The official portrait of HRH The Duke of Edinburgh as Master of Trinity House. (Image: Trinity House)
Prince Philip, technology advocate, championed both GPS and alternative navigation methods during his lifetime.
Prince Philip — the Duke of Edinburgh and husband of Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom — died on April 9 at Windsor Castle in England. He was 99. His funeral will take place April 17.
As the Master of Trinity House, Prince Philip was the U.K.’s authority for lighthouses in England, Wales, the Channel Islands and Gibraltar. Trinity House is also responsible for the provision and maintenance of other navigational aids, such as light vessels, buoys and maritime radio/satellite communication systems.
In its extensive coverage of his death, the BBC aired a radio program in its World Service that mentioned the prince’s knowledge and concern about GPS. “As Master of Trinity House, he was infuriated that people didn’t understand what would happen if GPS were shut down,” said the narrator.
Real Admiral Sir Jeremy de Halpert was Prince Philip’s deputy master at Trinity House. “ Prince Philip from the very beginning understood that it was a single point of failure,” de Halpert told the BBC. “GPS can be jammed very easily… He encouraged us to move ahead and make sure the country has a failsafe backup, which we have done, and it is now operational,” he said.
Below is the section of the documentary where the prince’s support for GPS and a GPS backup is discussed.
GPS World thanks Innovation editor Richard Langley for sharing the material.
Critical infrastructure services such as telecommunications, utilities, transportation and defense are of national strategic importance. The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) lists 16 such sectors considered vital for security. Presidential Policy Directive 21 (PPD-21): Critical Infrastructure Security and Resilience advances a national policy to strengthen and maintain secure, functioning and resilient critical infrastructure.
Together, positioning, navigation and timing (PNT) are necessary for the functioning of a nation’s critical infrastructure. However, ubiquitous use of GPS as the primary source of PNT information introduces vulnerabilities. CISA, through the National Risk Management Center, works with government and industry partners alike to strengthen the security and resiliency of the national PNT ecosystem in the U.S. In early 2020, Executive Order (E.O.) 13905 on Strengthening National Resilience through Responsible Use of Positioning, Navigation, and Timing (PNT) Services was signed to strengthen, through policy promotion, the responsible use of PNT services by government and infrastructure operators.
The following is a review of cost considerations and exploration of the three key elements for critical infrastructure that help to strengthen PNT, focused on synchronization and precise timing: redundancy, resiliency and security.
Evaluating Cost and Location
It is often hard for operators to justify the resiliency, redundancy and security costs associated with deploying these capabilities at every layer of the architecture. New timing and synchronization solutions and design choices are leading to the right cost structures to deliver robust and reliable solutions.
The dilemma between cost and solution type is typically related to which deployment location is considered. With the evolution of technologies such as the migration from SDH/TDM to Ethernet and the development of LTE/4G and 5G in mobile, the number of aggregation offices and, above all, of network access sites at the edge has exploded. This inevitably leads to devices becoming much smaller, typically 1U-rack mountable devices, and with a cost in line with the much smaller size of edge base stations (small cells and gNodeBs).
Operators are left with the question: What is the best way to provide redundancy, resiliency and security in this environment? There are two core levels to consider — the architecture level and design level.
Exploring Redundancy
Redundancy at the architecture level can be engineered with core functions at both ends of a deployment (east/west) with dual paths for directional redundancy and high-performance capabilities for efficient high-accuracy time transfer over the long haul for cost-effective distribution. The virtual Primary Time Reference clock (vPRTC) architecture is such an architecture-level solution.
Redundancy can also be considered in the device itself, where the design choices are critical. Smaller devices cannot realistically be cost-effectively designed with modular hardware redundancy. The innovation here is to offer software redundancy, so a distributed, low cost, efficient and high-performance distributed solution can be deployed. A hardware module is typically expensive for two reasons: cost, and because the redundant module takes the space of another module, typically for input and output ports.
Hardware module redundancy often leads to a tradeoff between adding redundancy and losing capabilities, such as a choice between 10-gigabyte Ethernet (GE) support or multi-band GNSS or other compromises if redundancy is enabled. On the other hand, with software redundancy no tradeoff is necessary. Redundancy can be introduced while preserving all existing capabilities; no inputs or outputs are eliminated, no multi-band GNSS capability is eliminated. Redundancy is introduced via a software upgrade; therefore, it does not remove any hardware. Hardware redundancy, however, means duplicating an existing module with a similar module inside the device; this new module takes the slot of an existing module, and the function of that existing module is lost when it is removed from the unit.
Figure 1 depicts a commonly deployed redundancy use case with two aggregation routers using virtual router redundancy protocol (VRRP).
Figure 1. Example of redundancy connectivity between the active and standby units. (Image: Microchip)
Software redundancy is a dual-unit scheme based on two reasonably priced devices, one active and the other on standby. It is more cost-effective for two reasons. First, it does not involve a costly device design with expensive hardware modules. Second, each unit (passive and active) keeps all of its capabilities compared to a hardware redundant design, which involves duplication of modules in the device, thus reducing the existing possible capabilities to host the redundant module.
Software redundancy provides total redundancy of the whole device because the active and standby units are the same. One hundred percent of the capabilities are redundant, including oscillator, GNSS receiver, ports and input/outputs. A hardware module is only redundant for its own features, not the rest of the unit.
Leveraging Resiliency
Resiliency at the architecture level is key to engineering the network so grandmasters in the deployment can be connected to each other. Some grandmasters are connected to GNSS as their source of time and frequency. It is key to connect these systems to other 1588 grandmasters to enable assisted partial time support (APTS) and to leverage key innovation such as automatic asymmetry correction (AAC).
AAC is a key (patented) differentiator in a resilient design that enables calibration of the different paths a PTP flow may use to/from upstream grandmasters, thus allowing for a backup in case GNSS fails at the location of a grandmaster. A backup path to an upstream grandmaster can guarantee uninterrupted and precise time and phase operation. This architecture makes sure that GNSS can be backed up by IEEE 1588 Precision Time Protocol (PTP) when GNSS is interrupted, with the best path being utilized.
The alternative architecture choice is virtual PRTC (vPRTC), which enables operators to leverage redundancy and resiliency via a chain of high-performance boundary clocks using PTP over long distances for high accuracy, typically over optical networks. This architecture reduces reliance on GNSS and uses PTP as its primary source of time and phase.
Figure 2 depicts an optical network deployment with a dedicated optical timing channel (OTC) for high-accuracy distribution of phase over long distances.
Figure 2. Optical network deployment with OTC. (Image: Microchip)
Resiliency at the device level starts with the right choice of an oscillator, from OCXO to atomic clock (Rubidium) — and is dependent on the location, use case and respective requirements for timekeeping holdover performance. Also, the choice of GNSS receiver is key. Some typically support a single frequency, yet ionospheric phenomenon can create significant time delays during cyclical events such as solar storms. To mitigate such delays, a multi-band GNSS receiver is required.
Figure 3 depicts a comparison between single-band and multi-band time delays due to ionospheric effects and shows how multiband clearly mitigates the time error as highlighted in red.
GNSS satellites transmit time information in several frequency bands. The delay difference between signals at different frequencies provides information about ionospheric impact on the absolute delay. This enables multi-band GNSS receivers to compensate for delay variations of radio signals transmitted from the satellite to the receiver. Embedding a multi-band receiver mitigates these time delays, which is critical for applications requiring Primary Reference Time Clock class B (PRTC-B),40 ns, as well as enhanced PRTC (ePRTC) 30 ns.
These device design choices are equally important. The GNSS receiver can be embedded inside the unit on the main board, or it can be offered as a hardware module, often at an additional cost, and may impact and replace an existing module that needs to be ripped and replaced. It may be preferable to have the unit enabled with a multi-band receiver and have the multi-band capability turned on via a license as opposed to offering a multiband option on a hardware module, as this becomes a tradeoff with other important capabilities.
Evaluating Security
Security is of utmost importance. Authentication and authorization via standard mechanisms such as Terminal Access Controller Access Control System + (TACACS+) and Remote Authentication Dial-In User Service (RADIUS) provide the benefit of a standard security framework. In addition, two-factor authentication (2FA) is an extra layer of protection used to ensure the security of accounts beyond just a username and password.
Also, it is key to provide Secure Shell (SSH) extensions with various levels of security profiles to offer more granularity for the types of users and related access rights and limitations. Offering high-security profiles provides for the definition and enforcement of the most stringent access rules to the system. Scripting vulnerabilities and relevant Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) need to be addressed to make sure all potential security holes are being reviewed and addressed.
Plus, evolving jamming and spoofing threats need to be part of the precise time security strategy and implementation via monitoring of signals and consistency checks and remediation. Automatic gain control (AGC) and other metrics can be leveraged to provide thresholds with interpretation of results, as well as mitigation actions when encountered.
Final Decision Making
To ensure continued performance, it is critical to make the right architecture choices. A thorough network engineering study should include the locations where grandmaster units need to be deployed and their performance and accuracy requirements. These steps will guide which types of precise time and synchronization devices need to be selected
In addition, network planners and synchronization engineers should pay careful attention to design choices such as fanless devices versus devices that require a fan, modular hardware redundancy versus software redundancy, and the related advantages in terms of cost and tradeoffs — as well as similar choices regarding embedded or modular GNSS.
These choices can lead critical infrastructure operators to deploy redundancy, resiliency and security at all layers.
For architecture choices and solutions, visit vPRTC..White papers on this topic and others are also available. Additional information on devices and redundancy software schema is here.
Eric Colard is head of Emerging Products, Frequency & Time Systems at Microchip. He leads the product line management for Microchip’s TimeProvider 4100 and Integrated GNSS Master solutions for the telecom, utility and other industries.
Microchip Technology has integrate its BlueSky technology signal-anomaly detection software into its SyncServer S600 Series network time server and instruments.
The SyncServer S600 Series now provides GPS jamming and spoofing detection and protection, in combination with local radio frequency (RF) data logging and analysis. The SyncServer S600 Series Stratum 1 instrument, along with the BlueSky technology’s intelligent jamming and spoofing detectors, continuously monitor local GPS constellation health and examine GPS and local RF signal integrity to assure validity.
If an anomaly is detected, the solution sends an alarm and, if necessary, the SyncServer instrument can be shifted to alternative time sources or an internal oscillator. This protects ongoing timing outputs while ensuring only minimal, predictable timing degradation to vital network and business operations in applications ranging from banking and stock trading to electric utilities and aerospace and defense.
The SyncServer BlueSky technology, which provides continuous detection and protection against GPS jamming and spoofing. includes a comprehensive suite of logging, charting and measuring tools to characterize local GPS satellite signals as well as local RF events over time.
This can help enable correlating, troubleshooting, identifying and correcting local anomalies, some of which may be related to consumer electronics, or nearby RF signal broadcasts. The solution is optionally available through the SyncServer v4.1 software release that provides a selection of features found in Microchip’s BlueSky GNSS Firewall solution for third-party GPS receivers and critical infrastructure.
In separate letters to members of the House of Representatives and the Senate, seven companies and a non-profit urged Congress to support alternative positioning, navigation and timing systems (PNT) with the “necessary funds and other appropriate policy tools.”
The letters focus on and endorse the system-of-systems approach outlined in the Department of Transportation’s (DOT) recent report to Congress on the results of its GPS Backup Technology Demonstration. The report found an adequate and robust American PNT system should include space-based L-band signals, low-frequency (LF) and ultra-high-frequency (UHS) signals, and fiber connections between the terrestrial LF and UHF transmitters.
“Our country depends on GPS for critical infrastructure, and there is an urgent need for resiliency being built into our critical infrastructure. Before the report came out, some of us had different ideas of how the U.S. should go forward,” said Ganesh Pattabiraman, CEO of NextNav. “But the DOT report provided the data to make it very clear that it is a combination of technologies that need to come together to truly enable nationwide backup to GPS, and it was good to see we could get industry alignment on the findings.”
The letters describe many of the threats to GPS, both natural and malicious; its vulnerabilities; and the dire consequences of disruptions. They go on to state that robust, more reliable PNT is needed for emerging and future systems like E911, 5G, resilient electrical grids, drones and other automated systems.
Monty Johnson, CEO of OPNT, a provider of time-over-fiber services, praised the findings of the DOT report. “The key to resilience and reliability in a system-of-systems is including technologies that deliver the same information using starkly different means. It is hard to imagine a combination of technologies that are more diverse than fiber, satellites, LF and UHF.”
According to Pattabiraman, the signers of the letter agree that the DOT report made clear that there are mature technologies available today that can address the GPS backup issue. DOT and Congress now have the data to act to enable a much-needed resilient infrastructure for the country.
Dana A. Goward, president of the non-profit RNT Foundation, agreed. He also observed that deciding on the technologies and congressional funding were important, but only first steps. “The goal of this effort is not to just implement systems,” he said. “it’s to make America safer. Establishing the services quickly and efficiently will be key, as will ensuring they are widely adopted.”
“Protecting the nation from the consequences of a space-based PNT disruption will require that these systems be accessed and used by a wide variety of users from first responders and delivery services, to all forms of critical infrastructure,” Goward said. “This means the government will need to eliminate as many barriers to adoption as possible. One or more of these alternatives has to be available to every American. And a basic level of service has to be free, just like the GPS utility it is reinforcing. Fortunately, we estimate this can be done relatively inexpensively. It will be only a small fraction of the $1.7B we spent on GPS last year.”
The alternative to making this relatively modest investment, according to Goward, is unacceptable.
“There are lots of threats to GPS,” he said. “Take the sun for example. The most recent study I saw estimates a 70% chance solar activity will damage the GPS constellation in the next 30 years and a 20% chance it will destroy a big part of it. And the sun is just one of the threats we face. We can’t keep playing this kind of Russian Roulette with the fate of our nation. Especially when other countries like Russia and China have already taken steps to protect themselves with terrestrial systems.”
A copy of the letter sent to Senators can be found here, and the one to members of the House of Representatives here.
A train arrives at Tel Aviv University Station on the Israeli Railway in Tel Aviv. (Photo: svarshik/iStock Editorial/Getty Images Plus/Getty Images)
InfiniDome Ltd., a GPS security company, is joining with with Israeli partner Focus Telecom, in a new country-wide project with Israel Railways. The project involves deployment by Focus Telecom of GPS repeaters at more than 30 railway stations across Israel, providing accurate, location-based service indoors at all locations for a new Israel Railways ticketing app.
A critical component of the project is a monitoring service that detects and provides alerts of any GPS disruption or interference in real time, as they are identified. This is facilitated by infiniDome’s IoT GPSensors and its cloud-based GPS monitoring service, infiniCloud.
“Incorporating infiniDome’s proven resilient PNT capability to monitor and protect such a critical GPS service is a necessary enhancement for government designated critical infrastructures,” said Ehud Sharar, Focus Telecom CEO.
Photo: Focus Telecom
InfiniDome’s monitoring technology for critical assets detects and alerts operators of threats and disruptions of the essential GPS signals. These threats can originate from both malicious or natural causes.
“GPSensor IoT technology combined with our infiniCloud GPS security cloud assures real-time alerts about jamming attacks. All GPS signal data and its assured integrity are available as real time data so Israel Railways can react immediately and reduce downtime of the network,” said Omer Sharar, infiniDome CEO.
Israel Railways is the cornerstone of Israeli critical infrastructure. In 2018, Israel National Railway carried 68 million passengers. This same infiniDome GPS monitoring and protection technology is now available to defend critical infrastructure assets worldwide.
PNT services, such as GPS, are a national critical function that enable many applications within the critical infrastructure sectors. However, “The increasing reliance on GPS for military, civil and commercial applications makes the system vulnerable,” according to Space Policy Directive-7 (SPD-7), issued Jan. 15. “GPS users must plan for potential signal loss and take reasonable steps to verify or authenticate the integrity of the received GPS data and ranging signal, especially in applications where even small degradations can result in loss of life.”
The PNT Integrity Library and Epsilon Algorithm Suite address this issue by providing users a method to verify the integrity of the received GPS data. “We are excited to release these resources to the PNT community to improve resiliency against potential GPS signal loss,” said DHS S&T PNT Program Manager Brannan Villee.
“Since GPS signals can be jammed or spoofed, critical infrastructure systems should not be designed with the assumption that GPS data will always be available or will always be accurate,” said Jim Platt, chief of Strategic Defense Initiatives at the Cybersecurity and Information Security Agency (CISA) National Risk Management Center. “Application of these tools will provide increased security against GPS disruptions. However, DHS also recommends a holistic defense strategy that considers the integrity of the PNT data from its reception through its use in the supported system.”
The PNT Integrity Library and Epsilon Algorithm Suite are open source and available free of charge. To view more details, visit the DHS S&T PNT Program.
Auterion, an open-source drone software platform provider, has partnered with C2 Group — a program, project and construction management firm — to power the use of drones for inspection, mapping and disaster response across the utilities and critical infrastructure industries.
The collaboration has been formed after C2 Group conducted extensive testing of the Vantage Robotics Vesper drone powered by Auterion to inspect power lines at its UAS testing ground and assess viability within the utilities space.
Auterion and C2 Group have seen a shift in the utility industry to move away from drones manufactured overseas to focus on the adoption of U.S.-made products such as the Vesper, a Blue sUAS-certified product used by the U.S. military.
Features on the Vesper that the utilities industry can use include high-quality sensors and thermal capabilities, while its stability and lightweight design make it rapidly deployable.
Utilizing the data security, quality and flexibility enabled by Auterion across multiple UAS manufacturers means C2 Group pilots can be trained on one flight platform but fly any drone associated with it; reducing the training time and increasing overall productivity. Further productivity measures are achieved with Auterion’s Suite used to identify pilot efficiencies and its Simulator to augment pilot training. At the same time C2, with its industry knowledge having worked with multiple major utilities in the US, is providing insight that is helping to shape Auterion’s roadmap for new sensors and airframes into the future.
Brandon Del Priore, CTO at C2 Group, said: “We are proud to partner with Auterion to bring some of the best technology developed in the US to our clients in the utilities and critical infrastructure industries. When safety, data security, and data quality matter most, C2 Group will be there to offer customers the same US-made hardware and software used by the DoD’s Defense Innovation Unit and the US military. The open source ecosystem is helping to drive a better footprint within the marketplace and a better level of compatibility for US made products.”
Cynthia Huang, VP Enterprise Business Development at Auterion, said: “With DJI added to the entity list, we’re seeing enterprise drone operators accelerate their search for alternatives. Auterion’s open source software ecosystem provides more options, more solutions, and faster development timelines to the needs being identified today and companies are embracing the power of our approach. We are excited to partner with C2 Group to bring US made solutions and the advantages of open source to their customers.”
For more information, visit www.auterion.com/enterprise
NIST’s new cybersecurity profile is designed to help mitigate risks to systems that use PNT data, including finance, transportation, energy and other critical infrastructure. While its scope does not include ground- or space-based PNT source signal generators and providers (such as satellites), the profile still covers a wide swath of technologies. (Image: B. Hayes/NIST)
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has drafted guidelines for applying its Cybersecurity Framework to critical technologies such as GPS that use positioning, navigation and timing (PNT) data. Part of a larger NIST effort to safeguard systems that rely on PNT data, these cybersecurity guidelines accompany NIST efforts to provide and test a resilient timekeeping signal that is independent of GPS.
Formally titled the “Cybersecurity Profile for the Responsible Use of Positioning, Navigation and Timing (PNT) Services (NISTIR 8323),” the new guidelines are designed to help mitigate cybersecurity risks that endanger systems important to national and economic security, including those that underpin modern finance, transportation, energy and additional economic sectors.
The draft profile is part of NIST’s response to the Feb. 12, 2020, Executive Order on PNT. In early 2020, NIST sought public input regarding the general use of PNT data. The PNT profile will join the growing list of profiles created to help apply the NIST Cybersecurity Framework to particular economic sectors, such as manufacturing, the power grid and the maritime industry. The scope of the profile includes any system, network or other asset that uses PNT services, including systems that receive and rebroadcast PNT data.
While its scope does not include ground- or space-based source PNT signal generators and providers (such as satellites), the profile still covers a wide swath of technologies. Partly for this reason, NIST’s Jim McCarthy said that it is intended to be a foundational set of guidelines that PNT users can customize.
“The profile is meant to help a broad set of users address their cybersecurity needs,” said McCarthy, one of the draft’s authors. “Rather than focus on a single economic sector, we designed it to apply to all users of PNT. Agencies and companies can tailor it to their needs based on their particular cybersecurity risk and other sector-specific factors.”
As directed by the Executive Order, the profile can help organizations accomplish four tasks:
identify systems that use PNT data, and/or that propagate this data based on a source signal
identify PNT data sources, such as a GPS signal
detect disturbance to and manipulation of systems that use PNT services
manage the risks that come with responsible use of these PNT services
“Our premise is that there are organizations that may not realize they are using PNT data, or know how they are using it,” McCarthy said. “Part of our goal is to help them make these connections so they can protect their operations more effectively.”
The Executive Order also delegates to the Department of Commerce the critical task of providing a source of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) that is independent of GPS. To this end, NIST also recently conducted initial tests of a special calibration service for companies, utilities or other organizations that wish to receive NIST’s version of the global time standard, UTC(NIST), through commercial fiber-optic cable.
The service aims to provide a time reference directly traceable to UTC(NIST) with an accuracy of 1 microsecond — good enough for telecom networks, the power grid and financial markets, and thereby boosting the resilience of accurate time distribution and the infrastructure sectors and subsectors that use timing services.
The initial link is a collaboration between NIST and OPNT, a commercial time-service provider based in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. While the work was led by researchers at NIST’s Boulder, Colorado, campus, the dedicated optical fiber connects the reference time scale at NIST headquarters in Gaithersburg, Maryland, to a facility in McLean, Virginia, that will ultimately serve as the hub for East Coast distribution of timing data.
OPNT has extended the initial fiber link to Atlanta, Georgia, about 800 kilometers from McLean. Preliminary data suggest that this link will be able to support the requirements of the Executive Order.
Positioning, navigation and timing (PNT) orbs guide 50-ton robots carrying containers at the Ports of Auckland.
In a world-exclusive report, GPS World visited with officials at the Ports of Auckland, New Zealand, and the Australian company Locata to reveal a revolutionary port automation system. Locata’s navigation system could change the way containers are handled around the globe, and open the floodgates for next-generation automation of Critical National Infrastructure sites.
Global shipping lines, ports and container terminals are at the heart of the immense, multi-trillion-dollar global logistics market, and ports are classed as critical infrastructure in many nations.
Much of the world’s port infrastructure is old, has no space to expand, and strains at the seams as it faces the reality of handing larger cargo volumes and massive new container ships —some with more than 22,000 containers on board. Efficiently managing the huge spike in container moves caused by the arrival of these gigantic new vessels is a critical requirement for container terminals and their logistics chains, and the problem will only become more acute.
Once arriving at port, container vessels are offloaded by ship-to-shore (STS) cranes. (Photo: bfk92/E+/Getty Images)
Automating operations at ports and intermodal hubs to accelerate their throughput is an obvious solution. “Automate or die” is now an accepted industry mantra, and indeed a small number of terminals around the world have been automated in the past. Early attempts at using GPS for positioning autonomous machines promptly fizzled, however. A chaotic environment of gigantic moving metal machines and constantly changing metal container stacks creates insurmountable blockage and multipath position errors. The environment makes it impossible to guarantee ultra-reliable, centimeter-level GNSS positioning.
In the past, the industry had to resort to providing basic-level positioning by drilling holes to install (with no exaggeration) between 50,000 and 500,000 RFID transponders or magnets in the port’s pavement. This was extremely tedious and labor intensive, and came with serious downsides. The transponders do not work well for differing machine sizes because they usually require reader antennas, the size of two regular house doors, under the machine. Furthermore, the drilling deteriorates the pavement — the ports’ most valuable asset.
The biggest problem, however, was that for a fully operational site like Auckland — known as brownfields in the industry — the port often would have to be closed for years to allow the transponders and pavement to be installed. Such a shutdown isn’t feasible for most operating ports; hence, brown-fields were considered next-to-impossible to automate.
Although this may seem to be less of an issue for new greenfields ports (those built from scratch), buried transponders essentially lock in the mobility and usage patterns for any port, requiring another shutdown to make changes. In all, the logistics industry and its machine manufacturers urgently need a viable, flexible, reliable positioning solution for terminal automation — and soon.
A New Solution
It’s now been revealed that a new solution for this urgent requirement had, in fact, been in stealth mode development for many years. Due to commercial competitive considerations, all the work had taken place under the radar and without publicity. Konecranes, the largest port machine manufacturer, had been developing fully autonomous straddle carriers specifically to address this market, in partnership with Australian company Locata Corporation.
This totally new automation system is being rolled out now at multiple terminals around the world. The first port to emerge with this trailblazing capability is the Ports of Auckland.
Locata’s ground-based GNSS-like positioning system is changing the game for logistics terminals. The Ports of Auckland is the first of many ports and logistics hubs around the globe currently operating or installing Locata (see Figure 1). In the process, the port is delivering the global logistics industry a raft of world-first capabilities.
Figure 1. The Ports of Auckland covers 140 acres at the doorstep of Auckland’s central business district. The outline shows the approximate coverage of the LocataNet local positioning system (landside only). (Photo: Ross Clark/Ports of Auckland)
Partners on this project — the government owners of the Ports of Auckland; its system supplier Konecranes; and Locata — are breaking new ground and in the process opening the floodgates for next-generation machine automation of critical national infrastructure sites.
Groundbreaking Capabilities
Living on an island means every-day items are delivered via cargo ships. That’s certainly the case in Auckland, New Zealand’s largest city, which has a harbor on the Pacific Ocean.
The Ports of Auckland is the largest terminal for commercial freight that arrives in New Zealand. Its 140-acre international trade port is in the heart of the city and surrounded by water, so expansion by reclaiming land is out of the question, even as the country continues to grow.
With this situation, the port’s operator was faced with the seemingly impossible: double the handling capacity of the port in a few years without reclaiming any more land. They turned to automation and cutting-edge technology to find a solution.
Everything that arrives at the port is in a standardized shipping container. The port’s plot of land is usually crammed with the maximum number of containers it can hold. The Ports of Auckland had to seek out automation that increases the terminal’s capacity by stacking containers higher, stacking them close together, and generally making things move faster and more efficiently.
For inbound cargo, once a container is unlocked from its ships, ship-to-shore (STS) cranes unload them to ground level. Straddle carriers then lift and move each container to a ground-level holding area, where it is stored and then transferred to a truck or a train that will deliver it to its ultimate destination.
Export cargo arrives at the port via truck or train, and the straddle carriers handle them through the port’s storage areas to be loaded onto a ship.
The port also handles trans-shipments; containers that arrive via a ship destined to be loaded onto another ship. These handling processes are repeated over and over around the clock, operating pre-automation at a capacity of around 900,000 containers per year.
Straddle carriers are the workhorses of the operation, moving containers within the port. Manual straddles are operated by trained onboard drivers and can stack containers two high. In a traditional manual environment, a driver’s time is divided between tasks that require skill such as picking up a container from the STS crane, or on repetitive work — like organizing containers for efficient loading onto ships, trains and trucks — which are tasks that can readily be automated.
By adding automation, the Ports of Auckland created a mix of manual and automated straddles working together at the terminal. Drivers are assigned the more interesting and skillful tasks, while the automated robotic straddles carry out the repetitive, “boring” tasks.
“Very soon, when the automation system is fully implemented, our straddle carrier fleet will consist of 27 Konecranes Fully-Automated Straddle Carriers (A-STRAD), and 24 manned straddle carriers,” said Ross Clarke, program manager of Auckland’s Port Automation Project. “This interaction of manned and automated machines, without any physical infrastructure separating them, is a world first.”
The A-STRADs are bigger than the manual straddles. The 50-ton, four-story-high machines can move 40-foot containers weighing 50 tons around the port at up to 30 kilometers per hour. Each can stack containers up to three high and closer together.
Five fully autonomous Konecranes A-STRADs at work in the Ports of Auckland. The Locata VRay Orb antennas can be seen at the top of each straddle. (Photo: Photo: Ross Clark/Ports of Auckland)
With the new automated system, the Ports of Auckland will almost double the capacity of the terminal to 1.7 million containers per year once automation is fully implemented in early 2021.
The Ports of Auckland chose Konecranes to supply the fully-autonomous straddle carriers. With no cab, A-STRADs are uniquely identifiable as autonomous. A-STRADs can drive around the port, lifting and moving containers in the same way as their manual predecessors, using their spreader and assisted by the onboard sensors. A critical difference is how they position themselves and how they safely operate in an environment with many other objects, manual straddles, A-STRADs and container stacks.
At the heart of this capability is the Locata local positioning system. It allows A-STRADs to reliably position themselves to centimeter-level accuracy throughout the terminal work area. Every A-STRAD has two Locata antennas, each attached to a Locata Rover receiver, that enable an A-STRAD to accurately determine its position and orientation.
Driver Assistance. Both the A-STRADs and the manual straddles at the Ports of Auckland are positioned using Locata technology. The manned straddle carriers are fitted with a driver-assistance system, which is also positioned by Locata, so their operations can be monitored and coordinated in lock-step with autonomous A-STRADs.
“The driver assistance system operates a lot like the auto-parking system in a car,” Clarke said. “When manned straddles are near the interchange area where they interact with A-STRADs, operators change to driver-assist mode and can take their hands off the steering wheel, allowing the system to autonomously guide the straddle carrier to the correct stack location with an accuracy of +/–3 cm.”
Roots of a New Strategy
The groundbreaking positioning system has been in the works for several decades.
“Locata has been working on this ‘terrestrial replica of GNSS’ capability for 25 years,” Locata CEO Nunzio Gambale told GPS World. “It didn’t spring up one day just because co-founder David Small and I thought, hey, we’d like to replace the GPS satellites.
“Our driving vision has been to provide accurate performance in myriad environments where we always knew GNSS was going to fail to deliver,” Gambale continued. “Importantly, what you see today is not just ‘a lab experiment’ or a prototype test system. It’s operationally deployed, enabling some of the most demanding positioning applications on Earth. Our team has been laser-focused on developing real technology which improves on GPS-like positioning, and delivering solid solutions for real-world problems modern applications now face.”
The Locata System
Two LocataLite transmitter antennas, installed 23 meters up a light pole, provide high-accuracy positioning coverage over part of the Ports of Auckland. (photo: Photo: David Small/Locata)
LocataLites. Locata is a local positioning system that uses a network of synchronized transmitters, known as LocataLites, installed in and around the port to cover all straddle work areas. The LocataLites work like miniature GPS satellites, transmitting GPS-like signals using two frequencies in the 2.4-GHz ISM band.
LocataLites are strategically installed and configured to deliver reliable centimeter-level accuracy, with particular attention paid to the geometry available from the network when the installation layout is designed. This LocataLite network (called a LocataNet) enables the equipment on each straddle carrier to trilaterate its position using a method similar to GNSS positioning.
Locata technology is built upon two critical proprietary capabilities developed and perfected over many years: TimeLoc and multipath mitigation. To date, Locata has been granted more than 160 patents on these core advances.
Sub-Nanosecond TimeLoc. First, LocataLites use their own broadcast signals to time synchronize with each other using a proprietary technology called TimeLoc. This allows all the LocataLites in a LocataNet to time synchronize with each other to sub-nanosecond levels without requiring atomic clocks.
Mutipath Mitigation. Second, Locata’s proprietary multipath mitigation technology enables Locata receivers to correctly track direct signals, even in an environment filled with reflected signals. Multipath is the main reason GNSS can’t deliver the accuracy and reliability required at a port.
Locata’s multipath mitigation technology has two components: the Locata receiver and the VRay Orb antenna.
Locata receivers. The receivers incorporate a proprietary signal-processing technique, correlator beamforming (CBF), which delivers beam-forming capability comparable to advanced phased-array antennas.CBF allows the Locata receiver to combine signal samples from its multiple antenna elements to form virtual “beams,” and any signal outside of a given virtual beam is ignored.
Unlike traditional phased arrays, however, the Locata CBF system is markedly less complex and orders of magnitude less expensive. CBF uses only one RF front end, yet it can form millions of individually-steered beams per second.
VRay Orbs. The straddle carriers at the Ports of Auckland are the first commercial operating deployment of Locata’s VRay Orb antennas, with two orbs atop every A-STRAD as well as the manual straddles (Opening Photo).
A row of Locata VRay Orb60 antennas atop Konecranes A-STRAD machines stretch into the distance toward Auckland’s business district. (Photo: David Small/Locata)
Bespoke Positioning
The placement of LocataLite positioning transmitters on any site is entirely within the control of the LocataNet designer. “Our partners can place them where they want, in as high a density as they want, and as accurately as they need to get their job done,” Gambale said. “The LocataNet delivers rock-solid, super-reliable positioning in environments where that wasn’t possible before.”
With GNSS, users have no control over the geometry of the satellites in view. “That’s a huge problem in many of these high-accuracy applications because it can greatly affect your DOP [dilution of precision] geometry,” he added. “Engineers trying to rely on GNSS can see huge variability — or complete failure — in a machine’s position. Unreliable positioning is not acceptable when an enterprise is relying on 50-ton autonomous machines, doing critical work that you cannot afford to stop.”
According to Clarke, “Locata is well-suited to our requirements as it offers high precision, high resistance to interference, and high reliability.”
Breakthroughs at the Port
Locata’s enabling technology has brought multiple breakthrough advantages to terminal automation. Critical among them is the ability to automate a terminal while in full operation.
“Because our container terminal is working at high utilization, with no spare space to operate, we are deploying the automation in two phases,” Clarke said. “The first phase started commercial operations in August 2020, and we have now handled more than 35 ships using the automated system. The next phase, with the entire terminal running fully operational automation, is scheduled to enter service in early April 2021.”
Flexibility. The new system also provides extreme flexibility to alter the layout of operations in real time, something never possible with transponders embedded in the ground. A-STRADs drive around using a digital map. With Locata, this map can be changed as often as needed without having to change anything in the infrastructure.
Reduced Wear and Tear. Before automation, line markings on the pavement guided operators on paths and in storage areas. While this kept operations orderly, following the marked lines caused ruts in the pavement that eventually require costly and time-consuming repairs.
“With A-STRAD positioning being so precise and repeatable, this accuracy could have caused serious ruts and also become a problem,” Clarke said. “With Locata and the ‘invisible’ digital pavement markings, we came up with a cool solution to this that we call ‘stack shuffling.’ We shift the digital drive paths and storage plots over time so that wear and tear on the pavement is spread more evenly, requiring fewer repairs to the tarmac.”
The shuffling is imperceptible to a human, but the A-STRADs are spreading the wear across the entire tarmac and greatly extending the service life of the terminal surface, according to Clarke.
Less Fuel. The automation also brings significant environmental benefits. “A-STRADs use approximately 10% less fuel, which means they are indeed cheaper to run,” Clarke said.
Locata-enabled manned straddles near STS cranes unload a ship at dusk. (Photo: Photo: David Small/Locata)
Autonomous and Manned
Ensuring the safety of workers, machinery and cargo is a critical requirement at any port. All parts of the Ports of Auckland’s new system were tested for two years, including system software from both Konecranes and Locata.
The software was tested in pieces as it was developed. Then, full system functionality was delivered and tested. Both automated and manual straddles are centrally monitored and coordinated by this terminal operating system.
Working Together. Auckland’s port is the first in the world to use autonomous and manned machines together without a physical separation. This allows skilled operators to manually handle operations in specific areas, while the autonomous A-STRADs are tasked with monotonous and time-consuming jobs with no practical limitation on the machine’s repeatability.
Within the access-controlled premises in Auckland, all work areas are constantly monitored by the centralized system. The Locata system tracks the location of all straddle carriers at all times.
Training. All manual straddle drivers go through virtual and hands-on training with specific attention paid to safety protocols.
“Once they’ve first learned what to do in a simulator,” Clarke said, “they then carry out the same tasks with an instructor in a real straddle carrier. We also train our control room staff in a virtual training environment that’s a bit like a container terminal version of a flight simulator.” Figure 2 shows the screen of the operator training simulator.
Figure 2. The straddle carrier simulator used for manual straddle operator training shows (top left) the container drop-off location, designated path, and open and restricted zones. (Photo: Ross Clark/Ports of Auckland)
Laser Scanners. As a last line of defense, autonomous A-STRADs are equipped with laser scanners that detect obstacles and automatically engage collision prevention measures, if required.
More Locata Applications
Port machinery automation is the most recent industrial sector to reveal the adoption of Locata technology. However, Locata is already used by large industry partners for deep-pit mining where mine pit walls act like deep urban canyons and severely limit the sky view. (See GPS World, March 2017.)
Locata also is being used as the core truth reference positioning system at the U.S. Air Force (USAF) White Sands Missile Range. There, it is independently providing high-accuracy non-GPS-based positioning when GPS signals are heavily jammed; this is practically the Holy Grail for alternative PNT, and the USAF has been using the system operationally at White Sands since 2016. (See GPS World, January 2020.)
NASA is another Locata user, working with the Federal Aviation Administration on research for next-generation air traffic control. Numerous other applications are currently in stealth development.
Gambale said the company’s technology is not representative of a solution just for ports, mines, aviation, military or any other specific application. “Our ground-based technology has myriad advantages in the many environments where satellite-based positioning was never designed to work. We can change the game for many modern applications because Locata allows users to have total control over where transmitters are placed, the power they transmit, the design of their network structure, and much more.”
For more than 10 years, the company worked to develop technology to reduce multipath — the bane of high-accuracy GNSS positioning in urban, industrial, indoor and occluded areas.
“Those are all real-world environments where satellite-based signals cannot be tracked reliably enough for next-gen, extremely demanding applications like fully-autonomous operations,” Gambale said. “Our business is the direct result of GPS changing the world, and the industry then fueling a largely unqualified public expectation that centimeter-level positioning would be available everywhere. Clearly, that is not correct.
“The growing roster of huge, globally significant companies adopting our technology for applications that go beyond GPS limitations shows our developments deliver real benefits to many markets. Auckland is living proof that Locata is a true, terrestrial, centimeter-accurate alternative-PNT system.”
BroadGNSS will procure innovative solutions for applications, synchronization and monitoring of critical mobile broadband communication infrastructure and information assets for public protection and disaster recovery (PPDR) Operations.
The project brings together three members of a joint procurement team:
French Ministry of Interior (lead procurer)
Estonian Infocommunication Foundation
Finnish Erillisverkot
The team will be supported by PSCE and Austrian GNSS company OHB Digital.
The agreement provides for a total budget of €3.6 million over 40 months, beginning this Dec. 1. Of that, €2.5 million is reserved for pre-commercial procurement of innovation solutions. This budget will be made available to industry following an open and competitive process.
BroadGNSS will seek innovative solutions to apply European GNSS to further improve the overall capability of trustworthy information exchange, enabled by new broadband mobile communication.
BroadGNSS will consult key government stakeholders across Europe to scope the specific objectives of the PCP procurement. A “prior information notice” will be released to initiate consultation with innovative industry to contribute their knowledge and capabilities to help our team to prepare a formal request for tender to be released later next year.
BroadGNSS will build upon the success of the BroadWay PCP, which is currently in the prototyping phase. Three innovative prototypes are now in development to address the challenge to enable a pan-European mobile broadband system for PPDR. Prototypes will be evaluated in April 2021, with interim demonstrations to the BroadWay group of procurers this month (November). These prototypes are developed under the leadership of key industry heavyweights, Airbus, Frequentis and Leonardo.
The combination of the results of BroadWay and BroadGNSS will contribute to provide improved mission critical services to public safety responders.
New service provides PPP convergence for centimeter-level accuracy on land, air and marine applications around the world
Research from Hexagon’s Autonomy & Positioning division has resulted in breakthrough innovations in precise point positioning (PPP) that enable nearly instant global centimeter-level accuracy. These developments pave the way to bring “RTK from the Sky” performance to worldwide users through correction service products and GNSS receivers from Hexagon.
RTK from the Sky technology provides the quick accuracy of an RTK solution with the high accessibility and availability of PPP. Users will no longer have geographic or regional infrastructure restrictions — they will be free to operate anywhere around the world with the same premium level of positioning performance.
RTK from the Sky technology removes the traditional PPP barrier of long convergence times as well as internet and radio communication limitations, delivering instantaneous convergence anywhere in the world. This breakthrough establishes the foundation for assured positioning with no downtime in marine, agriculture, and autonomous applications.
To achieve these results, there must be masterful attention to detail throughout the entire positioning ecosystem: no errors conveniently cancelled and no errors ignored. All errors are carefully estimated and removed from the final GNSS position faster and more reliably than ever before.
This end-to-end fine-tuning of measurement quality and error mitigation establishes the foundation for RTK from the Sky performance. No matter the location or application, users will be able to rely upon the highest availability and accuracy of corrections anywhere in the world, without the convergence time, Hexagon said.
“In 2020, PPP has become RTK — without the mobility limitations,” said Sandy Kennedy, VP of Innovation at Hexagon’s Autonomy & Positioning division. “RTK from the Sky has been a very satisfying development. To see this kind of positioning performance available anywhere in the world is the realization of the next step of innovation for GNSS.”
RTK from the Sky technology will be the foundation for future correction service products and applications from Hexagon built for diverse applications.
Luciad 2020.1 provides capabilities with panoramic imagery. (Screenshot: Hexagon Geospatial)
Luciad 2020.1 features dynamic panoramic imagery capabilities and immersive 3D imagery
Hexagon’s Geospatial division has launched Luciad 2020.1, a significant update to its platform for building advanced location intelligence and real-time, situational awareness applications.
Luciad 2020.1 delivers immersive 3D experiences with 360-degree panoramic imagery support that can be combined with other 3D data layers for geospatial applications. The latest release also features additional styling for 3D meshes and 3D data integration capabilities.
Visualization and Analysis
Hexagon’s Luciad portfolio allows developers to create powerful, high-performance applications that leverage data from any source for visualization and analysis in 2D and 3D. Combining static, dynamic and real-time data, including moving tracks, Luciad-powered applications support defense, aviation, infrastructure and other critical sectors.
For the 2020.1 release of LuciadRIA, which is used for building browser-based solutions, Hexagon has added 360-degree panoramic imagery capabilities that can be combined with other 3D data layers to provide complete imagery coverage and detailed information about a location. Panoramic imagery puts users in control of what they want to look at within an image. The panoramic 3D experience is powered by a new streaming imagery data service in LuciadFusion, Hexagon’s OGC-compliant server solution.
“With the addition of panoramic imagery capabilities and other 3D data enhancements, Luciad 2020.1 puts local governments, transportation departments, utility companies and others in control of what they can observe and analyze within a particular scene,” said Mladen Stojic, president of Hexagon’s Geospatial division. “With these capabilities, organizations can remotely monitor their assets and infrastructure, significantly reduce manual inspection processes and fully leverage location intelligence across the enterprise.”
More New Features
The release contains other new features and improvements requested by customers, including:
military grid coordinate transformations
non-georeferenced WebGL-based views
improved imagery sampling
additional format support and upgrades.
For defense customers, the Luciad 2020.1 release consolidates its military symbology support across all Luciad platforms and programming languages.
