GPS World

Category: Applications

  • Galileo E1, E5a Performance for Multi-Frequency, Multi-Constellation GBAS

    Galileo E1, E5a Performance for Multi-Frequency, Multi-Constellation GBAS

    Pullen-Galileo-O
    Photo: Galileo

    Analysis of new Galileo signals at an experimental ground-based augmentation system (GBAS) compares noise and multipath in their performance to GPS L1 and L5. Raw noise and multipath level of the Galileo signals is shown to be smaller than those of GPS. Even after smoothing, Galileo signals perform somewhat better than GPS and are less sensitive to the smoothing time constant. 

    By Mihaela-Simona Circiu, Michael Felux, German Aerospace Center (DLR), and Sam Pullen, Stanford University

    Several ground-based augmentation system (GBAS) stations have become operational in recent years and are used on a regular basis for approach guidance. These include airports at Sydney, Malaga, Frankfurt and Zurich. These stations are so-called GBAS Approach Service Type C (GAST C) stations and support approaches only under CAT-I weather conditions; that is, with a certain minimum visibility. Standards for stations supporting CAT-II/III operations (low visibility or automatic landing, called GAST D), are expected to be agreed upon by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) later this year. Stations could be commercially available as soon as 2018.

    However, for both GAST C and D, the availability of the GBAS approach service can be significantly reduced under active ionospheric conditions. One potential solution is the use of two frequencies and multiple constellations in order to be able to correct for ionospheric impacts, detect and remove any compromised satellites, and improve the overall satellite geometry (and thus the availability) of the system.

    A new multi-frequency and multi-constellation (MFMC) GBAS will have different potential error sources and failure modes that have to be considered and bounded. Thus, all performance and integrity assumptions of the existing single-frequency GBAS must be carefully reviewed before they can be applied to an MFMC system. A central element for ensuring the integrity of the estimated position solution is the calculation of protection levels. This is done by modeling all disturbances to the navigation signals in a conservative way and then estimating a bound on the resulting positioning errors that is valid at an allocated integrity risk probability.

    One of the parameters that is different for the new signals and must be recharacterized is the residual uncertainty attributed to the corrections from the ground system (σpr_gnd). A method to assess the contribution of residual noise and multipath is by evaluating the B-values in GBAS, which give an estimate of the error contribution from a single reference receiver to a broadcast correction. Independent data samples over at least one day (for GPS) are collected and sorted by elevation angle. Then the mean and standard deviations for each elevation bin are determined.

    Here, we evaluate the E1 and E5a signals broadcast by the operational Galileo satellites now in orbit. In the same manner as we did for GPS L5 in earlier research, we determine the σpr_gnd values for these Galileo signals. As for GPS L5, results show a lower level of noise and multipath in unsmoothed pseudorange measurements compared to GPS L1 C/A code.

    DLR GBAS Facility

    DLR has set up a GBAS prototype at the research airport in Braunschweig (ICAO identifier EDVE) near the DLR research facility there. This ground station has recently been updated and now consists of four GNSS receivers connected to choke ring antennas, which are mounted at heights between 2.5 meters and 7.5 meters above equipment shelters. All four receivers are capable of tracking GPS L5 (in addition to GPS L1 and L2 semi-codeless) and Galileo E1 and E5a signals. Figure 1 gives an overview of the current ground station layout, and Table 1 gives the coordinates of the antennas.

    Figure 1 DLR ground facility near Braunschweig Airport, also shown in opening photo at left.
    Figure 1. DLR ground facility near Braunschweig Airport, also shown in opening photo at left.
    TABLE 1. Ground receiver antenna coordinates.
    Table 1. Ground receiver antenna coordinates.

    Smoothing Techniques

    The GBAS system corrects for the combined effects of multiple sources of measurement errors that are highly correlated between reference receivers and users, such as satellite clock, ephemeris error, ionospheric delay error, and tropospheric delay error, through the differential corrections broadcast by the GBAS ground subsystem. However, uncorrelated errors such as multipath and receiver noise can make a significant contribution to the remaining differential error. Multipath errors are introduced by the satellite signal reaching the antenna via both the direct path from the satellites and from other paths due to reflection. These errors affect both the ground and the airborne receivers, but are different at each and do not cancel out when differential corrections are applied.

    To reduce these errors, GBAS performs carrier smoothing. Smoothing makes use of the less noisy but ambiguous carrier-phase measurements to suppress the noise and multipath from the noisy but unambiguous code measurements.

    The current GBAS architecture is based on single-frequency GPS L1 C/A code measurements only. Single-frequency carrier smoothing reduces noise and multipath, but ionospheric disturbances can cause significant differential errors when the ground station and the airborne user are affected by different conditions. With the new available satellites (GPS Block IIF and Galileo) broadcasting in an additional aeronautical band (L5 / E5), this second frequency could be used in GBAS to overcome many current limitations of the single-frequency system.

    Dual-frequency techniques have been investigated in previous work. Two dual-frequency smoothing algorithms, Divergence Free (Dfree) and Ionosphere Free (Ifree), have been proposed to mitigate the effect of ionosphere gradients.

    The Dfree output removes the temporal ionospheric gradient that affects the single-frequency filter but is still affected by the absolute difference in delay created by spatial gradients. The main advantage of Dfree is that the output noise is similar to that of single-frequency smoothing, since only one single-frequency code measurement is used as the code input (recall that carrier phase noise on both frequencies is small and can be neglected).

    Ifree smoothing completely removes the (first-order) effects of ionospheric delay by using ionosphere-free combinations of code and phase measurements from two frequencies as inputs to the smoothing filter. Unlike the Dfree, the Ifree outputs contain the combination of errors from two code measurements. This increases the standard deviation of the differential pseudorange error and thus also of the position solution.

    Noise and Multipath in New GNSS Signals

    GBAS users compute nominal protection levels (H0) under a fault-free assumption. These protection levels are conservative overbounds of the maximum position error after application of the differential corrections broadcast by the ground system, assuming that no faults or anomalies affect the position solution. In order to compute these error bounds, the total standard deviation of each differentially corrected pseudorange measurements has to be modeled. The standard deviation of the residual uncertainty (σn, for the nth satellite) consists of the root-sum-square of uncertainties introduced by atmospheric effects (ionosphere, troposphere) as well as of the contribution of the ground multipath and noise. In other words, these error components are combined to estimate σn2 as described in the following equation:

    Pullen-Eq1   (1)

    The ground broadcasts a value for σpr_gnd (described later in the section) associated with the pseudorange correction for each satellite. These broadcast values are based on combinations of theoretical models and actual measurements collected from the ground receivers that represent actual system characteristics. Unlike the ground, σpr_air is computed based entirely on a standardized error model. This is mainly to avoid the evaluation of multipath for each receiver and each aircraft during equipment approval.

    In addition to the characteristics of nearby signal reflectors, multipath errors are mainly dependent on signal modulation and other signal characteristics (for example, power, chip rate). In earlier research, we showed that the newly available L5 signals broadcast by the GPS Block IIF satellites show better performance in terms of lower noise and multipath. This mainly results from an increased transmitted power and a 10 times higher chip rate on L5 compared to the L1 C/A code signal.

    In this work, we extend this evaluation to the new Galileo signals and investigate their impact on a future multi-frequency, multi-constellation GBAS. Characterization of these new signals is based on ground subsystem measurements, since no flight data with GPS L5 or Galileo measurements are available at the moment. We assume that the improvements observed by ground receivers are also applicable to airborne measurements. This assumption will be validated as soon as flight data are available.

    The measurements used were collected from the DLR GBAS test bed over 10 days (note that Galileo satellite ground track repeatability is 10 sidereal days) between the December 14 and 23, 2013. In that period, four Galileo and four Block IIF GPS satellites were operational and broadcast signals on both aeronautical bands E1 / L1 and E5a / L5.

    In Figure 2, the suppression of multipath and noise on the Galileo signals can be observed, where the code multipath and noise versus elevation for GPS L1 C/A BSPK(1), Galileo E1 (BOC (1,1)) and Galileo E5a (BPSK(10)) signals are shown. The code multipath and noise was estimated using the linear dual-frequency combination described in equation (2), where MPi represents the code multipath and noise on frequency i, ρi the code measurement, and ϕi,and ϕj represent the carrier-phase measurements on frequencies i and j, respectively. Carrier phase noises are small and can be neglected.

    Pullen-Eq2   (2)

    Figure 2. Raw multipath function of elevation for GPS L1, Galileo E1 (BOC (1,1)) and Galileo E5a (BPSK(10)) signals.
    Figure 2. Raw multipath function of elevation for GPS L1, Galileo E1 (BOC (1,1)) and Galileo E5a (BPSK(10)) signals.

    The multipath on the Galileo E1 (BOC(1,1)) signal (the magenta curve) is lower than the GPS L1 C/A (BPSK(1))  (black curve), especially for low elevation, where the advantage of the E1 BOC(1,1) is more pronounced. The lower values can be explained by the wider transmission bandwidth on E1 and the structure of the BOC signal. Galileo E5a (green data in Figure 2) again shows a better performance than Galileo E1. This was expected due to the higher chip rate and higher signal power. A comparison of the raw multipath and noise standard deviations for GPS L1, L5 and Galileo E1, E5a signals is presented in Figure 3.

    Figure 3. Ratios of the multipath and noise standard deviation function of elevation.
    Figure 3. Ratios of the multipath and noise standard deviation function of elevation.

    The curves there show the ratios of the standard deviations for each elevation bin. The values for GPS L1 are almost 1.5 times larger than those for Galileo E1 BOC(1,1) (green curve) for elevations below 20°. For high elevations, the ratio approaches 1.0. This corresponds to the observations in the raw multipath plot ( Figure 2). With the same signal modulation and the same chip rate, E5a and L5 have very similar results (red curve), and the ratio stays close to 1.0 for all elevations.

    The blue and the purple curves in Figure 3 show the ratio of GPS L1 C/A (BPSK(1)) and GPS L5 (BPSK(10)), and Galileo E1 (BOC(1,1)) and Galileo E5a (BPSK(10)), respectively. The ratio of GPS L1 to GPS L5 (blue curve) increases with elevation from values around 2.5 for low elevations, reaching values above 3.5 for elevations higher than 60°. As Galileo E1 performs better, the ratio between Galileo E1 and Galileo E5a (purple curve) is smaller, from a value of 1.5 for elevations below 10 degrees to a value of 3.0 for high elevations.

    Until now, we have presented the evaluation of raw code noise and multipath. However, in GBAS, carrier smoothing is performed to minimize the effect of code noise and multipath. The value that describes the noise introduced by the ground station is represented by a standard deviation called σpr_gnd and is computed based on the smoothed pseudoranges from the reference receivers. In the following section, we focus on the evaluation of σpr_gnd using different signals and different smoothing time constants. Note that, in this study, σpr_gnd contains only smoothed multipath and noise; no other contributions (for example, inflation due to signal deformation or geometry screening) are considered.

    B-values and σpr_gnd

    B-values represent estimates of the associated noise and multipath with the pseudorange corrections provided from each receiver for each satellite, as described in Eurocae ED-114A and RTCA DO-253C. They are used to detect faulty measurements in the ground system. For each satellite-receiver pair B(i,j), they are computed as:

    Pullen-Eq3   (3)

    where PRCTX represents the candidate transmitted pseudorange correction for satellite i (computed as an average over all M(i) receivers), and PRCSCA(i,k) represents the correction for satellite i from receiver k after smoothed clock adjustment, which is the process of removing the individual receiver clock bias from each reference receiver and all other common errors from the corrections. The summation computes the average correction over all M(k) receivers except receiver j. This allows detection and exclusion of receiver j if it is faulty. If all B-values are below their thresholds, the candidate pseudorange correction PRCTX is approved and transmitted. If not, a series of measurement exclusions and PRC and B-value recalculations takes place until all revised B-values are below threshold. Note that, under nominal conditions using only single-frequency measurements, the B-values are mainly affected by code multipath and noise.

    Under the assumption that multipath errors are uncorrelated across reference receivers, nominal B-values can be used to assess the accuracy of the ground system. The standard deviation of the uncertainty associated with the contribution of the corrections (σpr_gnd) for each receiver m is related to the standard deviation of the B-values by:

    Pullen-Eq4   (4)

    where M represents the number of the receivers and N represents the number of satellites used. The final sigma takes into account the contribution from all receivers and is computed as the root mean square of the standard deviation of the uncertainties associated with each receiver (Equation 4).

    Figure 4 shows the evaluation of (σpr_gnd) for the Galileo E1, BOC(1,1) signal and the GPS L1 C/A signal for increasing smoothing time constants (10, 30, 60, and 100 seconds). Starting with a 10-second smoothing constant, Galileo E1 shows much better performance than GPS L1. The difference shrinks as the smoothing constant increases due to the effectiveness of smoothing in reducing noise and short-delay multipath. However, even with 100-second smoothing (the purple curves), Galileo E1 BOC(1,1) shows lower values of (σpr_gnd).

    Figure 4. σ(pr_gnd) versus elevation for Galileo E1 (dotted lines) and GPS L1 (solid lines for different smoothing constants: red (10s), green (30s), cyan (60s), purple (100s).
    Figure 4. σ(pr_gnd) versus elevation for Galileo E1 (dotted lines) and GPS L1 (solid lines for different smoothing constants: red (10s), green (30s), cyan (60s), purple (100s).

    A similar comparison is presented in Figure 5, of the performance of GPS L1 and Galileo E5a. The Galileo E5a signal is significantly less affected by multipath, and the difference stays more pronounced than in the Galileo E1 – GPS L1, even with 100-second smoothing. It can be also observed that the Galileo signals have a lower sensitivity to the smoothing constant. The Galileo E1 signal shows an increase of sensitivity for low elevations (below 40°), while on E5a, a smoothing constant larger than 10 seconds has almost no impact on the residual error. Thus, a shorter smoothing constant on Galileo E5a generates approximately the same residual noise and multipath a 100-second smoothing constant on GPS L1.

    Figure 5. σ(pr_gnd) versus elevation for Galileo E5a (dotted lines) and GPS L1 (solid lines) for different smoothing constants: red (10s), green (30s), cyan (60s), purple (100s).
    Figure 5. σ(pr_gnd) versus elevation for Galileo E5a (dotted lines) and GPS L1 (solid lines) for different smoothing constants: red (10s), green (30s), cyan (60s), purple (100s).

    The values for (σpr_gnd) are, however, impacted by the number of satellites which are used to determine a correction. Since only a very limited number of satellites broadcasting L5 and Galileo signals are currently available, these results should be considered preliminary. The first evaluations strongly indicate that with the new signals, we get better ranging performance. Based on the performance advantage of the new signals, a decrease of the smoothing constant is one option for future application. This would reduce the time required (for smoothing to converge) before including a new satellite or re-including a satellite after it was lost.

    In the current GAST-D implementation, based on GPS L1 only, guidance is developed based on a 30-second smoothing time constant. A second solution, one with 100 seconds of smoothing, is used for deriving the Dv and Dl parameters from the DSIGMA monitor and thus for protection level bounding (it is also used for guidance in GAST-C). During the flight, different flight maneuvers or the blockage by the airframe can lead to the loss of the satellite signal.

    Figure 6 shows the ground track of a recent flight trial conducted by DLR in November 2014. The colors represent the difference between the number of satellites used by the ground subsystem (with available corrections) and the number of satellites used by the airborne subsystem in the GAST-D position solution. One of the purposes of the flight was to characterize the loss of satellite signals in turns. In turns with a steeper bank angle, up to 3 satellites are lost (Turns 1, 3, and 4), while on a wide turn with a small bank angle (Turn 2), no loss of satellite lock occurred. It is also possible for airframe to block satellite signals, leading to a different number of satellites between ground and airborne even without turns.

    Figure 6. Ground track of a flight trial conducted by DLR. The colors represent difference between number of SVs used by the ground system and number of SVs used by the airborne.
    Figure 6. Ground track of a flight trial conducted by DLR. The colors represent difference between number of SVs used by the ground system and number of SVs used by the airborne.

    With this in mind, a shorter smoothing constant would allow the satellites lost to turns or to airframe blockage to be re-included more rapidly in the position solution. However, a new smoothing constant would have to be validated with a larger amount of data. Data from flights trials has to be evaluated as well to confirm that similar levels of performance are reresentative of the air multipath and noise.

    In a future dual-frequency GBAS implementation, an important advantage of lower multipath and noise is to improve the Ifree position solution. In earlier research, we demonstrated that the error level of the Dfree solution is almost the same as for single-frequency, but an increase in error by a factor of 2.33 was computed for the Ifree standard deviation based on L1 C/A code and L2 semi-codeless measurements.

    If the errors on L1 (E1) and L5 (E5a) code and carrier phase measurements are statistically independent the standard deviation of the σIfree can be written as,

    Pullen-Eq5   (5)

    where α=1−f 21 ∕ f 25, and σL1,σL5 represent the standard deviations of the smoothed noise and multipath for L1 (E1) and L5 (E5a), respectively. Considering σpr_gnd,L1(E1)) = σpr_gnd,L5(E5a)) in equation (5), the noise and multipath error on Ifree (σIfree) increases by a factor of 2.59.

    Figure 7 shows the ratio σIfree/σL1 using measured data. We observe that the measured ratio (the black curve) is below the theoretical ratio computed based on the assumption of statistically independent samples (the constant value of 2.59). This is explained by the fact that the multipath errors in the measurements are not independent but have some degree of statistical correlation. The standard deviations are computed based on the same data set used in the raw multipath and noise assessment using 100-second smoothed measurements sorted into elevation bins of 10° spacing.

    Figure 7. Measured ratio σIfree/σL1 function of elevation.
    Figure 7. Measured ratio σIfree/σL1 function of elevation.

    Conclusion

    We have shown how GBAS can benefit from the new signals provided by the latest generation of GPS and Galileo satellites. We have demonstrated improved performance in terms of lower noise and multipath in data collected in our GBAS test bed. When GBAS is extended to a multi-frequency and multi-constellation system, these improvements can be leveraged for improved availability and better robustness of GBAS against ionospheric and other disturbances.

    Acknowledgment

    Large portions of this work were conducted in the framework of the DLR internal project, GRETA.

    Manufacturers

    The ground facility consists of four JAVAD GNSS Delta receivers, all connected to Leica AR 25 choke ring antennas.

    Mihaela-Simona Circiu is is a research associate at the German Aerospace Center (DLR). Her research focuses on multi-frequency multi-constellation Ground Based Augmentation System. She obtained a 2nd level Specialized Master in Navigation and Related Applications from Politecnico di Torino.

    MIchael Felux is is a research associate at the German Aerospace Center (DLR). He is coordinating research in the field of ground-based augmentation systems and pursuing a Ph.D. in Aerospace Engineering at the Technische Universität München.

    Sam Pullen is a senior research engineer at Stanford University, where he is the director of the Local Area Augmentation System (LAAS) research effort. He has supported the FAA and others in developing GNSS system concepts, requirements, integrity algorithms, and performance models since obtaining his Ph.D. from Stanford in Aeronautics and Astronautics.

  • MB&G Upgrades MobileMap App for GIS Data Organization

    MB&G_MobileMap

    Mason, Bruce & Girard Inc. (MB&G), a natural resource consulting firm, has released version 2.0 of its mobile mapping application, MobileMap.

    MB&G MobileMap provides GIS capabilities to field staff. It focuses on supporting large datasets and integrating information from diverse sources. The app provides data visualization, analysis and editing while operating in disconnected environments.

    MobileMap supports an unlimited number of base maps and feature types, and allows users to quickly switch between data by turning layers on and off. Version 2.0 of MobileMap provides flexibility in how data is organized on a device, and by supporting Esri’s shapefile format, users can define the map symbology of shapefiles.

    By targeting the Android platform, MobileMap takes advantage of a large range of device options as well as capabilities unique to Android such as support for MicroSD cards, which greatly enhance storage capacity while dramatically reducing data transfer speeds for large datasets.

    A major component of this release is improved data sync capabilities. MobileMap leverages enterprise GIS technology from Esri by enabling seamless sync with ArcGIS Server and ArcGIS Online feature services. Users will always have data that is backed up and up-to-date. By establishing a Wi-Fi connection, data can be synced to a secured service. In order to provide greater control over this process, MobileMap allows users to separate sync into separate upload and download tasks.

    According to MB&G, MobileMap 2.0 provides improved measurement and navigation capabilities; users can now measure both distance and area of features and can choose the appropriate map units for each parameter.

    MobileMap 2.0 displays the distance and direction to any selected feature, allowing field staff to navigate to management areas, survey plots or specific assets. Another new capability is the ability to perform offline search of features. While other mapping tools use internet connections to search for relevant data, MobileMap supports the ability to search offline data to identify where particular attributes or conditions exist in the landscape. When features are discovered, they are highlighted and the map zooms to their extent. These capabilities provide field staff with a valuable tool for discovering data and locating areas of interest.

    MobileMap’s data capture also has been improved. Previous versions supported GPS tracking of a travel path and the ability to define new features using GPS coordinates, or by tapping to create points or vertices in lines and polygons. Users now can collect lines and polygons by tracing the desired shape in a single motion.

    Data entry has been improved by supporting additional business rules, such as range domains and required fields. Data managers can carefully specify data integrity rules using Esri data models, and MobileMap will respect and enforce those rules in the field. This functionality helps to ensure that MobileMap users will collect high quality data thereby minimizing the need for data editing back in the office.

  • McMurdo Gets FAA, EASA Nods for Commercial Aircraft Locator

    McMurdo Group, maker of end-to-end search and rescue solutions, has received formal certification from the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) for its Kannad Integra ARINC 429 Navigation Interface.

    Based on the ARINC 429 GPS communications standard for most commercial aircraft, the interface, when used with the Kannad Integra Emergency Locator Transmitter (ELT), provides dual GPS redundancy that can result in aircraft being found much faster compared to standard ELTs in event of an emergency. The solution has already been selected by aircraft manufacturers including Pilatus, Embraer and Airbus Helicopters.

    Traditional ELTs rely on an aircraft’s external antenna and GPS equipment, which is subject to failure in the event of an emergency. The Kannad Integra ELT, however, can operate independently of the aircraft to provide key positioning data through its built-in internal antenna and embedded GPS receiver. The Integra ARINC 429 navigation interface stores the latest known position of the aircraft based on the aircraft navigation system data. This data is then used by the built-in Integra GPS for better location accuracy and a higher chance of rescue.

    In March, McMurdo introduced an Integra Smart Pack bundle, which provides similar redundancy for general aviation aircraft using the standard NMEA interface.

    The Kannad Integra ELT and Integra ARINC 429 Navigation Interface are suitable for commercial aircraft, helicopters, business jets and airlines. Once activated, the Integra ELT transmits a distress signal to alert international rescue services to the emergency location via the global Cospas-Sarsat Search and Rescue satellite system, which has helped to save more than 37,000 lives since 1982.

    “McMurdo’s Kannad products have been chosen by the world’s leading aircraft manufacturers and airlines for their quality, reliability and innovation,” said Christian Belleux, head of McMurdo’s Kannad Aviation Business Unit. “This new ARINC 429 interface is yet another example of how we are helping to shape the present and the future of aviation safety.”

  • Down in the Flood with GPS

    Image from flood.firetree.net, using Google Earth.
    Image showing projected Florida flooding, from flood.firetree.net, using Google Earth with NASA data. Image from flood.firetree.net, using Google Earth.

    Surveyors, prepare to get your feet wet. Global warming is about to hit you in the job list. By 2050, a majority of U.S. coastal areas are likely to be threatened by 30 or more days of flooding each year. This according to a December report in Earth’s Future, a journal of the American Geophysical Union.

    [Parenthetically, the next issue of Survey Scene, in May, will be written by an actual geodesist. Until then, you have to put up with GPS World’s editor in chief — by no means a surveyor. Patience.]

    The study used data from National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) tide gauges to show the annual rate of coastal floods has accelerated in recent years. These are now five to 10 times more likely today than 50 years ago — and getting worse.

    Mitigation decisions could range from retreating further inland to coastal fortification or to a combination of “green” infrastructure using both natural resources such as dunes and wetland, along with “gray” man-made infrastructure such as sea walls and redesigned storm water systems. And that’s not even mentioning such basics as redrawing property lines. Any way you look at it, surveyors are going to be involved.

    “As communities across the country become increasingly vulnerable to water inundation and flooding, effective risk management is going to become more heavily reliant on environmental data and analysis,” said Holly Bamford, NOAA acting assistant secretary for conservation and management.

    The recent U.S. Hydro 2015 conference in National Harbor, Maryland — an area particularly called out for vulnerability to the oncoming floods — naturally found a lot to talk about in this and related areas of interest for surveyors, with session tracks including: Effects of Climate Change on our Oceans and Waterways; Coastal and Ocean Mapping Initiatives; Advances in Unmanned System Technology, and several more.

    Some of the papers presented that GPS World found of interest, and hopes to present or encapsulate in some form in the near future, include:

    • Resolving Systematic GPS Interference from Aeronautical Distance Measuring Equipment during Mission-Critical Shallow Water Multibeam Surveys
    • GPS Water-Level Buoy for Hydropgraphic Survey Operations
    • Examining the Uncertainty Associated with the Establishmenbt of an Ellipsoid to Chart Datum Separation Surface Using GNSS Buoys
    • Comparison of Horizontal and Vertical Resolvable Resolution between Repetitive Multibeam Surveys Using Different Kinematic GNSS Methods.

    And those just came from the poster sessions. In the technical sessions, Jack Riley from the NOAA Coast Survey’s Hydrographic Systems and Technology Program presented a GPS Buoy Water Level Uncertainty Case Study.

    Data from on High

    Since you can’t get at a coastline from all angles — with any degree of stability, that is — data from overhead, sometimes far overhead, proves invaluable. Such as that provided by aerial digital imagery, LiDAR, and increasingly, satellites.

    Because digital aerial images are already in electronic form, they can quickly be processed and made available to users. Most of the special cameras in use nowadays provide direct georeferencing capability, which allows camera position and orientation to be determined automatically using GPS and inertial measurement equipment. An entire mini-industry has grown up around integrating aerial data with that taken from ground surveys.

    Light detection and ranging (LiDAR), a remote sensing system, became available for commercial topographic mapping in 1993. An airborne laser scanning system paired with a kinematic GPS receiver and an inertial navigation system can calculate and produce a highly accurate spot elevation. It is possible to obtain point densities that would likely take months to collect using traditional ground survey methods. The National Geodetic Survey (NGS) is currently implementing LiDAR into their shoreline mapping production process.

    Our Record So Far

    Coverage of these salty issues has been sparse in GPS World and associated newsletters, but not entirely absent. In 2006, the May issue featured “GPS Buoys Nautical Measurement.”

    In 2008, Richard Langley edited an Innovation column on “Tsunami Detection by GPS,” featuring work for which co-author Attila Komjathy eventually won a GPS World Leadership Award in 2013. And in 2010, Langley brought forth an Innovation column on “Monitoring Water Level with GNSS.”

    And way, way back in 2005, we published “Abreast of the Waves: Open-Sea Sensor to Measure Height and Direction.” This was prior to our digital era, so until we can scan a paper copy into here, we’ll simply give the abstract: “Accurate and timely information on open-sea wave conditions can help in preventing large-scale maritime disasters. This article describes a new, low-cost Global Positioning System (GPS)-based sensor that measures wave height with an accuracy of several centimeters and direction with an accuracy of 5 degrees. The receiver is mounted on a buoy, and a high-pass filter is used to extract the movement of the buoy and thus minimize GPS positioning errors. The data provided by the sensor is intended to improve wave prediction models. In addition, since this GPS-based sensor transmits only analyzed ocean wave data, it reduces the volume of data and leads to lower operating and acquisition costs. The article describes the concept of the GPS-based wave sensor, algorithms that are used for filtering and extracting wave data, as well as the results of open-sea trials.”

    So there’s more to come. Watch this space. In the meantime, we leave you with Bob Dylan’s prophetic words, circa 1967.

    Well, it’s sugar for sugar
    And salt for salt
    If you go down in the flood
    It’s gonna be your own fault.

  • UK Space Agency Awards SBAS Africa Contract to Avanti

    Avanti Communications has been appointed by the UK Space Agency to deliver a crucial air navigation project in Africa, SBAS-AFRICA. The satellite operator has been awarded the contract under the agency’s International Partnership Space Programme (IPSP), which exists to open up opportunities for the UK space sector to share expertise in real-world satellite technology and services overseas.

    Africa has just 3 percent of global air traffic, and yet air accidents in Africa account for roughly 20 percent of the worldwide total. By demonstrating potential improvements in flight safety via SBAS technologies, the project can provide socio-economic benefits to the continent, according to a news release from Avanti.

    Based on prior cost-benefit modeling which identified a €1.7 billion potential economic benefit to the African aviation sector from the deployment of SBAS services, SBAS-AFRICA will help accelerate the adoption of GNSS-based flight operations, positively influence the evolution of aviation safety in Africa and encourage development in the wider African economy.

    SBAS-AFRICA will deliver a satellite-based augmentation system for GNSS-based operations in the aviation sector, serving significant parts of Africa in partnership with a number of local stakeholders. The project will use a unique asset, Avanti’s ARTEMIS L1 Navigation transponder, to provide a navigation data broadcast service.

    “SBAS-AFRICA brings an innovative and pragmatic approach to deploying SBAS services in Africa,” said Matthew O’Connor, Chief Operating Officer at Avanti Communications. “It establishes crucial collaboration between the UK and a number of African countries, including South Africa and Ghana. Participating countries will benefit hugely from expertise gained, placing them at the forefront of navigation services across the continent and, crucially, helping to improve aviation safety for a major generator of economic benefit in Africa.”

    He continued, “The Artemis satellite will play an integral role in this project. We expect that such a showcase for its performance, accuracy and quality will provide further evidence of what can be achieved with this technology and lead to significant commercial opportunities.”

    “The UK Space Agency is delighted to play a role in fostering new international partnerships that not only enable innovative UK space companies like Avanti to provide more high-tech exports that can boost our space sector but also allow the UK to widely share the considerable social and economic benefits that space technology and infrastructure can provide,” said David Parker, chief executive of the UK Space Agency.

  • Expert Advice: Taking Up Positions — Galileo and E112

    Expert Advice: Taking Up Positions — Galileo and E112

    By Andy Proctor

    Sessions on indoor navigation and a keynote from Google at February’s International Navigation Conference (INC15), organised by the Royal Institute of Navigation, addressed the revised E911 positioning requirements in the United States, and flowed over into speculation about E112 emergency calling parameters in Europe’s near future.

    According to the 2014 U.S. Federal Communications Commission report, 75 percent of 911 calls now come from mobile phones, more than half of those originate indoors, and around 1 percent of emergency calls contain no location information from the caller (due to distress, confusion, language issues, illness, and so on). The report estimates 10,000 deaths per year in the United States might have been avoided if a landline had been used instead, since location information for landlines can be provided confidently.

    Discussion in the breaks of INC highlighted a misunderstanding amongst some parties that E911 mandates the use of GPS for position location determination. In fact,  E911 does not mandate any specific technology; it specifies performance criteria in terms of accuracy that must be met. The recently revised performance criteria include indoor performance, and some of the technology discussed at the INC is able to meet these requirements without using GNSS at all.

    This could be troublesome for Europe, which is looking at the imposition of Galileo as part of an A-GNSS technology push for the E112 application. The real problems, discussed during INC and in European consultation processes with safety of life services such as E112, are:

    • the accuracy of the position derived by the device and/or network, and
    • the timeliness of the delivery of that position to the Public Service Answering Point (PSAP).

    The E911 directives address these points directly, and the infrastructure in the cellular networks is in place. Does simply implementing a Galileo capability into a European mobile device solve these problems?

    In many outdoor cases, implementing Galileo can bring benefits, including signal diversity. And of course the E112 proposal is greater than just “adding Galileo.” It does address the second problem of timeliness of delivery and data transfer, but there are significant infrastructure upgrades required across Europe for the provision of this location data to the PSAPs.

    What the E112 processes do not currently do is specify performance criteria for the position location accuracy. This means that the position estimate provided under E112 is likely to be a cell-ID fix, with an accuracy ranging from hundreds of meters to dozens of kilometers.

    Galileo on Mobiles. Further discussion during the conference delved into the realms of the specifics of implementing A-GNSS, including Galileo, onto a mobile device. Conversations centered around if any future E911 or E112 positioning capability would be aligned around a single-chip solution as generally currently deployed on a device, or if some of the functions will be moved up the stack into the operating system (OS) of the device, into software.

    Most opinions were against this latter concept, and a panel at the ION GNSS+ last year in Florida concluded the same thing. However, questions were asked about some ideas relating to identifying the emergency number at the time of dialing and then starting the position location determination functions in readiness for the need to provide the device location. This addresses the first bullet point earlier, the accuracy of the position derived by the device and/or network. If this is carried out in the OS or software layers, vulnerability of the system will be increased overall as the OS of a mobile device is a target for the cyber criminal community.

    A robust software-based solution is, however, being rolled out in the United Kingdom in the form of eSMS, bringing mobile operators, government and handset vendors together to provide location data via SMS to the PSAP. The advantage of this approach is that no new standards or major infrastructure changes are required, and the time to implement is small.

    Further discussions established that future chipsets are likely to use whatever GNSS signals are available, regardless of whether they are GPS, Galileo, GLONASS, Beidou and so on. This, coupled with new signal processing techniques (single-frequency observable for example), increasing sensor clustering on devices, and user demand for services, may make the use of a specific GNSS system above others somewhat redundant. Certainly picking up on a point made by Chandu Thota from Google, GNSS is “not relevant” for their indoor positioning solutions, and technologies they are working on, in both hardware and mapping improvements, are looking at meeting indoor accuracy requirements down to a target requirement of 1 meter, without GNSS.

    Taking these points into account, questions were asked from the floor of the conference about the legal position of the EC mandating Galileo as a positioning method as well as the willingness of the global mobile chipset and device industry to be told what to do. Perhaps specifying strong performance criteria, as in the United States, is the way forward to “reboot” the European E112 system. No one disputes that a properly functioning E112 is a life saver and a good thing to do; however, the points discussed here detail some of the concerns expressed during and after hours at INC15.

    In February 2015, the Royal Institute of Navigation hosted the International Navigation Conference in Manchester, UK. Keynotes at this well-attended conference included Harold Martin, director of the GPS Coordination Office; Gian Gherardo Calini, the head of market development at the European GNSS Agency; Todd Humphreys from the University of Texas; Chandu Thota from Google; and others. The conference covered multiple technology tracks including indoor navigation, autonomy, quantum technology and the resilience of GNSS systems.

    Andy Proctor is lead technologist for satellite navigation at InnovateUK, the UK’s innovation agency. He acknowledges Ramsey Faragher, Cambridge University, for help in the preparation of this article.

  • Topcon Updates 3D Mobile Mapping System

    IP-S3_Topcon

    Topcon Positioning Group has announced the latest edition of its 3D mobile mapping system. The IP-S3 ­is on display at the SPAR International 3D Measurement and Imaging Conference, held March 30-April 2 in Houston, Texas. The system employs the integration of an inertial measurement unit (IMU) and GNSS receiver with a vehicle’s onboard electronics to offer high-density mobile digital imaging.

    “The IP-S3 is more compact, lightweight, and scans at a rate of up to five times faster than previous models,” said Charles Rihner, vice president of the Topcon GeoPositioning Group. “Weighing in at 39 lbs. (18 kg), it’s light enough that a single person could mount it on a car, truck or SUV without any assistance from anyone else.”

    Scanning at 700,000 points-per-second, the rotating LiDAR sensor captures the 360-degree environment with 32 internal lasers. The IP-S3’s six-lens digital camera is designed to provide data-rich results with its 30 MP panoramic imagery.

    The system pairs with Topcon Mobile Master Field and Office software suite to perform all post-processing functions in a single application.

    “The software suite offers a complete all-in-one processing workflow, turning raw sensor data collected by the IP-S3 system into rich and precise point clouds and images,” Rihner said.

  • GSA’s 2015 Report Dives Deep into Global GNSS Market

    GSA’s 2015 Report Dives Deep into Global GNSS Market

    FIGURE 1. Cumulative core revenue, 2013–2023.
    FIGURE 1. Cumulative core revenue, 2013–2023.

    2015 GNSS Market Report: European GNSS Agency Provides a Fresh Look at Worldwide Growth

    The fourth edition of the European GNSS Agency’s (GSA’s) GNSS Market Report provides a comprehensive source of knowledge on this dynamic global market. The report has become a key reference for organizations building their GNSS market strategies. The new edition provides:

    • Comprehensive updates on previous analyses;
    • New statistics of the GNSS receiver capabilities of the 31 top global manufacturers, offering in total more than 300 models;
    • Insights on the GNSS industry and regional shares of the GNSS market
    • A more granular segmentation of the global GNSS market, namely: European Union (EU28); North America (including the United States, Canada, Mexico); Asia-Pacific (including China, Japan, Australia, India, Republic of Korea); Non-EU28 Europe (Norway, Switzerland, Russia, Ukraine);  Middle East and Africa (Turkey, Israel, South Africa, UAE, Saudi Arabia); South America and Caribbean (including Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, Guatemala)
    • Information on a new market segment: Timing and Synchronization
    • Plus additional applications within existing segments, such as recreational navigation, fishing vessels, personal locator beacons, emergency locator transmitters and digital tachograph.
    TABLE 1. Top 10 companies in each group based on 2012 revenue.
    TABLE 1. Top 10 companies in each group based on 2012 revenue.

    Key Findings

    Top-line insights from the fourth GSA GNSS Market Report:

    • The global GNSS downstream market is forecast to increase by 8.3 percent annually from 2013– 2019, then slow down to 4.6 annually around 2023, growing on average faster (7 percent) than the forecast global GDP in this period (6.6 percent).
    • The installed base in the mature regions of EU28 and North America will grow steadily (8 percent per year) to 2023. The primary region of growth will be Asia-Pacific, which is forecast to grow 11 percent per year from 1.7 billion in 2014 to 4.2 billion devices in 2023 — more than the EU and North America together. The Middle East and Africa will grow at the fastest rate (19 percent per year), but starting from a lower base.
    • Location-Based Services (LBS) and Road dominate cumulative GNSS revenues, driven by booming sales of smartphones and in-vehicle devices, location-aware applications and data services.
    • With emerging economies catching up in terms of GNSS devices per capita, the Digital Divide will narrow, driven by the take-up of smartphones. The growing dominance of smartphones (3.08 billion in 2014) is foreseen as the most popular platform to access LBS.
    • In the analysis of the capabilities of GNSS receivers and chipsets, it is reported that more than 60 percent of currently available receivers and chipsets support a minimum of two constellations with more than 20 percent supporting all four of them.
    FIGURE 2. SUPPORTED CONSTELLATION BY RECEIVERS Chart shows the percentage of available receivers capable of tracking signals from one GNSS (such as GPS only), two GNSS (GPS + Galileo, GPS + GLONASS, GPS + BeiDou), three GNSS (GPS + Galileo + GLONASS, GPS + Galileo + BeiDou, GPS + GLONASS + BeiDou) or tracking signals from all constellations at the same time. The percentages add up to 100 percent. We can conclude that almost 60 percent of all available receivers, chipsets and modules are supporting a minimum of two constellations, showing that multi-constellation is becoming a standard feature across all market segments.
    FIGURE 2. SUPPORTED CONSTELLATION BY RECEIVERS Chart shows the percentage of available
    receivers capable of tracking signals from one GNSS (such as GPS only), two GNSS (GPS
    + Galileo, GPS + GLONASS, GPS + BeiDou), three GNSS (GPS + Galileo + GLONASS, GPS +
    Galileo + BeiDou, GPS + GLONASS + BeiDou) or tracking signals from all constellations at
    the same time. The percentages add up to 100 percent. We can conclude that almost 60
    percent of all available receivers, chipsets and modules are supporting a minimum of two
    constellations, showing that multi-constellation is becoming a standard feature across all
    market segments.

    New Charts

    The report includes new infographics presenting:

    • Global GNSS downstream market size, core and enabled (2013 to 2023)
    • GNSS industry share by region (2012)
    • The global shares of companies among components manufacturers, systems integrators and value-added service providers (2012)
    • Capability of GNSS receivers and chipsets, all segments (2015)
    • Supported constellation by receivers and chipsets , all segments (2015)
    • Detailed analysis of key GNSS segments: LBS, Road, Aviation, Rail, Maritime, Agriculture, Surveying, Timing and Synchronization, quantified in terms of:
      • Shipments of GNSS devices by application and region (2013 to 2023)
      • Installed base of GNSS devices by application and region (2013 to 2023)
      • Core revenues from GNSS device sales by application and region (2013 to 2023)
      • Capability of GNSS receivers and chipsets (2015)
      • Supported constellation by receivers and chipsets (2015).
    FIGURE 3. LOCATION-BASED SERVICES SECTOR GNSS shipments by type; GNSS penetration in mobile phones is defined as the proportion of mobile telephones in use in the world that is GNSS enabled.
    FIGURE 3. LOCATION-BASED SERVICES SECTOR GNSS shipments by type; GNSS penetration in
    mobile phones is defined as the proportion of mobile telephones in use in the world that is
    GNSS enabled.
    FIGURE 4. ROAD SECTOR Core revenue from GNSS device sales and services by application.
    FIGURE 4. ROAD SECTOR Core revenue from GNSS device sales and services by application.

    Methodology

    The “GSA GNSS Market Report” is compiled by the GSA and the European Commission and was produced using the GSA’s systematic Marketing Monitoring and Forecasting Process.

    The underlying market model uses advanced forecasting techniques applied to a wide range of input data, assumptions, and scenarios to forecast the size of the GNSS market in terms of shipments, revenue and installed base of receivers.

    Historical values are anchored to actual data in order to ensure a high level of accuracy. Assumptions are provided by expert opinions and model results are cross-checked against the most recent market research reports from independent sources, before being validated through an iterative consultation process with sector experts and stakeholders.

    Download

    Readers can download the entire 29-MB report free.

  • MAPPS and NSPS Announce 2015 Conference General Sessions

    MAPPS and the National Society of Professional Surveyors (NSPS) have announced a program of general sessions for their joint surveying, mapping and geospatial conference, Collaboration: The Map to the Future, to be held April 13-16 at the Hilton Hotel in Crystal City Arlington, Va.

    “These sessions will provide attendees and members perspectives on some of the major issues facing the profession,” said John Palatiello, MAPPS executive director, and Curtis Sumner, NSPS executive director. “Our goal from the beginning was to provide conference sessions that are distinct from what surveyors experience at their state conferences. These presentations will give conference attendees and members new insights on the geospatial profession, particularly in the commercial market.”

    The speakers for Monday, April 13, are listed below, along with the session name.

    • Michael Anderson, POB magazine, “POB Top 100″
    • Bryan Baker, Leica, “What You Need to Know Before Starting Up Your Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) Department”
    • Pam Nobles, Rob Garster, “What Is Surveying? A Discussion of Infringing Technologies”

    The speakers for Wednesday, April 15, are listed below, along with the session name.

    • Rhonda Rushing and a panel from Berntsen Inc., “Smart Markers for the Nation’s Land & Infrastructure Assets”
    • Ted Naak, Certainty 3D, “Establishing Requirements, Extracting Metrics and Evaluating Quality of LiDAR Data”
    • Neil Sandler and a panel from xyHT magazine, “Are You Prepared for Change?”

    The overall conference will serve as an umbrella to include plenary sessions, an exhibit hall, and social and networking activities designed to create synergy among the many vertical segments. It will also feature a “conference within a conference” format, in which participating organizations will hold their own meetings and sessions.

    MAPPS will host its annual Federal Programs Conference April 14-15. Presentations by federal agencies, the Obama Administration and members of Congress will include briefings on programs, budgets and requirements for the acquisition of geospatial services, data and products by contract from the private sector.

    NSPS will host the finals of its annual Student Competition on April 13. The 2014-15 competition will, for the first time, include not only student teams from four-year degree programs, but also teams from two-year degree programs. The NSPS annual General Membership meeting and other business meetings will be scheduled throughout the week in order to allow NSPS leadership to more fully participate in conference activities.

    MAPPS and NSPS members will visit some 200 Congressmen and Senators at the U.S. Capitol, advancing a common agenda of legislative issues that serve the public and engage the surveying and mapping community.

    Also on the program will be an invitation-only USGS 3DEP stakeholders meeting, a summit by the National Geodetic Survey (NGS) of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and a licensed geospatial data forum by the Geospatial Management Office (GMO) of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

    Detailed information on the event can be seen in the GPS World events calendar.

  • Bill Supports eLoran as GPS Backup

    A bi-partisan group of legislators led by Congressman John Garamendi (D-Calif.) has introduced a bill that would require the U.S. Secretary of Defense to establish a backup for GPS within three years using eLoran.

    The National Positioning, Navigation, and Timing Resilience and Security Act of 2015, H.R. 1678, was co-sponsored by Congressmen Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.), Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.), and Frank LoBiondo (R-N.J). Garamendi is the ranking member of the House Transportation and uInfrastructure Subcommittee on the Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation.

    H.R. 1678 would require the secretary of defense, in coordination with the commandant of the Coast Guard and the secretary of transportation, to establish and sustain a reliable, land-based positioning and navigation system that will complement and backup America’s GPS for military and civilian uses by using eLoran.

    eLoran is the government’s existing and underused long-range navigation system infrastructure. The backup system would step in when GPS signals are corrupted, degraded, unreliable, or otherwise unavailable. A terrestrial-based system, eLoran wouldn’t be affected by atmospheric interruptions such as solar storms, or jamming or spoofing aimed at GPS.

    The bill directs the secretary of defense to incorporate the expertise and contributions of the private sector to quickly establish  system architecture, as well as build and operate the system.

    “GPS is much more than a LCD screen on your dashboard. It’s a technology used for much of our nation’s critical infrastructure and by almost every major industry in America, as well as the military, law enforcement, and first responders,” Garamendi said in a press release. “We are increasingly reliant on the precision, navigation, and timing services that GPS provides. From land navigation on cell phones to a timing source for our national infrastructure, we need a reliable backup system to GPS.”

    Garamendi said the bill would make the nation’s geopositioning infrastructure more resilient to “threats both natural and nefarious.” “A backup system could also reach places that GPS currently cannot, such as inside many buildings. This would help first responders and law enforcement more effectively protect the public,” he added.

    Other members of Congress are expected to sign on as co-sponsors after Congress returns from its spring recess, according to Dana A. Goward, president and executive director, Resilient Navigation and Timing Foundation.

    The eLoran PNT system would use enhanced long-range signals (eLoran) from 19 towers around the country, each with approximately a 1,000-mile range providing overlapping fields from which a device can derive its location. The back-up system would use the remaining Loran infrastructure and provide a secure and reliable cybersecurity insurance policy, said the press release.

    The U.S. atomic clock, accurate to one second in 300 million years, also serves as the base timing source for this backup GPS capability. This exceeds the timing needs of modern cell phones, creating an infrastructure backbone that is prepared to handle the evolution of consumer and industry electronic communications in the years ahead, the press release said.

    The bill sets out numerous requirements for the system, saying that it shall:

    • Be wireless, terrestrial, and wide area
    • Provide a precise, high-power 100 kilohertz signal
    • Be resilient and extremely difficult to disrupt or degrade
    • Be able to penetrate underground and inside buildings
    • Take full advantage of existing, unused Loran infrastructure
    • Work in concert with and complement any other similar positioning, navigation and timing systems, including eLoran.

    Since 2004, the federal government has recognized that the absence of a reliable backup system for GPS is a glaring economic and security threat to the United States, and has reaffirmed its interest in developing an eLoran as a reliable, land-based backup for GPS signals, the press release said.

    In January, the United States Army began soliciting information for eLoran receivers for the warfighter, either stand-alone or integrated with GPS, for use in Army and other Department of Defense maritime, aviation, or vehicular platforms, and for position and timing.

    The United Kingdom began using eLoran in October 2014 to protect its shipping lanes, which carry 95 percent of UK trade, in case of GPS signal loss.

  • Mobile World Congress Sees Rise in Indoor Location Companies

    Kevin Dennehy
    Kevin Dennehy

    This year’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona was the biggest ever, with 95,000 attendees and thousands of booths, conferences and people with sore feet walking a cavernous exhibition hall. While the Geneva Auto Show ran close to the same dates, connected vehicle companies and technology were prominently featured. What was interesting, however, was the rise of indoor positioning companies and mobile advertising agencies with interest in location.

    BARCELONA — Joining the 95,000 or so Mobile World Congress attendees were about three dozen companies who are offering indoor location and location advertising services. These companies have exhibited at previous conferences, but not in the numbers this year.

    At the huge Fira convention center where MWC was held March 2-5, Los Altos, Calif.-based Pole Star installed more than 600 beacons for indoor location. Visitors were able to be guided to booths and other areas through an interactive map. “Business was good in 2014, we sold 10,000 beacons. We are making money,” said Christian Carle, Pole Star CEO.

    One analyst said that the big change at MWC wasn’t the number of indoor positioning companies and demos, but the maturity and breadth of the technology. “Intel announced indoor positioning capabilities in their Wi-Fi chip, and had a demo that was very impressive. Many smaller companies that in past years were showing raw technology were showing polished solutions this year, such as Quuppa, MTI and Sensewhere, said Bruce Krulwich, Grizzly Analytics president, who has authored a report identifying 150 indoor positioning companies. “I definitely see a shake-out coming up, but it won’t be one technology prevailing over another. Different technologies meet different needs in the industry, and different technologies fit different sites. There are technologies that deliver universal indoor positioning, without any infrastructure or preparation, such as Wi-Fi multilateration and sensor fusion.”

    Krulwich said that there is a shake-out that’s already started because there are too many companies working on similar technologies. “Start-ups in the area that don’t have differentiating innovation, don’t have integration into retail or other back-end systems, and don’t have market penetration, are already finding themselves in a challenge. But companies with clear innovations and commercial deployments will do fine,” he said.

    United Kingdom-based Sensewhere is using crowdsourcing in its indoor positioning software. The software uses radios to scan for Wi-Fi and Bluetooth to allow an IP location to reference the sources and form a location database.

    “It’s what we call the universal indoor positioning versus venue specific indoor positioning, which can work anywhere — we just need a crowd of people. Our target partners are handset manufacturers, network operators, social media, social network providers, and also chipset guys as well,” said Rob Palfreyman, Sensewhere CEO. “So, there are obviously a lot of companies like Google looking at venues; there is Micello and TomTom looking at add-ins in the indoor location, which is great news, but it just needs to have a technology that can drive the blue dot on their map, and we feel that Sensewhere is the right place to provide that blue dot because of the crowdsourcing global nature of our approach.”

    One company, which has developed a popular mobile game, is using its network to attract advertisers for its location-based ad platform. “We already have the infrastructure in place because of our mobile game. With our platform, we can allow advertisers to launch campaigns using our beacon signals and geofencing,” said Pedro Jahara, CEO of Brazil-based RevMob.

    New location technology like the ability to track SIM cards was rolled out at MWC. W-Locate, which is partnering with Morpho in Thailand, is tracking SIM cards with its XimLoc product, which the company said is more accurate indoors than other technology.

    Even such companies as Geotab, which is a strong player in the fleet market, are leveraging MWC to continue a foothold in the European market. The company displayed its IOX-CAN system that can send data from a mobile device to the MyGeotab system, which can be viewed an analyzed by fleet managers, said Maria Sotra, Geotab marketing manager.

    Geotab also partnered with Telefonica in November 2014 to focus efforts in Spain, Germany and the United Kingdom, Sotra said.

    At MWC, location-based advertising market is gaining traction as advertisers are seeing the benefit of locating and attracting customers. New York-based xAd said it has doubled its revenue for the second year. “We have billions of mobile ads processed and billions of ad impressions. The company is profitable,” said Dipanshu Sharma, xAd founder and CEO.

    He said the company has expanded into France and Germany and added China to its global ad network.

    Another company that is using location technology as a differentiator is Airpush, which had another big presence at MWC. The company’s Abstract Banners was a big draw to attendees. Location, particularly geofenced areas, have created a call to action for consumers, which is attractive to advertisers, said Cameron Peeples, Airpush vice president of marketing.

    Connected Car Still Big Opportunity at MWC

    Although the Geneva Auto Show was starting as the MWC was ending, there were still several big announcements by connected car companies in Barcelona. Even the well-publicized Samsung S6 and S6 Edge and HTC One M9 handset rollouts included Mirrorlink, the connected vehicle standard from the Connected Car Consortium.

    In another big announcement, Audi and AT&T said that all 2016 model vehicles equipped with Audi connect will come with the carrier’s 4G LTE or 3G coverage. This increase in services is big because the auto giant just rolled out 4G AT&T service in Audi A3s last year.

    AT&T selected Airbiquity to provide end-user registration and device management connected vehicle services for select customer programs. “Airbiquity will deliver these services to AT&T using our Choreo cloud-based connected vehicle services delivery platform and project management, engineering, and operations teams,” said David Jumpa, Airbiquity chief revenue officer. “This is a ‘white label’ agreement whereby AT&T will integrate Airbiquity’s service delivery capability into AT&T’s connected vehicle customer solutions.”

    Another location company is making huge inroads in connected vehicle markets with its Glympse for Autos product. Glympse will be installed in select Volkswagen and Peugeot models through MirrorLink, said Bryan Trussel, company co-founder and CEO.

    The app allows users to share location from their vehicle by setting the recipient and timer, and hitting send. The company has a similar app for Gogo inflight aviation networks to allow a person on the ground to know where an airplane is for picking up passengers.

    In other connected car news, Accenture is providing Fiat Chrysler Automobiles the capability of in-car, Internet-based services. Starting with the new Fiat 500X, Uconnect Live services, which was co-developed by Accenture, will power an infotainment system that offers music and news services, social network access, the ability to monitor driving style and a range of diagnostic services.

    Accenture also partnered with Visa for an IoT-based connected car commerce test. At MWC, the company tested a scenario where drivers could order food from the car using cellular, Bluetooth and beacon connectivity. Accenture deployed a similar system with BMW’s ConnectedDrive, which allows customers to choose services in real time for a vehicle.

    Health Market Even Has Location Potential

    Niche location applications are growing as Internet of Things, or IoT, markets start to grow. One company taking advantage of the mobile market is Annapolis, Md.-based TCS, which featured its VirtuMedix platform in its MWC booth.

    The platform is tailored to emergency physicians as part of the growing market for video telemedicine products and mobile health, said Jay Whitehurst, TCS commercial software group president. “It’s already saving lives,” he said of the platform, which combines encryption, navigation, mapping and messaging.

    While the product, now being rolled out in a North Carolina emergency medicine group, provides patients with an alternative to urgent care centers and emergency rooms, it also can be used for longer term cases such as assisted living and rehab centers, the company said.

    Whitehurst said TCS has made several company acquisitions that have played a part in new product rollouts, which include the company’s Trusted Location. The application allows financial firms, online gaming companies and others to identify and prevent credit-card fraud. The application identifies and validates a device’s location worldwide.

    In other Mobile World Congress news:

    • Spirent said its simulators have the capability to evaluate Wi-Fi Offload and Wi-Fi performance of mobile devices on its test framework. The new product allows companies to test multiple devices on a single unit to cover Wi-Fi/LTE mobility and interoperability. The testing is important in light of wireless carriers’ strategy to extend VoLTE in areas where cell coverage is limited, said Saul Einbinder, Spirent vice president, venture development.
    • Google Waze said its Google Mobile Service (GMS) will be available as a preinstall option on mobile devices. OEMs and carriers can preinstall the app on their handsets so consumers can use the service immediately, the company said.
    • Trimble’s ALK said its ALK Maps and route visualization software is now available in Europe. ALK Maps, launched in the United States in 2012, allows users to overlay routing, geocoding points, weather and other features, the company said.

  • iTrack Solutions Provides Web-Based Fleet Management Software

    livemap_aerial_itrack
    Photo: Integrated Tracking Solutions

    Integrated Tracking (iTrack) Solutions Loki Gen 6 is a web-based mapping software derived from a series of other Loki software products focused on asset tracking for large fleets of vehicles.

    The maps are provided by Bing, but custom mapping can also be used with the support of Esri ArcGIS REST services and shapefiles.

    iTrack Solutions is based in Calgary, Canada, and provides GPS tracking, mobile data communications and display software. The Loki Gen 6 features are listed below.

    Home
    Home is a configurable dashboard showing plans, schedules, calendars and other details.

    Live View
    Live View shows the live BING map from anywhere in the world, which includes maps, satellite and aerial imagery as well as maps provided by the user. Video streams are supported, and a 3D viewing feature is provided from Cesium. A user can add or draw features on the map to share with other users.

    itrack2 Photo: Integrated Tracking Solutions
    Photo: Integrated Tracking Solutions

    Communication
    With this feature, users can communicate one-to-one or through a chat room, which includes video chat functionality.

    Management
    An administrative user can assign tracking devices to vehicles, assign vehicles to subgroups, assign subgroups to larger groups or drivers to vehicles. An administrator also can set privileges for individual users.

    Access to data
    Users can generate and view a replay on the fly as well as generate reports for vehicle tracking, hours in service, mileage, stop location and speed.

    Observations, Analysis
    The forum feature provides a place group discussion, which becomes part of the Loki database, is searchable and can be linked to reports and replays.