A new enterprise platform available this summer provides real-time location and asset tracking across a campus with Bluetooth technology.
Link Labs’ AirFinder OnSite is an internet of things (IoT) asset-tracking platform for campus-based environments. Using a Bluetooth Low Energy (Bluetooth LE) radio to support both Bluetooth LE and phase ranging brings location accuracy with Bluetooth LE tags to the sub-meter level.
According to Link Labs CEO Bob Proctor, AirFinder OnSite eliminates the need to choose between high-cost/high-accuracy ultra-wideband solutions or low-cost/low-accuracy traditional Bluetooth LE solutions.
Proctor sees it potentially used in distribution centers and warehouses, as well as IoT applications in manufacturing, healthcare and logistics management. With seven patented or patent-pending Link Labs technologies, AirFinder OnSite was developed on Nordic Semiconductor’s nRF52833, a general-purpose multiprotocol system-on-chip with a Bluetooth LE direction-finding-capable radio.
Innovations at the firmware level solve an array of technical challenges for an enterprise-grade solution: ranging methodology, interference avoidance, a location algorithm, power efficiency and scalability to high-tag densities.
These innovations allow asset location to be fine-tuned to the sub-meter level, making it a precise Bluetooth-based location technology.
AirFinder does not require an internal Wi-Fi system and is capable of operating on its own secure network layer via Link Labs’ Symphony Link or other third-party network layer technology, such as Bluetooth mesh technologies. The AirFinder platform provides remote monitoring and device management, allowing the system to be optimized for different use cases.
This spring, early adopters will support pilot deployments of AirFinder OnSite.
Critical infrastructure services such as telecommunications, utilities, transportation and defense are of national strategic importance. The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) lists 16 such sectors considered vital for security. Presidential Policy Directive 21 (PPD-21): Critical Infrastructure Security and Resilience advances a national policy to strengthen and maintain secure, functioning and resilient critical infrastructure.
Together, positioning, navigation and timing (PNT) are necessary for the functioning of a nation’s critical infrastructure. However, ubiquitous use of GPS as the primary source of PNT information introduces vulnerabilities. CISA, through the National Risk Management Center, works with government and industry partners alike to strengthen the security and resiliency of the national PNT ecosystem in the U.S. In early 2020, Executive Order (E.O.) 13905 on Strengthening National Resilience through Responsible Use of Positioning, Navigation, and Timing (PNT) Services was signed to strengthen, through policy promotion, the responsible use of PNT services by government and infrastructure operators.
The following is a review of cost considerations and exploration of the three key elements for critical infrastructure that help to strengthen PNT, focused on synchronization and precise timing: redundancy, resiliency and security.
Evaluating Cost and Location
It is often hard for operators to justify the resiliency, redundancy and security costs associated with deploying these capabilities at every layer of the architecture. New timing and synchronization solutions and design choices are leading to the right cost structures to deliver robust and reliable solutions.
The dilemma between cost and solution type is typically related to which deployment location is considered. With the evolution of technologies such as the migration from SDH/TDM to Ethernet and the development of LTE/4G and 5G in mobile, the number of aggregation offices and, above all, of network access sites at the edge has exploded. This inevitably leads to devices becoming much smaller, typically 1U-rack mountable devices, and with a cost in line with the much smaller size of edge base stations (small cells and gNodeBs).
Operators are left with the question: What is the best way to provide redundancy, resiliency and security in this environment? There are two core levels to consider — the architecture level and design level.
Exploring Redundancy
Redundancy at the architecture level can be engineered with core functions at both ends of a deployment (east/west) with dual paths for directional redundancy and high-performance capabilities for efficient high-accuracy time transfer over the long haul for cost-effective distribution. The virtual Primary Time Reference clock (vPRTC) architecture is such an architecture-level solution.
Redundancy can also be considered in the device itself, where the design choices are critical. Smaller devices cannot realistically be cost-effectively designed with modular hardware redundancy. The innovation here is to offer software redundancy, so a distributed, low cost, efficient and high-performance distributed solution can be deployed. A hardware module is typically expensive for two reasons: cost, and because the redundant module takes the space of another module, typically for input and output ports.
Hardware module redundancy often leads to a tradeoff between adding redundancy and losing capabilities, such as a choice between 10-gigabyte Ethernet (GE) support or multi-band GNSS or other compromises if redundancy is enabled. On the other hand, with software redundancy no tradeoff is necessary. Redundancy can be introduced while preserving all existing capabilities; no inputs or outputs are eliminated, no multi-band GNSS capability is eliminated. Redundancy is introduced via a software upgrade; therefore, it does not remove any hardware. Hardware redundancy, however, means duplicating an existing module with a similar module inside the device; this new module takes the slot of an existing module, and the function of that existing module is lost when it is removed from the unit.
Figure 1 depicts a commonly deployed redundancy use case with two aggregation routers using virtual router redundancy protocol (VRRP).
Figure 1. Example of redundancy connectivity between the active and standby units. (Image: Microchip)
Software redundancy is a dual-unit scheme based on two reasonably priced devices, one active and the other on standby. It is more cost-effective for two reasons. First, it does not involve a costly device design with expensive hardware modules. Second, each unit (passive and active) keeps all of its capabilities compared to a hardware redundant design, which involves duplication of modules in the device, thus reducing the existing possible capabilities to host the redundant module.
Software redundancy provides total redundancy of the whole device because the active and standby units are the same. One hundred percent of the capabilities are redundant, including oscillator, GNSS receiver, ports and input/outputs. A hardware module is only redundant for its own features, not the rest of the unit.
Leveraging Resiliency
Resiliency at the architecture level is key to engineering the network so grandmasters in the deployment can be connected to each other. Some grandmasters are connected to GNSS as their source of time and frequency. It is key to connect these systems to other 1588 grandmasters to enable assisted partial time support (APTS) and to leverage key innovation such as automatic asymmetry correction (AAC).
AAC is a key (patented) differentiator in a resilient design that enables calibration of the different paths a PTP flow may use to/from upstream grandmasters, thus allowing for a backup in case GNSS fails at the location of a grandmaster. A backup path to an upstream grandmaster can guarantee uninterrupted and precise time and phase operation. This architecture makes sure that GNSS can be backed up by IEEE 1588 Precision Time Protocol (PTP) when GNSS is interrupted, with the best path being utilized.
The alternative architecture choice is virtual PRTC (vPRTC), which enables operators to leverage redundancy and resiliency via a chain of high-performance boundary clocks using PTP over long distances for high accuracy, typically over optical networks. This architecture reduces reliance on GNSS and uses PTP as its primary source of time and phase.
Figure 2 depicts an optical network deployment with a dedicated optical timing channel (OTC) for high-accuracy distribution of phase over long distances.
Figure 2. Optical network deployment with OTC. (Image: Microchip)
Resiliency at the device level starts with the right choice of an oscillator, from OCXO to atomic clock (Rubidium) — and is dependent on the location, use case and respective requirements for timekeeping holdover performance. Also, the choice of GNSS receiver is key. Some typically support a single frequency, yet ionospheric phenomenon can create significant time delays during cyclical events such as solar storms. To mitigate such delays, a multi-band GNSS receiver is required.
Figure 3 depicts a comparison between single-band and multi-band time delays due to ionospheric effects and shows how multiband clearly mitigates the time error as highlighted in red.
GNSS satellites transmit time information in several frequency bands. The delay difference between signals at different frequencies provides information about ionospheric impact on the absolute delay. This enables multi-band GNSS receivers to compensate for delay variations of radio signals transmitted from the satellite to the receiver. Embedding a multi-band receiver mitigates these time delays, which is critical for applications requiring Primary Reference Time Clock class B (PRTC-B),40 ns, as well as enhanced PRTC (ePRTC) 30 ns.
These device design choices are equally important. The GNSS receiver can be embedded inside the unit on the main board, or it can be offered as a hardware module, often at an additional cost, and may impact and replace an existing module that needs to be ripped and replaced. It may be preferable to have the unit enabled with a multi-band receiver and have the multi-band capability turned on via a license as opposed to offering a multiband option on a hardware module, as this becomes a tradeoff with other important capabilities.
Evaluating Security
Security is of utmost importance. Authentication and authorization via standard mechanisms such as Terminal Access Controller Access Control System + (TACACS+) and Remote Authentication Dial-In User Service (RADIUS) provide the benefit of a standard security framework. In addition, two-factor authentication (2FA) is an extra layer of protection used to ensure the security of accounts beyond just a username and password.
Also, it is key to provide Secure Shell (SSH) extensions with various levels of security profiles to offer more granularity for the types of users and related access rights and limitations. Offering high-security profiles provides for the definition and enforcement of the most stringent access rules to the system. Scripting vulnerabilities and relevant Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) need to be addressed to make sure all potential security holes are being reviewed and addressed.
Plus, evolving jamming and spoofing threats need to be part of the precise time security strategy and implementation via monitoring of signals and consistency checks and remediation. Automatic gain control (AGC) and other metrics can be leveraged to provide thresholds with interpretation of results, as well as mitigation actions when encountered.
Final Decision Making
To ensure continued performance, it is critical to make the right architecture choices. A thorough network engineering study should include the locations where grandmaster units need to be deployed and their performance and accuracy requirements. These steps will guide which types of precise time and synchronization devices need to be selected
In addition, network planners and synchronization engineers should pay careful attention to design choices such as fanless devices versus devices that require a fan, modular hardware redundancy versus software redundancy, and the related advantages in terms of cost and tradeoffs — as well as similar choices regarding embedded or modular GNSS.
These choices can lead critical infrastructure operators to deploy redundancy, resiliency and security at all layers.
For architecture choices and solutions, visit vPRTC..White papers on this topic and others are also available. Additional information on devices and redundancy software schema is here.
Eric Colard is head of Emerging Products, Frequency & Time Systems at Microchip. He leads the product line management for Microchip’s TimeProvider 4100 and Integrated GNSS Master solutions for the telecom, utility and other industries.
What is the single most valuable lesson GPS can learn from Galileo and/or BeiDou?
Bernard Gruber
“Service continuity. Given that GNSS are so ubiquitous today, similar to the electrical grid, it is imperative that GPS continue the superb system of outage reporting via NANUs, transparency via GPS.gov, and statutory commitments via U.S. Code. Aligning to the U.S. commitment, continued Open Service Signal-in-Space, such as GPS-Galileo-BeiDou, allows thousands of planned and interoperable “apps” such as Google Maps and Waze to thrive. Although not directly in line with the question, terrestrial timing backup systems, similar to what China and some other countries do, is a valuable lesson in continuity from BeiDou.”
Bernard Gruber
Northrop Grumman
Ellen Hall
“Perhaps the lesson could be, ‘It’s easier not to be first!’ Newer navigation constellations have the benefit of watching and learning from GPS — things done well and things to improve. From technology to operational procedures, a global navigation satellite system (GNSS) is difficult to execute. Would it have been easier or cost less if the United States had decided to land on the Moon after someone else had paved the way? Probably, but there is something very satisfying about being first! And, despite the fact that GPS satellites outlive their life expectancy, we keep launching new ones, with improved technology, to give the world better accuracy and more robust signals. The world of navigation welcomes Galileo, BeiDou, and all the others to follow.”
Ellen Hall
Spirent Federal Systems
Alison Brown
“GPS could benefit from lessons learned from BeiDou as to the importance of resilience in providing PNT services. BeiDou has a total of 42 satellites now in operation and open signals are broadcast on six frequencies (B1I, B1C, B2I, B2a, B2b, and B3I). In comparison, GPS has currently 29 operational satellites and provides open signals on three frequencies (L1, L2, L5). As the global threat to GPS grows, from frequency incursions by evolving 5G systems as well as deliberate interference or spoofing, the ability to operate on different frequencies to provide resilience against harmful interference will become increasingly important.”
Alison Brown
NAVSYS Corporation
Jean-Marie Sleewaegen
“While GPS remains a gold standard with decades of reliable service, the advent of BeiDou and Galileo has undoubtedly stirred up competition. While BeiDou is exceptionally fast at deploying new signals and services, Galileo is now transmitting the first ever authenticated OSNMA signals, helping secure GNSS receivers against spoofers. The main lesson is that it is better to have company than to be alone. Having multiple GNSS not only increases the number of satellites and signals, which improves positioning accuracy and reliability, but more importantly, it fosters continuous innovation, for the benefit of all users.”
With a very good PNT device already installed for flying the aircraft, why not just tap into that one for the payload, right? This might not be a good idea, for several reasons.
By John Fischer Vice president, Advanced R&D, Orolia
John Fischer. (Photo: Orolia)
The navigation device in a UAV is very important, precisely because there is no pilot. It must navigate autonomously. It must also be optimally suited for the airframe, either fixed or rotary wing, providing the accuracy and reliability for all modes of flight, from takeoff to landing. A lot of engineering goes into the design and certification of each UAV’s navigation system to qualify it for flight.
UAVs can have multiple missions with interchangeable payloads: cameras for observation and inspection; communication equipment for relaying links or supplying emergency cellular base stations; or sensing equipment such as radar, lidar, spectrometers, etc. These payloads also need positioning, navigation and timing (PNT) sources for their missions, for example, to accurately geo-timestamp the collected data.
With a very good PNT device already installed for flying the aircraft, why not just tap into that one for the payload, right? Actually, this might not be a good idea, for several reasons.
Recertification. Modifying the navigation device, which is part of the flight control system, risks having to re-certify the aircraft for flight safety. Though a UAV has less severe restrictions on safety than a manned aircraft, it can still cause property damage or even injury and loss of life if it crashes in a populated area. The Federal Aviation Administration has numerous standards — DO-178 for software, DO-254 for hardware, DO-160 for testing — to ensure avionics are designed and tested for safe operation. Every modification, regardless of how small, must follow these standards and may require expensive re-certification of the aircraft’s airworthiness.
Performance Requirements. These vary with each mission. The flight control system includes a navigation device that was selected based on the aircraft’s special requirements. These will not necessarily match the needs of the payload. For example, consider pitch, roll, and yaw sensing accuracy. The accuracy required to determine the pointing angle of a camera might not be the same as what is needed for level flight.
Interchangeability. A particular UAV can have multiple payloads for different missions. Conversely, a particular mission payload can be adapted and installed on several different UAVs. Having a second PNT device matched to the payload allows it to stay with the payload as it is moved to different UAVs. This can lower the total cost of ownership and operation, since the extra cost of a second device is small compared to the adaption work and design changes necessary to make a single PNT device be suitable for all situations.
Missing the T in PNT. Typically, the navigation device for flying the aircraft doesn’t have a precise internal oscillator for supplying time and/or frequency — it doesn’t need it. However, most payloads can benefit from the time/frequency component to enhance mission performance. A low phase noise oscillator with low g-sensitivity that is disciplined by the precise time supplied by a GNSS receiver can substantially improve the performance of any payload radar or communication system.
A second device does not impact SWAP or cost significantly — GNSS receivers and inertial navigation systems are no longer large, expensive items. A second PNT device is typically small, weighing less than a kilogram and consuming only a few watts of power. There are also fewer connectors and cable harnesses when a removable payload is not sharing the aircraft’s PNT data, so the weight differential might be zero. PNT devices can share antennas on the aircraft via splitters, so there is no need to place additional antennas.
Technology upgrades. Micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS), inertial sensors, cameras, lidars, radars and other sensors are all evolving at a rapid pace with better technology available with each passing year. Flight control systems evolve at a different pace — mostly because of the flight certification process, but also for lack of a driving need. UAVs navigate just fine with the equipment they have today. A separate payload PNT device allows the system designer to keep pace with evolving technology, choosing the latest and best for the mission without disrupting the navigation system.
Just as “two heads are better than one” for problem solving, having two PNT devices in a UAV is often the better solution.
John Fischer is vice president, Advanced R&D, Orolia, and a member of GPS World’s Editorial Advisory Board.
Hexagon | NovAtel is offering a new marine-certified GNSS receiver specially designed for nearshore applications. The MarinePak7 multi-constellation, multi-frequency receiver has been specifically engineered to receive Oceanix Correction Service from NovAtel, providing horizontal accuracy up to three centimeters (95%) in a marine environment.
With SPAN GNSS+INS technology capabilities, the MarinePak7 deeply couples GNSS and inertial measurement units (IMUs) for a 3D understanding of your position.
Delivering exceptional positioning, heading, attitude, velocity and heave measurements, the MarinePak7 is optimized to succeed in the demanding marine environment for nearshore applications.
An intuitive user interface reduces training and setup time, making it an ideal solution for use in demanding marine applications, including dredging, hydrographic survey, marine construction and nearshore renewable energy operations.
“The MarinePak7 is NovAtel’s first receiver designed specifically for a marine environment. It provides accurate and reliable positioning for nearshore marine operations using our GNSS technology and Oceanix Correction Service,” explained Hexagon | NovAtel marine segment portfolio manager David Russell. “This receiver was developed by a team of experienced marine engineers and incorporated feedback from existing NovAtel users to deliver a high-quality, all-in-one positioning solution for the nearshore marine market.”
Several optional features are available with the MarinePak7, including GNSS heading, interference mitigation and a UHF radio used to receive RTK corrections.
Phase One, a developer of digital imaging technologies, has announced the P3 Payload, a versatile solution designed for fast, efficient and safe inspection of critical infrastructure with an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV).
The P3 Payload includes a Phase One iXM 100MP or 50MP camera, one of the RSM lens options, and a new gimbal with integrated rangefinder.
Available in the second quarter of 2021, the P3 Payload is offered in two configurations to meet a wide range of user requirements.
The P3 for the DJI M300 is plug-and-play, developed mainly for operators and service providers that already own, or are considering purchasing, a DJI M300.
The P3 MAVLink is ready for integration with drones based on the open-source MAVLink protocol, and suitable for bundling by OEMs and solution integrators.
“The P3 addresses the unmet need for a high-quality, integrated imaging solution for inspection of critical assets where capturing the details is of paramount importance,” said Michael Messerschmidt, portfolio director for drones and inspection. “The P3 Payload is designed specifically for aerial drone inspection of diverse infrastructure where every flight — and every shot — must count.”
The centerpiece of the payload is the customer’s choice of Phase One iXM 100MP or 50MP camera. Robust and waterproof, these sensors feature a dynamic range that guarantees sharp image collection in high-contrast or low-light environments. The variety of lens options ensures large surface areas can be captured with millimeter-level detail, even at safe distances from the asset. The new gimbal with the integrated laser rangefinder ensures precise and fast focusing on every shot, eliminating blurry and out-of-focus images.
The P3 Payload is suitable for these inspection applications:
High-value assets. Bridges, dams and energy facilities where the value of the structure itself is high and the demand for frequent, accurate and detailed data is critical.
High-risk assessment. Electric transmission lines, oil refineries and other complex sites where inherent danger requires high-resolution inspection from a distance that is safe for the structure, the drone and personnel.
Time-critical assets. Wind turbines, offshore oil rigs, and other facilities where inspection windows are limited, and every UAV flight must successfully capture the required information.
“We developed the P3 Payload for cost-effective, productive operation so that large surface areas can be covered in fewer images, significantly shortening the mission time,” Messerschmidt said. “More importantly, the P3 can be operated with minimal risk to the asset and ground crew.”
Tallysman Wireless is offering two new VeroStar marine antennas to its line of GNSS products. The VSP6037L-MAR supports the full GNSS spectrum and the VSP6337L-MAR supports GPS/QZSS-L1/L2/L5, GLONASS-G1/G2/G3, Galileo-E1/E5a/E5b, BeiDou-B1/B2/B2a, and NavIC-L5 signals. Both antennas support L-band correction signals.
Marine vessels often host both Iridium (1616–1626.5 MHz) and Inmarsat (uplink: 1626.5–1660.5 MHz) satellite communication antennas that transmit and receive signals. The VSP6037L-MAR and VSP6337L-MAR VeroStar marine antennas strongly attenuate interference from both signal sources, providing 75 dB to 85 dB of attenuation over Iridium and 85 dB to 95 dB over Inmarsat uplink, enabling clean GNSS signal reception and precise positioning.
Every VeroStar antenna features a robust pre-filter and a high-IP3 LNA architecture, minimizing de-sensing from high-level out-of-band signals, including 700 MHz LTE, while still providing a noise figure of only 1.8 dB.
VeroStar antennas provide the best-in-class low elevation angle tracking of the full GNSS spectrum and L-band correction signals. The wideband spherical antenna element enables VeroStar antennas to deliver ±2 mm phase centre variation (PCV), making them suitable for high-precision marine, positioning and machine control applications.
The VeroStar marine antennas are housed in a rugged and compact enclosure that supports 1-inch pipe thread or 5/8-inch-11 TPI mounting and provides a TNC antenna connector. The antennas have also obtained the stringent IEC 60945 and IEC 61108 marine certifications, making them suitable for challenging marine environments.
Microchip Technology has integrate its BlueSky technology signal-anomaly detection software into its SyncServer S600 Series network time server and instruments.
The SyncServer S600 Series now provides GPS jamming and spoofing detection and protection, in combination with local radio frequency (RF) data logging and analysis. The SyncServer S600 Series Stratum 1 instrument, along with the BlueSky technology’s intelligent jamming and spoofing detectors, continuously monitor local GPS constellation health and examine GPS and local RF signal integrity to assure validity.
If an anomaly is detected, the solution sends an alarm and, if necessary, the SyncServer instrument can be shifted to alternative time sources or an internal oscillator. This protects ongoing timing outputs while ensuring only minimal, predictable timing degradation to vital network and business operations in applications ranging from banking and stock trading to electric utilities and aerospace and defense.
The SyncServer BlueSky technology, which provides continuous detection and protection against GPS jamming and spoofing. includes a comprehensive suite of logging, charting and measuring tools to characterize local GPS satellite signals as well as local RF events over time.
This can help enable correlating, troubleshooting, identifying and correcting local anomalies, some of which may be related to consumer electronics, or nearby RF signal broadcasts. The solution is optionally available through the SyncServer v4.1 software release that provides a selection of features found in Microchip’s BlueSky GNSS Firewall solution for third-party GPS receivers and critical infrastructure.
A 2020 explosion in Lebanon’s port city of Beirut led to a southward-bound, high-velocity atmospheric wave that rivaled ones generated by volcanic eruptions.
The epicenter in Beirut, before and after the explosion.(Image: Bhaskar Kundu, et al. Scientific Reports. Feb. 2, 2021).
Just after 6 p.m. local time (15:00 UTC) on Aug. 4, 2020, more than 2,750 tons worth of unsafely stored ammonium nitrate exploded in Lebanon’s port city of Beirut, killing around 200 people, making more than 300,000 temporarily homeless, and leaving a 140-meter-diameter crater in its wake. The blast is considered one of the most powerful non-nuclear, man-made explosions in human history.
Now, calculations by Hokkaido University scientists in Japan have found that the atmospheric wave from the blast led to electron disturbances high in Earth’s upper atmosphere. They published their findings in the journal Scientific Reports.
The team of scientists, which included colleagues from the National Institute of Technology Rourkela in India, calculated changes in total electron content in Earth’s ionosphere: the part of the atmosphere from around 50 to 965 kilometres in altitude. Natural events like extreme ultraviolet radiation and geomagnetic storms, and man-made activities like nuclear tests, can cause disturbances to the ionosphere’s electron content.
“We found that the blast generated a wave that travelled in the ionosphere in a southwards direction at a velocity of around 0.8 kilometres per second,” says Hokkaido University Earth and Planetary scientist Kosuke Heki. This is similar to the speed of sound waves travelling through the ionosphere.
The team calculated changes in ionospheric electron content by looking at differences in delays experienced by microwave signals transmitted by GPS satellites to their ground stations. Changes in electron content affect these signals as they pass through the ionosphere and must be regularly taken into consideration to accurately measure GPS positions.
The ionospheric disturbance caused by an explosion can be detected by differential ionospheric delays of microwave signals of two carrier frequencies from global navigation satellite system (GNSS) satellites. (Image: Bhaskar Kundu, et al. Scientific Reports. Feb. 2, 2021).
The scientists also compared the magnitude of the ionospheric wave generated by the Beirut blast to similar waves following natural and anthropogenic events. They found that the wave generated by the Beirut blast was slightly larger than a wave generated by the 2004 eruption of Asama Volcano in central Japan, and comparable to ones that followed other recent eruptions on Japanese islands.
The energy of the ionospheric wave generated by the Beirut blast was significantly larger than a more energetic explosion in a Wyoming coal mine in the USA in 1996. The Beirut blast was equivalent to an explosion of 1.1 kilotons of TNT, while the Wyoming explosion was equivalent to 1.5 kilotons of TNT. The total electron content disturbance of the Wyoming explosion was only 1/10 of that caused by the Beirut blast. The scientists believe this was partially due to the Wyoming mine being located in a somewhat protected pit.
A train arrives at Tel Aviv University Station on the Israeli Railway in Tel Aviv. (Photo: svarshik/iStock Editorial/Getty Images Plus/Getty Images)
InfiniDome Ltd., a GPS security company, is joining with with Israeli partner Focus Telecom, in a new country-wide project with Israel Railways. The project involves deployment by Focus Telecom of GPS repeaters at more than 30 railway stations across Israel, providing accurate, location-based service indoors at all locations for a new Israel Railways ticketing app.
A critical component of the project is a monitoring service that detects and provides alerts of any GPS disruption or interference in real time, as they are identified. This is facilitated by infiniDome’s IoT GPSensors and its cloud-based GPS monitoring service, infiniCloud.
“Incorporating infiniDome’s proven resilient PNT capability to monitor and protect such a critical GPS service is a necessary enhancement for government designated critical infrastructures,” said Ehud Sharar, Focus Telecom CEO.
Photo: Focus Telecom
InfiniDome’s monitoring technology for critical assets detects and alerts operators of threats and disruptions of the essential GPS signals. These threats can originate from both malicious or natural causes.
“GPSensor IoT technology combined with our infiniCloud GPS security cloud assures real-time alerts about jamming attacks. All GPS signal data and its assured integrity are available as real time data so Israel Railways can react immediately and reduce downtime of the network,” said Omer Sharar, infiniDome CEO.
Israel Railways is the cornerstone of Israeli critical infrastructure. In 2018, Israel National Railway carried 68 million passengers. This same infiniDome GPS monitoring and protection technology is now available to defend critical infrastructure assets worldwide.
The JNC, sponsored by the Military Division of the Institute of Navigation, will be held Aug. 24-26 (FEDCON U.S. ONLY) at the Northern Kentucky Convention Center in Covington, Kentucky (Greater Cincinnati, Ohio).
The Classified Sessions (Secret U.S. ONLY) will be held Aug. 27, at the Air Force Institute of Technology on Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio. Visit requests and approvals are required for all session attendees.
View the JNC 2021 program and register at ion.org/jnc.
JNC 2021 is the largest U.S. military positioning, navigation and timing (PNT) conference of the year, with joint service and government participation.
Four new panel sessions have been introduced to this year’s technical program, which will host leaders and decision makers as they discuss and debate
MGUE Integration
Rapid Agile Development and Manufacturing
the National Critical Infrastructure Threat
Combatant Command Joint Urgent Operation Need (Secret, U.S. Only).
The technical program will focus on enhancing dominance and resilience for warfighting and homeland security PNT, and will include keynote addresses from:
William B. Nelson, director, Assured Positioning Navigation &Timing (APNT) Cross Functional Team (CFT), U.S. Army Futures Command
Ray Chartier, Jr., Safety of Navigation Mission manager, National Geospatial Intelligence Agency
General David D. Thompson, vice xhief of Space Operations, United States Space Force
Bradford Parkinson, Stanford Center for PNT
Attendance Restricted for JNC Technical Sessions
Conference attendance for both FEDCON (U.S. ONLY) (Aug. 24-26) and Classified Sessions (U.S. ONLY) (Aug. 27) will be screened by the Joint Navigation Warfare Center. Visit requests and approvals are required for all technical participants.
The exhibit hall is open to any registered conference attendee or exhibiting company representative, and all materials shall be designated DISTRO A/Publicly Releasable After Review.
Government-issued photo ID will be required to access all conference events.
If you have questions, contact the Institute of Navigation at [email protected] or by calling +1-703-366-2723.
First commercial deployment to be installed on a major turnpike used by tens of millions of vehicles every year
An electronic tolling system that uses high-performance lidar sensors from Cepton and a vehicle identification solution from Red Fox ID is expected to be deployed on a major highway turnpike crossing multiple states in the United States.
The turnpike project is expected to provide fast, accurate, real-time tolling to enable smooth traffic flows. Specifics of the project — including states involved and the timeframe of installation — were not disclosed.
Photo: Cepton
Based on an extended collaboration with leading lidar solution provider Cepton, Red Fox ID — a designer and developer of vehicle identification and classification solutions — has developed a multi-lane, free-flow tolling system called Quantum, which is able to accurately detect, track and classify vehicles of any size or type at highway speeds.
Quantum uses Cepton’s Micro Motion Technology (MMT)-based Sora-P60 or Sora-P90 lidar sensors for high-resolution vehicle profiling, to enable integrators and road operators to achieve highly accurate customer billing in real time, with free flow, barrier-free tolling.
For tolls to be charged correctly based on vehicle class, traditional tolling systems often use tollbooths for manual processing or depend on vehicle speed-reduction infrastructure to allow for time to capture vehicle information. That can cause congestion, increased emissions and frustration among customers.
Advanced systems that aim to enable faster tolling are often subject to significant errors, such as missed vehicles or wrong vehicle classification, because of limitations of the sensors being used, such as cameras and weight-based ground sensors. Vehicle-classification errors can have significant operating cost consequences for tolling operators, while leakage leads to lower revenues. With tollways processing tens of millions of vehicles a year, the cumulative impact of inaccuracies and errors creates significant administrative costs, losses and customer dissatisfaction.
Red Fox ID’s Quantum solution adds an extra layer of accuracy to the tolling system by integrating Cepton’s lidar technology. A gantry-mounted system using Quantum is able to accurately detect and track vehicles even as they switch lanes. Quantum captures and extracts high-quality information, such as vehicle velocity, size and class. All of that information is used as input to a separate billing system to compute and apply the appropriate tolling charge.
Quantum can also direct camera-based systems on the gantry to capture a vehicle’s front and rear plates in the event that a transponder cannot be detected. Through these innovations, Quantum has demonstrated a vehicle-detection accuracy in all traffic conditions of 99.96%, an axle-classification accuracy in all traffic conditions of 99.9% and a vehicle-length accuracy of +/-5%. The system uses Cepton’s Sora-P sensor family which has been tested and proven during extended trials, including in various weather and light conditions.
The recently released Sora-P90 lidar features a 380-Hz frame rate to deliver 1140 line scans per second, providing high-fidelity profiling of vehicles passing at highway speeds. Powered by Cepton’s patented, rotation-free, frictionless and mirrorless MMT, the Sora-P90 is rugged, reliable and scalable, making it suited for automated tolling applications.With a 90° horizontal field of view, the lidar can be set up using one gantry instead of two separate sensors and gantries, making overall deployment more cost effective.
Red Fox ID has been working with Cepton on multiple trials and proof of concept projects across the globe since 2019. This has allowed both partners to expand the application of advanced lidar intelligence for high-accuracy tolling on highways and roadways in a growing list of countries, across North America, Europe, the Middle Eas, Africa and Asia.
“Our industry’s drive for overhead tolling solutions has failed to materialize in the mainstream due, primarily, to a lack of sensors capable of achieving the high levels of accuracy required for a modern tolling product,” said Steve Bird, CEO of Red Fox ID. “The technical innovations enabled by Cepton offer us new design options. Improvements in the resolution of the data, the ability to deal with the full range of weather-related conditions, and the development of a sensor with an in-service lifespan suitable for tolling make it possible, for the first time, for us to develop an accurate, overhead free flow system. Our partnership with Cepton will be a game-changer in revolutionizing the tolling market.”
“It is very clear that lidar’s uses extend far beyond just serving as the ‘eyes’ of autonomous vehicles,” said Jun Pei, CEO of Cepton. “Our lidar technology has a huge part to play in making our transport infrastructure smarter, safer, greener and more efficient, as we can see here following Quantum’s highly successful real-world testing. The key to success for toll operators and providers is minimal error and maximum yield, and we are excited to be partnering with Red Fox ID to help our mutual customers achieve this goal with our market-leading lidar technology. We look forward to working with them to expand our partnership worldwide.”
A new enterprise platform available this summer provides real-time location and asset tracking across a campus with Bluetooth technology.
