GPS World

Category: Applications

  • Microsemi enhances SyncServer S600 server for Ethernet networks, satellite uplinks

    Microsemi Corporation is offering new hardware and software options for its SyncServer S600 series of time servers and instruments. The enhancements improve time synchronization over enterprise Ethernet networks and supply timing signals for improved military radar operations and satellite uplink communications.

    “The SyncServer S600 series provides highly accurate, reliable and secure time for a variety of applications, not the least of which are the extremely precise low phase noise 10-MHz signals used in military radars and satellite uplinks,” said Paul Skoog, senior product line manager at Microsemi. “We’re committed to helping our customers improve the performance of their systems by improving the performance of ours. These high-quality timing signals enable radars to track difficult targets as well as to improve the quality and data throughput of satellite communications systems.”

    Enterprise and financial customers also look to the SyncServer S600 series to meet the timing and synchronization needs of their rapidly evolving networks, particularly for compliance purposes such as the European MiFID II directive, which specifies highly stringent time accuracy requirements for stock trading systems.

    Also applicable for laboratories and test and measurement companies, this latest release of Microsemi’s S600 hardware and software includes support for the IEEE 1588 multiport, multi-profile Precision Time Protocol (PTP), which allows the S600 to operate as an independent grandmaster clock on each Ethernet port — delivering cost savings and network deployment flexibility to customers. This is coupled with a new 10GbE interface to easily interoperate with a wider variety of network and stock trading topologies.

    The newly enhanced SyncServer S600 and S650 can be equipped with two 10 GbE Ethernet small form-factor pluggable (SFP+) ports for customers needing to maximize PTP grandmaster performance in a cost-effective 1 rack unit (1U) chassis.

    In addition, the S650 can measure the accuracy of PTP hardware slaves that are synchronized to the S650 grandmaster by way of a new external 1 pulse per second measurement option.

    The combination of these devices’ new hardware and software features support Microsemi’s expanding leadership position as a cost-effective enterprise PTP grandmaster provider delivering accurate and reliable time to critical systems.

    Microsemi’s SyncServer S600 series meets the time and frequency requirements of multiple vertical markets, particularly the global military radar market, which is estimated to reach $10 billion by 2024 with a compound annual growth rate of 2.6 percent between 2016 and 2024 according to market research firm Variant Market Research.

    The firm also identifies how radar in military applications is widely used for air traffic control, early warning detection of missiles, navigation at sea and surveillance of air and ground. The versatile SyncServer S600 series meets the needs of today’s demanding timing requirements and scales to meet the needs of the future.

  • NIST explores timing alternatives for smart grids

    The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has published a 33-page special publication reporting on the results of a workshop convened to recommend research and development priorities for alternatives to GPS time distribution in electrical power systems.

    “If timing is to become mission critical, redundant means of distributing timing information is essential,” according to NIST.

    NIST hosted the “Time Distribution Alternatives for the Smart Grid Workshop” at its Gaithersburg, Maryland, campus on March 21. The information gained will inform future NIST, U.S. Department of Energy, national laboratories and private sector technical programs and strategic planning.

    The workshop consisted of experts on both electrical power and wide-area time distribution. The experts came from industry, utilities, academia and government.

    The findings cover desired future characteristics, targets, challenges and barriers to adoption of time distribution alternatives; and priority R&D areas for time distribution alternatives.

    Potential alternatives to wide area distributed time synchronization include Enhanced WWVB (radio signal broadcasting), eLoran (hyperbolic radio navigation) and the IEEE Wide Area Precision Time Protocol (PTP – master slave clock synchronization).

    Results of the workshop illustrate the need for alternatives to existing GPS timing systems as well as backup systems and many of the challenges that need to be addressed to develop and implement alternatives. Some of the overarching themes that emerged include the following:

    • While a number of potential alternative exist, they will require further infrastructure, research and concerted investment to implement and demonstrate their potential to replace, supplement, back up, or fill gaps in existing GPS systems.
    • Potential alternatives may need to be combined in ensembles to fill gaps, create the needed redundancies, and supplement GPS-based timing.
    • Future alternatives to GPS will need to have the same or better levels of accuracy, resilience, security, trustworthiness, and availability to supplant existing systems; a diversity of timing distribution systems may be needed (terrestrial, communication-based, wireless, etc.).
    • Dependency on space-based systems is currently strong due to their perceived reliability; there is limited awareness of the possible adverse impacts of timing failure events in such systems (and few backups exist).
    • Developing and using existing alternatives and new technologies, and integrating these with legacy systems will require standards and use cases to enable new technology, architectures, and interoperability among systems.
    • Better understanding of attack and failure threat modes is needed to estimate and demonstrate the true consequences of timing failures in systems based entirely on GPS.

  • US Supreme Court considers privacy — or not — of your location data

    The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments last week on a case that could determine whether authorities can search cellphone location data without a warrant.

    In Carpenter v. U.S., the Court will eventually rule on whether the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution’s Bill of Rights, enacted in 1791 to safeguard citizens’ rights against unreasonable searches and seizures, extends to cover personal cellphone records tracking user location.

    The case began when police used records, obtained from a phone company and drawing on cell-tower location, to show that an individual’s cellphone was used in the vicinity of several armed robberies in Michigan and Ohio in 2010 and 2011.

    The appellants contend that the government had violated the Fourth Amendment when it collected their cellphone location records without a warrant. A federal appeals court ruled against the appeal, finding the Fourth Amendment doesn’t “yet” extend to cellphone location data.

    That court distinguished between the “content” of a communication and the “information necessary to send it.” The government can’t read letters or emails or listen to wiretapped conversation without a warrant, but it is entitled to the metadata used to send such content — in this case the phone company data showing in which tower’s cell area the phone was activated.

    “The business records here fall on the unprotected side of this line. Those records say nothing about the content of any calls,” the court ruled. “Instead the records include routing information, which the wireless providers gathered in the ordinary course of business.”

    The Supreme Court, in hearing the appeal on this decision, is expected to review — and possibly revise — its heretofore opinion that when users share information with a third party, such as a bank or telephone company, they lose the expectation that it will remain private. At question is whether cellphones have activated a new era of privacy expectations, in essence, whether legal doctrine needs to be subject to updates for the digital age.

    One tenet that no one questions is that cell phone users have no idea to what extent their phone companies know where they go and how long they stay there. Whether they care or not, or whether they are willing to sacrifice some amount of privacy for the convenience of cell phone access, remains to be seen. The limits for this have been explored but never completely settled, in controversies around Facebook’s (and others’) access to and use of customer data and profiles.

    Apple, Facebook, Google and Verizon have all filed an amicus (“friend of the court”) brief in Carpenter v. U.S. The tech gargantua seem to want, on the one hand, to discourage the possibility of government and law enforcement being able to access location data without a warrant, while also maintaining a clear and unencumbered route for themselves to use it. They argue that “Fourth Amendment doctrine must adapt to the changing realities of the digital era” and that “rigid analog-era rules should yield to consideration of reasonable expectations of privacy in the digital age.”

    After a related 2012 Supreme Court decision that attaching a GPS tracker to a car without a search warrant violated the Fourth Amendment, Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote that the so-called third-party doctrine was “ill suited to the digital age” and that privacy case law should adapt to changes in society’s views that are occurring thanks to smartphones and other technology.

    For a summary of the arguments presented to the Court on November 29 in Carpenter v. U.S., see the SCOTUS blog here. Further developments in the case will appear on this page, and viewers may sign up for push updates as well.

    In 2008, GPS World published an editorial on this subject, in the guise of a parodized future film noir scenario, “The Call Tease Factor.” An expandable image appears at left. The essay opined that “Government agencies and police routinely tracked cell users’ location without a warrant or court oversight. . . . Challenges had faltered, and no one seemed to notice any more, or care much.”

    “Privacy, as least as far as location, no longer existed.”

  • USGS map locates lava flows before an eruption

    lava inundation zones: In this USGS map, colors depict 3 of 18 lava Inundation zones for Mauna Loa. Yellow indicates the volcano’s Northeast Rift Zone, an area along which lava could erupt. The extent of the 1984 eruption and lava flow is superimposed on the map (red).

    New U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) maps show areas that could be affected by Mauna Loa lava flows — information critical for response planning. Each zone identifies a segment of the volcano that could erupt lava and send flows downslope.

    Hawaii-laval-maunaloa-map-WThe volcano has erupted 33 times since 1843. Typically, eruptions began in the summit caldera, with a curtain of fire (a 1- to 2-kilometer line of lava fountains).

    Using detailed geologic mapping and modeling of how a fluid (in this case, lava) responds to surface topography, the USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory constructed nine maps depicting 18 inundation zones on Mauna Loa, Island of Hawai’i.

    Colored regions on these maps show areas on the volcano’s flank that could potentially be covered by flows from future Mauna Loa eruptions. These eruptions could originate from the volcano’s summit, rift zones or radial vents. It’s likely, however, that only part of a zone would be covered in a single eruption.

    When a Mauna Loa eruption starts, the maps can help decision makers quickly identify communities, infrastructure and roads between possible vent locations and the coast, facilitating more efficient and effective allocation of response resources, the USGS said. The public can also use the maps to consider where lava flows might go once an eruption starts.

    A pamphlet about the maps is available here.

    lava flow glow: Had the Mauna Loa inundation maps been available in April 1984, when the volcano last erupted, the maps could have been used to determine that the northern portion of Hilo was the most likely area to be impacted by the main lava flow. (Photo: David Little)
  • Locating lava flows before an eruption

    Locating lava flows before an eruption

    lava inundation zones: In this USGS map, colors depict 3 of 18 lava Inundation zones for Mauna Loa. Yellow indicates the volcano’s Northeast Rift Zone, an area along which lava could erupt. The extent of the 1984 eruption and lava flow is superimposed on the map (red). (Map: USGS)
    Lava inundation zones: In this USGS map, colors depict 3 of 18 lava Inundation zones for Mauna Loa. Yellow indicates the volcano’s Northeast Rift Zone, an area along which lava could erupt. The extent of the 1984 eruption and lava flow is superimposed on the map (red). (Map: USGS)

    New U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) maps show areas that could be affected by Mauna Loa lava flows — information critical for response planning. Each zone identifies a segment of the volcano that could erupt lava and send flows downslope.

    The volcano has erupted 33 times since 1843. Typically, eruptions began in the summit caldera, with a curtain of fire (a 1- to 2-kilometer line of lava fountains).

    Using detailed geologic mapping and modeling of how a fluid (in this case, lava) responds to surface topography, the USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory constructed nine maps depicting 18 inundation zones on Mauna Loa, Hawaii.

    Colored regions on these maps show areas on the volcano’s flank that could potentially be covered by flows from future Mauna Loa eruptions. These eruptions could originate from the volcano’s summit, rift zones or radial vents. It’s likely, however, that only part of a zone would be covered in a single eruption.

    When a Mauna Loa eruption starts, the maps can help decision makers quickly identify communities, infrastructure and roads between possible vent locations and the coast, facilitating more efficient and effective allocation of response resources, the USGS said. The public can also use the maps to consider where lava flows might go once an eruption starts.

    A pamphlet about the maps is available here.

    lava flow glow: Had the Mauna Loa inundation maps been available in April 1984, when the volcano last erupted, the maps could have been used to determine that the northern portion of Hilo was the most likely area to be impacted by the main lava flow. (Photo: David Little)

  • Tampa demonstrates connected vehicle technology

    Tampa, Florida, took a big step toward its goal of becoming a smart city on Nov. 13, when the Tampa Hillsborough Expressway Authority (THEA) hosted its first public demonstration of connected car technology.

    THEA plans to equip 1,600 privately owned automobiles with connected vehicle technology by mid-2018 as part of the Tampa Connected Vehicle Pilot.

    In the project, volunteers’ automobiles will be equipped to communicate with downtown traffic and pedestrian signals to enhance safety, improve traffic flow and reduce emissions of greenhouse gases. Ten buses and 10 streetcars will also be equipped.

    Tampa is one of three sites deploying the technology as part of the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Connected Vehicle Pilot Deployment Program. The other two sites are New York City and the Interstate 80 corridor in the state of Wyoming. Tampa’s project is the only one that involves local residents driving their own cars.

    THEA is now recruiting volunteer drivers and pedestrians for the Tampa Connected Vehicle Pilot. Participating drivers commuting on the equipped expressway will receive a warning when traffic backs up, or when approaching a curve at an unsafe speed. Drivers who near pedestrians in certain crosswalks also will receive alerts.

    Pedestrians will be able to participate in the pilot by installing an app on their smartphones that will enable them to request a “walk” signal at certain intersections, and issue audible alerts if a bus or streetcar is moving nearby.

  • Javad GNSS offers spoofing alert for surveyors

    Spoofing — the generation of false and misleading GPS signals by “bad actors” — is becoming an increasing problem for all GPS users, and surveyors just as much as everyone else should be knowledgable and take countermeasures.

    Javad GNSS has announced that spoofer detection is now available on all of its OEM boards. If the receivers equipped with such boards detect more than one correlation peak for any PRN code, they warn the user of the presence of spoofing (false signals) and identify the spoofed satellites.

    The receivers then switch to other signals and sensors that are not being spoofed, to maintain accurate positioning. The user can also employ the receiver to try to identify the direction from which the spoofing signals are originating.

  • OriginGPS creates IoT-connected baseball

    OriginGPS teamed with Friendly Technologies, an internet of things (IoT) and device management company, and Humavox, a wireless charging expert, to create an IoT-connected baseball in six weeks.

    Friendly’s IoT platform interfaces the OriginIoT (cellular IoT) system to enable communication, management and a graphical user interface, while Humavox’s compact Wi-Fi-charging bowl re-energizes the system.

    The demonstration — developed in six weeks without a single line of embedded code or RF engineering — was showcased at CTIA Mobile World Congress 2017, in San Francisco Sept. 12–14.

    The OriginIoT effectively resolves inherent costly issues to IoT developments — namely long project cycles and required embedded software expertise. It expedites development cycles, and eliminates the need for embedded coding and RF engineering, resulting in substantial cuts in development resources, the companies said. With OriginGPS’ cellular-GNSS integrated in the IoT cellular system, the smart baseball is a proof of concept for rapid and accessible IoT development.

    Friendly’s One-IoTTM platform enables service providers to manage the data and configuration of millions of devices on a single platform, accelerating deployment and streamlining IoT service management, while cutting operational costs.

  • Drone platform guides earthworks projects

    Drone platform guides earthworks projects

    Kespry now offers a suite of capabilities that extends the value of aerial intelligence to the full life cycle of planning, bidding and managing earthworks projects in the major site construction industry.

    The company is focused on making it easier to capture, process, use and share high-resolution information from the field with its fully autonomous aerial intelligence system.

    Capabilities include grade planning and analysis, site and surface comparison including cut/fill visualization, and design plan development and compliance.

    Compared to other drone mapping solutions, the earthworks-specific tools enable construction companies to more accurately plan the work, improve their cost structure, and deliver safer working environments through frequent analysis of changes to the site, according to Kespry.

    The new capabilities are a result of customer and partner feedback, including from John Deere, dealers and clients.

    The new earthworks capabilities provide:

    • Faster and more accurate production of earthwork grading plans through on-demand drone data capture and analysis. Mass haul plans can be easily developed before projects begin with an entire site mapped and analyzed in hours. New tools also enable haul road planning to support more efficient site planning.
    • Reduced costs for grading project bids, with project estimates delivered faster than with traditional estimating techniques. Ongoing operational costs are also reduced with on-demand cut/fill analysis enabling close management of the project and specific bid requests.
    • More efficient and safer project operations with progress comparisons delivered through daily drone flights. This enables design plan comparison through project plan overlay onto Kespry data, reducing the complexity and cost of rework. Safety can also be improved through close monitoring of change and analysis of grades around the site.
  • DARPA sprints toward unmanned air and ground swarming

    DARPA sprints toward unmanned air and ground swarming

    DARPA’s OFFensive Swarm-Enabled Tactics (OFFSET) program envisions future small-unit infantry forces using small unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) or small unmanned ground systems (UGS) in swarms of 250 robots or more to accomplish diverse missions in complex urban environments.

    By leveraging and combining emerging technologies in swarm autonomy and human-swarm teaming, the program seeks to enable rapid development and deployment of breakthrough capabilities to the field.

    DARPA has awarded Phase 1 contracts to teams led by Raytheon BBN Technologies and Northrop Grumman Corporation.

    Image: DARPA
    Image: DARPA

    Swarm Tactics. Both teams will serve as a swarm systems integrators tasked with designing, developing and deploying an open architecture for swarm technologies in physical and virtual environments.

    Each system would include an extensible game-based architecture to enable design and integration of swarm tactics, a swarm tactics exchange to foster community interaction, immersive interfaces for collaboration among teams of humans and swarm systems, and a physical testbed to validate developed capabilities.

    The teams will be responsible for experimentation and systems-integration efforts for realizing swarm capabilities, including producing tactics and technologies to test on its respective architecture.

    Swarm Sprints. DARPA also aims to engage with a wider developer and user audience through rapid technology-development and integration efforts called swarm sprints. Participants in these experiments — sprinters — can work with one or both integration teams and each other to create and test their own novel swarm tactics and enabling technologies.

    Roughly every six months, DARPA plans to solicit proposals from potential sprinters, with each swarm sprint focusing on one of five thrust areas: swarm tactics, swarm autonomy, human-swarm teaming, virtual environment and physical testbed.

    The end of each sprint would coincide with physical and virtual capability-based experiments designed to test and assess integration of the thrust-specific OFFSET technologies. The experiments would also provide direct engagement between DARPA, the teams and sprinters, and warfighters who could help further tailor OFFSET capabilities to meet real-world operational needs.

    “The swarm sprints are empirical experiments designed to accelerate our understanding of what swarms can do in urban environments,” said Timothy Chung, program manager in DARPA’s Tactical Technology Office. “By having swarm sprints at regular intervals, we’re able to ensure that we’re keeping up with the latest technologies — and are in fact helping inform and advance those technologies — to better suit the needs of the OFFSET program. Given the wide range of capabilities that we’re interested in, we’re looking for wherever those innovative solutions are going to come from, whether they be small businesses, academic institutions or large corporations.”

  • U.S. Army solicits PNT solutions for warfighters

    U.S. Army solicits PNT solutions for warfighters

    The U.S. Army is soliciting proposals for research, development, design and testing that directly supports battlefield technologies in the area of positioning, navigation and timing (PNT).

    Broad Agency Announcement (BAA W56KGU-18-R-PN22) was issued by the U.S. Army’s Communications-Electronics Research, Development and Engineering Center (CERDEC) on Nov. 24 through FedBizOpps.gov.

    CERDEC — based at the Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland — aims to discover technical approaches to improve and enhance current and future land warrior capabilities, flexibility and responsiveness in line with its strategic vision for enhancing warfighter capabilities to operate in both symmetric and unsymmetrical environments.

    GPS-denied environments. “The goal is to support CERDECs Strategic Thrust for PNT by providing technical and operational capabilities that enables the soldier to continue their operations in hostile RF and GPS-denied environments,” reads the BAA. “Proposed technical approaches may apply to operations both before and after the cessation of hostilities.

    “This announcement emphasizes approaches that address the very different challenges presented by urban fighting and dramatically enhance warfighter capabilities, for example, the ability to interact, maneuver and operate under a time constrained environment. These changes should generally result in lower casualties, lower collateral damage, and the effective use of combat power.

    “The specific topics of interest revolve around the research and development of technologies may provide revolutionary improvements to the entire spectrum of PNT.”

    Soldiers with 18th Military Police Brigade, assault opposing enemy threats during an Urban Operations training at the 7th Army Training Command’s Grafenwoehr Training Area, Germany, Oct. 20, 2017. (U.S. Army photo by Spc. Javon Spence)

    CERDEC’s plan is to support multiple and potentially multiphase efforts that pursue the design, development, integration and demonstration of critical and enabling technology and system attributes pertaining to PNT. Proposed efforts will primarily be of service and material with aims at resolving technical barriers.

    Proposals. Proposals submitted should range in scope from study and analysis type work with limited data and deliverables, to larger efforts for component developments, techniques and demonstrations with breadboard or prototype-style deliverables.

    The contracts are expected to be cost-plus-fixed-fee, but can be negotiated.

  • Intelsat demonstrates mitigation of satellite signal interference

    Mitigating intentional interference for satellites is addressed in a new white paper released by Intelsat General.

    The white paper details interference mitigation on the Intelsat EpicNG platform. Intelsat General is a wholly owned subsidiary of Intelsat and operator of the worldwide Globalized Network.

    The whitepaper validates the ability of the Intelsat EpicNG platform to mitigate attempts by adversaries to intentionally interfere with signals operating on Intelsat’s multi-spot, high-frequency reuse, high-throughput satellites. This is particularly important for U.S. and allied military forces in hostile theaters throughout the globe.

    “U.S. DoD (Department of Defense) satellite communication systems are critical for collecting and disseminating video and data that give the military real-time information about a hostile environment,” said Skot Butler, president of Intelsat General. “Our Interference Resolution demonstration showcases the capability of the Intelsat EpicNG system, and its advanced digital payload, to work around efforts to interfere or jam the signals being transmitted via our satellites.”

    https://youtu.be/B0rhVk4MYY0

    Demonstration. The Interference Resolution demonstration used a remote terminal transmitting video to a hub Earth station over the Intelsat 29e satellite. During the validation process, technicians transmitted an interference signal on the same channel used to transmit the video.

    Once the interference was detected, technicians were able to reconfigure the satellite and the remote terminal, thereby re-establishing video transmissions. The reconfigurations

    • terminated the interferer at the satellite thereby clearing the downlink,
    • provided a new, interference-free uplink channel, and
    • connected the new video uplink channel to the original, now clear, downlink channel.

    Intelsat 29e, launched in January 2016, was the first of Intelsat’s fleet of high-throughput satellites. Five Intelsat EpicNG satellites are now in orbit with one more planned for launch in 2018.