GPS World - November 2016

IS A 7-LETTER WORD
INTRODUCING
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SIMULATION
Threat Scenarios,
Expert Opinions
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PRECISE POSITION
FROM A PHONE
SIMULATORS SPECIAL
NEW FAA
NAV STRATEGY
UAVS A-PLENTY AT
INTERGEO
record
replay
simulate
The most powerful LabSat yet, the new
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more GNSS signals at a much higher resolution
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Small, battery powered and with a removable solid state disk,
LabSat 3 WIDEBAND allows you to quickly gather detailed,

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With three channels, a bandwidth of up to 56MHz and 6 bit
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LabSat 3 WIDEBAND can record and replay the following

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GLONASS: L1 / L2 / L3
BeiDou: B1 / B2 / B3
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Galileo: E1 / E1a / E5a / E5b / E6
SBAS: WAAS, EGNOS , GAGAN, MSAS, SDCM
IRNSS
www.labsat.co.uk
VO L . 27 N O. 11
G P SWO R LD.CO M
NOVEMBER
2016
SIMULATOR SPECIAL
24
30 MARKET WATCH
MAKE IT REAL
BY Guy Buesnel, John

Pottle, Paul Crampton
and Mark Holbrow
Tests of the robustness of

commercial GNSS devices
against threats show that
different receivers behave
differently in the presence of
the same threat vectors.
OEM: Spoofing Susceptibility

Survey: New Receiver, OEM Board
Transport: Underground Location
Mapping: Incident Software
41 UPDATES
Defense: Anti-Jam for USNO
Mobile: Tracking Every Shot
8 EXPERT OPINIONS
What special considerations should
be taken into account for testing and
simulating against GNSS jamming and
spoofing?
COVER STORY INNOVATION 50
LAUNCHPAD
PRECISION GNSS FOR EVERYONE
16 OEM
18 SURVEY &
Precise Positioning Using Raw GPS Measurements from Android

Smartphones / BY Simon Banville
and Frank van Diggelen
20 UAV
23 TRANSPORTATION
MAPPING
OPINIONS AND DEPARTMENTS
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NOVEMBER 2016
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GPS WORLD 3
ONLINENOW
READER POLL
NEWSLETTER EXCERPT
Why Tether Drones?
WHAT WAS
THE BIGGEST
Plus: Intel Expansion, ISIS

BY Tony Murfin
GNSS OR
PNT NEWS
STORY OF
2016?
PROFESSIONAL OEM CONTRIBUTING EDITOR
ve a lways
thought
that tethered
drones would
have a major
disadvantage over regular flying
vehicles in that their range is
really limited and therefore their
applications would be few and
far between. However, a recent
release by Drone Aviation got me
thinking otherwise.
The company is taking the
route many tech companies
have followed to protect their
technology and enhance their
market position, by patenting
WEIGH IN TODAY!
GO TO WWW.GPSWORLD.COM/
DECPOLL.
Answer poll by November 15.
See results in the December issue.
All poll takers entered in drawing
for a $50 gift card.
unique technical elements in this

case, the Electric Tethered Aerial
Platform (ETAP) technologies of
their drone tether system.
So why the change of heart
about tethered drones? The drone
industry is becoming increasingly
specialized in its offerings, so why
not drones and aerostats with the
advantage of no detectable uplink
or downlink transmissions, which
can also stay aloft for 8+ hours?
Possible uses: newsgathering,
pipeline inspections, event
management.
Read the full column from the
Professional OEM newsletter at
gpsworld.com/category/opinions/.
HOTTEST PAGES
@ GPSWORLD.COM
SEPTEMBER 17 OCTOBER 17, 2016
Centimeter positioning for UAVs and

mass-market applications
Precision GNSS in phones, drones and

cars forecast by 2021
ENEWS
GPS III satellite delivery slips

because of capacitor
ENEWS
Portrait of Galileo: European groups say

constellation is ready for service
ENEWS
Galileo Initial Services looming

(EAGER newsletter)
Harris delivers first OCX receiver
ENEWS
Google to provide raw GNSS

measurements
ENEWS
Google rolls out emergency service
ENEWS
Swift Navigation offers multi-band,

multi-constellation receiver
ENEWS
Google opens up GNSS pseudoranges
ENEWS
10
FROM THE
MAGAZINE
INSIGHTS
News from Intergeo 2016

The GPS World staff covered Intergeo Oct. 1113 in
Hamburg, Germany. The massive trade show is considered
the worlds leading conference trade fair for geodesy,
geoinformation and land management. Visit gpsworld.com
to discover the latest products and equipment showcased
at the event.
Check out news, blogs and videos of the latest products at
gpsworld.com/live-from-intergeo-2016/
4 GPS WORLD
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NOVEMBER 2016
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OUT IN FRONT
Yes, We Are Experienced
BY Alan Cameron
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF AND GROUP PUBLISHER
ot with Purple Haze, but

with signal interference
although, come to think
of it, the two may be not unalike,
phenomenologically.
The October readers poll asked
Have you directly experienced any
of the following? Check all that apply.
GPS/GNSS jamming.
GPS/GNSS spoofing.
Unintentional RF interference.
RF interference from unknown
source; unknown whether
intentional or not.
None of the
above.
Other, please
specify.
The answers
rather stunned
me in their
magnitude.
To b e s u r e ,
respondents
were selfselected and
thus not totally
representative
of the electorate
(you) out there. People who have
undergone jamming or spoofing
would be much more likely to step
forward and say Yeah, here, than
those who had not would be to fill
out an online form, however brief,
simply to say Nah, not me.
At any rate, the answers came back:
Jamming: 70% (70%!)
Spoofing: 25%
Unintentional RF interference: 55%
Unknown RF interference: 65%
None of the above: 5%.
Among the other answers we
received were these:
Ive participated in official test
6 GPS WORLD
activities; Incidents caused by GPS

booster (low-cost repeater); We
regularly see our vehicle tracking
s y ste ms j am me d or prov i d i ng
incorrect positions believed to be via
organised theft using sophisticated
jammers; Every time I drive past
Newark, NJ on I-95; Badly installed
GPS antennas, RF interference from
old GPS antennas.
Scanning the affiliations of those
answering, the names of organizations
actively involved in monitoring or
countering jamming and spoofing
rise to the top. Still, to get such
overwhelming response only one
in 20 was not
exp er ienced in
this realm
suggests time and
energy invested in
protections and
countermeasures
should be doubled,
quadrupled or
more. Disasters of
many kinds loom.
Speaking of
disasters, and
of our fondness
for placing our
finger on the pulse of the GNSS/
PNT community, we held a mock
presidential plebiscite at ION GNSS+
in September. Who will be the best
GPS president? That is, who would
be the best president for GPS, in
terms of funding and support? The
answers: Clinton 60%, Trump 34%.
The real results may already be
known by the time you read this.
And, to paraphrase Gerald Ford
(something I never thought Id find
myself doing), our long national
nightmare may be over.
Is it tomorrow, or just the end of
time?
WWW.GPSWORLD.COM
NOVEMBER 2016
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EDITORIAL
Editor-in-Chief & Group Publisher Alan Cameron
[email protected] | 541-984-5312
Managing Editor Tracy Cozzens
Senior Digital Editor Joelle Harms
Digital Editor Allison Barwacz
Art Director Charles Park
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Innovation Richard Langley | [email protected]
Defense PNT Don Jewell | [email protected]
European GNSS Tim Reynolds | [email protected]
Professional OEM Tony Murfin
Geospatial Eric Gakstatter | [email protected]
GeoIntelligence Art Kalinski | [email protected]
Survey Tim Burch and Dave Zilkoski
Wireless LBS Insider Janice Partyka | [email protected]
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TAKING POSITION
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Q: What special considerations should be taken into account for testing and
simulating against GNSS jamming and spoofing?
LOU
PELOSI
SAID
JACKSON
IURIE
ILIE
V P, C U S T O M E R
S U P P O R T,
CAST NAVIGATION
P R E S I D E N T,
JACKSON L ABS
TECHNOLOG IES
C TO & CO-FOUNDER,
SKYDEL
Current integrations of GPS

include a controlled reception
pattern antenna (CRPA). Testing with
a standard interference or jamming
source will not provide accurate
results. Wavefront generator
simulators are capable of outputting
signals that correctly stimulate the
GPS receivers antenna electronics.
All of the signals are correctly
displaced according to the antennas
reception pattern with a jamming
source that is coherent.
A:
Testing GNSS receiver spoofing

and jamming resilience under reallife scenarios requires mixing live-sky
GNSS signals with synthesized spoofed
signals. This requires the spoofing signal
generator to be time- and positionlocked to the live-sky signal to within
nanoseconds. GNSS simulators that
allow nanosecond-level synchronization
to live-sky signals can enable such
testing. Low-cost simulators can enable
testing with multiple simultaneous
spoofers/jammers.
A:
With the sophistication of

GNSS threats, simulators
should be able to generate a
variety of interferences and
jammers that users can easily
control. Also, the jammers
characteristics (Doppler, power
level, and so on) should reflect
the dynamic of the vehicle and
jammers. Such characteristics are
almost impossible to simulate
when the jamming source is not
integrated with the simulator.
A:
LISA
PERDUE
PAUL
CRAMPTON
CYRILLE
GERNOT
A P P L I C AT I O N S
ENGINEER,
SPECTRACOM
SENIOR SYSTEMS
ENGINEER,
SPIRE NT FE DE RAL
G N S S E X P E R T,
SYNTONY GNSS
For jamming, test for multifrequency/constellation,

accurately controlling jamming-tosignal ratios and strength levels, and
simulate several types of jammers:
carrier-wave, sweep, noise, FM
chirp and so on. For spoofing, two
synchronized simulators are best: one
for the live sky and one for the spoofer.
Tightly control the sync accuracy,
the relative power between the two
signals, and the spoofers estimation
accuracy of the targets position.
A:
8 GPS WORLD
WWW.GPSWORLD.COM
Antenna technology,
directionality and filtering have
a large part to play in mitigating the
impact of jamming and spoofing.
Conventional laboratory receiver
testing often overlooks the effect of
the antenna. New approaches need to
be developed to allow antenna effects
be incorporated into testing either by
including the antenna to be part of the
test setup or by accurately simulating
the directionality/filtering capability of
the antenna.
A:
NOVEMBER 2016
Most jamming occurs due to

RFI used to keep positioning
unavailable. As such, typical jammers
are CW or sweep-CW. Testing is
then mostly a matter of proper
jamming-to-signal simulation. On
the contrary, spoofing aims at luring
the receiver from its true position.
Simulations are difficult as slowly
power increasing spoofing signals
must be synchronized with true
received signals to take over the
locked tracking loops.
A:
SYSTEM
OF
Policy and System

Developments
GPS
Galileo
GLONASS
BeiDou
SYSTEMS
First OCX Receiver

Delivered to Air Force
Risk Reduction Testing
Completed for GPS OCX
arris Corporation delivered the

first of 34 modernized receivers to
support the GPS Next-Generation
Operational Control System (OCX). They
will receive the signals sent by the current
GPS satellite constellation plus the new
signals sent by the next generation GPS
III 13 military and civilian signals in all.
The receiver was shipped to the
prime contractor, Raytheon Company,
in Aurora, Colorado, after it passed a
critical electromagnetic interference test,
the first of many stringent qualification
requirements. Though the receivers will
be placed throughout the world, this
first production unit will be installed in
Aurora as OCX software development
and integration continues.
OCX will replace the existing ground
control system that receives signals from
the 31 operational GPS satellites already
orbiting Earth. Only OCX will be able to
R
receive and decrypt all GPS III military
and civil signals, however.
In addition to receivers, Harris has
delivered 14 ground encryptors that will
help protect the GPS signal. Harris also
is providing critical software elements,
which provide the fundamental navigation
data to the GPS satellites and enable U.S.
Air Force operators to better know and
monitor the exact position and timing of
the GPS constellation.
M-Code User Equipment Certified
-3 Communications announced that

its next-generation military code
(M-code) GPS user equipment has
successfully completed the final step in a
government security certification process.
L-3s M-code GPS features advanced
user equipment technology, increasing
soldiers ability to resist enemy jamming
and spoofing and performing significantly
better in contested environments. The
development and certification of this
technology was performed under the
Air Force Military GPS User Equipment
(MGUE) program led by the GPS
Directorate.
10 G P S W O R L D
Certification review was performed by

an independent government review team,
with a focus on the security design of the
L-3 GPS User Equipment. The goal of
these new security standards is to further
protect the integrity of the navigation and
timing solutions and provide required
safeguards for critical information inside
GPS User Equipment.
Work on this project will be done by
L-3 Interstate Electronics Corporation
(L-3 IEC), which is part of the Precision
Engagement and Training sector within
L-3s Electronic Systems business
segment.
WWW.GPSWORLD.COM
NOVEMBER 2016
aytheon reached a milestone in

development of the GPS Next
Generation Operational Control
System (OCX), completing a series of
Risk Reduction functional checkouts of
OCX Block 1 capabilities, with a focus
on OCX software.
This activity integrated iteration 1.5
of the OCX Block 1 Master Control Station with the GPS System Simulator and
ran operational scenarios, representing
the first end-to-end integration of available Block 1 capabilities.
The testing included GPS constellation management and sustainment,
demonstrating OCXs abilities for precision navigation and timing capabilities
in a fully cyber-hardened environment.
The test also included running
Kalman filters and generating GPS
satellite navigation uploads. Future
development will add to and expand
capability to include both the civil and
military modernized signals.
OCXs development is delivered in
blocks, with Block 0 comprising the
Launch and Checkout System to take
GPS III satellites into early orbit. Block
1 is built on Block 0 and delivers the
full OCX capability, which allows the Air
Force to transition from its current GPS
ground controls to the modernized and
secure GPS OCX master control station.
GPS OCX is being developed by
Raytheon under contract to the U.S.
Air Force Space and Missile Systems
Center.
SYSTEM
OF
SYSTEMS
Novxx
GPS III satellites in production at Lockheed Martins GPS III Processing Facility near Denver.
GPS III Satellites 9 and 10 Procured,

Launches Targeted for 2022
he U.S. Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center

awarded a contract option to Lockheed Martin Space
Systems Company to procure two additional GPS III
satellites, space vehicles nine and 10 of the next generation.
The contract option procures long lead and production
hardware.
The GPS III SV 9 and 10 satellites are expected to be ready
for launch in 2022, thus sustaining the GPS constellation
and the global utility the world has come to expect, said
Lt. Gen. Samuel Greaves, the Space and Missile Systems
Centers commander.
The Lockheed Martin team is finishing up final testing
and integration activities on the first GPS III satellite, GPS
III SV01, and is preparing to deliver it to the Air Force later
this year. The second satellite, GPS III SV02, is poised to

have its major functional systems fully integrated into one
space vehicle prior to starting its own environmental testing.
GPS III SV03 also is beginning to take form in the companys
production clean room as its major subcomponents are being
assembled. All eight of the first set of GPS III satellites are
in various stages of production at Lockheed Martins GPS III
Processing Facility outside of Denver.
The government expects to compete future purchases
of GPS III satellites, beginning with GPS III SV 11. This
competition will maintain the current technical baseline of
GPS III and will add additional hosted payloads to increase
system accuracy, search-and-rescue capability, and universal
S-band compatibility.
European GNSS Service Centre Opens
provision for both programmes.

The GSC offers 1,100 square metres of space and employs over 40
people. Since 2013, the core team at GSC has been providing limited
services and working as a precursor to GSC v1. Its key work includes
supporting the lead up to Galileo Initial Services provision, along with
operating the GSC Helpdesk, disseminating orbital products to the
search-and-rescue community, supporting GNSS-related research
and industrial activity, and monitoring user satisfaction.
Once operational, GSC v1 will be connected to the Galileo core
system, enabling the long-anticipated Commercial Service. This
service is expected to enter operations by mid-2017.
he European GNSS Agency (GSA) is gearing up to assume its

operational role for Galileo in early 2017. This summer, the
GSA formally accepted the Loyola de Palacio facility in Madrid,
Spain, that houses the European GNSS Service Centre (GSC). This is
a significant milestone in the development of the programme and its
service provision as Galileos door to the GNSS world.
GSA already oversees the operation and service provision for
the European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service (EGNOS),
along with managing the security accreditation and general security
NOVEMBER 2016
WWW.GPSWORLD.COM
G P S W O R L D 11
DME/TACAN/VOR
New National Aviation Strategy

FAA Embraces GPS/GNSS, Continues DME/TACAN, But Stalls on APNT Initiatives
BY Mitch Narins
he United States Federal Aviation Administration

(FAA) has released its Performance-Based
Navigation (PBN) National Airspace System
(NAS) Navigation Strategy 2016, the result
of a concerted year-long effort by FAA and
aviation industry stakeholders. It describes how the FAA
intends to transition U.S. NAS operations over the near(20162020), mid- (20212025) and far-term (20252030)
from predominantly point-to-point navigation, reliant on
hundreds of ground-based navigation aids, to PBN-centric
operations relying on systems and services supporting Area
Navigation (RNAV) and Required Navigation Performance
(RNP).
Performance-based navigation specifies the aircraft area
navigation performance in terms of accuracy, integrity,
availability, continuity and functionality needed to conduct
specific operations in a particular airspace.
While promoting the PBN benefits of GNSS such as the
12 G P S W O R L D
WWW.GPSWORLD.COM
GPS and the Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS),

the PBN Strategy also recognizes the need to maintain
resilient PBN capabilities that remain unaffected in the
event of GNSS interference, and that can continue to support
PBN operations or provide safe navigation alternatives.
It is a well-constructed, valuable document that provides
detail on the means by which many of the Operational
Improvements (OIs) described in the FAAs Next Generation
Air Transportation System (NextGen) implementation Plan
(NGIP) will be achieved.
The FAA began the introduction of PBN operations
following the release of its Roadmap for PerformanceBased Navigation in 2003, which promoted more efficient
and higher capacity operations based on the capabilities
of modern aircraft and emerging GNSS-supported PBN
procedures. By 2010, many PBN procedures were in use
across the NAS, and especially at the busiest airports and
most complicated and congested airspace. Building on this
experience, the 2016 PBN Strategy recognizes that the U.S.
NAS is not a homogeneous entity; its needs vary based
on both location and time. To best serve NAS users and
to continue to provide the safest, highest capacity, most
efficient airspace in the world, some of the key concepts of
the strategy are to provide
the right procedure to meet the need;
structure where beneficial and flexibility where possible;
shifting to time- and speed-based air traffic management;
and
delivering and using resilient navigation services.
To provide correct procedure and structure where needed,
the PBN Strategy defines six Navigation Service Groups (NSG)
and services potentially available at the airports within each
group. NSG 1, now comprising about 15 airports, is reserved
for the busiest large hubs that would benefit from common
aircraft performance capabilities to maximize capacity. NSG
2 contains the remaining large-hub and all medium-hub
airports. Small and non-hub airports comprise NSG 3. NSG
4 includes more than 500 airports, including national and
regional general aviation (GA, or private plane) airports, and
NSG 5 2,400 local and basic GA airports. NSG 6 consists of
thousands of small airports not part of the National Plan of
Integrated Airport System (NPIAS).
NOVEMBER 2016
See Performance-Based Navigation, page 14.
>>
>> Performance-Based Navigation,

Continued from page 12.
Time- and speed-based navigation
is essential to optimal utilization of
airport capability and capacity for both
arrival and approach and departure
operations. The ability of aircraft to
more precisely follow PBN procedures
because of onboard navigation
capability and space- and groundbased navigation services maintains
safety, increases airspace and runway
utilization, and because of more
efficient, precise routing minimizes
fuel burn and carbon footprint.
The PBN Strategy also recognizes
the need to maintain resilient PBN
services and, while GNSS-provided
PNT services are able to support both
RNAV and RNP procedures, GNSS
is vulnerable to both intentional and
unintentional interference. To preclude
loss of efficiency and capacity benefits
in the event of GNSS interference, the
FAA will maintain and improve the
ground-based Distance Measuring
Equipment (DME)/Tactical Navigation
(TACAN) network to support DMEDME RNAV 2 in the enroute domain
and RNAV 1 in the necessary terminal
domains. Because of plans to fill gaps
in coverage at high altitudes (FL 180
and above) and remove single DME
facility criticality, aircraft without
inertial reference units (IRUs) will
be able to fly these procedures using
DME-DME RNAV, although at the
much lower altitudes associated with
terminal operations, an IRU may
still be required. For aircraft without
DME-DME RNAV capability, for
example General Aviation, the FAA
will maintain a Minimum Operational
Network (MON) of Ver y High
Frequency Omnidirectional Ranges
(VORs) to either support navigation
out of a GNSS interference area or
navigation to an airport where
14 G P S W O R L D
approach and landing is supported by

either an Instrument Landing System
(ILS) or VOR.
Commentary. The FAAs plan to
maintain resilience, while admirable,
does have some issues. All of the
VORs, DMEs and TACANs that
provide resilient navigation services
are extremely old, the vast majority
designed in the 1970s and installed in
the 1980s. There is no current plan to
modernize or recapitalize them.
This delay is unfortunate, as further

delay in implementing PNT resilience
for all aspects of aviation, as well as for
all critical infrastructure areas is, at best,
imprudent, as recent agency attempts
to develop and implement other
resilient PNT capabilities Enhanced
DME (eDME) and Enhance Loran
(eLoran) have been suspended.
The release of the 2016 PBN Strategy
is a significant event. It will help guide
the agency and the aviation community
PBN SERVICES depicted across Navigation Service Group airports represent the standard in the
far term, 20262030.
As for researching and developing

an Alternate Position, Navigation
and Timing capability that would
support resilient PBN capability for
all of aviation, maintain the ability for
aircraft to report their positions via
Automatic Dependent Surveillance
Broadcast (ADS-B), and support the
rapid and vast emergence of unmanned
aerial vehicles (UAS) and benefits, the
PBN Strategy states that During the
far term and moving out into the 2030
timeframe and beyond, the FAA will
continue to research the best methods
for Alternate Position, Navigation and
Timing (APNT).
WWW.GPSWORLD.COM
NOVEMBER 2016
forward. It will help clarify policy,

facilitate decisions, drive equipage,
and provide for a safe, higher capacity
and more efficient NAS. It is a good
start, which could be improved by
recognizing the significant investments
needed in resilient PNT equipment,
architecture and systems.
MITCH NARINS is principal consultant and
owner at Strategic Synergies, LLC. Previously
he worked for 26 years at the Federal
Aviation Administration in multiple program
management and systems engineering roles
and where, as Chief Systems Engineer for
Navigation, he helped in the development of
the FAAs 2016 PBN Strategy.
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are less accurate and they have less capabilities. Spirents products are based on years of investment
and a large, dedicated team of engineers that are devoted to GNSS and your accurate results. Make
the best choice the first time.
Spirent products last longer, are modular and we provide the best customer support in the industry.
Choose Spirent, and have a whole team behind you. Contact us today at 801-785-1448 or
[email protected].
US Government & Defense
Spirent Federal
801-785-1448
[email protected]
www.spirentfederal.com
Global
Spirent
+44 1803 546325
[email protected]
www.spirent.com/positioning
LAUNCHPAD | OEM
1
3
2
1. GNSS RECEIVER
HIGH PRECISION FOR THE MASS
MARKET
The Piksi Multi is a multi-band, multiconstellation receiver for the mass

market. Autonomous devices require
precision navigation, especially those
that perform critical functions. The
receiver uses real-time kinematics (RTK)
technology, providing location solutions
100 times more accurate than traditional
GPS. Piksi Multi supports GPS L1/L2
and is hardware-ready for GLONASS
G1/G2, BeiDou B1/B2, Galileo E1/E5b,
QZSS L1/L2 and SBAS. The Piksi Multi
Evaluation Kit also has been upgraded
with all-new components. The new kit
contains two Piksi Multi GNSS modules,
two integrator-friendly evaluation
boards, two GNSS survey-grade
antennas and two high-performance
radios, so that it can deliver reliability
and range well over 10 kilometers
and all of the accessories required for
rapid prototyping and integration.
Swift Navigation, www.swiftnav.com
2. TIMING RECEIVER
FOR DEDICATED TIME AND FREQUENCY
TRANSFER APPLICATIONS
The PolaRx5TR has 544 hardware

channels and supports all major
satellite constellations including GPS,
GLONASS, Galileo, BeiDou, QZSS
16 G P S W O R L D
and IRNSS. A calibration circuit

is incorporated to measure and
compensate for internal delay, removing
the need for calibration using external
equipment and ensuring measurement
latching is always accurately
synchronized with the PPS input.
The PolaRx5TR is compliant with the
new-format CGGTTS version V2E of
Consultative Committee for Time and
Frequency (CCTF) recommendations.
Also included as standard is Septentrios
Advanced Interference Mitigation
(AIM+) technology, giving outstanding
interference robustness in difficult radio
environments. Up to eight independent
logging sessions can be configured
logging to either the 16-GB internal
memory or to an externally connected
device.
Septentrio, www.septentrio.com
3. GNSS SIMULATOR
DESIGNED FOR A WIDE RANGE
OF TESTING
The NCS Titan GNSS simulator has up

to 256 channels (and 1024 multipath
channels) and up to 4 RF outputs
per chassis, providing flexibility and
outstanding performance . The extra
complexity and cost of using multiple
signal generators is avoided, improving
reliability without compromising on
functionality. Its innovative design allows
users configure channels for any GNSS
WWW.GPSWORLD.COM
NOVEMBER 2016
signals and allocate those channels to any

of the RF outputs fitted. This flexibility
enables the same simulator hardware to
be used for an extensive range of tests, for
all types of GNSS applications. The NCS
TITAN GNSS Simulator was developed
in cooperation with WORK Microwave
GmbH, Germany.
IFEN, www.ifen.com
4. INTERFERENCE DETECTOR
ANALYZES RF INTERFERENCE OF GPS
SIGNALS
The GSS200D Interference Detection

and Analysis solution, developed
with Nottingham Scientific Limited,
comprises field-based hardware and a
secure data server for automatic capture
and analysis of GNSS radio-frequency
interference. Deployments of GSS200D
probes provide users with a thorough
understanding of the RF interference
environment at sites of interest. 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.
Spirent, www.spirent.com
LAUNCHPAD | SURVEY & MAPPING

1
1. MULTI-BAND RECEIVER
FOR SURVEYORS, CONTRACTORS,
BUILDERS AND ENGINEERS
The Carlson BRx6 is a multi-GNSS,

multi-frequency receiver. It has a multiband 372-channel GNSS receiver, Athena
RTK technology and an integrated
Atlas L-band receiver. The BRx6 also
contains electronic sensors that measure
tilt, direction (electronic compass) and
acceleration, supporting Carlson SurvCEs
advanced features such as LDL (live digital
level or e-bubble), leveling tolerance,
auto by level, tilted-pole correction and
advanced stakeout features. SurvCE
contains sophisticated checks for compass
and acceleration anomalies to ensure
accuracy. The BRx6 delivers affordable,
high-positional accuracy. Manufactured
to Carlsons exacting specifications by
Hemisphere GNSS, the BRx6 can be used
as a precise base station or lightweight
rover. RTK corrections can be received
over UHF radio, cell modem, Wi-Fi,
Bluetooth or serial connection.
Carlson Software, www.carlsonsw.com
2. SUBSCRIPTION SERVICE
PROVIDES RTK CORRECTION DATA
DURING OUTAGES
RTK Asssit is a subscription-based

service that provides users with
satellite-delivered correction data to
18 G P S W O R L D
seamlessly continue centimeter-level

accuracy during real-time kinematic
(RTK) correction outages caused
by communication disruptions.
Users are able to maintain RTK-level
performance for up to 20 minutes,
reducing any associated downtime
and optimizing solution productivity.
The RTK positioning with correction
data is delivered directly to the receiver
via satellite, allowing for a continuous
centimeter-level solution that is globally
available 24/7. RTK Assist is best
suited for applications where there are
potential obstructions, dead spots or
baseline limitations that would cause
RTK network correction losses for short
periods of time.
NovAtel, www.novatel.com
3. MOBILE MAPPING
GNSS-AIDED GEOREFERENCING
The POSPac MMS 8 is GNSS-aided

inertial post-processing software for
georeferencing data collected from
cameras, lidars, multi-beam sonars
and other sensors on mobile platforms.
POSPac MMS 8 uses the Trimble
CenterPoint RTX subscription service to
deliver these benefits for mobile mapping
from land, air, marine and UAV platforms.
With an internet connection, users
can achieve centimeter-level accuracy
within one hour after data collection
there is no need to wait for delivery of
WWW.GPSWORLD.COM
NOVEMBER 2016
public-domain ephemeris data. Users

can map inaccessible regions that have
no existing Continuously Operation
Reference Stations (CORS) without the
cost of deploying local base stations. With
Trimbles private network, users can attain
consistent and reliable uptime.
Applanix, www.applanix.com
4. GEOSPATIAL DATA PDFS

EXTENDS GEOSPATIAL DATA SETS TO
ALL STAKEHOLDERS
TerraGo GeoPDF software suite version

7 offers new features to enable open,
cross-platform, cloud and mobile access
to advanced maps, engineering drawings,
high-resolution imagery and other types
of spatial data assets. Version 7 has tools
for publishing GeoPDFs, including
TerraGo Publisher for ArcGIS, TerraGo
Publisher for ArcGIS Server, TerraGo
Composer, TerraGo GeoPDF Platform
Toolkit, TerraGo Publisher for Raster
and TerraGo Toolbar. Features include
PubPy, which extends and enhances
integration into ArcGIS ArcPy to enable
on-demand web services and GIS portals;
and OpenGeoPDF, which adds Open
Geospatial Consortium GeoPackage to
GeoPDF documents to enable GIS-Lite
applications using TerraGo Toolbar 7.0.
Other features include mobile-workflow
support, advanced layer control and
remote desktop.
TerraGo, www.terragotech.com
GPS Vulnerability Testing

PNT RESILIENCE
The threats are real. And increasing every day. If you are responsible for mission-critical
PNT applications, let us help you evaluate your risk to jamming, spoofing, or any other
threat. Our GPS/GNSS simulation platform is the best way to harden GPS-based systems.
Put us to the test.
+ 1 585.321.5800
spectracom.com
LAUNCHPAD | UAV
1
3
1. GROUND-CONTROL
POINTS
SOLAR-POWERED AND PORTABLE
AeroPoints are smart ground-control

points designed to make it easy to
capture survey-accurate mapping using
drones. The portable ground-control
markers are visible from the air and
capable of quickly capturing their
own positions down to 2-centimeter
absolute accuracy. AeroPoints work
with any camera or drone, and integrate
seamlessly with Propellers cloud-based data platform and processing
engine. Theyre solar-powered, durable
and weather resistant, and they dont
require any onsite connection. To use
AeroPoints, customers simply lay them
down, fly their drone, and then pick
them up again. They automatically
connect to a wireless or mobile hotspot
when back in range to upload captured
positional data.
Propeller Aero, www.propelleraero.com
2. UAV LIDAR SENSOR

ENTRY-LEVEL DEVICE
FOR LIMITED-WEIGHT DRONES
The miniVUX-1UAV is a compact

miniaturized 360 degrees field-of-view
lidar sensor weighing 1.6 kilograms. It
is developed for the implementation
of emerging survey solutions by small
20 G P S W O R L D
UAS, UAV and Remotely Piloted

Aircraft Systems (RPAS). The sensor
offers multi-target capability and
accuracy using echo digitization and
online waveform processing for data
acquisition. It is capable of 100,000
measurements per second and offers
an operating altitude of 100+ meters.
Its small size and low weight make it
suitable for mounting under limited
weight and space conditions, allowing
UAV-based acquisition of survey-grade
measurement data for agriculture and
forestry fieldwork, archaeology and
cultural heritage documentation, glacier
and snowfield mapping, and landslide
monitoring.
200400 feet above ground level, where

most light-weight drones fly. SenseFly
added GA functionality to its eMotion
flight-planning software, enabling
operators to create a special advisory
when activating automated drone
flights. eMotion transmits the advisory
to Air Navigation Pros server, which
will push the information to all smart
devices of connected app users. In turn,
senseFly drone operators will be able to
view the Air Navigation users flights in
real time.
Riegl, www.riegl.com
INCLUDES GPS ANTENNA AND CABLES
3. UAV AWARENESS
SOFTWARE
NOTIFIES PILOTS WHEN DRONES
DRAW NEAR
Safer Together is designed to reduce the

risk of mid-air collision between aircraft
and UAVs. Developed by senseFly and
the Air Navigation Pro app makers, it
is designed to make the skies a safer
place by providing general aviation
(GA) pilots and drone operators with
awareness of each others airborne
activities, giving them the knowledge
they need to take any actions necessary
to avoid mid-air incidents around
WWW.GPSWORLD.COM
NOVEMBER 2016
Safer Together, www.safertogether.aero
4. SAASM INERTIAL
NAVIGATION
The Geo-iNAV 1000 SAASM is a lowcost, rugged SAASM GPS-aided inertial
navigation system. It tightly couples a
SAASM GPS sensor with a high-stability
Quartz micro-electro-mechanical system
(MEMS) inertial measurement unit (IMU)
to provide a high-performance navigation
solution in challenging environments.
Features include simple integration,
SAASM GPS with path to M-code,
Internal high-accuracy quartz MEMS IMU
,tight-coupling with Geodetics Extended
Kalman Filter, in-motion dynamic
alignment, and RS-232, RS422 and
Ethernet (TCP/UDP) interfaces.
Geodetics, www.geodetics.com
CLAW Real Time GPS/GNSS Simulator

The CLAW GNSS/GPS Simulator/Synthesizer consumes less than 1.7W power, operates in real-ime from stored
or streamed NMEA posiion coordinates, and runs without the need for an external computer
Introducing CLAW - the worlds smallest, lowest-power, lowest-cost, completely stand-alone portable no-frills
real-ime Full Constellaion GPS simulator.
The 12-channel CLAW GPS Simulator allows real-ime generaion of highly accurate and stable GPS L1 C/A RF signals that can
be connected to any GPS receiver. The low cost and small size of the unit allow applicaions that were heretofore not possible due to the size or cost of compeiive Full Constellaion Real-Time GPS simulators.
Real Time 12 channel embedded hardware GPS simulaion
0dB to 63dB RF atenuator with 0.5dB resoluion
Opimized for nanosecond level ime-transfer
Simulaion of GNSS anomalies such as leapseconds, 1023 week rollover, etc
Self-contained, no external computer needed
Industry-leading dual 10-bit DAC I and Q quanizaion
Low Power < 1.7W extended USB or batery operaion (5V to 28V)
Real-Time Transcoding to L1 C/A RF from any external NMEA PVT source:
o Military SAASM or M-Code GPS L2 P(Y)
o Inerial Navigaion Systems
o Glonass/BeiDou/Galileo etc)
o Google Earth trajectories
Internal high-stability oscillator
Opional external 1PPS/10MHz reference
Ruggedized, -25C to +75C operaion
Slightly larger than a deck of cards
Ideal for:
o producion tesing of GNSS receivers
o transcoding emerging GNSS signals to legacy GPS equipment
o real-ime tesing of GPS Disciplined Oscillators (GPSDOs)
o sensiivity, jamming, and spoong tesing of GPS receivers
$2,995 introductory pricing for 2016*

*supports 12-channel GPS L1 C/A synthesis
www.jackson-labs.com | [email protected] | +1 (702)-233-1334
Made in USA
LAUNCHPAD | UAV
5
5. DRONE CAMERA
HOVERS WHILE TAKING PHOTOS AND VIDEOS
The Hover Camera Passport hovers in place to allow users to

quickly and easily take photographs. The self-flying camera is
aimed at consumers, flying without the restraints of controllers.
Once the camera is unfolded and powered on, the passport can
take 13-megapixel photos and 4,000-pixel (4K) video using
proprietary embedded artificial intelligence technology. The
Hover Camera Passport introduces a new design into the flying
camera field, with its propellers and motors encased in a strong,
light carbon-fiber structure that ensures fingers cant slip through
during normal use. Features include auto-follow with face and
body tracking, 360 spin; orbit; and self-positioning using a
combination of sonar, its downward viewing camera and artificial
intelligence.
Zero Zero Robotics, gethover.com
6. CAMERA DRONE
DESIGNED TO FIT IN A BACKPACK
The Karma drone, designed to accompany a GoPro camera,

features a compact, fits-in-a-small-backpack design and includes
an image-stabilization grip that can be handheld or mounted to
vehicles, gear and more. Karma is designed to capture smooth,
stabilized video during almost any activity. Compact and
foldable, the entire system fits into the included backpack thats so
comfortable to wear during any activity, users will forget theyve
got it on. The game-style controller features an integrated touch
display, making it easy to fly without the need for a separate
phone or tablet. The three-axis camera stabilizer can be removed
from the drone and attached to the included Karma Grip for
capturing ultra-smooth handheld and gear-mounted footage.
GoPro, gopro.com
7. AUGMENTED REALITY SMART GLASSES

ENABLE UAV PILOTS
TO MAINTAIN LINE OF SIGHT
The Epson Moverio BT-300 augmented reality (AR) smart

glasses are light, binocular, and transparent with an organic
light-emitting diode (OLED) display. Combining silicon-based
OLED digital display technology and Android OS 5.1, the
Moverio BT-300 enables transparent mobile augmented reality
(AR) experiences, including while flying drones. With the DJI
GO app and the Moverio glasses, drone pilots are able to see
clear, transparent first-person views from the drone camera
while simultaneously maintaining their line of sight with their
aircraft. The DJI GO app works with the DJI Phantom, Inspire
and Matrice series flying platforms as well as the Osmo handheld
gimbal and camera.
Epson, www.epson.com
DJI, www.dji.com
22 G P S W O R L D
WWW.GPSWORLD.COM
NOVEMBER 2016
TRANSPORTATION | LAUNCHPAD
1. GNSS ANTENNAS
EQUIPPED WITH INMARSAT FILTER FOR
MARINE VESSELS
The GPS-713-GGG-N and GPS713- GGGL-N ATEX-qualified triplefrequency GNSS antennas come with
Inmarsat rejection filters. Hazardous
environments those found on oil
platforms, tankers and refineries
require compliance with the European
94/9EC ATEX directive. Based on the
companys Pinwheel technology, both
antennas maximize performance with
multi-constellation reception of L1,
L2, L5 GPS; L1, L2, L3 GLONASS;
B1, B2 BeiDou and E1, E5a/b Galileo
frequencies, the company said. The GPS713-GGGL-N also supports L-band from
1525 to 1560 MHz. Customers can use
the same antenna for GPS only, or up to
quad-constellation applications, resulting
in increased flexibility and reduced
equipment costs. The two antennas deliver
choke-ring-level antenna performance,

but without the size and weight. Both
provide enhanced Inmarsat interference
rejection, which allows tracking of GNSS
signals in the presence of high-powered
Inmarsat transmitters typically found on
marine vessels.
NovAtel, www.novatel.com
2. AUTO NAV RECEIVER

DEAD-RECKONING ENABLED
The GV-86 is a high-sensitivity GPS

receiver module supporting dead
NOVEMBER 2016
reckoning, which enables positioning in

environments where no GNSS signals can
be received, such as tunnels, underground
car parking and deep urban canyons.
The receiver concurrently receives GPS,
SBAS and QZSS satellite signals. The
dead-reckoning function is realized by
integrating the information from a gyro
sensor and a velocity sensor. It has fast
time to first fix, and highly improved
noise tolerance, and a configurable
position output update rate up to 10 Hz
(10 times per second.)
Furuno, www.furuno.com
WWW.GPSWORLD.COM
G P S W O R L D 23
SIMULATION
MAKE IT REAL
Developing a True-to-Life Test Framework and
Methodology for PNT Systems and Devices
TESTS OF THE ROBUSTNESS of commercial GNSS devices against threats show that different receivers behave differently in the presence of
the same threat vectors. A risk-assessment framework for PNT systems can gauge real-world threat vectors, then the most appropriate and cost-effective
mitigation can be selected.
BY Guy Buesnel, John Pottle, Mark Holbrow and Paul Crampton
ulnerabilities of GNSS positioning,

navigation and timing are a consequence
of the signals' ver y low received
power. These vulnerabilities include
RF interference, atmospheric effects,
jamming and spoofing. All cases should
be tested for all GNSS equipment, not solely those whose
applications or cargoes might draw criminal or terrorist
24 G P S W O R L D
WWW.GPSWORLD.COM
NOVEMBER 2016
attention, because jamming or spoofing directed at another

target can still affect any receiver in the vicinity.
GNSS Jamming. Potential severe disruptions can be
encountered by critical infrastructure in many scenarios,
highlighting the need to understand the behavior of
multiple systems that rely on positioning, and/or timing
aspects of GNSS systems, when subject to real-world GNSS
threat vectors.
SIMULATION
/
GNSS Spoofing. This can no longer
be regarded as difficult to conduct or
requiring a high degree of expertise
and GNSS knowledge. In 2015, two
engineers with no expertise in GNSS
found it easy to construct a low-cost
signal emulator using commercial
off-the-shelf softwaredefined radio
and RF transmission equipment,
successfully spoofing a car's built-in
GPS receiver, two well-known brands
of smartphone and a drone so that it
would fly in a restricted area.
In December 2015 the Department
of Homeland Security revealed that
drug traffickers have been attempting
to spoof (as well as jam) border
drones. This demonstrates that GNSS
spoofing is now accessible enough
that it should begin to be considered
seriously as a valid attack vector in any
GNSS vulnerability risk assessment.
More recently, the release of
the Pokmon Go game triggered
a rapid development of spoofing
techniques. This has led to spoofing
at the application layer: jailbreaking
the smartphone and installing an
application designed to feed faked
location information to other
applications. It has also led to the use
of spoofers at the RF level (record
and playback or meaconing) and
even the use of a programmed SDR to
generate replica GPS signals and all
of this was accomplished in a matter
of weeks.
GNSS Segment Errors. Whilst not
common, GNSS segment errors
can create severe problems for
users. Events affecting GLONASS
during April 2014 are well known:
corrupted ephemeris information was
uploaded to the satellite vehicles and
caused problems to many worldwide
GLONASS users for almost 12 hours.
Recently GPS was affected. On
January 26, 2016, a glitch in the GPS
ground software led to the wrong UTC
correction value being broadcast. This
FIGURE1 Robust PNT test framework architecture.
bug started to cause problems when

satellite SVN23 was withdrawn from
service. A number of GPS satellites,
while declaring themselves "healthy,"
broadcast a wrong UTC correction
parameter.
Atmospheric Effects. S i n g l e
frequency PNT systems generally
compensate for the normal behavior
of the ionosphere through the
implementation of a model such as the
Klobuchar Ionospheric Model. Space
weather disturbs the ionosphere to
an extent where the model no longer
works and large pseudorange errors,
which can affect position and timing,
are generated. This typically happens
when a severe solar storm causes
the Total Electron Count (TEC) to
increase to significantly higher than
normal levels. Dual frequency GNSS
receivers can provide much higher
levels of mitigation against solar
weather effects. However, this is not
always the case; during scintillation
events dual frequency diversity is more
likely to only partially mitigate the
effects of scintillation. Solar weather
events occur on an 11-year cycle; the
sun has just peaked at solar maximum,
so we will find solar activity decreasing
to a minimum during the next 5 years
of the cycle. However that does not
NOVEMBER 2016
mean that the effects of solar weather

on PNT systems should be ignored
for the next few years where safety
or critical infrastructure systems are
involved.
TEST FRAMEWORK
C h ar a c t e r i z at i on of re c e ive r
performance, to specific segments
within the real world, can save either
development time and cost or prevent
poor performance in real deployments.
FIGURE 1 shows the concept of a robust
PNT test framework that uses realworld threat vectors to test GNSSdependent systems and devices.
We have deployed detectors
some on a permanent basis, some
temporary and have collected
extensive information on real-world
RFI that affects GNSS receivers,
systems and applications. For example,
all of the detected interference
waveforms in FIGURE 2 have potential
to cause unexpected behavior of
any receiver that was picking up
the repeated signal. A spectrogram
is included with the first detected
waveform for reference as it is quite
an unusual looking waveform, which
is most likely to have originated from
a badly tuned, cheap jammer. The
events in the figure, captured at the
WWW.GPSWORLD.COM
G P S W O R L D 25
SIMULATION
/
the resilience of GPS equipment to
these kinds of interference waveforms.
The key to this is the design of test
cases, or scenarios, that are able to
extract benchmark information
from equipment. To complement the
benchmarking test scenarios, it is also
advisable to set up application specific
scenarios to assess the likely impact of
interference in specific environmental
settings and use cases.
TEST METHODOLOGY
FIGURE 2 Detected interference waveforms at public event in Europe.
FIGURE 3 Candidate Interference Resilience receiver accuracy evaluation.
same European sports event, are

thought to have been caused by a
GPS repeater or a deliberate jammer.
A repeater could be being used to
rebroadcast GPS signals inside an
enclosure to allow testing of a GPS
system located indoors where it does
not have a view of the sky.
26 G P S W O R L D
WWW.GPSWORLD.COM
The greatest problem with GPS

repeaters is that the signal can spill
outside of the test location and
interfere with another receiver. This
could cause the receiver to report the
static position of the repeater, rather
than its true position. The problem is
how to reliably and repeatedly assess
NOVEMBER 2016
A benchmarking scenario was set up

in the laboratory using a simulator to
generate L1 GPS signals against some
generic interference waveforms with
the objective of developing a candidate
benchmark scenario that could form
part of a standard methodology for the
assessment of receiver performance
when subject to interference.
Considering the requirements for
a benchmark test, it was decided to
implement a scenario where a GPS
receiver tracking GPS L1 signals
is moved slowly toward a fixed
interference source as shown in FIGURE 3.
The simulation is first run for 60
seconds with the vehicle static,
and the receiver is cold started at
the same time to let the receiver
initialise properly. The static position
is 1000m south of where the jammer
will be. At t = 60s the vehicle starts
driving due north at 5 m/s. At the
same time a jamming source is turned
on, located at 0.00 N 0.00 E. The
vehicle drives straight through the
jamming source, and then continues
1000m north of 0.00N 0.00E, for a
total distance covered of 2000m. This
method is used for all tests except the
interference type comparison where
there is no initialization period, the
vehicle starts moving north as the
receiver is turned on. The advantages
of this simple and very repeatable
scenario are that it shows how close
a receiver could approach a fixed
SIMULATION
/
patterns were used for receivers and
jammers in the test. The test system
automatically models the power level
changes as the vehicle moves relative
to the jammer, based on a free-space
path loss model.
RESULTS
FIGURE 4 Comparison of receiver accuracy when subject to CHIRP interference.
jammer without any ill effects, and

measures the receiver's recovery time
after it has passed the interference
source. We have anonymized the
receivers used in the study, but they

are representative user receivers that
are in wide use today across a variety
of applications. Isotropic antenna
FIGURE 4 shows a comparison of GPS

receiver accuracy performance when
subject to L1 CHIRP interference.
This is representative of many PPD
(personal protection device)-type
jammers.
FIGURE 5 s h o w s t h e r e l a t i v e
performance of Receiver A when
subject to different jammer types
in this case AM, coherent CW and
swept CW.
Finally in FIGURE 6 the accuracy
performance of Receiver A is tested
to examine the change that a 10dB
SIMULATION
FIGURE 5 Receiver A accuracy performance against different interference types.
was used as the interferer. It can be

seen that the increase of 10dB in the
signal power does have the noticeable
effect one would expect to see on the
receiver response in this scenario with
this receiver.
Having developed a benchmark
test bed for the evaluation of GNSS
interference on receiver behavior,
there is a great deal of opportunity to
conduct further experimental work to
assess the behavior of GNSS receivers
subject to interference. Examples of
areas for further work include:
Evaluation of other performance
metrics important for assessing
resilience to interference
Automation of test scenarios used
for benchmarking
Evaluation of the effectiveness of
different mitigation approaches,
including improved antenna
performance, RAIM, multifrequency, multi-constellation
Performance of systems that include
GNSS plus augmentation systems
such as intertial, SBAS, GBAS
CONCLUSIONS
FIGURE 6 Comparison of Receiver A accuracy performance with 10db change in jammer power
level.
increase in signal power could make

to the behavior of the receiver against
jamming a swept CW signal was
used in this instance.
Discussion. In the first set of results
(the comparison of receivers against L1
CHIRP interference), it is interesting
to note that all receivers tested lost lock
at a very similar distance away from
this particular interference source
but all exhibited different recovery
performance.
The second test focused on the
28 G P S W O R L D
WWW.GPSWORLD.COM
performance of Receiver A against

various types of jammers the aim of
this experiment was to determine how
much the receiver response against
interference could be expected to vary
with jammer type. It can be seen that
for Receiver A there were marked
differences in response to jammer type.
Finally, the third test concentrated
on determining how much a 10dB
alteration in jammer power might
change receiver responses. Receiver A
was used again and a swept CW signal
NOVEMBER 2016
A simple candidate benchmark test

for assessing receiver accuracy when
subjected to RF interference has been
presented by the authors.
Different receivers perform quite
differently when subjected to the
same GNSS + RFI test conditions.
Understanding how a receiver
performs, and how this performance
affects the PNT system or application
performance, is an important
element in system design and should
be considered as part of a GNSS
robustness risk assessment.
Other GNSS threats are also
important to consider: solar weather,
scintillation, spoofing and segment
errors.
One of the biggest advantages of
the automated test bench set-up used
here is that it allows a system or device
SIMULATION
/
response to be tested against a wide
range of of real world GNSS threats in
a matter of hours, whereas previously
it could have taken many weeks or
months (or not even been possible)
to test against such a wide range of
threats.
Whilst there is (rightly) a lot
of material in which the potential
impacts of GNSS threat vectors are
debated, it should also be remembered
that there are many mitigation actions
that can be taken today which enable
protection against current and some
predictable future scenarios.
Carrying out risk assessments
including testing against the latest
real-world threat baseline is the first
vital step towards improving the
security of GNSS dependent systems
and devices.
the GPS industry for 29 years. He provides

engineering and sales support for all GNSS
simulation products at Spirent Federal.
He has a Bachelor of Science (Honors) in
information technology from Leicester
Polytechnic, now known as De Montfort
University, in the UK.
MARK HOLBROW is Director of R&D

Engineering for Spirents Positioning
division. He has a Masters degree
in communications, information
and electronic engineering from the
University of Plymouth.
PAUL CRAMPTON has been involved with
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The authors would like to thank all of
the staff at Spirent Communications,
Nottingham Scientific Ltd and
Qascom who have contributed to
this paper. In particular, thanks are
due to Kimon Voutsis and Joshua
Stubbs from Spirents Professional
Ser vices team for their expert
contributions to the interference
benchmark tests.
MANUFACTURERS
The benchmarking scenario
described here was set up in the
laboratory using a Spirent GSS6700
GNSS simulator.
GUY BUESNEL is a PNT security
technologist at Spirent Communications,
with a focus on cyber-security. He holds
a Masters degree in communications
engineering from the University of
Birmingham.
JOHN POTTLE is marketing director for
Spirents Positioning division. He holds a
first degree in communication engineering
from University of Plymouth and a Masters
in business administration from the Open
Business School.
NOVEMBER 2016
WWW.GPSWORLD.COM
G P S W O R L D 29
MARKET
WATCH
Segment Snapshot:
Applications, Trends & News
OEM
NavCom Onyx Board Is Software Upgradeable
avCom Technology
announced the
release of the Onyx
multi-frequency GNSS OEM
board. Offering integrated
StarFire/real-time kinematic
(RTK) GNSS capabilities,
Onyx features 255-channel
tracking, including multiconstellation support for
GPS, GLONASS, BeiDou
and Galileo.
It also provides high
p erformance in GNSS
receiver sensitivity and signal
tracking as well as patented
multi-path mitigation,
interference rejection and
anti-jamming capabilities.
The new Onyx GNSS
OEM b o ard is a f u l ly
upgradeable GNSS receiver,
allowing the receiver to
upgrade from free DGPS
signal sources such as
WAAS to increased accuracy
services with integrated
features StarFire with Rapid
Recovery or RTK with RTK
Extend through software
optioning alone.
The software-enabled
features are sold in bundles,

but can also be purchased
individually, to suit changing
application needs.
StarFire, NavComs Global
Satellite Based Augmentation
System (SBAS), provides
real-time global 5-centimeter
accuracy without a base
station.
Integrated StarFire is now
activated via an over-theair licensing system that
sends a StarFire License
via satellite directly to the
StarFire-capable receiver
The Onyx on display at

Intergeo 2016.
from NavComs StarFire

operations center.
Jackson Labs Enters Simulation Market
ackson Labs Technologies Inc. (JLT)

has entered the GNSS simulation
and synthesis market with the small
size, weight and power (SWAP) CLAW
GPS/GNSS simulator. The CLAW is only
slightly larger than a standard deck of
cards.
CLAW targets applications that
require small, low-power and lowcost GNSS synthesis with repeatable
and highly accurate GNSS RF signals
such as production testing of GNSS
receivers, simulating GNSS anomalies
such as leap-second events, 1023 GPS
Week roll-overs, simulated operation in
inaccessible locations around the world,
real-time transcoding of different GNSS
systems, and testing using dynamically
user-configured RF signal levels.
With nanosecond-accurate encoding,
CLAW is particularly suited to allow easy
stress-testing of GPSDO Frequency
and Timing Reference products such as
JLTs GNSDOs under various different
30 G P S W O R L D
mission scenarios, the company said.

The CLAW GNSS simulator is a nofrills solution that contains real-time
processing hardware to simulate GPS
constellations without the need to
connect any external equipment other
than a USB power source or power
supply.
Providing a real-time computed RF
output signal rather than an offline
file playback differentiates CLAW from
competitive solutions that are only
WWW.GPSWORLD.COM
NOVEMBER 2016
capable of recording and playback

operation in non-real-time, or require
offline computation of data files using
external computers that are played back
on the simulation device.
CLAW is a completely self-contained,
ruggedized, miniature, real-time
hardware GPS simulator.
Navigation coordinates and 1PPS
timing pulses can be provided in realtime through the NMEA and SCPI
compatible USB interface or via the
built-in RS-232 interface, and are
encoded in the CLAW into RF GPS
signals in real time with nanosecondlevel accuracy and minimal delay.
CLAW was designed with a particular
emphasis to encoding the optional
externally provided 1PPS GPS system
time with nanosecond-level accuracy
targets, allowing accuracy testing of
GPS timing and frequency devices on
top of simply providing a positioning/
velocity reference.
MARKET WATCH
OEM
Testing Susceptibility to Spoofing

BY Tim Klimasewski
poofing as it applies to GPS is an attempt to deceive a

GPS receiver by broadcasting signals that the receiver
will use instead of the live sky signals.
Spoofing is different from jamming. Jamming is easier for a
receiver to detect, and while it can disrupt the receiver, it cannot
re-locate it. Spoofing can be used as an attack on systems that
use GPS for navigation, or even for precise time transfer, to
misguide a valuable asset for malicious intent.
We all would like to think that receivers should always
indicate when something out of the ordinary is happening
such as what would happen during a spoofing attack, but if the
overall system using the receiver does not monitor or attempt
to use any available indications, a spoofing attack may go
undetected. Understanding how a GPS application will respond
in a spoofing attack is the key to detecting and mitigating the
effects of spoofing. For example, it could be assumed by a
TRIA
E
E
FR v
ASK
R
ur
YOUcom/ezs
R
FO is.
efig
navigation system designer that using multiple GNSS systems

will prevent a spoofing attack consisting of only GPS. But how
do you know, and before a potentially catastrophic event?
VULNERABILITY TEST SYSTEM

A vulnerability test system (VTS) can be used to understand
how a system using a GPS receiver, and the overall system
integration, will react to spoofing in order to develop mitigation
techniques and countermeasures. Understanding the behavior
of the receiver when faced with a spoofing attack is key to
hardening applications for resilient position, navigation and
timing (PNT). Spectracom has developed a GPS/GNSS VTS,
based on its GNSS RF simulator platform, to help understand
the effects of intentional disruption of GPS signals. In the case
of a GPS spoofing scenario, the VTS allows full control over
the synchronization between the spoofer and virtual live sky,
their power levels and position variation in a completely closed
See Spoofing, next page
>>
POWER AND PRECISION

AT YOUR FINGERTIPS
EZSURV POST-PROCESSING SOFTWARE
PROVIDES YOU WITH:

Access to more than 10,000 CORS stations data all around the world
Support multiple receiver native data format
State-of-the-art processing engine
Easy-to-use application
Flexible licensing mechanism
Compatible with all GNSS Constellations
Compatible with
NOVEMBER 2016
WWW.GPSWORLD.COM
G P S W O R L D 31
MARKET WATCH
OEM
PC -Based
Test Scenario Control
>> Spoofing, Continued from 31.

system that wont interfere with actual
GNSS signals. The VTS consists of two
GPS simulators, one simulating live sky
and one representing the attempt of the
spoofer. It also uses a synchronization
unit, an RF combiner and a PC controller.
CRITICAL TEST PARAMETERS

Several parameters can be varied in
the test system to help understand how
vulnerable a specific receiver system is
to a spoofing threat. Each of the most
critical parameters time, position
and power level can be manipulated
independently, allowing the design of a
comprehensive test plan.
Time. The timing accuracy of the
spoofing signals to the live signals is the
first critical parameter. Utilizing separate
outputs from the VTS synchronization
unit, the on-time point between the GPS
RF generation can be varied. Two pulseper-second signals are used as triggers to
the GPS simulators, therefore creating
the offset in time between the two RF
signals. This offset is controllable to
the nanosecond. Another time-related
parameter to consider is the capture time
how long the spoofing signal is applied
before attempting to redirect the receiver.
Position. We expect that for spoofing to
be successful, the GPS position generated
by the spoofer must be accurate to that
of the receiver to be spoofed. But exactly
how close does the spoofer need to be
Vehicle
Path
Detect the
POSITION
Transmit the
TIME SIGNAL
with
specific
POWER
LEVEL
Disrupted
Path
Spoofer
Tracking
Data
Critical parameters for testing

vulnerabilities to spoofing.
32 G P S W O R L D
GSG Spoofer Simulator
RF Combiner
SecureSync
Synchronization System
Receiver
Under Test
GSG Live Sky Simulator
The Vulnerability Test System (left)

and its architecture.
relative to the receivers position? The

effect of position in the spoofing scenario
is a parameter that can be adjusted to
understand the extent of the vulnerability
to spoofing. Using two simulators instead
of spoofing live sky makes it much easier
to design and execute various test cases
to understand the receivers susceptibility.
The tests can be performed under varying
motion trajectories of the receiver under
test. For example, we can test if or when
the spoofer can anticipate motion or
changes in direction. Practically, spoofers
are required to be positionally accurate to
successfully take control over a receiver,
which means spoofing is even harder
when in motion. But to what extent?
Testing is the only way to answer the
question.
Power. The spoofing signal needs to
be slightly greater than the live signal
to capture the receiver. The test system
allows full control of the power levels to
determine how much greater the power
should be. Too much power will jam the
receiver. The test system can determine
if there are any indicators given by the
receiver when a signal only a few decibels
higher than the transmitted signal is
received.
TESTING MULTI-GNSS
Adding multi-GNSS constellations to
the GPS application is a valuable tool
in hardening systems. The VTS can test
GPS with various combinations of other
GNSS systems (GPS, QZSS, BeiDou,
Galileo, GLONASS) to understand if
multi-GNSS is an effective method to
overcome spoofing attacks. As attackers
get more sophisticated, spoofing will
probably not be limited to GPS.
WWW.GPSWORLD.COM
NOVEMBER 2016
Many other signals and references

have been used as a complement to
GPS in navigation applications. It is
expected that these can also be used to
harden receiver systems. However, the
complexities of these systems can be
difficult to test in a laboratory. For those
with the proper safeguards and approvals
to emit GPS-like signals in a test-range
setting, the VTS can add features to
synchronize to live sky and accept input
from a vehicle-detection and tracking
system.
In the United States, the consideration
of such testing would only occur after
significant coordination between the
Department of Defense, the Coast
Guard, the Federal Communications
Commission, the Federal Aviation
Administration, and others.
CONCLUSION
A GNSS VTS allows for comprehensive
characterization through systematic,
repeatable tests of receiver performance
in the presence of a spoofer. By designing
detection and mitigation actions into a
navigation application, it may be possible
to identify and even overcome risks of a
spoofing attack.
Monitoring loss of lock, receiver noise,
using an inertial navigation system, and
estimated position error are possible
parameters to observe, but each receiver
may report different indications. More
test cases can be created and performed
using a VTS to fully characterize a
receiver and how it will respond to a
spoofing attack.
Tim Klimasewski is director of Marketing
Services at Spectracom.
MARKET WATCH
SURVEY
2
Eos Positioning Launches High-Accuracy Arrow Gold
os Positioning Systems has

announced its most advanced
high-accuracy Bluetooth GNSS
receiver, the Arrow Gold.
The Arrow Gold is the first highaccuracy iOS, Android and Windows
Bluetooth GNSS receiver to implement
all four constellations (GPS, GLONASS,
Galileo, BeiDou), three frequencies
(L1, L2, L5) and satellite-assisted RTK.
The Arrow Gold provides
1-centimeter real-time accuracy in
more places, and on all iOS, Android
and Windows devices. The palmsized Arrow Gold works with any
data-collection app designed for iOS,
Android or Windows, which means
that apps like Esri Collector, Esri
ArcPad, Survey123 and others work

with Arrow Gold right out of the box.
SafeRTK. The Arrow Gold introduces
an innovative RTK feature for poor
cellphone coverage areas SafeRTK.
The SafeRTK feature uses satellite
corrections to fill in when the users

RTK network connection is lost.
SafeRTK takes over when wireless
coverage fails, allowing users to
continue working with centimeter
accuracy for up to 20 minutes, free
of charge.
Another feature that on all iOS,
Android and Windows devices, the
Arrow Gold Basic delivers 8-centimeter
real-time accuracy anywhere in
the world using all four satellite
constellations and the Atlas satellite
correction service.
The Arrow Gold is built for tough
environments. It is palm-sized,
waterproof, dust-proof and weighs
under one pound.
Performance in real-time
NOVEMBER 2016
WWW.GPSWORLD.COM
G P S W O R L D 33
MARKET WATCH
SURVEY
Hemisphere GNSS offers Eclipse P328 Board
emisphere GNSS has

announced the Eclipse P328,
the next offering in a line
of new and refreshed, lowpower, high-precision, positioning
OEM boards.
The multi-frequency, multi-GNSS
P328 is an all-signals receiver board
that includes Hemispheres new
and innovative hardware platform
and integrates Atlas GNSS Global
Corrections. It is designed for land or
marine survey, machine control, and
any application where high-accuracy
positioning is required.
With the new hardware platform,
the overall cost, size, weight and power
consumption of the P328 are reduced.
It offers true scalability with centimeterlevel accuracy in either single-frequency
mode or full performance multi-
frequency, multi-GNSS, Atlas-capable

mode that supports fast real-time
kinematic (RTK) initialization times
over long distances.
The P328 uses the Athena GNSS
engine, as well as Hemispheres new
aRTK technology powered by Atlas.
This feature allows the P328 to operate
with RTK accuracies when RTK
corrections fail. If the P328 is Atlas-
subscribed, it will continue to operate at

the subscribed service level until RTK
is restored.
The latest technology platform
enables simultaneous tracking of
all satellite signals including GPS,
GLONASS P-code, BeiDou, Galileo and
QZSS. The updated power management
system efficiently governs the processor,
memory and application-specific
integrated circuit (ASIC), making
it suitable for multiple integration
applications.
The 60 x 100 millimeter module with
24-pin and 16-pin headers is a drop-in
upgrade for existing designs using this
form factor.
The P328 offers flexible and reliable
connectivity by supporting serial, USB,
CAN and Ethernet for ease of use and
integration.
DJI and Datumate Partner for Site Surveys

JI and Datumate
h a v e b e g u n o ffering a drone,
software and app
package that fully automates and expedites site
surveys, infrastructure
mapping and inspection.
Tailored for professional
surveying jobs, the DJIDatumate Site Survey Solution simplifies the surveying
and mapping processes,
while maintaining superior
accuracy. Shenzhen-based
DJI is the worlds top aerialimaging company. Israel
based Datumate is a leader
in automated field-toplan surveying solutions.
The DJI-Datumate Site
Survey Solution is a com-
34 G P S W O R L D
prehensive and professional

package of imagery and
mapping tools that help
surveying, construction, inspection and infrastructure
companies quickly generate
a working model, site visualization, analytics and plan.
The solution includes
bundles with a DJI Drone,
a DatuFly tablet app for
an automated and expeditious aerial photography,
and DatuGram 3D photogrammetry software that
converts aerial and ground
images to high-precision,
geo-referenced 2D maps
and 3D models.
DatuFly software
ge ne r a te s a flight and
i m a g e -t a k i n g p l a n f o r
WWW.GPSWORLD.COM
the DJI Drone, based on

the best practice requirements of DatuGram 3D
photogrammetry, ensuring
survey-grade accuracy, high
quality and quick results.
New drone regulations
have expedited the adoption
of drones in a wide range of
NOVEMBER 2016
surveying related applications, according to Paul Xu,

DJIs director of enterprise
solutions.
DJI-Datumate Site Survey Solutions are available
globally from the DJI online
store, as well as through DJI
and Datumate dealers.
MARKET WATCH
UAV 2
TRANSPORTATION
2
Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
Syntony Rises High by Going Underground
yntony, a GNSS simulator company based in Toulouse,

France, has landed a 1 million location infrastructure
project for the underground metro in Stockholm,
Sweden.
Stockholms metro stations are deep underground, dug
under the sea in and around Stockholm. The metro lacked
a system that would enable emergency 911 calls with
associated essential localized position information to be
carried from within the stations.
Syntony was able to provide a GP S-like signal
infrastructure at the stations that is compatible with GPSenabled smartphones. Instead of using Wi-Fi and Bluetooth,
the system reproduces the GPS signal with transmitters,
a signal recognizable by smartphones. With the system
installed, emergency calls can be located in the underground.
During its proof-of-concept tests, Syntony verified that there
was no radiation of the signal outside any of the entrances to
the test station and therefore no GPS interference.
Riders will be able to make locatable

emergency calls from Stockholms metro.
The system worked so well that Syntony was contracted in
January to equip all 50 metro stations in Stockholm. Syntony
is now is in talks with Singapore and is working to spread
its system to the metros of other major cities worldwide.
NOVEMBER 2016
WWW.GPSWORLD.COM
G P S W O R L D 35
MARKET WATCH
MAPPING
US Transit Map Database Released
he U.S. Department of Transportations (DOT)

Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS)
has released National Transit Map data, a geospatial
database containing information from 270 transit agencies that provides
open, machine-readable
data about stops, routes and
schedules.
The openly available
map of fixed-guideway and
fixed-route transit service
in America will allow the
DOT to demonstrate the
importance and role of
transit in American society
and to identify and address
Almost 200 agencies participated in creating the National

Transit Map.
gaps in access to public economic development, or
transportation.
on reducing poverty in lowIt w i l l a ls o supp or t income neighborhoods.
research, planning and
The initial map consists
analysis on the benefits of General Transit Feed
of transit, such as the Specification (GTFS) data
e c o n o m i c i mp a c t s o f feeds registered with the
transit on a communitys bureau in response to a
March request for the data

from U.S. Transportation
Secretar y Anthony
Fo x x . D at a f r o m 2 7 0
transit agencies provided
information on more than
398,000 stops and stations
and almost 10,000 routes.
This first version of
the National Transit Map
contains data for 84 percent
of the top 25 urban transit
agencies with fixed-route
service, 74 percent of the top
50 agencies, and a third of all
urban transit agencies with
fixed-route service.
DOT hopes to add
additional transit agencies
for an updated second
version, out later this year.
INCIDENT SOFTWARE HONORED WITH INTERGEO AWARD

he Incident Analyzer Smart
M.App, by Hexagon, won the
Wichmann Innovations Award
2016 for Best Software on Oct. 13 at
Intergeo in Hamburg, Germany.
The Smart M.App helps a variety of
industries visualize trends and identify
correlations in mapping incident data.
Incident Analyzer provides an
intuitive, user-friendly environment
for consuming incident data in a
dynamic information experience,
according to Hexagon.
With Incident Analyzer and a few
mouse clicks, almost anyone can
create, manage, disseminate, share,
and host a wide array of dynamic
intelligence reports that depict
meaningful spatial patterns within
incident data sets in an interactive
fashion, Hexagon said.
36 G P S W O R L D
The app is useful for

professionals in law enforcement,
utilities, transportation,
government, health and
commercial enterprises.
WWW.GPSWORLD.COM
NOVEMBER 2016
Hotspot Map: Hotspots indicate some

form of clustering in a spatial distribution.
In this Incident Analyzer screenshot, the
map layers are toggled on, showing how
the hotspot layer provides insight into
distribution and frequency of incidents.
MARKET WATCH
MAPPING
Geodata Key to New Business World
eodata is key to the

digital future and a
4.0 business world,
according to a new
report released at Intergeo 2016, held Oct. 1113
in Hamburg, Germany. At
the heart of this business
vision is the networking of
sensors that must have location data in order to fulfill
their value.
The 116-page Intergeo
Report includes sections on
smart cities, public participation, autonomous driving
with live mapping, and sur-
veying on the open seas.

GNSS Update. An eightpage GNSS Update section
features CEOs answering
questions about the market focus of their GNSS
products, the role of georeferencing in the Internet
of Things, the coming of age
of precise point positioning
(PPP), and the opportunities
for GNSS opened up by autonomous driving.
Networking Everything.
The Internet of Things is permeating all areas of life. At
its center are the tiny pieces
of information that assign

coordinates to a parking
space, a loading berth for a
container ship, a screw in the
shelves of a suppliers warehouse, or the alarm system
of a family home. Degrees,
minutes and seconds show
people the way, answer a
range of questions and help
make informed decisions.
Content Is King. Key companies in the geoinformation
sector have taken onboard
the value of geoinformation. The use of geodata as
added value for their prod-
NOVEMBER 2016
ucts is still very new. Esri

realized early in the sector
that selling software is no
longer sufficient on its own.
Only data enables customers to harness the value of
products. Cloud solutions
store the mountains of data,
while platforms deliver the
answers.
Geoinformation and
digitization are inextricably interlinked, and this is
just the beginning, the report concludes. Access it at
http://neu.studio-b60.de/
INTERGEOreport_2016/.
WWW.GPSWORLD.COM
G P S W O R L D 37
MARKET WATCH
UAV
SenseFly Launches eBee Plus Mapping Drone
enseFly introduced the eBee

Plus, its newest fixed-wing
system for survey-grade photogrammetric mapping, at
Intergeo 2016.
For photogrammetric-quality
mapping, upgradeable RTK/PPK
functionality and f light time of
almost an hour, the UAV is designed
for professionals working in fields
such as surveying, construction and
geospatial information systems (GIS)
who require efficient data collection
with survey-grade accuracy.
H i g h P re c i sion on D e m a nd
(HPoD) describes the drones built-in
upgrade path to real-time and postprocessing correction (RTK/PPK)
functionality. Once activated by the
user, this paid enhancement boosts the
systems achievable horizontal/vertical
absolute accuracy to 3 centimeters/5
centimeters without the need for
ground control points dramatically
reducing expensive, time-consuming
field work.
SenseFly eBee Plus

S.O.D.A. results.
eBEE PLUS HIGHLIGHTS

Built-in RTK/PPK functionality can be activated immediately or later on
demand, for survey-grade accuracy that the operator controls.
The new senseFly S.O.D.A. RGB camera developed specifically for drone
photogrammetry work features a 1-inch sensor and global shutter capable
of capturing images with a spatial resolution of 2.9 centimeters.
eMotion 3 flight and data management software features a full 3D flight
environment, mission block flight planning, cloud connectivity and free
updates.
Riegl Unveils Airborne Lidar Scanner
t Intergeo 2016, held in Hamburg, Germany, in October,

Riegl introduced the VQ-1560i
dual-lidar-channel airborne laser
scanning system. The system is designed for airborne surveying missions
from ultra-wide-area, high-altitude
mapping to mapping of complex urban
environments and city modeling.
This is Riegls latest advancement of
the LMS-Q1560, in current operation
at institutions, service providers and
research organizations worldwide.
The VQ-1560i has a fully integrated
high-performance Applanix inertial
measurement unit (IMU) and GNSS receiver suited for a variety of airborne
38 G P S W O R L D
surveying missions.
Two linear lidar channels, each enabling the recognition of several targets
per laser pulse, provide a laser pulse
repetition rate of up to 2 MHz and de-
WWW.GPSWORLD.COM
NOVEMBER 2016
liver up to 1.33 million measurements

per second on the ground. The system
allows data acquisition at a range of
point densities from 2 pts/sqm up to
more than 60 pts/sqm at operating
flight altitudes of up to 15,500 feet
above ground level.
The VQ-1560i provides online data
processing as well as smart and full
waveform recording similarly and enables multiple-time-around processing
of up to 20 pulses in the air simultaneously. The optional configuration
consists of a Phase One medium format
camera and is prepared for integration
of a secondary camera such as monochrome or infrared.
MARKET WATCH
UAV
After the Storm

Drone Flights Enable Speedy Cellular Inspections
n the wake of Hurricane Matthew,
Verizon used drones for cell-site
inspections in North Carolina and
South Carolina. The aerial survey
shortened cell-site recovery to hours
compared to potentially days, based on
the severity of flooding.
The quadcopter used was operated
by Measure UAS, which conducted
the flights with Federal Aviation
Administration (FAA) authorization.
Flights used a two-person crew that
included a ground pilot for the UAS,
and a visual observer of the operation
for safe, legal and insured operations,
Verizon said.
While Verizon was able to access
most hurricane-affected sites quickly
to assess damage, some sites were not
accessible because of extreme flooding.
Thats where the UAS came in.
AIRBORNE SERVICE
In October, Verizon conducted the
first trial with Verizons Airborne LTE
Operations during an emergency
management and disaster recovery
exercise in Cape May, New Jersey.
The exercise simulated how Verizons
network could provide 4G LTE coverage
from a 17-foot wingspan UAS operated
by American Aerospace Technologies
(AATI) to first responders in an area
impacted by a severe weather event
where no wireless service is available.
While this is the first simulation
in an emergency scenario, AATI and
Verizon are conducting trials nationally
Hurricane Matthew, which

formed Sept. 28 and dissipated Oct. 10,
brought torrential rains to the Carolinas,
causing widespread flooding. The above is a
screenshot from a drone inspection video.
testing connectivity between manned
and unmanned aircraft and Verizons
4G LTE network, including in-flight
connectivity.
STREAMING IN HD
The UAS was able to livestream and
record high-definition video and highresolution photographs of a cell site.
The first flight to a site surrounded
by water near Elm City, North Carolina,
and the Tar River Reservoir showed
engineers that the base-station
equipment which was elevated on
stilts was not underwater and had
not suffered visible damage.
After determining the site was safe to
access, Verizons Network team secured
an air boat and refueled the generator,
bringing the site back into service within
hours.
Verizon completed successful cell site
inspection trials earlier this year in New
Jersey providing valuable 3D imagery
and system performance data via UAS.
Now the company has several vendors
to aid Verizons network maintenance
and operations.
NCS TITAN
GNSS Simulator
For additional information, contact us.

In co-operation with
NOVEMBER 2016
WWW.GPSWORLD.COM
G P S W O R L D 39
MARKET WATCH
UAV 2
Unmanned Naval Exercise Weighs Anchor
nmanned Warrior 2016, the largest exercise for

marine unmanned vehicles, has gotten underway
in the North Atlantic, off the coast of Scotland.
The UKs Royal Navy hosts the event, and the
U.S. Navys Office of Naval Research is a key participant.
The exercise will test many teamed technologies, including
ONRs Lidar package for SeaHunter unmanned aerial vehicle.
Researchers will evaluate the ability of different systems to
communicate and operate as a unified force.
These systems can help protect our sailors and marines
from some of the Navys dull, dirty and dangerous missions,
like mine countermeasures, said Chief of Naval Research
Rear Adm. Mat Winter. Additionally, these systems can
increase our capabilities at a more affordable cost of the
conventional systems we currently employ. Autonomy will
enable our naval forces to stay longer, see farther, understand
more, decide faster, do more, adapt more quickly and, when
necessary, be more lethal.
Mine-hunting robots will be deployed on a test range
set up by UK defense contractor QinetiQ in one set of
exercises, to compare their performance with those of crewed
UK Navy minehunters. Remotely piloted submarines are
already routinely employed in manned mine-hunting, but
the exercise seeks to further extend use of unmanned craft.
In the exercise, the Thales Watchkeeper looks seaward, spotting passing

ships and feeding data to headquarters vessel MV Northern River in the
Irish Sea. (Photo: Royal Navy)
Unmanned vehicles supplied by Thales, Seebyte and BAE

also are participating.
Unmanned Warrior is part of Joint Warrior, a twiceyearly NATO naval exercise. Nearly 6,000 personnel, over 30
warships and 70 aircraft are participating in joint maneuvers
off Scotland during the drill.
Rwanda Launches UAV Delivery Service

Up to 150 Emergency Medical Drone Flights Made per Day
wandan President
Paul Kagame
l a u n c h e d O c t . 14
what he called worlds first
national drone deliver y
service.
The Rwandan government is using drones to
make up to 150 on-demand,
emergency deliveries per
day of lifesaving blood to 21
transfusing facilities in the
western half of the country.
The drones and delivery service are built and
operated by Zipline, a
California-based robotics
40 G P S W O R L D
company.
While Rwandas drone
delivery service will initially
focus on blood, an international partnership between
UPS, Gavi (the Vaccine Al-
WWW.GPSWORLD.COM
liance) and Zipline will help

the country quickly expand
the types of medicines and
lifesaving vaccines that can
be delivered.
Throughout the de-
NOVEMBER 2016
veloping world, access to

lifesaving and critical health
products is hampered by
what is known as the lastmile problem: the inability
to deliver needed medicine
from a city to rural or remote
locations because of lack of
adequate transportation,
communication and supply
chain infrastructure.
Each Zip can fly up to 150
kilometers round trip
even in wind and rain and
carry 3.3 pounds of blood,
which is enough to save a
persons life.
DEFENSEUPDATE
US Naval Observatory
Chooses NovAtel AntiJam Technology
he United States Naval Observatory (USNO) has

selected NovAtels GPS Anti-Jam Technology (GAJT)
to satisfy a requirement for a controlled reception
pattern antenna capability at sites throughout the Department
of Defense Information Network (DoDIN).
The DoDIN is the core global enterprise network of the
United States military and is depended upon for secure and
sensitive voice, data, video and bandwidth services. This latest
order brings the number of NovAtel GAJT antennas ordered
by the U.S. Navy to more than 600.
GAJT protects GPS-based navigation and precise timing
receivers from intentional jamming and accidental interference.
It is a null-forming antenna system that ensures satellite signals
necessary to compute position and time are always available.
The commercial off-the-shelf product comes in versions
ITM
suitable for land, sea, fixed installations and smaller platforms

such as UAVs. Military vehicles and platforms, networks and
timing infrastructure also benefit from the protection that
GAJT provides. There is no need to replace GPS receivers
already installed, as GAJT works with civil and military
receivers, and is ready for M-code, according to NovAtel.
NovAtels manufacturing techniques and quality processes
mean that that the company can ramp up quickly to meet
volume requirements, the company said.
GAJT is in use operationally by 12 allied nations around
the globe.
Located in Washington, D.C., the USNO is one of the oldest
scientific agencies in the United States, with a primary mission
to produce positioning, navigation and timing for the U.S. Navy
and the U.S.Department of Defense.
January 30 - February 2, 2017

Hyatt Regency Monterey
Monterey, California
International Technical Meeting
PTTI
Precise Time and Time Interval
Systems Appplications Meeting
Co-located 2017 International Technical Meeting (ITM) and Precise

Time and Time Interval (PTTI) Systems and Applications Meeting
ONE Registration Fee, TWO Technical Events and a Commercial Exhibit
www.ion.org
NOVEMBER 2016
WWW.GPSWORLD.COM
G P S W O R L D 41
MOBILEUPDATE
Decawave Ships 1 Million Micro-Location Chips
ecawave, which specializes

in precise location and
connectivity applications,
has reached a milestone
for its micro-location, impulse radio
ultra-wideband (IR-UWB) technology,
shipping more than one million chips.
The shipments reflect the increasing
demand for accurate micro-location
solutions from end users and customers
within the Internet of Things (IoT),
consumer and industrial markets.
According to the company, Decawave
has a target to reach five million units
shipped in the course of 2017.
Decawave offers IR-UWB wireless
technology for precise location and
connectivity applications that can
identify the specific location of any
object or person within a guaranteed
indoor location accuracy of 10
centimeters.
IR-UWB is becoming a key factor
in the IoT market and is affecting
how developers are taking devices and
smart applications to the next level of
context awareness, Decawave said in a
press release.
The increase in demand for accurate
location-based applications is evident
across consumer markets such as
connected homes, phone accessories,
drones and sports analytics, and
industrial markets with connected
buildings, factory automation and
healthcare.
ShotTracker captures every basketball players statistics for multiple players in real time.
Decawave technology also will be

embedded in cars in 2017.
The industrial market has been the
first market to leverage Decawaves
technology and several Decawave
customer solutions are already in
the field.Decawave has 15industrial
partners that can deliver software,
hardware or turn-key systems to end
customers.
Consumer Products. Pixie tags allow
customers to accurately locate, protect
and organize their valuables. The chip
is also used in Jaguars connected cars.
ShotTracker, developed by Decawave
with sporting-goods company Spalding,
allows multi-player basketball tracking.
ShotTracker captures every basketball
players statistics for multiple players
in real time.
In the consumer segment, there will
also be opportunities in access control,
remote control and connected lights as
well as home robot and trusted-zones
applications that leverage IR-UWB
accuracy, reliability and immunity
to relay attack schemes to grant or
deny access to wireless networks and
connected devices.
Another par tner, Quantitec,
combines the benefits of inertial
sensor and radio-based Decawave
technology to deliver micro-locationbased services in its Intranav solution,
designed to identify the specific
location of any object or person within
a guaranteed indoor location accuracy
of 10 centimeters or better.
MEDIATEK OFFERS HARDWARE DEVELOPMENT KIT FOR WEARABLES

MediaTeks new LinkIt 2523
Hardware Development Kit
(HDK) is for developers
looking to create sophisticated wearables such as
smartwatches, fitness trackers, health monitors and
emergency locators.
42 G P S W O R L D
Based on the MediaTek

MT2523G chipset, the
HDK produced by Silicon
Application Corp (SAC)
offers dual-mode Bluetooth
and comprehensive GNSS
standards support and
performance in terms of
WWW.GPSWORLD.COM
time-to-first-fix, accuracy
and power consumption.
It takes advantage of the
platforms common tool
NOVEMBER 2016
chain and set of application

programming interfaces. It
offers developers the ability
to create a range of IoT
devices using a common
software development kit,
the MediaTek LinkIt SDK
v4.
WITH RICHARD B. LANGLEY
PRECISION GNSS FOR EVERYONE

Precise Positioning Using Raw GPS Measurements from Android Smartphones
BY Simon Banville and Frank van Diggelen
he development of low-cost GNSS chips spurred

a revolution in positioning, navigation and
timing (PNT) devices. Once reserved for military
operations and high-end geodetic applications,
GNSS positioning eventually found its way into the lives
of millions (if not billions) of users with the development
of GNSS-enabled car navigation devices and smartphones.
The meter-level accuracies provided by GNSS receivers in
smartphones enabled a wide range of location-based services
including social networking, vehicle tracking, weather
services and so on. At the other end of the spectrum, more
expensive GNSS equipment can provide centimeter- and
even millimeter-level accuracies by tracking signals on
multiple frequencies and by using high-quality antenna and
receiver components. Such GNSS receivers are utilized in a
variety of applications such as tectonic motion monitoring,
land surveying, precision farming, oil and gas exploration,
and machine control.
During its I/O 2016 conference held in May 2016, Google
announced that raw GNSS measurements from smartphones
and tablets running the Android N (Nougat = version 7)
operating system would be made available to developers. The
implications of this initiative are significant for the community
since it allows us to move away from the black-box concept of
the GNSS receiver providing meter-level accuracies and opens
up the possibilities of using pseudorange, Doppler and carrierphase measurements to derive more accurate positions.
Even if the low-cost GNSS antennas and chips contained
in smartphones will never outperform high-end geodetic
instruments, it is an interesting research avenue to investigate
how far these devices can take us. This opportunity could in
turn spark the emergence of new applications that would not
have been envisioned before.
Even though the opportunities for high-precision
positioning with smartphones were limited prior to this
announcement, scientists and engineers have already tried
to tackle this issue. For instance, researchers at the University
of Texas at Austin used a smartphone antenna to feed
GNSS signals into a software-defined receiver built at their
facility. While carrier phases were affected by significant
time-correlated errors such as multipath, centimeter-level
differential positioning could still be achieved. Direct
access to GNSS measurements from modified smartphone
firmware was also reported. In one such experiment, a

survey-grade antenna was used to feed GNSS signals to
a modified Samsung Galaxy S5 smartphone running a
Broadcom GNSS chip. The analysis revealed a nonzero
and drifting bias in the carrier-phase measurements
that prevented both floating-point-valued-ambiguity
and integer-ambiguity-fixed solutions to be computed.
Microsoft Mobile also produced custom firmware for the
Nokia Lumia 1520 phablet smartphone, allowing access
to raw GNSS measurements from the phones internal
Qualcomm integrated receiver. This data, analyzed by
members of the Finnish Geospatial Research Institute,
identified pseudorange measurement noise on the order of
tens of meters and carrier-phase observations contaminated
by several outliers. As a result, only meter-level positioning
could be achieved.
In the following sections, we first explain how raw GNSS
measurements can be accessed from the Android N operating
system (OS). After performing a preliminary assessment of
the data quality, we use state-of-the-art positioning software
developed at Natural Resources Canada to assess whether
precise positioning can currently be achieved using raw GPS
observations collected by a smartphone.
ACCESSING RAW GNSS MEASUREMENTS

The Android operating system defines application
programming interfaces (APIs), which are a collection
of protocols allowing users to access the systems
functionalities. The GNSS raw measurements are contained
in the GnssClock and GnssMeasurement software classes,
which are described in the android.location APIs. Google
has released the GnssLogger application or app along with
its source code (see FIGURE 1). You can find the app at https://
github.com/google/gps-measurement-tools/releases
(download the file GnssLogger.apk). You can use the app
as-is to log the GNSS measurements to a text file, or you can
use the source code to build the GNSS measurements into
your own app. At the same GitHub repository, you will also
find the measurement data used in this article, and Matlab
files for reading, processing and plotting the data.
The GnssLogger app logs the measurement data in
comma-separated-value (csv) text format, and sends the
file by Internet to your e-mail, Google Drive or some other
file-sharing facility. The data fields are described in the
NOVEMBER 2016
WWW.GPSWORLD.COM
G P S W O R L D 43
GnssClock and GnssMeasurement classes in the online

android.location API documentation. The app logs the
decoded ephemeris data in decimal representations of the
bytes defined by the respective constellation interface control
documents (ICDs). The android.location format is more
aligned with typical mobile devices than existing formats,
and includes concepts such as hardware clock discontinuity
(to support power-save duty cycling), and received satellite
time modulo 1, 2, 4, 10 or 20 milliseconds; 0.6, 1, 2 or 6
seconds; 1 day; or 1 week; depending on the satellite system,
and the highest sync state achieved per satellite (such as
code lock, bit sync, subframe sync and so on). This was done
because smartphone fixes are often achieved before bit sync,
INNOVATION
INSIGHTS
BY RICHARD B. LANGLEY
IT WAS 1999. That was the year when the
first mobile or cell phones equipped with
GPS became available. Garmin introduced
the NavTalk Pilot aimed at aviators and
Benefon, a former Finnish cell-phone
manufacturer, offered the Benefon
Esc! These devices benefited from the
continuing reduction in the size (and power
needs) of GPS receivers, which had been
shrunk to just a few integrated circuits or
chips. I documented that progress in GPS
technology in an article for this column
in April 2000 titled Smaller and Smaller:
The Evolution of the GPS Receiver. In
that article, I also mentioned that receiver
modules had been made small enough
to be put in a wristwatch. This was
something that I and other researchers
at the University of New Brunswick
had predicted in a paper presented at a
meeting in 1983. Talk about prescient.
In our paper, we said With the
miniaturization and cost reduction being
experienced continually, it is surely safe
to postulate the limit of this evolution: a
cheap wrist locator giving instantaneous
positions to an accuracy of 1 [millimeter].
Elsewhere in the paper, we suggested a
price for this technological wonder of $10,
and that it would be available sometime
44 G P S W O R L D
frame sync or time of day/week have been decoded. Thus

one can derive Radio Technical Commission for Maritime
Services (RTCM) or Receiver-Independent Exchange
(RINEX) formats from the Android raw measurements, but
not vice-versa without losing information. Developers are
encouraged to create RTCM and RINEX logging apps and
publish them on the Google Play Store.
The first available Android products with GNSS raw
measurements are the following devices running the
Android N OS: Nexus 9 tablet, Nexus 5x phone, Nexus
6p phone, Pixel phone and the Pixel XL phone. The raw
measurements from Nexus 9 include accumulated delta
range (that is, carrier-phase measurements) for GPS and
in the twenty-first century.

Costing about $400 and giving GPS
Standard Positioning Service accuracies,
the first wrist locator also came on
the market in 1999 before the 21st
century began. While we may have been
a bit overly optimistic in the capabilities
and cost of the wrist locator, the
basic prediction came true earlier than
expected. And I said in that April 2000
column that theres room for further
development. No kidding. It wasnt
many years after that GPS World article
appeared that we had announcements
of single-chip receivers that could be
more easily integrated into cell phones
and other devices. And today we have
system on chip integrated circuits that
combine many of the major functions of
a cell phone into a single chip including a
multi-core microprocessor, modems for
two-way radio communications and most
of the functioning of a GNSS receiver.
And I say GNSS receiver as the latest
chips support not just GPS but GLONASS,
BeiDou, Galileo and the Quasi-Zenith
Satellite System as well as satellite-based
augmentation systems.
The widespread addition of GPS
receivers to cell phones was initially
stimulated by E-911 requirements in
North America and similar initiatives
elsewhere. In the United States, the Federal
Communications Commission requires
cell-phone carriers to report phone location
to within 50 meters for 67 percent of
WWW.GPSWORLD.COM
NOVEMBER 2016
emergency calls, and within 150 meters

for 90 percent of calls. Such accuracies
are readily achieved in most outdoor
locations even with some multipath signal
degradation. In fact, positioning accuracies
for cell phones in benign environments
are often better than 10 meters, even
approaching the meter level at times.
This allows us to use applications on
our GNSS-equipped smartphones for
navigation, for example. As a result, some
smartphone users are abandoning their
vehicle satnavs in a move not unlike the
abandonment of landline telephones.
While positioning accuracy at the meter
or few-meter level may be adequate for
pedestrian and vehicle navigation, submeter-level accuracy might be desirable
for certain tracking applications and other
usesincluding some we havent even
dreamed of yet. So, are such cell-phone
positioning accuracies achievable with
current technology? How close are we
to having personal navigation devices
with the one-millimeter accuracy of
our futuristic wrist locator? Thanks to
Googles recent release of code to permit
access to the raw GNSS measurements
from smartphones and tablets running
a version of the Android operating
system, researchers and developers
are able to answer that question. In this
months column, we take a look at some
initial efforts to independently process
smartphone measurements. How good
are the results? Read on.
measurements over periods of many

minutes. A more detailed explanation
of duty cycling is given in a subsequent
section of this article.
GPS satellite
RAW GNSS MEASUREMENTS
Carrier phase
0.2 cm uncertainty
GLONASS satellite
FIGURE 1 GnssLogger screenshot, showing

raw measurements from a GPS satellite and a
GLONASS satellite.
GLONASS. The Nexus 5x, Nexus

6p and Pixel phones track GPS and
GLONASS, but the raw measurements
from these phones are from GPS only,
and do not include carrier phase.
Future Android phones with the
Android N (or newer) OS, when paired
with GPS chips manufactured in 2016
or later, will support the GNSS raw
measurements API.
The Nexus 9 tablet has duty cycling
disabled in the forthcoming Android
N 7.1 release, so it is suitable for
collecting continuous carrier-phase
Phone laid down
40
C/N0 (dB-Hz)
Phone in hand
Delta pseudorange error

(meters per second)
Phone in hand
30
20
10
0
21:46
21:47
21:48
21:49
21:50
GPS Time
G02
G05
G12
G15
G18
G20
G21
G25
G26
G29
20
1.00
15
0.75
10
0.50
0.25
-5
-0.25
-10
-0.50
-15
-0.75
-20
21:46
21:47
21:49
-1.00
21:50
GPS Time
G31
FIGURE 2 Carrier-to-noise-density ratio for II tracked GPS satellites.
21:48
Doppler error (meters per second)
50
To get a first glance into the quality

of the GNSS data provided by a
smartphone, a 3-minute data set was
collected on August 22, 2016, at the
Googleplex, located in Mountain
View, California. An engineering
build of the Android N OS was
used with the Samsung Galaxy S7
smartphone running the Broadcom
4774 GNSS chip. This device enabled
logging of carrier-phase, Doppler and
pseudorange measurements on the L1
signal for GPS, GLONASS, BeiDou,
Galileo and QZSS. However, in the
data processing described below, only
GPS observations were used.
The GNSS antenna contained
within the smartphone uses linear
polarization, making it especially
susceptible to multipath effects resulting from GNSS signals bouncing
off the ground or nearby surfaces before reaching the antenna. In the process of computing the observations,
the GNSS receiver must discriminate
between the direct signal and the
reflected ones, resulting in noisier
and possibly biased measurements.

FIGURE 2 shows the carrier-to-noisedensity ratio (C/N0) for the signal at
the antenna input. Differences in the
elevation angle of satellites above the
horizon typically explains the differences of C/N0 values among satellites.
The sudden sharp variations on all
satellites simultaneously can be attributed to the operator touching the
phone. The C/N0 values measured
in this example are approximately
10 dB-Hz lower than typical values
obtained from a geodetic-quality
antenna and receiver, which, as we
expect, impacts the quality of the
smartphone measurements.
For instance, consider GPS satellite
G29 that had, on average, the highest
C/N0 values in our data set. FIGURE
3 displays, in red, the error in the
time variation of the pseudorange
with respect to the carrier-phase
measurements, computed by
differencing both observables between
adjacent 1-second epochs. It is clear
that, even for the satellite with the
strongest signal, the noise level is at
the meter level and is about one order
of magnitude larger than geodeticquality measurements. The noise in
the Doppler measurements can also
be evaluated in a similar fashion, by
Delta pseudorange
Doppler
FIGURE 3 Pseudorange rate and Doppler errors of GPS satellite G29 with
respect to carrier-phase measurements.
NOVEMBER 2016
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G P S W O R L D 45
15
30
20
Position estimate (meters)
25
15
10
5
0
-5
-10
-15
-20
10
5
0
-5
-10
-25
-30
21:46
21:47
21:48
21:49
-15
21:46
21:50
21:47
GPS Time
North
East
21:48
21:49
21:50
GPS Time
Up
North
East
Up
FIGURE 4 Position estimates using pseudorange data only. The plotted

estimates are differences with respect to the mean values in each
component.
FIGURE 5 Position estimates using pseudorange and Doppler data. The

plotted estimates are differences with respect to the mean values in
each component.
comparing the mean Doppler value of two epochs with

respect to the epoch-difference of carrier phases. Doppler
measurements, useful in deriving the velocity of the user
(speed and direction), show a much better performance with
a precision at the level of a few centimeters per second.
To obtain a better insight into how noisy measurements
propagate into position estimates, we show the position errors in the north (latitude), east (longitude) and up (vertical)
components in FIGURE 4. To mitigate satellite-related errors, we
used precise satellite orbit and clock corrections computed
at Natural Resources Canada (NRCan) instead of the broadcast values transmitted in the navigation message of the GPS
satellites. Atmospheric delays affecting the propagation of
the signals were also accounted for. The tropospheric delay
was computed based on temperature and pressure values
provided by the Global Pressure and Temperature (GPT)
model, while the ionospheric delay was mitigated by using
a global ionospheric map, also computed at NRCan. Additional error sources affecting GNSS observations were also
accounted for, such as relativistic effects caused by the Earths
rotation during signal propagation (a dekameter-level effect
often referred to as the Sagnac effect) and the satellite orbit
eccentricity (a meter-level effect). Earth tides resulting from
the gravitational pull of the sun and the moon (a decimeterlevel effect) were also considered, although this error source
is not quite perceptible at this point. Measurement weighting was performed using the C/N0 values provided by the
smartphone.
Since the exact location of the smartphone is unknown,
Figure 4 displays the position estimates with respect
to the mean values for each component. With position
dilution of precision (PDOP) values between 1.3 and 1.5,
an indication of good satellite geometry, the meter-level
precisions obtained reflect the quality of the pseudorange

measurements. While a meter-level accuracy is sufficient
for most applications such as car navigation or finding
your friends, the purpose of our study is to determine if it is
possible to improve on such results.
As we have seen from Figure 3, Doppler measurements
can provide a better estimate of the smartphone velocity.
They can be incorporated into a positioning solution by
adding velocity states (in the north, east and up directions)
and by defining a maximum acceleration for the phone (in
this case, it was set to a conservative value of 4.9 ms-2).
FIGURE 5 shows the resulting solution, where the position has
a much smoother variation due to the velocity information
provided by the Doppler measurements. During the first
few epochs, larger residuals for some satellites (at the meter
level) were observed for the Doppler observations, which
resulted in a poor velocity determination. The original csv
format generated by the GnssLogger app also contained
the precision of the Doppler observables, which could have
allowed for the identification of these outliers, although this
information was lost when translating this file to the RINEX
format used by the positioning software.
To turn the smartphone into a high-precision positioning
tool, it is imperative to make use of carrier-phase
measurements, which are at least 100 times more precise
than pseudorange measurements. Since a GNSS receiver can
only track the change in carrier phases, these measurements
contain an unknown offset with respect to a true range
measurement, referred to as a carrier-phase ambiguity. This
offset is a constant value as long as the receiver continuously
tracks the satellite. When obstructions such as trees,
buildings, overpasses, and so on are present between the
satellite and the GNSS receivers antenna, signal tracking
46 G P S W O R L D
WWW.GPSWORLD.COM
NOVEMBER 2016
12
1.0
0.8
10
Count
8
6
4
2
Phone
in hand
0.6
Phone
in hand
0.4
Phone laid down
0.2
0
-0.2
-0.4
-0.6
-0.8
0
21:46
21:47
21:48
21:49
-1.0
21:46
21:50
21:47
North
Ambiguity resets
FIGURE 6 Number of carrier-phase ambiguity resets and number of

satellites used in the solution.
21:49
21:50
East
Up
FIGURE 7 Position estimates using pseudorange, Doppler and carrierphase data. The plotted estimates are differences with respect to the
mean values in each component.
interruptions are likely to occur. In this case, the initial

offset value is changed and the carrier-phase ambiguity
needs to be reset in the position filter. During poor signal
tracking conditions, such as in urban canyons or under a
tree canopy, carrier-phase measurements often suffer from
many discontinuities and provide little to no benefit to the
solution. However, with continuous signal tracking, a much
more precise solution can be obtained.
FIGURE 6 shows that the number of ambiguity resets in the
data set collected were typically low, except for a few epochs
where three or four satellites experienced simultaneous
discontinuities. In such instances, it is likely that the solution
will not be quite as stable as during continuous tracking on
all satellites.
To exploit the full potential of carrier-phase measurements,
a careful modeling of all error sources must be achieved. In
addition to the error sources discussed earlier, the so-called
carrier-phase wind-up effect caused by the rotation of the
satellite antennas as the satellites revolve around Earth was
accounted for. High-precision GNSS processing strategies
also typically include modeling of the user antenna phasecenter variations, although this information is not yet
available for smartphone antennas. As illustrated in FIGURE 7,
including carrier-phase measurements in the positioning filter
dramatically improved the precision of the position estimates.
Notice that the scale of the y-axis has been reduced from 15
meters in Figure 5 to 1 meter in Figure 7. At this point, it
should be stressed that the solution is becoming precise, but is
by no means accurate. With noisy pseudorange measurements
and only three minutes of data, we are still expecting an
accuracy of only a few meters. Nevertheless, the displacement
measured by the GPS data is now closer to its expected value.
Now, it is still not clear if some of the position fluctuations
observed in Figure 7 are caused by the poor quality of
1.0
0.8
Number of satellites
21:48
GPS Time
GPS Time
Phone
in hand
0.6
0.4
0.2
Phone
in hand
Phone laid down
0
-0.2
-0.4
-0.6
-0.8
-1.0
21:46
21:47
21:48
21:49
21:50
GPS Time
North
East
Up
FIGURE 8 Position estimates as in Figure 7 but with precise external

ionospheric information.
carrier-phase measurements or by residual ionospheric

effects. To answer this question, we extracted precise slant
ionospheric delays from a nearby permanent GPS station
operated by UNAVCO (formerly known as the University
Navstar Consortium). This station, labeled SLAC, is located
approximately 10 kilometers to the west of the Googleplex.
The slightly more stable position estimates obtained, and
shown in FIGURE 8, confirm that residual ionospheric errors
contaminated the solution shown in Figure 7. These results
demonstrate that, by using carrier-phase measurements
and by carefully modeling the error sources affecting GPS
observations, it is possible to derive a centimeter-level
displacement of the smartphone. Noisier position estimates
in Figure 8 correlate well with fluctuations in C/N0 presented
in Figure 2 or the ambiguity resets identified in Figure 6, and
highlights that careful handling of the phone is required for
obtaining such results.
NOVEMBER 2016
WWW.GPSWORLD.COM
G P S W O R L D 47
One of the major challenges for smartphone

manufacturers is to increase battery life. Since continuous
use of the smartphones GNSS receiver would quickly
drain the battery, the receiver employs a process known as
duty cycling; for example, tracking GNSS signals for 200
milliseconds before shutting down for 800 milliseconds, then
repeating. As you can imagine, it is not possible for the GNSS
receiver to provide continuous carrier-phase measurements
with duty cycling enabled. There is, however, an exception
to this process: the receiver remains continually active while
decoding the navigation message. From a cold start, it takes
several minutes to decode the necessary parts of the message
for the satellites in view, providing us with a few minutes of
continuous carrier-phase tracking. This workaround was
exploited to obtain the data set analyzed in this study, but is
definitely not a viable option for real-life applications.
The results presented so far demonstrate that, at this
point, precise displacements can be estimated using raw
GPS measurements from a smartphone. While this feature
can be useful in some applications, it could also be desirable
to obtain centimeter-level accuracies with a smartphone.
So, what are the current limitations to performing realtime kinematic (RTK) positioning with smartphones?
To answer this question, we need to invoke the concept
of ambiguity resolution, the well-known technique in
differential positioning allowing precise identification of
the integer carrier-phase ambiguities. Ambiguity resolution
is the key to centimeter-level accurate positioning since it
effectively transforms carrier-phase measurements into
very precise range measurements. However, single-epoch
ambiguity resolution requires a very good (decimeterlevel or better) initial position. It should be obvious when
examining Figure 4 that this condition cannot be satisfied
with the current quality of pseudorange measurements. The
smartphone antenna is definitely the main culprit for this
issue, and the use of an external antenna could be a viable,
although cumbersome and expensive, solution. Another
option for obtaining centimeter-level accuracies would be
to average measurement noise for several minutes while
benefiting from the continuity of carrier phases. In this case,
duty cycling is certainly a barrier that needs to be addressed.
Smartphone or tablet manufacturers could solve this issue
by adding an option to disable duty cycling of the GNSS
receiver, such as has been done on the Nexus 9 tablet.
CONCLUSIONS
examined the quality of the data with the purpose of deriving

precise positioning information from a smartphone. Our
preliminary results confirmed that noisy pseudorange
observations can, at the moment, only provide meter-level
accuracies. Nevertheless, the current quality of carrier-phase
measurements can potentially allow for a precise (centimeterlevel) displacement of a smartphone to be computed. There
are still some obstacles preventing smartphones from
competing with low-cost RTK units, namely the quality of
the antenna and the duty cycling of the GNSS receiver. We
hope that, by exposing these shortcomings, the scientific
community will find solutions and improve on the results
presented herein.
Precise positioning with smartphones will also reveal a
plethora of new issues associated with using these devices
as high-precision instruments. For example, centimeter-level
accuracies can only really be achieved after antenna phase
centers have been characterized. Centering of the devices
over the point of interest also needs further investigation.
The handling of the phone to avoid signal blockages
or measurement degradation certainly requires special
attention. These areas offer lots of room for improvements
and could very well mark the beginning of a new research era
in high-precision GNSS positioning.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
We would like to thank Mohammed Khider and Daniel
Estrada Alva of Google for creating and publishing the
GnssLogger app. We also thank them and Lifu Tang, Marc
Stogaitis, Steve Malkos and Wyatt Riley of Google for
creating the GNSS raw measurement API. This article is
published under the auspices of the NRCan Earth Sciences
Sector as contribution number 20160169.
SIMON BANVILLE has been working for the Canadian Geodetic Survey
of Natural Resources Canada (NRCan) in Ottawa since 2010 as a senior
geodetic engineer where he is involved in precise point positioning using
global navigation satellite systems. He received his Ph.D. in 2014 from the
Department of Geodesy and Geomatics Engineering at the University of
New Brunswick, Canada, under the guidance of Richard B. Langley.
FRANK VAN DIGGELEN leads the Android Location Team at Google in
Mountain View, California. He is also a consulting professor at Stanford
University, Stanford, California, where he created an online GPS course,
offered free through Stanford University and Coursera. Van Diggelen is the
inventor of coarse-time GNSS navigation, and co-inventor of the extended
ephemeris concept for assisted-GNSS (A-GNSS). He holds over 80 issued
U.S. patents on A-GNSS. He is the author A-GPS, the first textbook on
A-GNSS. He received his Ph.D. in electrical engineering from Cambridge
University, England.
The Android N operating system now allows us to access

raw GNSS measurements from smartphones or tablets
through various APIs. Making this data available opens
up a world of possibilities to developers for the creation of
new applications. In the study reported in this article, we
48 G P S W O R L D
WWW.GPSWORLD.COM
NOVEMBER 2016
MORE ONLINE
Further Reading
For references related to this article, go to gpsworld.com and click on "More" in
the navigation bar, then on "Innovation."
ACCELERATING SOFTWARE RECEIVERS
his paper addresses both the efficiency and the

portability of a computer program in charge of the
baseband signal processing of a GNSS receiver.
Efficiency, in this context, refers to optimizing the
speed and memory requirements of the software receiver.
Specifically, the interest is focused on how fast the software
receiver can process the incoming stream of raw signal samples
and, in particular, if signal processing up to the position fix
can be executed in real-time (and how many channels the
host computer executing the receiver application can sustain
in parallel).
This is achieved by applying the concept of parallelization
at different abstraction levels. The paper describes strategies
based on task, data and instruction-level parallelism, as well as
actual implementations released under an open source license
and the results obtained with different commercially available
computing platforms. At the same time, the proposed solution
also addresses portability, understood as the usability of the
same software in different computing environments.
By Carles FernandezPrades, Javier Arribas and Pau Closas,
Centre Tecnologic de Telecomunicacions de Catalunya, Spain.

Presented at ION GNSS+, September 2016.
AN INTEGRATED ALGORITHM BASED ON BEIDOU/GPS/

IMU AND ITS APPLICATION FOR ANOMALOUS DRIVING
DETECTION
This paper introduces an integrated algorithm for detecting
lane-level anomalous driving. Lane-level high accuracy
vehicle positioning is achieved by fusing GPS and Beidou
feeds with Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) using Unscented
Particle Filter (UPF). Anomalous driving detection is
achieved based on the application of a newly designed Fuzzy

Inference System. Computer simulation and real-world field
test demonstrate the advantage of the proposed approach
over existing ones from previous studies.
By Rui Sun and Hongyang Bai, Nanjing University of
Aeronautics and Astronautics, and Ke Han, Jun Hu and
Washington Y. Ochieng, Imperial College London. Presented at
ION GNSS+ 2016.
Diagram of Typical Code and carrier tracking loops in a GNSS

receiver. Colored dotted-line boxes show functions implemented in SIMD
technology. Lanes 16ic are data streams whose items are complex numbers
with real and imaginary components represented with 16-bit integers,
whereas 32fc indicates those with complex numbers with real and imaginary
components in 32-bit floating point representation.
ADVERTISER INDEX: COMPANIES FEATURED IN THIS ISSUE

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NOVEMBER 2016
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INSIDE FRONT COVER

33
23
13
19
15
22
17
29
37
G P S W O R L D 49
SEEN HEARD
MISSING: 200 GIGATONS OF ICE
A new study based on GPS measurements
of the Earths crust suggests the Greenland
ice sheet is melting 7 percent faster than
previously believed and may contribute more
to future sea level rise than predicted. The
Ohio State University research found that
Greenland lost close to 2,700 gigatons of
ice from 20032013, rather than the 2,500
gigatons previously believed. After installing
GPS devices around the perimeter of the ice sheet, the scientists discovered that a hotspot in
the Earths mantle that feeds Icelands active volcanoes has been distorting data.
SEISMIC SEPTENTRIO
The Oregon Department of Transportation
(ODOT) is deploying 19 Septentrio PolaRx5
GNSS reference stations to augment and
update its statewide real-time GNSS network.
The Septentrio receivers are being integrated
into the UNAVCO
EarthScope Plate
Boundary Observatory,
which measures Earth
deformation from the
motion of tectonic
plates in the western
United States.
BRINGING A LEGEND
TO LIFE
The Sverris saga of King
Sverre says that 800 years
ago, a dispute over the true
successor to the Norwegian
throne culminated in a
corpse being thrown into
a well to poison the drinking water. This
legend was recently found to be true when
a skeleton was unearthed at Sverresborg in
Trondheim, Norway. The archaeologists used
an Altus APS3G receiver to record the exact
position of every medieval artifact recovered at
Sverresborg castle. Even deep inside the well,
the receiver recorded positions with centimeter
precision.
CLIMATE CHANGE, AHOY!

Crystal Cruises luxury ocean ship Crystal
Serenity traversed the historic Northwest
Passage Aug. 27 to Sept. 16, from Alaska to
New York. The Northwest Passage is so remote,
it was only first transited in 1906, and on only
a handful of occasions since. The sailing took
three years of planning and collaboration with
Arctic communities. Harris partner exactEarth
tracked the voyage through the notoriously
treacherous passage. The companies provide real-time global coverage
for maritime vessel tracking through the Iridium NEXT constellation.
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50 G P S W O R L D
WWW.GPSWORLD.COM
NOVEMBER 2016
IS A 7-LETTER WORD
INTRODUCING
NOVATEL OEM7
OEM7 is the next generation of NovAtels world-class global positioning
platform. Technology advances found only on the OEM7 will ensure
the accuracy, availability and reliability that your applications demand.
Westand side by side with you to innovate and solve your most challenging
positioning problems, so no matter where your dreams take you,
you can believe in the power of 7.
novatel.com/explore

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IS A 7-LETTER WORD

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ot with Purple Haze, but

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Current integrations of GPS

Testing GNSS receiver spoofing

With the sophistication of

For jamming, test for multifrequency/constellation,

Most jamming occurs due to

Policy and System

First OCX Receiver

arris Corporation delivered the

M-Code User Equipment Certified

-3 Communications announced that

Certification review was performed by

aytheon reached a milestone in

GPS III Satellites 9 and 10 Procured,

he U.S. Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center

this year. The second satellite, GPS III SV02, is poised to

European GNSS Service Centre Opens

provision for both programmes.