etherWhere has partnered with AsiaRF to offer two new GNSS modules based on its EW6181, a module that offers low power consumption with fast acquisition time.
AsiaRF is offering two module designs (10.1 × 9.7 × 2.3 mm and 18 × 18 × 6.2 mm). The modules are targeted for wireless solutions, including Wi-Fi 7 access points, body-worn cameras, and asset tracking solutions.
etherWhere specializes in low-power GNSS chipset solutions, and Asia RF is a leader in wireless connectivity. Both companies are attending CES 2026 (visit etherWhere at LVCC – North Hall Booth No. 10763; see the modules on display at the nearby Asia RF booth, No. 10676.)
For customers with challenging applications, etherWhere offers performance improvement through the use of accuWhere cloud. accuWhere’s multi-modal operation can reduce power consumption for battery operated devices or improve accuracy for demanding applications.
“We’re thrilled to work with AsiaRF, a leader in wireless connectivity solutions, targeting the enterprise, IoT, and public safety markets. Location awareness is becoming a key requirement across the industry, and we’re excited to be partnering with AsiaRF to bring solutions to the market,” said Michael Raam, CEO of etherWhere.
“Our partnership with etherWhere marks a significant milestone in AsiaRF’s mission to push the boundaries of wireless innovation,” said Paul Lai, CEO of AsiaRF. “The new GNSS modules address critical market demand for high precision and ultra-low power consumption in compact form factors. We are excited to showcase these solutions at CES 2026, offering our clients the perfect synergy of Wi-Fi 7 connectivity and state-of-the-art geolocation.”
Innoviz Technologies, a Tier-1 direct supplier of automotive-grade lidar sensor platforms and software stacks, is demonstrating its fully colored long-range lidar with camera at CES 2026 this week in Las Vegas.
The InnovizThree creates a compact sensor-fusion module designed to significantly reduce OEM integration complexity. The solution combines lidar and RGB sensing in a single compact perception module, purpose-built for behind-the-windshield installations, drones, micro-robotics and humanoids.
The consolidation of an RGB camera inside InnovizThree reinforces Innoviz’s commitment to scalable, OEM-friendly sensor-fusion perception solutions designed for series production and long-term deployment with the potential to enable faster deployment and cost saving.
The RGB sensing capabilities are factory-aligned with the lidar, with an ability to ensure precise and consistent visual-to-lidar geometry across production units. This alignment, combined with hardware-synchronized capture, will enable reliable multi-modal sensor-fusion data correlation while reducing calibration effort during vehicle integration., the company said.
Delivered through a single integration interface, the solution will minimize wiring, interfaces, and system complexity. This approach will reduce the overall integration burden for OEMs, which is expected to enable simpler validation processes, optimized engineering effort, lower cost and faster time-to-production.
TDK Corporation has announced Trusted Positioning STRIDE, an embedded pedestrian dead-reckoning (PDR) software solution engineered specifically for wearables — smart watches, head-mounted devices, glasses and compact sensors. STRIDE provides reliable positioning without the power and hardware demands traditionally required for GNSS-based tracking.
STRIDE’s low-power, sensor-agnostic software engine fuses inertial data with GNSS and opportunistic wireless signals, delivering continuous location tracking both indoors and outdoors.
STRIDE runs as embedded software, giving OEMs freedom to deploy positioning without redesigning hardware or relying on cloud connectivity, according to the company. STRIDE processes sensor data in real time, ensures low latency, and can be configured for on-device, companion-device, or cloud-assisted architectures. This flexibility helps manufacturers balance performance, power and form-factor constraints based on their device strategies.
Main features and benefits
Low-power on-device mode: Enables continuous PDR in platforms constrained by power, memory or thermal limits.
Geofencing mode: Allows location-based alerts and boundaries for children’s wearables, personnel safety, or activity zones.
Tethering of sensors: Seamlessly uses GNSS and sensors from a companion phone, reducing hardware demand on the wearable.
Off-device processing: Supports computation on a smartphone or in the cloud for advanced analytics or battery saving.
GNSS duty-cycling: Dramatically extends battery life by activating GNSS only when necessary.
Flexible mounting support: Works across watches, smart glasses, helmets, chest-mounted devices and more.
Embedded and real-time: Runs directly on the device with low latency — no dedicated infrastructure, no specialized hardware
Hardware-independent and sensor-agnostic: Integrates easily with a broad range of IMUs and GNSS receivers.
STRIDE is available immediately for trial evaluation, OEM integration, or companion-device implementations.
To celebrate 30 years of the Galileo global navigation system, the European Space Agency created the following video. Astronomer Galileo Galilei makes an appearance.
“Three decades of challenges and triumphs that have shaped the navigation systems we rely on today: EGNOS and Galileo, and that serve as a legacy to building the satellite navigation systems of tomorrow,” states ESA.
In October 1995, the ESA Council at Ministerial Level approved ARTES Element 9, initiating the studies and development of GNSS-1 (EGNOS) and GNSS-2 (Galileo). However, the first steps leading to this moment started as early as the 1980s, with pioneering research and studies conducted by ESA, national space agencies and European institutes.
Wingcopter’s authorized partner in Japan, ITOCHU Corporation, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to collaborate on the practical use of Wingcopter’s long-range drones in aerial surveying together with PASCO Corporation and YellowScan Japan.
The companies initially plan to use the Wingcopter 198 in disaster management where drone-based surveying is playing an increasingly important role,
to create hazard maps and monitor ground deformation as part of effective pre-disaster prevention,
to gather information and assess damage in the event of a disaster, and
to measure terrain changes and develop recovery plans during post-disaster restoration.
According to Wingcopter, carrying out these tasks is easier and less risky with fixed-wing drones such as the Wingcopter 198 than with traditional human or aircraft-based methods.
About 70 percent of Japan’s land consists of mountainous and hilly terrain, with steep slopes and short, fast-flowing rivers. Conventional multicopter droneswould not be suitable for such tasks as they are limited in range and coverage compared to the Wingcopter 198.
Image: Wingcopter
Under the MOU, YellowScan Japan’s advanced lidaer scanner Voyager will be used on the Wingcopter 198. By integrating this technology with PASCO’s extensive expertise in operational quality and safety in aerial surveying, it is possible to carry out long-distance and large-area surveys that were previously difficult to achieve without manned aircraft.
In a single 45-minute flight, the Wingcopter 198 can scan 1,000+ hectares, simultaneously capturing lidar and RGB data, allowing the system to generate an exceptionally high point density and precision. This makes it suitable even for demanding applications.
The collaboration also promotes automation and labor savings in surveying tasks, contributing to sustainable development in the surveying industry and reducing disaster risks.
Anello Photonics has launched the Anello Aerial inertial navigation system (INS), a compact, high-performance inertial navigation system built around the company’s Silicon Photonics Optical Gyroscope technology and integrated with multi-band GNSS receivers.
Anello made the announcement at CES 2026, taking place this week in Las Vegas.
The Anello Aerial INS is built for demanding aerial platforms — including BVLOS UAS, maritime/shipborne VTOL UAS, ISR/special-mission aircraft, heavy-lift and cargo drones, and other autonomous aerial vehicles. The system is powered by an advanced EKF-based sensor fusion engine and ANELLO flight-profile-tuned algorithms, consistently delivering >98% navigation accuracy without the need for cameras or fiber-optic cables.
The Anello Aerial INS delivers <0.5 deg/hr unaided heading drift, maintaining accurate navigation and control through high-dynamics and GNSS jamming, spoofing, or occlusion. Anello’s navigation solutions are built to deliver assured performance in fully GNSS-denied environments — whether operating over water or desert corridors, in night or low-light missions, or through fog and cloud cover — maintaining precise guidance without GPS and enhancing warfighters’ effectiveness and survivability.
“Customers flying real missions need resilient navigation when GPS isn’t reliable,” said Mario Paniccia, co-founder and CEO of Anello Photonics. “By combining our SiPhOGs with our airborne-optimized sensor-fusion algorithms and integrated multi-band GNSS, the Anello Aerial INS delivers accurate navigation solutions in a cost-effective SWaP-friendly package. This allows UAVs to hold course through GPS jamming, multipath, spoofing, or outages using only Anello without the need for cameras or fiber-optic cables and allows the warfighter to complete their mission safely and successfully.”
ANELLO’s full product portfolio has been developed in close collaboration with customers and verified through comprehensive integration and mission-platform testing.
The Anello Aerial INS is available for evaluation today with production shipments beginning in the second quarter of this year. Evaluation kits include the Anello Aerial INS, cabling, drivers for PX4/ArduPilot, and a quick-start integration guide.
Quectel Jan. 7 announced that it sent letters to Telit Cinterion, Thales Group, DBAY Advisors, Liberty Bell Project and Charles Parton demanding that they stop disseminating false and defamatory statements about Quectel regarding risks associated with its products’ security and the company’s purported connections to the Chinese government.
The letters assert that Telit Cinterion, Thales Group, DBAY Advisors, Charles Parton, and entities that Parton is associated with including Royal United Services Institute and the Council on Geostrategy, and the Liberty Bell Project, have conducted coordinated disinformation campaigns against Quectel.
The letters allege that the efforts, which are designed to harm Quectel’s business using malicious falsehoods, constitute inappropriate and unfair business practices and must stop.
“Quectel believes in fair competition and responsible business conduct,” said Jaron Xu, Quectel’s chief sales officer. “We will not tolerate attempts to interfere with our customer relationships and to compete on unfair terms by spreading maliciously false statements in a coordinated fashion under the guise of independent expertise. We will vigorously defend ourselves against competitors’ unfair business practices and we will not tolerate untrue and defamatory practices targeting Quectel and its customers.”
Quectel demanded that the competitors and associates cease such conduct immediately.
Happy New Year! I’ve always felt that a fresh calendar represents a world of new opportunities, and I wish you all a fantastic 2026. For many, this is a season for reflection and self-improvement, with goals typically centered on fitness, faith, personal growth or career milestones.
As regular readers of this newsletter know, my primary focus over the past year has been to champion the importance of geodesy and to prepare the geospatial community for the National Geodetic Survey’s modernized National Spatial Reference System (NSRS).
To see how modern tech would handle such a specialized professional niche, I asked the AI chatbot Grok: “What would be a good New Year’s resolution for a user of the National Spatial Reference System?”
The response was quite insightful. Take a look at what it suggested below.
What would be a good New Year’s Resolution for a user of the National Spatial Reference System? (Grok’s Response)
Fun and Practical New Year’s Resolutions for NSRS Users
As we head into 2026, the modernization of the NSRS is in full swing. NOAA’s National Geodetic Survey (NGS) released the first beta products in June 2025, with ongoing rollouts and testing throughout the year. The full transition to new frames like NATRF2022 and NAPGD2022 is expected soon, bringing centimeter-level accuracy aligned with GNSS and global standards—but it requires preparation.
Here are some timely, geodesy-inspired New Year’s resolutions tailored for surveyors, GIS professionals, engineers, and anyone relying on the NSRS:
Fully transition workflows to the modernized NSRS. Commit to updating software, processes, and datasets for the new terrestrial reference frames and geopotential datum. Test tools on the NGS Beta site and provide feedback to help shape the final rollout.
Achieve new heights (and accuracies) in 2026. Embrace NAPGD2022 for more precise orthometric heights. Resolve to reprocess key projects with updated transformations (via NCAT or VDatum) and say goodbye to NAVD 88 quirks.
Stay grounded in best practices. Incorporate the latest NGS guidelines, like NOS NGS 92 standards for GNSS surveys. Attend webinars and workshops, or review resources, to keep your positioning sharp.
Contribute to the system. Submit high-quality GNSS data via OPUS-Share or participate in crowdsourced efforts to improve the network. Help make the NSRS even more robust for everyone.
Measure progress monthly. Track how the modernization impacts your work—review coordinate shifts, audit legacy data, and plan for smoother integrations in future projects.
These resolutions blend practicality with the spirit of improvement that defines geodesy. Happy New Year—may your positions be accurate, your elevations precise, and your datums forever modernized! For the latest updates, check geodesy.noaa.gov.
It’s no surprise that Grok highlighted the NSRS modernization; it even incorporated a photo of a geodetic benchmark I took for my July 2025 GPS World Survey Scenenewsletter.
Understanding that most AI chatbots personalize results using past interactions (unless disabled), I wanted to test this. After clearing my cache and deleting all previous Grok interactions, I posed the question again.
You can find that second, impersonalized response below.
Second Response from Grok
What would be a good New Year’s Resolution for a user of the National Spatial Reference System? Grok’s Second answer.
Here are some practical, realistic, and useful New Year’s resolutions tailored for someone who regularly works with the NSRS whether you’re a surveyor, GIS professional, geodesist, engineer or data manager:
“This year, I will stop mixing epochs without documenting them.” Resolve to always record the reference epoch (e.g., 2010.0, 2020.00) when I use NAD83(2011), NAD83(CORS96), NAD83(2011) epoch-specific coordinates, or when I transform to ITRF2020/2020.0. Bonus: add epoch to layer names and metadata.
“I will run OPUS or CSRS-PPP at least once a month to keep my local control fresh.” Make it a habit to periodically re-observe a trusted point and submit it to NOAA’s OPUS (or CSRS-PPP in Canada) to verify that my local network hasn’t drifted too far from the national datum.
“I will finally transition at least one active project to the modern NSRS (NAD83(2011)/NAVD88 → NATRF2022 / NAPGD2022).” Pick one ongoing or new project and do the full datum shift. Learn the tools (NADCON5, VERTCON3, GEOID18 → GEOID2022) and document what changed.
“I will replace every ‘NAD83’ label that doesn’t specify an epoch or realization with something more precise.” No more generic “NAD83” in reports, plats, or metadata. Aim for “NAD83(2011) epoch 2010.0” or “NAD83(2011) CORS-derived” — or better yet, start using NATRF2022 when appropriate.
“I will learn to use the NGS Coordinate Conversion and Transformation Tool (NCAT) fluently.” Commit to doing at least 5 conversions or transformations per month in NCAT instead of relying on old software or hand-calculated factors.
“I will check the NGS Data Explorer / Datasheet for every benchmark or CORS I plan to use — before I use it.” No more assuming a published value is still good. Make it a 2-minute ritual to look up the latest adjusted position and velocity.
“I will attend at least one NGS webinar or read one Bluebook chapter in 2026.” The NGS webinar series is free and excellent. Pick one session (e.g., on GEOID2022, NATRF2022 implementation, or GNSS vector processing) and actually watch it.
“I will prepare a small ‘before/after’ datum comparison report for my organization or clients.” Quantify what the 2022–2025 NSRS modernization means in your typical project area (horizontal shift, orthometric height change). Even a one-page summary builds understanding and credibility.
“I will stop treating GEOID18 as the final word and start using GEOID2022 for new work.” Especially important for projects that will live past 2025, as NGS is phasing out support for older geoids.
Pick one or two that feel achievable and most relevant to your day-to-day work. My personal favorite starter resolution for most NSRS users in 2026: “In 2026, I will clearly label the datum, realization, epoch, and geoid model on every deliverable I produce.”
That one habit alone dramatically reduces confusion downstream.
I really appreciate Grok’s responses because they address crucial issues that many geospatial users either overlook or take for granted, emphasizing the importance of proper documentation and associated metadata.
Key Resolution Examples:
Specificity: “I will replace every ‘NAD83’ label that doesn’t specify an epoch or realization with something more precise.”
Verification: “I will check the NGS Data Explorer / Datasheet for every benchmark or CORS I plan to use — before I use it.”
It is important to note that the AI chatbot assumes the modernized NSRS has already been adopted, which, as of January 2026, is not the case. This highlights that AI still has limitations and requires human oversight.
I challenge you to ask your own AI chatbot a similar, niche question related to your profession and compare its responses.
Beyond the specific technical corrections, Grok provided excellent general advice for any geospatial professional. Take, for example, action items 1 and 5 from its first response:
Transition Workflows: Commit to fully updating software, processes, and datasets to align with the new terrestrial reference frames and geopotential datum.
Measure Progress Monthly: Track the real-world impact of modernization by reviewing coordinate shifts, auditing legacy data, and planning for smoother integrations in upcoming projects.
Even though the modernized NSRS has not yet been officially adopted as of January 2026—with official release and FGCS approval expected later this year—following these steps now ensures you are prepared for the official transition when it occurs.
To help your team prepare for the official transition later this year, I’ve included a box titled “Questions to Guide a Self-Assessment of Your Operation and Products.” These questions, originally featured in my October newsletter, are designed to ensure your organization is fully equipped to implement the new NSRS the moment it is adopted.
Are you generating or using geospatial data (or doing both)?
If so, your workflows are likely dependent on geodetic control tied to one or more NGS products. The upcoming NSRS update will affect these dependencies. (See the box titled “List of NGS Products and Services.”)
Do you know if your mission, project, or datasets depend on NGS products?
Identifying whether and how your entity relies on NGS products is a critical first step in assessing potential impacts.
What are your accuracy, precision, and shelf-life requirements for geospatial data?
Understanding your mission’s specific data requirements ensures you can evaluate whether NSRS modernization will meet your operational needs without unnecessary adjustments. This should include plans to accommodate greater accuracy in the future.
Do you know how your entity accesses and utilizes geospatial data?
Are you obtaining it directly from NGS or indirectly through third-party vendors (e.g., RTN systems, GIS platforms, GNSS companies)?
Many entities rely on geodetic control without realizing it. NGS’s foundational data and frameworks are often invisible and seamlessly embedded within the tools and services offered by third-party vendors, such as GIS platforms, survey equipment, and software providers. These vendors, in turn, depend heavily on NGS products like the NSRS to ensure their tools are accurate and functional. Understanding this indirect reliance is crucial for preparing your workflows and ensuring continuity as the NSRS is modernized.
Where does your entity fit in with the geodetic workflow?
Does your entity create integral products (e.g., GNSS data, Lidar data) on which other products depend?
Evaluating these dependencies will help you determine the scope of NSRS modernization impacts.
What are your project requirements for data accuracy and longevity?
Assess whether your data accuracy thresholds and long-term usability align with the modernized NSRS.
Have you evaluated workflows and identified potential impacts in areas affected by significant ground movement (e.g., regions with tectonic shifts, vertical land motion, and, most notably, subsidence)
Identifying potential risk or disruption areas can guide prioritization and help mitigate impacts on critical operations.
While the original meeting scheduled for October 15, 2025, was canceled due to the Federal Government Shutdown, it has been officially rescheduled for Wednesday, January 21, 2026. This meeting will be critical for aligning agency engagement strategies and self-assessments ahead of the final adoption of the new datums.
Increase awareness of the National Spatial Reference System (NSRS) Modernization rollout schedule and engagement strategy, including self-assessment and interaction between official departmental working groups and an NGS point of contact.
Within other Departments, connect decision-makers to those who accomplish NSRS modernization tasks and designate points of contact to interface with NGS capacity-building efforts.
Share experiences and strategies among federal agencies concerning NSRS Modernization self-assessment and preparation.
(New) Formally transition the foundational beta products (released in May 2025) from preliminary to final.
Gather questions, discuss anticipated challenges, and identify opportunities to support each other through this transition.
The FGCS plays a central role in coordinating geodetic activities across the federal government, including the development of standards and the promotion of the use of authoritative geodetic control (e.g., CORS, geoids) to ensure that geospatial data is accurate, accessible, and interoperable, and to advance the modernization of NSRS across agencies and recommend the adoption of the modernized NSRS by FGDC as the official basis for geodetic control in the United States. It is my understanding that this meeting is open to the public (virtually) for listening and observation. The box titled “Federal Geodetic Control Subcommittee Meeting” provides the agenda of the January 21, 2026, meeting.
Federal Geodetic Control Subcommittee Meeting Agenda held January 21, 2026.
To join the meeting virtually, registration is required. You can find all the necessary details and a direct link to sign up in the box titled “Registration for the Virtual Attendance of the Meeting.”
NOAA’s National Geodetic Survey (NGS) invites you to the upcoming Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC) Federal Geodetic Control Subcommittee (FGCS) meeting.
In October 2025, NSPS held its Fall meeting. The box titled “Excerpts from 2025 NSPS Fall Meeting Report: October 17, 2025” contains excerpts from the report provided by Richard Kleinmann, Wisconsin NSPS Director, on the working group’s activities being performed by the National Society of Professional Surveyors (NSPS) Professional Standards NSRS Modernization Subcommittee.
Submitted by: Richard Kleinmann PLS, Wisconsin NSPS Director
Subcommittee Purpose: To promote awareness, adoption, and readiness for the implementation of the Modernized National Spatial Reference System (NSRS) in cooperation with the National Geodetic Survey (NGS) and other geospatial groups.
Activities: NSPS leadership and the NSRS Modernization Subcommittee continue to work closely with NGS to promote awareness, adoption, and readiness for the new 2022 datums, which are expected to be approved sometime in 2026. Due to federal funding challenges occurring in 2025, NSPS felt it necessary to intensify its support of NGS and the modernization of the NSRS which was the genesis of this subcommittee.
The NSRS Modernization Subcommittee is also working on a series of documents originally developed by Dana J. Caccamise of NGS intended to be used by Federal Agencies in the transition to the new datums. We are adapting the documents to change the “voice” from NGS to NSPS and the intended audience to state, regional, county and local agencies, as well as private practitioners, to help them transition smoothly to the modernized NSRS. At this point, the document package includes:
Briefing materials for agency coordination (Presentation Template)
These document resources are being developed with the hope to share them via NSPS social media outreach efforts and possibly a geospatial information “hub” shared by NSPS and other geospatial organizations.
Proposed Whitepapers/Use Case Reports: The intent of these whitepapers is to is to provide a somewhat higher-level view of how the transition to the new datums/frames can be accomplished by showing what tools are available and what to consider when designing a project approach. Our hope is to promote the adoption of the new datums and share the benefits of doing so. Basically, adopting a “be prepared, not scared” attitude. We are looking for people willing to share their solutions so others can benefit from their experience and be more likely to be early adopters. It is not our intent to develop detailed step by step recipes that can be blindly followed because every geographic region has their unique circumstances that need to be considered but the white papers will instead supply the foundation for them to confidently build a project approach that works in their situation.
Coordination with other working groups: NSPS is looking forward to coordinating with similar Working Groups that NGS has encouraged to be formed by the American Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (ASPRS) and the American Association for Geodetic Surveying (AAGS). There are several Task Forces and Committees formed on the state level that are also working on adoption and implementation issues specific to their states. Together, these efforts aim to build understanding, reduce uncertainty, and support the geospatial community’s successful implementation of the updated reference framework. NSPS and NGS have committed to having a significant presence at Geo Week in Denver, Colorado, on February 16-18, 2026.
As mentioned in the working group’s report, “As an outgrowth of interaction between NSPS & NGS during NGS quarterly meetings and at geospatial events such as the ESRI User Conference and Geo Week, the NSPS leadership team and subsequently the NSRS Modernization Subcommittee began developing a suite of resources — including an ArcGIS StoryMap with several resources useful for the transition. See the link for the NSPS ArcGIS Story map here: https://share.google/oOAIapPQnux5q8nwl.
The box titled “NSPS ArcGIS Story Map” offers a detailed look at this resource, which visually illustrates the impact and benefits of the upcoming NSRS modernization.
NSPS ArcGIS Story Map
The website has five buttons:
Overview
What to Expect
How to Prepare
Resources
Note to Users
The section titled “The Overview Section” details the essential information — who, what, where, when, and why — regarding the new, modernized NSRS. Additional information is available on the website.
Overview
WHO: The National Geodetic Survey (NGS), located within the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) of the United States government. The NGS is responsible for defining, maintaining, and providing access to the country’s positioning infrastructure called the National Spatial Reference System (NSRS).
WHAT: Is updating the NSRS – horizontal (geometric, NAD 83) and vertical (geopotential, NAVD 88 and local island vertical datums PRVD02, USVI09, ASVD02, GUVD04, HAWAII – Local Tidal) geodetic datums, an effort that has been underway since 2007.
WHERE:The North American, Pacific, Caribbean, and Marianas plates.
WHEN: Now – rollout is underway. An updated Federal Register Noticewas released on October 9, 2024. Alphaand Betaproducts are being released, with full replacement of the NSRS anticipated in 2026.
WHY: These datums have been in use since GPS was in its infancy – i.e., for decades, and there are known limitations that the new system addresses:
NAD 83 is not as geocentrically defined as today’s positioning technologies demand, meaning not referenced to the center of Earth’s mass, by about 2.24 meters based on the latest international estimates. This is problematic when using Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS), which orbit about and provide positions relative to the center of the Earth.
NAD 83 grouped the North American and Caribbean plates in its definition. The updated system has broken those two plates out (because we now understand how to measure how the plates rotate individually) in addition to the Pacific and Marianas plates included in NAD 83, resulting in definitions for four Terrestrial Reference Frames (TRFs): NATRF2022, PATRF2022, MATRF2022, and CATRF2022.
Continental drift and vertical land movement were not accounted for in the existing NSRS. Reference epochs (timestamps, for instance) for coordinates have been introduced for survey data to help us better understand movement or change over time.
Based on current international geoid estimates, NAVD 88 is biased by approximately 1.5 meters and tilted by 1 meter coast-to-coast.
There are currently multiple vertical datums. The new system will consist of one.
NAD 83 and NAVD 88 were designed independently, resulting in reduced accuracy. In the new system, they were designed together, resulting in better integration and higher accuracy.
GEOID 18 and previous models were hybrid models “warped” to match leveled benchmarks. GEOID2022 will be a more consistent and stable model as it is a purely gravimetric geoid model.
Currently, both physical marks and continuously operating GNSS stations are relied upon for the existing NSRS. Physical marks degrade and are destroyed over time, negatively affecting height and position data. The modernized NSRS will rely exclusively on GNSS stations.
State Plane Coordinate System 83 (SPCS 83) includes high levels of distortion for many areas. The modernized SPCS2022 minimizes distortion or scale error (the difference between ground and grid measurements) at the topographic surface rather than the reference ellipsoid surface, and is designed to minimize distortion in populated or high-use areas.
An important change between SPCS 83 and the upcoming SPCS2022 is that only the international foot (1 foot = 0.3048 meter, exactly) will be supported, which differs from SPCS 83, with some states officially using the international foot while others use the U.S. survey foot (1 foot = 1200/3937 meters). This is consistent with the deprecation of the U.S. survey footinitiated by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) at the end of December 2022.
The website makes it easy to spread the word about NSRS modernization. By clicking the share button on the right side of the page, you can access several ways to distribute the story map with colleagues or on social media.
The Sharing the NSPS ArcGIS Story Map includes more details — it even includes an embedded QR code that you can scan to open the map directly on your mobile device.
You can access it on your mobile device using the code below.
NSPS ArcGIS Story Map QR Code
For those who prefer a physical copy or a clean PDF, the site also offers a print-friendly version. See the box titled “NSPS ArcGIS Story Map – Print View” for instructions on how to access it. This 15-page document provides all the same information as the interactive site in a consolidated, easy-to-read format.
NSPS ArcGIS Story Map – Print View
As highlighted in the NSPS working group’s October report, both NSPS and NGS are committed to a major presence at Geo Week in Denver, Colorado, from February 16–18, 2026.
A key session, “NSRS Modernization – The Latest Technical Updates,” is currently scheduled for February 17, 2026, at 2:00 PM. For more details on the presentation and speakers, refer to NSRS Modernization – The Latest Technical Updates below.
2:00 PM – 3:30 PM MT
Bluebird Ballroom 1A
The National Spatial Reference System (NSRS) is undergoing a major transformation to provide more accurate, accessible, and consistent geospatial reference data across the United States. This session will present the latest technical updates on NSRS modernization, including advancements in geodetic reference frames, updated survey standards, and enhanced tools for positioning and measurement. Attendees will learn how these changes impact surveying, mapping, infrastructure, and engineering projects, and gain practical guidance for integrating modernized NSRS data into workflows. This session is essential for professionals seeking to stay current with the evolving national geospatial reference framework.https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#search/lfoster%40esri.com/FMfcgzQcqtcPbfppZtnTpZZWDMkQcXfk?projector=1&messagePartId=0.1
I wish you all a prosperous 2026 filled with wonderful new relationships, exciting opportunities, and continued happiness and success.
Greece now has its own internet of things (IoT) nano satellite in space, the MICE-1 (Maritime Identification and Communications systEm). MICE-1 was launched Nov. 28 aboard a Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, as part of the Transporter-15 mission by SpaceX.
MICE-1 is the first Greek nanosatellite specifically designed for maritime and IoT communication applications. Developed at the Prisma Electronics facilities in Alexandroupolis, it aims to bring Greek shipping — and critical operational infrastructures in natural disaster scenarios — closer to the capabilities of space.
MICE-1 will collect and process shipping and environmental data in real time using artificial intelligence and advanced encryption techniques to ensure secure data transmission and analysis. It also paves the way for Greece’s presence in the field of space applications.
With real-time data collection and secure, two-way communication, MICE-1 contributes to reducing environmental footprint and promoting green technologies in shipping.
MICE-1 is a 3U CubeSat nanosatellite equipped with an AIS receiver to record, identify and track ship signals, as well as an S-band IoT communication system. The satellite’s objective is to establish direct communication with ships equipped with LAROS technology — Prisma Electronics’ innovative platform that facilitates the operational monitoring and optimisation of ocean-going vessels.
MICE-1 enables LAROS to leverage the capabilities of space, providing new tools for sustainable and efficient shipping. The company will also use the nanosatellite to optimize and evaluate the artificial intelligence algorithms it has developed, with the aim of assessing functionality impairment, predicting behaviour and managing telemetry in line with high cybersecurity standards.
A team of specialized engineers from Prisma Electronics participated in development of the nanosatellite in close collaboration with the European Space Agency. Operation of the main ground station was supported in collaboration with Democritus University of Thrace.
To meet the requirements of the mission, Prisma Electronics collaborated with international partners in the space sector, including SpaceX, Exolaunch, EnduroSat and IC-Space.
Prisma Electronics is already planning the next phase: the development of a comprehensive satellite IoT network for use in shipping, environmental monitoring and civil protection. The MICE-1 mission demonstrates that Greece is not just observing international space developments, but actively contributing to shaping them.
Carried out under the supervision of the European Space Agency (ESA), the mission is part of the Ministry of Digital Governance’s national IOD/IOV CubeSat nanosatellite programme, which forms part of the Greece 2.0 initiative. This programme is funded by the European Union’s Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF).
Swift Navigation is collaborating with Nvidia to enable a more scalable, cost-effective approach to autonomous driving by integrating the Nvidia Drive AGX platform with Swift’s globally referenced, centimeter-accurate GNSS positioning.
Swift Navigation offloads absolute localization to the GNSS sensor stack using its Swift Automotive Suite. The suite is a complete, modular software solution for safe, high-integrity precise vehicle localization that combines the centimeter-level Skylark Precise Positioning Service with the Starling positioning engine, software that fuses raw GNSS data and corrections with inertial sensors (IMU) and wheel odometry to deliver high-integrity, centimeter-accurate positioning (PVT).
By entrusting lane-level positioning to Swift’s high-precision stack, the vehicle’s optical sensors are relieved of the absolute positioning burden. This allows the perception stack to be optimized for obstacle detection and immediate safety, significantly reducing overall system cost and complexity.
Integration with Nvidia Drive AG
The integration is delivered through the Starling SAL Plugin for Nvidia DriveWorks. The Nvidia Drive AGX platform is the industry-standard, end-to-end platform for software-defined vehicles, scaling from assisted to fully autonomous operation. DriveWorks, its comprehensive SDK, provides a unified sensor abstraction layer (SAL) for seamless ingestion of data from all sensor types.
Swift’s new plugin acts as a drop-in component within this architecture. Sitting between the vehicle’s raw GNSS sensors and higher-layer software, such as that for localization, the plugin invisibly handles the complex mathematics of GNSS corrections and sensor fusion, outputting a clean, corrected position stream directly into the standard DriveWorks interface.
“We are removing the single biggest hurdle to widespread autonomy: the complexity and cost of localization,” said Holger Ippach, EVP of Product and Marketing at Swift Navigation. “By delivering Starling’s natively integrated, high-integrity GNSS to Nvidia DriveWorks, we are giving OEMs a direct path to globally referenced, lane-level positioning that is simple, scalable, and affordable.”
The collaboration and the Starling SAL Plugin unlock several advantages for automotive OEMs leveraging the Nvidia Drive platform:
Cloud-native ASIL safety. Skylark is an ASIL-certified positioning service built entirely in the cloud, offering scalability and reliability at a lower cost than solutions reliant on physical data centers.
Comprehensive sensor fusion. The Starling Positioning Engine delivers robust, high-integrity positioning by fusing precise GNSS with IMU and wheel odometry, ensuring continuous, lane-level accuracy even in signal-challenged environments.
Plug-and-play precision. Developers no longer need to build localization stacks from scratch. High precision is toggled on simply by adding the Starling plugin to the DriveWorks configuration.
Hardware independence. Because Starling is software-defined, Nvidia customers can achieve high performance using a wide variety of mass-market GNSS receivers, rather than being locked into expensive, proprietary navigation units.
Pre-validated integration. The Starling plugin has been rigorously tested and validated within the DriveWorks environment. This eliminates the complex, months-long burden of validating custom sensor drivers and fusion algorithms, allowing engineering teams to focus immediately on high-level path planning and control.
The Starling SAL Plugin for Nvidia DriveWorks is available now.
Today’s commercial innovation requires infrastructure that moves at the same pace.
Essence
The rise of commercial satnav
Everyday life is saturated with location-dependent devices. They are multiplying faster than ever and their requirements have surpassed what GPS can support. Innovation in low-Earth orbit (LEO) satellites have seen exponential growth in the last ten years, unlocking new possibilities in further connecting our world.
In 2016, the total number of satellites operational in space from commercial and government operators was approximately 1,500. This number had been stable for decades, with linear growth since the launch of Sputnik in 1957. Today, there are now more than 8,000 satellites operational in space — with nearly all growth happening in LEO.
There are multiple reasons why. The cost of space access has decreased with reusable rockets and greater competition. The demand for connectivity has driven deployment of multiple constellations to deliver Internet from space. Latency is extremely important in communications and resolution in Earth observation.
While innovation in LEO satellites has primarily focused on connectivity and Earth observation, there is a generational opportunity to innovate in the position, navigation and timing (PNT) infrastructure that silently powers modern life.
There are now more than ten entities working toward deployment of dedicated PNT functions in LEO, amounting to more than 2,500 satellites if every constellation was complete today. As shown in Figure 1, five of these entities have already collectively launched more than 50 satellites. This market signal is not surprising, as demand for greater precision, power and protection are becoming fulfilled with diversification in LEO.
Figure 1. Launches of LEO PNT satellites.
Essentials
Medium-Earth orbit (MEO) has been the traditional choice of satellite navigation for global systems, with GPS, Galileo, BeiDou and GLONASS all being deployed in this regime. This altitude in the outer Van Allen belts is the harshest radiation environment Earth orbit satellites are subjected to and is a major driver in the cost and complexity of the satellites. From a commercial standpoint, deployment in LEO is more attractive as the more benign radiation environment allows for the use of more commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) parts in satellite designs, facilitating volume production. With a healthy ecosystem and supply chain now developed around LEO for both satellites and launch vehicles, the opportunity for commercial PNT to set a new standard in performance and protection is open.
The time for innovation in PNT could not be more urgent. Innovators are pushing the frontiers of technology across every industry and market. Physical intelligence is proliferating in the form of self-driving cars, humanoid robotics, automated farming, unmanned aerial systems and more. As these systems begin to coexist in the real world, the tools they rely on have never been more at risk. Commercial aviation is regularly jammed in Europe and the Middle East due to ongoing conflicts. And ships at sea are struggling to adapt to an environment where spoofing is commonplace.
The commercial world has different and increasingly more stringent requirements than government-focused systems like GPS. GPS was designed primarily around military requirements and is longstanding infrastructure that is difficult to change with the myriad number of deployed devices that depend on it. This responsibility makes GPS too big to fail, but also incredibly difficult to change.
GNSS infrastructure has unlocked so much in commercial activity. There are now more devices using GNSS than the Internet, and GPS is by far the majority user of the technology (based on nearly 7 billion active GNSS devices on Earth and around 6 billion users of the Internet.) However, commercial users have limited input to the evolution of GNSS constellations, which has led to a widening gap between technology and wants, which provides for the current commercial opportunity.
Simply put, today’s commercial innovation requires commercial infrastructure that moves at the same pace to support.
Elements
Architecting LEO PNT
For a LEO satellite navigation system, many designs could be considered, as reflected in Table 1 from Reid et al. (2025) outlining current public information about systems already announced. These constellations range from government-supported systems, which could act as extensions of already deployed global or regional systems, to commercial systems that target potentially unique, independent markets.
Table 1. Comparison of dedicated LEO PNT systems, deployments, and plans. Note that satellites already deployed were verified on celestrack.org .
These constellations all have one thing in common: they aim for between 200 and 300 LEO satellites. The reason is simple: as LEO satellites have a footprint of approximately 1/10th that of medium Earth orbit (MEO) satellites, and between 20 and 30 MEOs are required for global PNT, approximately 10x more LEOs are needed to obtain similar coverage. A consequence is that in LEO, the radio energy is spread over 1/10th the area compared to MEO, which has implications for power needs at the satellite — 10x less in LEO for the same MEO power in the same band.
There is another crucial parameter to consider in LEO PNT design: spectrum. Table 1 shows that many approaches are being considered. Xona’s approach with its Pulsar constellation was centered around three major areas of commercial appeal: seamless operation with existing devices; increased native accuracy; and added resilience to jamming and spoofing. An important philosophy adopted early in the company’s culture was to not make development a science project — that is, do not reinvent the wheel, but rather upgrade the engine. GPS was a revolutionary technology, which is why it is so heavily adopted and brings so much value to the world. Therefore, stand on the shoulders of this giant to look out to the future.
Ease of integration was the first consideration, as it has been the most important aspect in accelerating adoption of any new system. And spectrum is key to Integration. By launching a new system that uses the existing L-band signals, the GNSS ecosystem producing approximately one billion new units per year can seamlessly upgrade their capability without new hardware. Xona’s first technology pathfinder satellite in 2022 validated this hypothesis. While the pathfinder mission supported two satellite frequencies already in the regional navigation satellite system (RNSS) bands — one near L-band E6 and the other in the yet unused C-band near 5 GHz — it became apparent that receiver companies were willing to develop hardware for the L-band signal, and did so quickly with their existing hardware. There was resistance and longer timelines to global adoption for C-band signals.
In response, Xona shifted the production signals to a dual L-band system, which already has nearly a dozen commercial receiver partners tracking the recently launched production satellite — some within weeks of the launch. The challenge is to choose a waveform that is near existing GNSS bands, familiar in form and function and digital signal processing techniques to what is already fielded today, and to not cause harmful interference to the existing GNSS services in orbit. The resulting design is shown in Figure 2, on the right. The key innovation was the selection of a bandwidth efficient form of quadrature phase shift keying (QPSK), which focuses the energy in the central lobe and rolls off quickly compared to a traditional binary phase shift keying (BPSK) signal, shown in Figure 2 on the left for comparison. The result is a 100x stronger signal that does not cause harmful interference to existing GNSS signals, while offering resilience through more signal power. This selection process was iterative, taking feedback from the receiver community. More information on the design and testing for compatibility can be found in Reid et al. (2025).
Figure 2. (Left) GPS BPSK-based signal waveform, and (right) Pulsar QPSK-based signal waveform.
In addition to compatibility and ease of integration, accuracy and resilience are critical design drivers. For example, farmers rely on their equipment positional accuracy to efficiently distribute seeds, fertilizer and water, reducing waste and improving crop yields. Positional accuracy also enables accurate, repeatable field operations year after year, saving time, fuel and money while protecting the soil. Because GNSS typically offers meter-level positioning, today many farmers buy positional accuracy through GNSS correction services to obtain centimeter-level positioning. The Xona architecture leverages these techniques in precise point positioning (PPP), delivering precise ephemerides direct from the space segment, and combining them with the fast motion from LEO satellites (compared to MEOs) to reduce position solution convergence times from ~10 minutes to nearly instantaneous (see, for example, Mah and O’Keefe, 2025). This geometry also boosts coverage, as correction services today typically rely on geostationary satellites and do not service high latitudes, where they would benefit missions such as mining operations for critical minerals and polar navigation.
Connectivity relies on resilient timing. Passing more data through a network means efficiently meshing data packets in synchronized manner. Telecommunications and data centers need such connectivity to function. Authentication is expected in our communications systems, which is largely unavailable in civil GNSS signals. In an age where GNSS spoofing is done to cheat at games like Pokémon Go and now more frequently for nefarious purposes, authentication becomes essential for a modern system (Anderson, 2025, and Xona, 2025a). For resilience to spoofing, Xona included not just data authentication, but also range authentication, so that users can ultimately authenticate their position.
Defense applications require resilience to jamming. World conflicts, particularly currently in Ukraine and the Middle East, have showcased GNSS vulnerabilities in the presence of widespread GNSS jammers. However, this problem is no longer only a defense issue. In 2025, nearly 123,000 commercial flights in Europe were disrupted between January and April alone by GNSS jamming (GPS World, 2025). For resilience to jamming, one method is more power. LEO being 20x closer to Earth than MEO affords nearly a 10x boost in power for the same power transmitted at the satellite. Xona’s target was 100x more power to the end user to significantly reduce the effective range of a jammer by more than six times as shown by recent field trials. Such a transmission power translates to a >97% reduction in affected area and means threats shift to larger and less practical platforms for adversaries, i.e., from requiring handheld devices to backpacks or even truck-sized jammers.
More signal power also has implications for indoor positioning. Internet of things (IoT) devices such as asset trackers are commonly affected by signal obstruction and attenuation during transit, particularly in indoor environments, urban canyons, under foliage, or when obstructed by vehicles and cargo. Warehouses, shipping containers, and other constraints limit where position can be determined. Even coarse indoor positions can support operational intelligence for asset management.
Launching LEO PNT
Pulsar is designed to launch in stages as shown in Figure 3, which unlocks capability in tranches that expands the number of features and ultimately the user base. While Pulsar will achieve persistent coverage across major markets at the deployment of 16 operational satellites, earliest customers in time transfer will see value from Pulsar much sooner as an independent source of timing synchronization for devices with holdover clocks. At 16 satellites, Pulsar will achieve persistent 1-satellite-in-view service, unlocking precise time transfer and coarse positioning for stationary users, including indoors. Pulsar also provides a link to stream GNSS corrections, building on a partnership with Trimble. Full resilient positioning will come online with GPS-level satellite visibility. First in the midlatitudes, with 192 satellites, and then globally with the deployment of an additional 66 satellites into polar orbit, bringing the total to 258 operational satellites.
Xona launched its in-orbit-validation stage in June 2025 with Pulsar-0, the first production-class satellite representative of the scaled capability in terms of signal modulation, power and features. Pulsar-0 allowed for performance validation of the complete system, not just of the payload in space but also the tangible benefit to users on the ground. For scale, Figure 4 shows the 150 kg class satellite pre-launch, including its integration on the Falcon 9 launch vehicle. Launch cost has been become more accessible, unlocking the ability to launch larger spacecraft by commercial entities, which can have larger positive impact on the ground (Xona, 2025b).
Figure 4. Xona’s first production satellite Pulsar-0.
LEO PNT on-orbit
In almost 6 months since launch, Pulsar-0 has been tracked in more than 6 countries, 12 third-party receiver protypes, and has achieved several performance milestones that signal the groundbreaking capability Pulsar will deliver to users everywhere when the full constellation is operational. Early performance tests are built to showcase the value and features most important to commercial users in realistic settings.
Accuracy. Figure 5 illustrates a signal-in-space user-range-error (SISRE) of 43 mm — about the diameter of a golf ball. This performance represents a more than tenfold increase in accuracy compared to that reported by GPS (Refro et al., 2024). The implication is an ability to natively perform PPP at the centimeter level, without an additional data link or correction layer.
Figure 5. Estimate of SISRE for Pulsar-0 ranging signal compared with nominal GPS.
Security. Xona is the first organization to show pseudorange authentication from orbit, accomplished using the Pulsar-0 satellite within weeks of the launch (Anderson, 2025). Pulsar is built from the ground up to be secure by design, combining cryptographic authentication of both navigation data and satellite ranging signals with rapidly authenticated signal verification — aiming for a time-to-authentication of approximately four seconds. This layered security significantly raises the technical and financial bar for would-be spoofers. A spoofer spoofing a single satellite continuously should succeed in fooling one second of a Pulsar receiver’s ranging once every 130 years (Xona, 2025a).
Jamming. Pulsar-0 signal testing has been conducted under live-sky jamming conditions at several jamming events, including Jammertest 2025 in Norway. These campaigns confirmed that using the Pulsar X5 signal can reduce the effective radius of a jammer by 6.3 times as compared to GPS L5 — in other words, less than 3% of the affected area compared to GPS. The same targeted power, bandwidth and type of jammer waveform was used against GPS and Pulsar, including center frequency. For context, Figure 6 shows the implications for a 1 Watt jammer scenario in San Francisco and the reduction brought by a 6.3x reduction in radius.
Figure 6. ffective jamming areas for Pulsar X5 and GPS L5 from a 1 W jammer in San Francisco based on Jammerfest 2025 test results.
Indoor. Data were collected for several navigation passes per day at multiple locations, including indoors. These include passes at Xona headquarters in Burlingame, California, and its office in Montreal, Canada. The most challenging indoor environment was Montreal, on the third floor of an industrial and primarily concrete building with two floors above. Figure 7 shows the Pulsar-0 power profile during a typical pass, peaking at the highest point in the sky. This structure is an artifact of the antenna gain pattern used in this mission. Designed for a higher altitude for deployment of later satellites, the pattern will be more isotropic with future satellites launched near 1100 km altitude compared to Pulsar-0, which is closer to 500 km. Near apex, the signal penetrates indoors, and this short segment proves to be sufficient for indoor positioning for stationary users. Leveraging techniques based on Doppler and including pseudorange, early results indicate sub-10 meters both outdoors and indoors.
Figure 7. Comparison of Pulsar and GPS signal strengths on roof and indoors at the Xona Montreal office.
EVOLUTIONARY
The coming years will be about gaining operational experience and in scaling the constellation with a near-term focus on the first batch of 16 satellites. Pulsar-0 has already confirmed its value proposition: attaining major milestones in performance including accuracy, security and jamming, but perhaps most importantly in the integration of user equipment. The next year is about working with customers in specific industries and use cases as Xona moves towards deployment of early operational service.
The future of LEO PNT is bright. Theory has evolved to prediction, which is now evolving to reality. The early results appear to lead to an exciting PNT future with LEO PNT expanding the GNSS revolution in terms of security, interference mitigation and system availability both outdoors and indoors for a myriad of current and new applications and users.
Further Reading
Anderson J (2025). World’s First Authenticated Satellite Pseudorange from Orbit, Proceedings of the 38th International Technical Meeting of the Satellite Division of The Institute of Navigation (ION GNSS+ 2025), Baltimore, Maryland, September 2025, pp. 738-748.
Eissfeller B, Pany T, Dötterböck D and Förstner R (2024). A Comparative Study of LEO-PNT Systems and Concepts, Proceedings of the ION 2024 Pacific PNT Meeting, Honolulu, Hawaii, April 2024, pp. 758-782.
Li W, Yang Q, Du X, Li M, Zhao Q, Yang L, Qin Y, Chang C, Wang Y, Qin G (2024). LEO augmented precise point positioning using real observations from two CENTISPACE™ experimental satellites. GPS Solutions, 28(1): 44.
Mah C, O’Keefe K (2025). Hardware Simulation of Low-Earth-Orbit GNSS for Carrier Phase Ambiguity Resolution, Proceedings of the 38th International Technical Meeting of the Satellite Division of The Institute of Navigation (ION GNSS+ 2025), Baltimore, Maryland, September 2025, pp. 2431-2443.
Prol FS, Ferre RM, Saleem Z, Välisuo P, Pinell C, Lohan ES, Elsanhoury M, Elmusrati M, Islam S, Çelikbilek K, Selvan K, Yliaho J, Rutledge K, Ojala A, Ferranti L, Praks J, Bhuiyan MZH, Kaasalainen S and Kuusniemi H (2022). Position, Navigation, and Timing (PNT) Through Low Earth Orbit (LEO) Satellites: A Survey on Current Status, Challenges, and Opportunities, IEEE Access, (10): 83971-84002
Reid TGR, Chan B, Goel A, Gunning K, Manning B, Martin J, Neish A, Perkins A and Tarantino (2020). Satellite Navigation for the Age of Autonomy, 2020 IEEE/ION Position, Location and Navigation Symposium (PLANS), Portland, Oregon, April 2020, pp. 342-352.
Reid TGR, Gala M, Favreau M, Kriezis A, O’Meara M, Pant A, Tarantino P and Youn C (2025). Xona Pulsar Compatibility with GNSS. Proceedings of the 38th International Technical Meeting of the Satellite Division of The Institute of Navigation (ION GNSS+ 2025), Baltimore, Maryland, September 2025, pp. 929-943.
Reid TG, Neish AM, Walter T and Enge PK (2018). Broadband LEO constellations for navigation. NAVIGATION: Journal of the Institute of Navigation, 65(2): 205-20.
GNSS corrections company Rx Networks is collaborating with Zephr.xyz, whose software-based positioning SDK enables sub-meter accuracy on Android devices without requiring specialized hardware.
Through this collaboration, Zephr.xyz has integrated Rx Networks’ TruePoint correction services, extending high-precision GNSS capability worldwide with the reliability, availability and continuity required for commercial-scale deployment.
Operating on a global scale, Rx Networks is a provider of GNSS positioning services for tier-1 OEMs, telecom operators, and enterprise customers. Its services are engineered to ensure a five-nines (99.999%) service level agreement for availability, supporting mission-critical and safety-critical applications where continuity, resilience and predictable performance are essential.
Unlike free, experimental or regionally constrained solutions, Rx Networks’ infrastructure is designed for global availability and long-term operational reliability, making it suitable for large-scale commercial deployments.
TruePoint is Rx Networks’ comprehensive high-precision positioning portfolio, designed to support a broad spectrum of customer requirements. Rather than a one-size-fits-all product, TruePoint has solutions that span
global, regional and localized GNSS correction services
accuracy tiers from decimeter-level to centimeter-level performance
multiple deployment models and price-performance options.
TruePoint is designed to evolve alongside customer needs, supporting everything from early-stage experimentation to large-scale production deployments. While Zephr.xyz leverages TruePoint | FOCUS, the collaboration is not limited to a single TruePoint variant, preserving flexibility as applications mature.
