electronic Systems (a signal processing algorithm and simulation study for aerial navigation with an ultrawideband orthogonal frequency division multiplexed (UWB-OFDM) radar in GPS-denied environments;
• “Navigation in GPS denied environments: Feature-aided inertial systems,” Air Force Research Lab, Eglin AFB FL Munitions Directorate (latest alt-nav trends for navigating in difficult urban, indoor, and underground environments where typical GPS receivers do not function;
• “Coded aperture aided navigation and geolocation systems,” US Patent office #8577539 (A micro air vehicle having a navigation system with a single camera to determine position and attitude of the vehicle using changes the direction to the observed features);
• “Multisensor navigation systems: A remedy for GNSS vulnerabilities?” Proceedings of the IEEE (A multisensor navigation approach to GNSS-challenged environments using inertial measurement units (IMUs), barometers, magnetometers, odometers, and digital compasses);
• “Large scale image aided navigation,” IEEE Transactions on Aerospace and Electronic Systems (images from an airborne camera match features against a reference image to compute global position);
• and many more.
Rockwell Collins’ Mike Shepherd discusses the company’s GB-GRAM-M M-code ground-based embedded receiver at ION GNSS+ 2018, which took place Sept. 24-28 in Miami. According to the company, the GB-GRAM-M delivers geolocation and precise positioning capabilities for space-constrained applications while providing increased security and anti-jam capabilities.
Ligado’s proposed broadband service continues to pose a significant risk of harmful interference to GPS, several key signatories wrote in a July 18 letter to U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Ajit Pai.
The interference would occur despite Ligado’s May 31 amendments to its license modification applications, the letter states. “The proposed Ligado operations, even after the recently proposed amendments, will harmfully impact a wide range of GPS receivers and thus should not be permitted.”
Key signatories include representatives of Iridium Communications, the International Air Transport Association, Lockheed Martin, Rockwell Collins and Satelles.
The letter urges the FCC to deny Ligado’s pending license modification application unless Ligado can show it has addressed the substantive GPS interference concerns. Also encompassed in the letter are concerns over interference with satellite communications (SATCOM) and weather data.
“The record, augmented by recent government reports, makes clear that the interference will be particularly impactful to the countless government and commercial entities that rely on GPS and SATCOM services for aviation safety and other critical services,” the signatories wrote.
“A number of data points underscore the flaws in the way in which Ligado has attempted to measure interference to GPS from its proposed terrestrial operations.”
Ligado recently acknowledged that its license modification request as originally filed is insufficient to protect certified aviation GPS receivers, but offered no changes to its proposal to address interference to uncertified GPS systems, SATCOM services (also important for aviation safety), or concerns of the weather data community.
“Evaluating Ligado’s recent amendment to ensure protection of uncertified GPS receivers and protection of GPS receivers from aggregate interference will be necessary,” the letter states.
1-dB Criterion. One issue is the 1-dB degradation interference protection criterion, which Ligado has suggested is “neither accurate nor reliable.” That criterion was used in the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Adjacent Band Compatibility assessment issued in April, which examined the maximum transmitted power levels of adjacent band systems that can be tolerated by GPS receivers. The study endorsed and strictly applied the 1-dB criterion, and termed it the “accepted, worldwide standard for PNT and many other radio communication applications.”
“Each of these government efforts supports one conclusion — the proposed Ligado operations, even after the recently proposed amendments, will harmfully impact a wide range of GPS receivers and thus should not be permitted…
“We urge the Commission to deny Ligado’s pending license modification application as proposed unless Ligado can show it has addressed the substantive GPS, aviation, SATCOM, and weather data interference concerns still outstanding in the record,” the letter concludes.
Spirent Federal Systems’ Kalani Needham discusses the company’s GSS9000 GNSS/GPS simulator at Xponential 2018. Needham also discusses the company’s partnership with Rockwell Collins to develop software that will support M-Code using the Modernized Navstar Security Algorithm.
Opening remarks by Alan Cameron, editor and publisher of GPS World
Everyone at this great conference is actively engaged in innovation: new approaches, new combinations, new integrations, new methodologies.
Our sponsors are not only innovators, they are active in building those innovations in the field, installing the cornerstones of GPS and GNSS technology. Harris Corporation has been building the GPS satellite payloads since the beginning of time, Rockwell Collins has built so much user equipment, historically and currently, and Spirent Federal Systems has been enabling the development and testing of much user equipment by many companies in this room.
Just to give you an idea of who else is seated among you at the tables, we have NovAtel, Spectracom, IFEN, Septentrio, Satelles, Syntony, Unicore, u-blox, ComNav, RaceLogic, Rohde & Schwarz, ublox, Locata, GMV, Leica, Thales, Boeing, Broadcom, Qualcomm, Google, Apple, Intel, MITRE and Aerospace Corporation; the U.S. Air Force GPS Directorate, the U.S. State Department, the European Space Agency, the European GNSS Agency and the European Commission, NASA, the French and German aerospace agencies; the Institute of Navigation and the Royal Institute of Navigation; and universities and research institutes almost too many to number.
This is a great industry to be part of, and I feel lucky to be kind of a spectator, a commentator in it without the benefit of the scientific upbringing that everybody else in this room has had. I still get to participate in the excitement and the developments and for that I am truly grateful.
Satellites Leadership Award
Galileo Builder
Wolfgang Paetsch
Director of Navigation and Member of the Executive Board, OHB
For his leadership in setting up the routine production of the Galileo satellites leading to Galileo constellation deployment, including thequadruple Ariane 5 launch in November 2016.
Paul Verhoef (right), director of the Galileo Programme and Navigation-related Activities, European Space Agency, accepted the award and delivered remarks on behalf of Wolfgang Paetsch. (Right photo: Melanie Beus)
Introduction by Rob Scott, Rockwell Collins
“Forty years ago, Rockwell Collins celebrated the first receipt of a GPS signal,using a six-foot tall, two-person receiver. Now we have something something 1 by 1-1/4 inches that is far more capable. It’s amazing to see how technology has advanced.”
Remarks by Wolfgang Paetsch
I must admit I am rather at fault for Wolfgang not being here, because I keep him rather busy producing satellites, as OHB is completing the last of 22 satellites under contract from ESA. We are going to launch again in December, as you know we have had a few problems, which I’m glad to say we have solved. The issues are behind us, and the Swiss clocks are working fine now, which is great.
On Dec. 12 we are going to launch. The first two satellites are in Kourou already, the next ones are going in two weeks [as of Sept. 28; all satellites are now in Kourou. — Ed.] We’re going to go up on an Ariane 5 again, with these four satellites. Next summer we are doing another four, so it brings the whole Galileo constellation from 18 to 26, and then we are fully operational.
In this business it is quite a challenge to keep up the pace. I think OHB, with Wolfgang in the lead, has done very well in the past years to set up indeed a very impressive production line and keep all the machinery ticking over. It has been a big challenge for them, as they had been a relatively small player in the space business, while at the same time they have been able to win other competitions in the space business in other areas. OHB has been doing very well and we are glad of course that they are doing well because it was important to get Galileo up and running.
OHB has managed to win recently another contract, good for them, we are about ready to give them the first options on that contract, so we will have a total of 14 satellites under contract with them, in addition to the 22 they are completing. These satellites will further complete the constellation and they will already start replacing the first IOV satellites which we have put up. So you see the cycle is rather quick. Of course we are waiting a bit to see what the real lifetime of the satellites is going to be. We don’t know that yet but we will find out in the next couple of years.
Looking Ahead. So what are the challenges for us in the next years? We are currently working with colleagues from the European Commission and the European GNSS Agency on what the next constellations are going to do. Obviously there is a lot of pressure for further innovation, for further improvements. The user community over the last couple of years has become more outspoken about what they want and what they expect, which is nice. Obviously we need to take care of the legacy users, and we are having to see what new technology would allow us to do. At the end of the day there is then also a small thing called budget, which needs to have its play in these things.
In any case, the plan is by the end of the year we will start the procurement of the next batch of satellites. This will take a while to do, this procurement, as it concerns new developments, but then we are going to go for the next constellation.
So let me finish by paying a tribute to Wolfgang and his team. It has been a real challenge for them. I know that he was pretty amazed, and after that pretty proud, of this prize he has gotten, and I will carefully carry this back to him in Europe.
Alan, thank you very much.
Services Leadership Award
Global Educator
Patricia Doherty
Director and Senior Scientist, Institute for Scientific Research, Boston College
For initiating and leading the African GNSS Outreach program since 2009, to help developing countries derive social and economic benefits from satellite-based PNT.
Frank van Diggelen (left, above), an African Outreach faculty member and principal software engineer, Google, introduced and conferred the award to Pat Doherty. (Photo: Melanie Beus)
Introduction by Frank van Diggelen
“I had the great honor and privilege of teaching in the African GNSS Outreach program. If you are approached to participate in this, seize the opportunity! It’s a fabulous thing, with people from all over Africa, and you’ll learn far more than you think.”
Remarks by Patricia Doherty
I would like to thank GPS World for this Leadership Services Award. I am sincerely honored and humbled by this recognition. Serving the GNSS community with the African Outreach Program has been a joy and a privilege that I am personally grateful for every day.
This program began in 2009. The idea was conceived at a G8-UNESCO World Forum that I was fortunate to attend in 2007. At that forum, leaders from developing nations of Africa described the need for assistance in developing science and technology in their countries, technologies that would lead the way to socio-economic transformation and integration into the world economy. As all of us here know, GNSS is a space technology that can change the world with applications that can increase food security, monitor natural resources, manage wildlife conservation, improve emergency location services, and provide greater precision and safety in land, sea and air navigation — just to name a few of the possibilities.
Thus the goal of the African Outreach Program was to encourage the use of GNSS for societal and economic development and for scientific exploration in Africa. The way to do that was to help build a knowledgeable African GNSS workforce. I am glad to report that the program has been quite successful. To date, we have hosted 9 workshops. In those workshops, we have introduced the art and science of GNSS navigation to over 450 professors and students from at least 23 of the 54 countries in Africa. Many of the African participants have gone on to do great things: hosting local workshops, developing GNSS programs in their universities, gaining government confidence and interest in GNSS technology and building infrastructure that enabled the use of GNSS.
One of the prime reasons for this success are the sponsors who support us and the lecturers who generously share their time, their knowledge and their zeal for GNSS to teach at the workshops. Many of these lecturers are here tonight. So thank you all. Many of these lecturers have expressed that their lives were enriched by this program. Others have told me that they have never seen a more attentive audience and that just having the opportunity to meet and work with people from the developing world in Africa is a gratifying experience. Several of our lecturers, including myself, are now involved in collaborations with scientists in the developing world.
More to come. Although this sounds like we have done our job, there is still so much to do. Change is slow in Africa. Our plans for the future include building on our success by hosting additional workshops where we will try to reach additional countries in Africa and strengthen current programs and infrastructure in countries where that has been slow to develop. We are also opening the program to other developing countries around the world, as there has been much interest from Central America, South America and Asia. Finally, we are working to bring more workshops to the African continent, where we can reach more students, have an effect on local universities and speak to the local government about the benefits of using GNSS as an enabling technology for societal betterment and economic growth.
In closing, I am honored to receive this award and I look forward to continuing our work to support the use of GNSS in developing nations. Thank you, GPS World, and thank you to our sponsors, lecturers and our African participants for making this program a success.
Signals Leadership Award
Spectrum Advisor
Chris Hegarty
Director for Communications, Navigation and Surveillance Engineering and Spectrum, The MITRE Corporation
For contributions to the U.S. Department of Transportation’s GPS Adjacent Band Compatibility Assessment.
Chris Hegarty (Photo: Melanie Beus)
Introduction by Joe Rolli, Harris Corporation
“On behalf of the Harris Corporation and the team I work with in the Precision Navigation and Timing Business Area, providing the world with GPS signals from space for over forty years, I am pleased to present this year’s Leadership Signals Award.”
Remarks by Chris Hegarty
Thank you very much. I really appreciate this. The truth be told, of course, the Adjacent Band Compatibility (ABC) study has had many contributors. I’m honored to receive this award, but equally deserving are many others including Karen Van Dyke at DOT, Steve Mackey and Hadi Wassaf at DOT’s Volpe Center, Karl Shallberg at Zeta, and too many others to list at DOT, the Air Force, NASA, other federal partners and their contractors.
Looking forward, for those of you who have not been following this issue, the GPS spectrum is being challenged. The spectrum is highly valued and of course there are companies that would like to use that spectrum.
I think that it’s safe to say that no one would really want to stop them from using that spectrum if it didn’t have an impact on GPS, but the unfortunate reality is that it appears the deployment of a 4G network or other potential use of the bands adjacent to GPS with similar transmitter power levels would disrupt the operations of many hundreds of thousands of receivers. To ignore the issue would really be a mistake for our industry.
This issue unfortunately isn’t going to go away. The pressure on spectrum is going to continue to grow — until someone figures out how to communicate without using electromagnetic waves. So this is going to be a persistent problem.
I think we can build receivers, in the future, that can deal with some new systems in adjacent bands, but it’s going to be imperative for a long transition period to protect the investments made by many people in the room here and the folks that we support.
That’s all I wanted to say, thank you again very much.
Products Leadership Award
Advanced Capability Developers
Charles Abraham, Andreas Warloe and Javier de Salas
Vice President of Engineering, Senior Director of Engineering, and Director of Software Engineering, respectively, Broadcom
For developing the first dual-frequency L1/L5 E1/E5 GNSS chip for smartphones, ushering in a new era of high-precision GNSS in mass-market products.
Charles Abraham and Andreas Warloe, with Javier de Salas (not shown); Ellen Hall (left), CEO of Spirent Federal Systems, introduced and conferred the award. (Photo: Melanie Beus)
Introduction by Ellen Hall, Spirent Federal
“As pioneers in GNSS satellite simulation, beginning in 1985, we’re really proud of our heritage. We’re also really proud of Broadcom.They are a user of Spirent equipment as well, so that makes us doubly happy to award this to them.”
Remarks by Andreas Warloe
Thank you to GPS World and the sponsors and supporters of this event, from Charlie Abraham, Javier de Salas, myself and the Broadcom marketing and engineering teams, for this award. We are very honored that our efforts to provide the best possible GNSS to as many people as possible have been recognized in this way.
A few years back, we had completed receiver support for a fifth GNSS L1 system and asked ourselves “What’s next?” At that time, technology nodes were getting to a point where a single chip L1/L5/E1/E5 receiver could be contemplated, and the Galileo launch schedule was picking up speed. An old outlandish idea suddenly didn’t seem as outlandish any more.
Many or most of you in this room are experts in the business of perfection; the business of perfecting and pushing performance boundaries for GNSS. As designers of mass-market devices, we have instead become experts in the art of compromise: If we can achieve good performance at 10mA, then how about 5mA? If we can implement a 16-bit data path with 0.1dB losses, how few bits can we get away with for 0.2dB losses? How can we add support for new GNSS systems without growing RF, digital hardware or software? It is this extreme frugality that now has enabled us to put a complete single chip L1/L5 system in the hands of phone and wearables manufacturers, with smaller size and lower power consumption than the previous L1-only generations.
Competition in our market is fierce, but we are excited about this opportunity to work together with our competitors to promote this new level of precision to our common customers. We have taken initiative in this area by forming the Dual Frequency Alliance. There is an investment that has to be made in phones, with antenna and filtering support for the new band. Only when these investments are made will we be able to bring this new performance level to hundreds of millions of people. Only then will we start seeing new applications built on high-precision — applications that haven’t even been envisioned yet. Once those applications are available, there will be pressure to expand L1/L5 technology from flagship phones to truly mass-market phones.
L5 support enables high-accuracy GNSS, but it does not guarantee it. To go from multi-meter precision to sub-meter precision requires advanced software. GNSS chip manufacturers can provide a good starting point, but once GNSS measurements are made available, GNSS students and experts alike can supply clever applications, professional software tools and infrastructure to further advance GNSS technology. Our job is to work together to push the L1/L5 technology into phones, to provide a new platform for GNSS development.
In summary, we would like to work as an industry to make L1/L5/E1/E5 the new standard for GNSS performance, and to make these measurements available in phones for as many engineers as possible to either monetize their existing IP or develop entirely new IP.
Jackson Labs Technologies Inc. (JLT) is offering the CLAW GPS/GNSS simulator. Designed with small size, weight and power (SWAP), the CLAW is only slightly larger than a standard deck of cards.
CLAW targets applications that require small, low-power and low-cost GNSS synthesis with repeatable and highly accurate GNSS RF signals such as production testing of GNSS receivers, simulating GNSS anomalies such as leap-second events, 1023 GPS Week roll-overs, simulated operation in inaccessible locations around the world, real-time transcoding of different GNSS systems, and testing using dynamically user-configured RF signal levels.
With nanosecond-accurate encoding, CLAW is particularly suited to allow easy stress-testing of GPSDO frequency and timing reference products such as JLT’s GNSDOs under various different mission scenarios, the company said.
The CLAW GNSS simulator is a no-frills solution that contains real-time processing hardware to simulate GPS constellations without the need to connect any external equipment other than a USB power source or power supply.
Providing a real-time computed RF output signal rather than an offline file-playback differentiates CLAW from competitive solutions that are only capable of recording and playback operation in non-real-time, or require offline computation of data files using external computers that are played back on the simulation device.
CLAW is a completely self-contained, ruggedized, miniature, real-time hardware GPS simulator.
Navigation coordinates and 1PPS timing pulses can be provided in real-time through the NMEA and SCPI compatible USB interface or via the built-in RS-232 interface, and are encoded in the CLAW into RF GPS signals in real-time with nanosecond-level accuracy and minimal delay.
Position, velocity and timing (PVT) information may be provided as a simple NMEA stream from an external source such as an inertial navigation system (INS), Galileo/GLONASS/BeiDou/SAASM GNSS receiver, and CLAW will encode this PVT data into standard L1 C/A GPS RF signals in real-time with minimal phase/position shifts. This allows real-time GNSS transcoding of any other GNSS standard simply by connecting an external GNSS receiver, INS system or PVT source to the RS-232 inputs of the CLAW, allowing retrofit of existing legacy equipment with the latest GNSS systems.
CLAW includes glueless drivers for Rockwell Collins Remote Secure Receiver (RSR Puck) among others, allowing transcoding of assured, secure L2 P(Y) code into legacy L1 C/A code in real time to retrofit commercial receivers with military P(Y) capability. CLAW also allows user-entry of ephemeris and almanac information, providing a means to simulate any past or future GPS constellation and time/date event, the company added.
CLAW was designed with a particular emphasis to encoding the optional externally-provided 1PPS GPS system time with nanosecond-level accuracy targets, allowing accuracy testing of GPS timing and frequency devices on top of simply providing a positioning/velocity reference. CLAW initially will support GPS L1 C/A code encoding with up to 12 satellites, and later versions will support additional GNSS systems such as L2 GPS, GLONASS, BeiDou and Galileo.
A comprehensive cost-free optional user application for Windows will be offered that allows control and monitoring of the unit, creation of simulation scenarios using Google Earth and manual waypoint entry, among other options. The unit also can be controlled via simple serial terminal commands, or various other available public-domain freeware programs.
Once position information is stored in the units’ NVRAM, the unit will generate GPS RF constellations within seconds upon power-up and thus does not require any user interaction other than plugging in the power supply.
CLAW contains a highly accurate and stable internal 10-MHz reference oscillator that may optionally be synchronized by an external 1PPS reference, 10-MHz reference, or both. CLAW supports a user-selectable RF signal attenuation range of 63 dB in 0.5-dB steps, allowing a wide range of RF signal levels to be generated with high accuracy and power-level resolution. Antenna DC power consumption also can be controlled via software command.
CLAW can be powered by its USB interface, or by a 6.5V to 28V DC power feed, and consumes less than 1.7W allowing extended operation of 24 hours or more from low-cost ubiquitous USB consumer battery packs.
