GPS World

Tag: Spirent Communications

  • Spirent Sim3D provides realistic multipath simulation

    Spirent Sim3D provides realistic multipath simulation

    3D modeling solution creates true-to-life synthetic environments for more accurate testing.

    Spirent Communications plc has launched an innovative multipath simulation solution, Spirent Sim3D. The 3D modeling solution enables the testing of realistic multipath and obscuration effects on GNSS signals in a true-to-life synthetic environment.

    Sim3D is suitable for use by automotive, chipset, handset and receiver manufacturers, as well as in aerospace, military, mining and precision agricultural applications.

    Spirent will demonstrate Sim3D at ION GNSS+ 2019 in Miami, Florida, Sept. 16-20.

    Studying multipath. Historically, researchers and developers of GNSS receivers have had to rely on statistical models and time-consuming field testing to study the effects of multipath on GNSS signals.

    With Sim3D, the industry can now gain a greater understanding of the impact of multipath and obscuration in a broad range of real-life situations. It offers the level of control and traceability needed for developers to improve their customers’ experience in the most challenging environments.

    A satellite signal reflecting off surfaces, such as a building, a high-sided vehicle, a tree, or even the ground, alters the pseudorange, causing the signal to arrive at the receiver slightly later than line-of-sight signals.

    Without proper mitigation, this can cause a receiver to output an inaccurate position.

    “Obscuration and multipath effects are one of the major obstacles faced by engineers trying to achieve accurate GNSS positioning solutions,” said Spirent Managing Director of Positioning Martin Foulger. “The accelerating development of connected autonomous vehicles and other precision applications means the need to test for higher precision positioning, navigation and timing in a variety of environments is growing rapidly. Sim3D is an important and timely development.”

    Image: Spirent
    Image: Spirent

    Simulation of 3D environments. The unique system has been developed in partnership with OKTAL Synthetic Environment. It offers the ability to simulate multipath effects in a range of lifelike geo-typical environments, using different models to recreate locations such as urban highway, an inner city or a forest. Geo-specific models of real locations can also be commissioned.

    During simulation with Sim3D, the GNSS signals interact with fully customizable 3D environments to simulate real-life applications in operation, like a vehicle on a highway, or a wearable device on a pedestrian.

    This gives a level of detail, control and realism in testing not previously available. Such realistic multipath and obscuration simulation will add greater credibility to GNSS testing and assure that developed solutions are optimized and tested for their intended environments.

    “As vehicles become increasingly autonomous, it’s vital to get a more detailed understanding of the effects of obscuration and multipath on a vehicle’s ability to generate an accurate GNSS-based position” explained Foulger. “Statistical models cannot sufficiently achieve this.

    “Sim3D’s ability to realistically simulate different environments provides this greater accuracy and brings a host of benefits to researchers and developers of autonomous vehicle systems,” Foulger said. “It will help to guide critical design decisions like where to place the GNSS antenna on the vehicle, what GNSS receiver to use and when to hand over to other position sensors as GNSS signals degrade.”

  • Spirent, Fraunhofer and LZE partner to ensure continuity of supply of Galileo PRS simulation tools

    Spirent Communications plc has partnered with Fraunhofer IIS and LZE GmbH to ensure continuity of supply of Spirent’s Galileo Public Regulated Service (PRS) Radio Frequency Constellation Simulator (RFCS) product extension after the United Kingdom leaves the European Union (EU).

    The new partnership will see sales and order processing hosted by LZE GmbH of Erlangen, Germany, with Munich-based Fraunhofer lIS taking on responsibility for the future development, fulfillment and support of Galileo PRS in the Spirent GSS9000 GNSS test solution.

    Fraunhofer will become the sole owner of the SimPRS software/firmware, which will no longer be accessible to Spirent after the U.K. leaves the EU.

    Spirent is exhibiting this week at ION GNSS+ 2018 in Miami.

    This partnership and strategy is technically made possible through Spirent’s RFCS system architecture providing a clearly defined interface, with strict need-to-know separation between the core RFCS and PRS hardware and software components. This well-defined delineation ensures that both the RFCS and PRS simulation tools can be developed independently, the companies said.

    “We are delighted with this new partnership with Fraunhofer and LZE,” said Martin Foulger, general manager of Spirent’s global positioning business. “We have been actively exploring contingency strategies to address the possibility that our UK-based Positioning Technology Division would be disallowed from engaging with Galileo PRS-related activities following Brexit. With this partnership in place, LZE, Fraunhofer IIS and Spirent are confident that this new approach will successfully deliver continuity of supply for Galileo PRS on the GSS9000 RFCS.”

    Spirent and Fraunhofer IIS, together with key Spirent Galileo RFCS customers, can confirm that authorization was given by the relevant authorities to proceed with the partnership and that a legal framework was agreed between the two organizations.

    That framework is allowing both parties to execute on a focussed technology transfer, training and quality assurance plan that will result in Fraunhofer IIS taking qualified technical ownership of the SimPRS product by the end of 2018.

    The technical challenge and programmatic risks associated with this migration exercise are significantly mitigated by Spirent’s similar experience in working with a third-party U.S. entity to add GPS Modernized Navstar Security Algorithm (MNSA) support to the GSS9000.

  • Warwick U to test location system for intelligent vehicles

    Intelligent vehicles and smart devices could gain more accurate location awareness by fusing GNSS and Wi-Fi signals. A test for this is the focus of an Innovate UK project led by Spirent Communications and involving the Warwick Manufacturing Group (WMG) at the University of Warwick.

    The £694k Enhanced Assured Location Simulator Leveraging Wi-Fi and GNSS Sensor Fusion (ELWAG) project will seek to develop and test the pioneering hybrid Wi-Fi and GNSS location system in a cost-effective, repeatable and safe environment so that manufacturers can verify its performance.

    International Manufacturing Centre at WMG. (Photo: WMG)

    Researchers at WMG, led by Matthew Higgins, will play a significant role in the project. They will take physical layer measurements of both Wi-Fi and GNSS signals in autonomous vehicle scenarios in and around the University of Warwick campus and the local urban road network.

    The measurements will then assist in Spirent’s development of an RF propagation model that will overlay RF effects on its Wi-Fi Access Point simulator.

    WMG researchers will then perform RF validation and verification activities around the developed model, to provide a level of assurance on its performance.

    “The safety and functional assurance of future autonomous vehicles will be one of the many critical paths to large consumer adoption,” said Higgins, who is an associate professor in the intelligent vehicles group at WMG. “Through this project, we will contribute towards providing innovative solutions to the challenges of using sensor fusion in this testing context.”

    “This is a highly technical project, which will require a holistic understanding of the signal propagation characteristics between satellites, infrastructure and vehicles. The results will impact future autonomous testing methodologies,” said Erik Kampert, senior research fellow at WMG.

    The ELWAG project will run for 18 months, and also involves Chronos Technology.

    Project background. Many devices currently rely on a singular location technology (typically GPS), which is one type of the wider eco system of GNSS. These systems, whilst becoming more capable, still suffer at times from the user’s environment — typically in urban areas where buildings and other cityscape features interfere with the signal.

    The urban environment is, however, where most users need to know their location to the highest level of accuracy, due to increasing population or device density. Wi-Fi signals exist almost universally within dense urban areas, so there is a possibility of fusing these signals with the GNSS signals to identify one’s location very accurately.

    “Currently Wi-Fi access point plus GNSS simulation can only be achieved in an ad hoc manner and does not allow for the testing of moving vehicles, multipath effects, insertion of data errors, spoofing and above all controlled, repeatable testing,” said Mark Holbrow, director of engineering and product development at Spirent’s positioning business unit.

    “In the autonomous vehicle sector location accuracy can vary by up to 5 meters, which is unacceptable from a safety perspective. Bringing that accuracy down to 30 centimeters through sensor fusion will have substantial implications for autonomous navigation.”

    Self-aware smart devices. The need for smart devices to have a highly accurate self-awareness of their own location, and the location of other smart devices around is becoming increasingly important.

    In applications such as autonomous vehicles and transport systems, accurate location awareness is an obvious operational requirement for their safe operation in and around other vehicles, pedestrians or infrastructure.

    In the personal devices space, smartwatches, phones and health monitoring and exercise aids are all striving to be able to make a judgment of the user’s state based upon location.

    In the emergency and security services space, knowing the location of people and objects is also increasingly important as to target response capabilities effectively.

  • GSA, Joint Research Centre test automotive eCall with Spirent

    Spirent Communications plc is working with the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC) to help implement the eCall system, which is required in new cars sold in Europe starting in April.

    Experts from the JRC have been working with Spirent GNSS test equipment during the European GNSS Agency (GSA) eCall test campaign. The campaign aims to pre-test eCall in-vehicle modules and evaluate their compatibility with the positioning services provided by Galileo and the European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service (EGNOS) in accordance with the test procedures established by the regulation.

    As the eCall initiative goes live this month, the GSA launched a test initiative to support eCall device manufacturers in their preparation for type approval. In safety-critical situations, eCall must be as accurate as possible, so defining and conducting proper test procedures is imperative.

    Spirent is cooperating with the JRC to develop its own eCall test solution. “Working with JRC enabled us to develop better tests to verify that eCall devices are working properly,” said Steve Hickling, product director for Spirent’s positioning business.

    When a collision occurs, an eCall-equipped car automatically calls the nearest emergency centre. Even if no passenger is able to speak – such as because of injuries — a “minimum set of data” is sent, which includes the exact location of the crash site. eCall is expected to significantly reduce emergency service response times, leading to lives saved and injuries reduced.

    The JRC used a Spirent GSS9000 simulator to assess eCall devices’s capability to support the reception and processing of the Galileo and EGNOS signals. Using feedback from the JRC, Spirent has developed an eCall Test Suite for its automation solution, PT TestBench.

    Tested with various eCall devices, the eCall Test Suite is available for eCall device manufacturers and include, among others, positioning accuracy, time to first fix, GNSS receiver sensitivity and reacquisition performance.

    For more information on Spirent’s GNSS testing solutions, visit the website or download the company’s white paper Detecting and Protecting Against GPS Cyberthreats.

  • Spirent adds BeiDou-3 to its GNSS RF simulators

    The Spirent GSS9000 simulator.

    GNSS testing solutions company Spirent Communications has added BeiDou Phase 3 signals to its GNSS RF constellation simulators.

    BeiDou Phase 3 signals are available immediately on the GSS7000 and GSS9000 simulators, and existing users can obtain the software upgrade by contacting Spirent.

    The addition of these new signals to the GSS7000 and GSS9000 simulators follows the launch of the first two Beidou-3 satellites in November 2017. Two others were launched Jan. 12.

    Phase 3 of the Chinese BeiDou system will extend its coverage from Asia to the entire world. It will provide receiver developers and integrators with additional GNSS signals to make positioning, navigation and timing systems more accurate, and help to support new applications, such as autonomous vehicles.

    The new signals will use the same carrier frequencies as the GPS and Galileo systems, so chipset manufacturers and device developers will need to test integrated designs to avoid problems caused by confusing data from different GNSS.

    “By offering the BeiDou Phase 3 signals, our customers can test their designs well before the system is fully operational, which is expected in 2020,” said Stuart Smith, lead product manager at Spirent Communications. “With signals already starting to appear, it is important for developers to have test tools that can ensure devices will successfully make use of all GNSS signals.”

    To learn more about how to test devices for multi-GNSS, Spirent offers a white paper,  “Preparing for Multi-Frequency GPS/GNSS in Consumer Devices.”

  • Project to advance multi-GNSS development uses Spirent test systems

    Project to advance multi-GNSS development uses Spirent test systems

    Spirent Communications’ testing systems are being used by the European Union TREASURE project (Training, REsearch and Applications network to Support the Ultimate Real-time high-accuracy EGNSS).

    The aim of the four-year project is to provide instantaneous and high-accuracy positioning anywhere in the world, exploiting different satellite systems operating together to provide users with positional accuracy of a few centimeters.

    Spirent’s GSS7000 test system.

    By 2020 Galileo, the European GNSS system (EGNSS), will be fully operational and provide positioning data of unprecedented accuracy. Galileo’s integration with other satellite systems through the TREASURE project is key to increasing Europe’s competitiveness in the field, which has been mainly based on the GPS system in the past 20 years.

    Higher accuracy services will not only assist safety-critical industries such as air and maritime navigation services, but also help industries such as the global agri-tech market, autonomous vehicles and capital-intensive sectors.

    Kimon Voutsis, Robust PNT Solutions Architect, works on a professional services project for a client.

    For example, more accurate real-time positioning data can assist farmers in maximizing food production, reducing costs and minimizing the environmental impact. Equally, a deep-sea drilling platform that experiences any temporary degradation in positioning accuracy could lead to significant financial losses.

    “Spirent is proud to support multi-national initiatives that advance our industry and provide better end user performance,” said Martin Foulger, general manager of Spirent’s positioning business unit. “More systems are using GNSS data, and users always want better accuracy, so TREASURE will help to provide this.”

    TREASURE is an EU-funded project under the H2020-Marie Skłodowska-Curie Innovative Training Network. It is coordinated by the University of Nottingham, and Spirent is the partner providing GNSS simulation systems.

    For more information on Spirent’s GNSS testing solutions, visit the website. To learn more about how to test receivers of GPS, Galileo and other GNSS, download Spirent’s eBook.

    To learn more about TREASURE, contact Marcio Aquino, Nottingham Geospatial Institute.

  • Spirent helps civil aviation industry respond to GNSS interference threats

    Spirent Communications plc is offering a solution that enables the civil aviation industry to evaluate the growing threat of GNSS interference, jamming and spoofing.

    The new GSS200D Interference Detector was developed as part of Spirent’s partnership with Nottingham Scientific Limited.

    Spirent’s GSS200D interference detector.

    As skies and airports become more congested, there is increasing pressure on airports to be safely accessible at all times — which cannot be achieved by relying solely on non-precision approaches with high minimums or on today’s expensive and rigid ground-based infra­structure such as ILS (Instrument Landing Systems).

    Ground-Based Augmentation System (GBAS) and instrument approach procedures based on Satellite Based Augmentation Systems (SBAS), such as Localizer Performance with Vertical Guidance (LPV) and Required Navigation Performance (RNP), provide Air Traffic Management with flexible, cost-effective alternatives while providing equivalent operational performance.

    For example, the European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service (EGNOS) launched the LPV-200 service in Europe that enables aircraft approaches without the need for visual contact with the ground until a height of only 200ft. above the runway.

    With this service, accessibility, sustainability, efficiency and safety of the landing are greatly improved, especially in bad weather conditions.

    Spirent’s new GSS200D solution monitors the radio bands used by EGNOS, as well as other GNSS augmentation systems such as the Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS) or the GPS Aided Geo Augmented Navigation system (GAGAN), to ensure awareness of interference that could compromise positioning information.

    Since local interference near the runway in the GNSS bands could degrade position accuracy or lead to a total loss of the navigation service, it is critical to continuously monitor and understand the RF environment and level of interference around airports.

    The GSS200D collects quantitative data on interference allowing assessment of the risks, so that robust mitigation plans can be created. The new Spirent solution has been trialed at a number of European airports, and has collected numerous interference signatures from both unintentional man-made interference and intentional jamming.

    “As more airports begin to use GNSS-based instrument approach procedures, they need to know what could be affecting their GNSS signals,” said Martin Foulger, general manager of Spirent’s positioning business. “With this latest solution we can detect interference in the key radio bands, based on levels defined by the United Nations International Civil Aviation Organization and European Organisation for Civil Aviation Equipment. This enables the aviation industry to gain a much better understanding of the electronic environment, helping to avoid dangerous situations going forward.”

    For more information on Spirent’s GNSS testing solutions, visit the website. To learn how to test receivers of GPS, Galileo and other GNSS, download Spirent’s latest eBook.

  • Spirent releases test suite for in-vehicle and V2V connectivity

    Spirent Communications has released its first WAVE-DSRC (Wireless Access in Vehicular Environments – Dedicated Short-Range Communications) conformance test solution that includes a set of tests required for U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) certification.

    In late 2016, the USDOT proposed a rule that would require automakers to include vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) technologies in all new light-duty vehicles. The purpose is to make V2V devices “speak the same language” through standardized messaging deployed throughout the industry. Mandating that vehicles “talk” to each other enables a multitude of new crash-avoidance applications that could prevent hundreds of thousands of crashes each year.

    Spirent’s TTsuite-WAVE-DSRC consists of four different protocol conformance test suites as per the USDOT Certification Operating Council (COC) conformance test specifications. It enables full test automation, includes frameworks for individual adaptation, and it is extensible with many plug-ins to meet constantly changing development requirements.

     

    “We are carrying the ball as far as we can to realize the potential of transportation technology to save lives,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx on the NHTSA website. “This long promised V2V rule is the next step in that progression. Once deployed, V2V will provide 360-degree situational awareness on the road and will help us enhance vehicle safety.”

    “Spirent is proud to support the activities of the U.S. Department of Transportation with modern solutions for testing in-vehicle and V2X connectivity,” said Thomas Schulze, director of marketing and business development for Spirent Communications. “Our engagement helps to improve the future of driving by ensuring high-quality products that provide more safety, more convenience and more infotainment options than ever before. We are committed to assisting our customers accelerate the development and deployment of automated vehicles.”

    This new product release is targeted at companies supplying or testing WAVE-DSRC ITS technology. Spirent’s TTworkbench is a full-featured integrated test development and execution environment that offers a variety of functions including DUT monitoring and simulation. It includes support for all of the Automotive international standard test specifications, including the OPEN Alliance, AUTOSAR and Avnu Automotive test specifications.

  • Spirent’s new wireless test solution optimized for IoT devices

    Spirent Communications is now offering the Elevate IoT Device Test Solution, a new cellular test solution designed to support a wide range of testing areas applicable to Internet of Things (IoT) applications, including end-to-end cloud server connectivity, security vulnerability assessment and battery-life measurement.

    The announcement was made at Mobile World Congress, which is taking place Feb. 27 to March 2 in Barcelona, Spain.

    The compact and flexible device test solution, available via the Spirent Elevate platform, addresses critical areas that are affected when designing 3G, LTE, and upcoming narrowband wireless technologies into IoT devices.

    Innovative IoT developers are emerging worldwide with many of their applications reliant on communicating via a cellular network. Cellular deployment has several benefits including higher guaranteed service quality, more robust air interface security, and broader coverage availability. Yet designing IoT devices can present a myriad of complex challenges, especially when cellular connectivity enters the equation.

    Testing on a live network has several limitations: data traffic is not visible between the device and cloud server; the appropriate live network may not be deployed where the development takes place; and there is no ability to control network settings such as power levels.

    Spirent Elevate provides easy access to a controllable, lab-based testing environment, allowing developers to explore the special challenges a cellular network presents in a repeatable manner.

    A number of recent events, including widespread Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks, has illustrated the very real exposure of IoT device security, highlighting the immediate need for developers to ensure devices are protected from known baseline vulnerabilities.

    The Elevate IoT test solution facilitates access to Spirent SecurityLabs services, including dedicated teams of experienced security professionals offering comprehensive scanning, penetration testing and monitoring services for embedded devices.

    Many IoT devices require operation in hard-to-reach places for extremely long periods of time while in potentially unforgiving environments, making it imperative that batteries perform as expected under variable conditions. The Elevate IoT Device Test Solution allows developers to accurately determine predictable battery life in real-world conditions with actual usage profiles.

    “The Internet of Things is here to stay — it represents a cultural and technology revolution, and has serious implications for security,” said Jeff Wilson, research director and advisor, cybersecurity technology, at analyst firm IHS. “The post-IoT threat landscape is complicated, and the consequences of attacks are increasingly severe. If a device is compromised, it can either fail to work itself, or introduce threats into a wider network, or both; the Mirai and LizardStresser IoT botnets used to launch DDoS attacks were just the tip of an enormous iceberg. Successfully managing connectivity, technology and risk will be vital to IoT implementations from this point forward.”

    Spirent’s IoT Device Test Solution is an integrated suite of tools centered in a compact network emulator that brings a repeatable cellular test bed into any hardware or software lab, providing the ability to replicate service providers’ wireless networks in a portable desktop system.

    When used as part of an expanded Spirent solution that can simulate multiple types and levels of security attacks, the system allows users to accurately understand how a device will hold up against each one and what factors may be impacted.

    Emulating as many conditions as possible helps developers understand exactly how devices, including factors such as battery life, may be impacted in the real world.

    “For IoT developers, many of them new to cellular technology, it can be dauntingly complex to navigate new technologies, manage power performance challenges, and care for imminent cybersecurity threats,” said Saul Einbinder, vice president of new venture development at Spirent Communications. “Our aspiration is to help developers, operators, and service providers optimize their IoT solutions and get to market faster, while also staying considerate of the budget constraints of IoT device realization.”

  • Spirent GSS200D automates monitoring and analysis of RF interference

    Spirent GSS200D automates monitoring and analysis of RF interference

    Spirent's new GSS200D Interference Detection and Analysis solution.
    Spirent’s new GSS200D Interference Detection and Analysis solution.

    Spirent Communications has rolled out its new GSS200D Interference Detection and Analysis solution. The GSS200D was developed as part of Spirent’s partnership with Nottingham Scientific Limited.

    The GSS200D comprises field-based hardware and a secure data server for automatic capture and analysis of GNSS radio-frequency interference. Deployments of GSS200D probes readily provide users with a thorough understanding of the RF interference environment at sites of interest.

    Spirent will demonstrate the GSS200D at its booth during ION GNSS+ 2016, held Sept. 14-16 in Portland, Oregon.

    Spirent has already detected thousands of disruptive GPS L1 interference events with its global network of GSS100D detectors. By adding support of additional frequencies and constellations, as well as improving the analysis and reporting, the GSS200D responds to the demand of critical infrastructure and civil aviation customers.

    v1-02-capture-detail-2-w

    “The GSS200D is the first automated solution to identify and securely store multi-constellation GNSS RF interference. The GSS200D data server tools enable trend analysis and event identification over time, as well as re-generation of real world events,” said Romain Zimmermann, product manager at Spirent. “Our solution offers unique value because it enables informed decision making in areas such as site selection and approaches to make devices and systems more robust in the face of increasing threats that simply cannot be eliminated. It’s a truly end-to-end test solution which provides access to detected events through to the ability to regenerate and analyze results with real hardware.”

    The GSS200D is a detection system that operates simultaneously on GPS, GLONASS and Galileo in the L1 band. This functionality enables a wide range of users, such as critical infrastructure communications, broadcast and power distribution, civil aviation, road user charging and autonomous vehicles to detect, characterize and classify RFI sources that may affect their services.

    v1-01-analytics-priority-1-wCaptures of RFI events are logged and stored on PT Cloud, Spirent’s secure cloud infrastructure, allowing the end user confidential access to the results via a web portal. Advanced analytics and reporting features include visualization of both spectrogram and spectrum, as well as characterization of the type and priority of interferences, enabling monitoring over time and in-depth trend analysis. On-premise server options are also available.

    For more information, visit http://www.spirent.com/Solutions/Robust-PNT.

  • Spirent and Oasis partner to accelerate IoT connected devices

    Spirent Communications and Oasis Smart SIM have created a strategic partnership to remove connectivity and network provisioning barriers for the rapid development of connected products and devices, such as cameras, smart vehicles, logistics and production goods.

    Spirent Communications is a provider of device intelligence solutions, and Oasis Smart SIM is a global Universal Subscriber Identity Module (USIM) connectivity and management provider.

    The partnership marks both firms’ entry into the connected Internet of Things (IoT) business, which analyst Gartner forecasts will result in 6.4 billion connected devices worldwide in 2016, reaching 20.8 billion by 2020.

    Beefore launching the new product, Spirent and Oasis undertook extensive research into the hurdles that original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) face in making diverse connected products, ranging from white goods in the kitchen to those used in animal management, suitable for sale in world markets. It became clear that old technologies and business models based on use of the traditional SIM were not suitable for IoT device activation and subscription provisioning on a global scale.

    The partnership between Spirent and Oasis will introduce a two-click software solution, including USIM functionality, that OEMs can embed into products for seamless cellular service activation in any of the world’s markets, as well as life-cycle management.

    The new product will be showcased on the stands of Spirent (Hall 6, Stand 6J37) and Oasis (Hall 2, Stand 2D13/15/19MR) at Mobile World Congress, in Barcelona (22-25 February, 2016).

    “Spirent and Oasis have teamed up to help manufacturers build better and smarter products for the connected world,” said Dennis Juul Poulsen, general manager of Spirent’s IoT Connectivity and Subscription Management business. “Be it a connected truck or a pair of smart running shoes, OEMs in whatever vertical market now have a solution that provides customers with seamless instant connectivity and the freedom to choose whatever cellular service provider they wish.”

    “Spirent’s unique automatic access point name (APN) setup and remote subscription management solution with Oasis’ embedded smart USIM functionality is a game changer in connected products and devices,” said Olivier Leroux, CEO of Oasis Smart SIM. “OEM vendors now have a leaner way to manufacture, distribute and maintain connected products compared to solutions centered on the traditional SIM.”

  • Spirent Partners with Nottingham Scientific for Robust PNT

    Spirent Partners with Nottingham Scientific for Robust PNT

    Spirent Communications has entered into a strategic partnership with Nottingham Scientific Limited (NSL) to enable the detection, characterization and regeneration of threats to GNSS receiver systems.

    NSL is one of the companies in Europe involved in satellite navigation, specializing in developing reliable and robust GNSS technologies for a variety of applications, such as those that impact safety or are critical in terms of business, finance and security. NSL has carried out many successful GNSS research programs within the UK and internationally for government organizations, regulators and policy makers, Spirent said.

    Martin Foulger (left), general manager at Spirent Communications, meets with Mark Dumville, general Manager of NSL, at NSL's headquarters in Nottingham, UK. (Photo: Spirent)
    Martin Foulger (left), general manager at Spirent Communications, meets with Mark Dumville, general Manager of NSL, at NSL’s headquarters in Nottingham, UK. (Photo: Spirent)

    The combination of NSL’s acknowledged expertise in the research of GNSS vulnerabilities with Spirent’s leadership in GNSS simulation and test development enables the provision of a range of planned robust positioning, navigation and timing (PNT) solutions.

    “Threats to GNSS and related PNT applications are becoming more orchestrated and coordinated, with the motivation to disrupt or cause financial loss becoming the driving factor,” said John Pottle, marketing director at Spirent’s Positioning division. “Real-world threats are wide-ranging and affect navigation and timing system performance differently. Our partnership with NSL enables not only detection, but also regeneration, of real threats in the lab. This allows users to understand which threats are most relevant to them, and informs decisions on improving robustness.”

    “NSL and Spirent share a vision that building robust position, navigation and timing systems is enabled through evaluating system performance against a real threats baseline” Mark Dumville, general manager at Nottingham Scientific Ltd, said. “By auditing system performance, decisions on how to improve resilience can be based on facts, not guesswork.”