NextNav’s Pinnacle 911 will deliver Z-axis capabilities with floor-level accuracy for wireless 911 calls in more than 4,400 cities and towns across the United States.

NextNav has entered into an agreement with one of the nation’s largest wireless carriers, not yet named, to deliver vertical location for Enhanced 911 (E911), using NextNav’s Pinnacle 911.

Pinnacle 911 leverages the barometric sensors already available in phones, tablets and other devices to deliver “floor-level” altitude measurements that exceed the FCC mandate for 3-meter accuracy. The Pinnacle service compares device data to local conditions, subtracting the weather and other factors to leave behind a highly accurate altitude measurement.

NextNav altitude stations create a hyperlocal model of environmental conditions. The precisely surveyed, high-density network delivers “floor level” real-time altitude data nationwide.

NextNav’s dedicated, managed network makes Pinnacle available throughout metropolitan areas, providing comprehensive coverage that scales to meet a variety of use cases.

The delivery of vertical location to public safety answering points (PSAPs) nationwide will improve emergency response in the United States. It enables first responders to accurately locate wireless 911 callers in multi-story buildings, enhancing both safety and response times, and helping to save lives.

With NextNav’s Pinnacle 911 reaching more than 4,400 cities and towns in the United States, including 90% of buildings above three stories, implementation of the service will exceed the Federal Communication Commission’s (FCC) Z-axis requirement for nationwide E911.

“For over two decades, one of public safety’s key needs has been 3D geolocation information — especially floor-level vertical location,” said Ganesh Pattabiraman, CEO of NextNav. “Partnering with one of the nation’s largest wireless carriers to deliver precise, Z-axis information will not only improve geolocation information for PSAPs, but save lives by reducing emergency response times by more than 80%. This adoption of our Pinnacle technology for 911 marks a historic step forward for communities around the nation, and public safety as a whole.”

In an independent evaluation by the Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Association commissioned by the FCC, Pinnacle was able to deliver floor-level accuracy (defined as ±3 m) 94% of the time, consistently exceeding the 80% benchmark set by the FCC.

NextNav’s Pinnacle service enables applications and technologies that rely on precise altitude data across industries, including public safety, mobile apps and gaming, lone worker tracking as well as out-of-home retail experiences.

NextNav’s extensive list of existing partners and customers includes AT&T FirstNet, Intrepid Networks, 3am, TRX Systems, Qualcomm, Bosch, Unity and Unreal Engine.

Hemisphere GNSS has announced another Vega heading and positioning OEM board using the Lyra II and Aquila chipsets.

The Vega 60 GNSS board fits industry-standard 46 x 71 mm form factors with a 60-pin connector. It can be used to replace more expensive and lesser abled 60-pin boards with either single- or dual-antenna capabilities.

Hemisphere’s Lyra II and Aquila application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) designs provide the ability to simultaneously track and process more than 1,100 channels from all GNSS constellations and signals including GPS, GLONASS, Galileo, BeiDou, QZSS, NavIC, SBAS and L-band. The ASIC technology offers Vega 60 scalable access to every modern GNSS signal available.

Cygnus interference mitigation technology is also a standard feature, providing built-in digital filtering capabilities and spectrum analysis. This provides enhanced anti-jamming as well as interference detection and mitigation.

“We are excited for the opportunity to introduce our Vega 60 board,” said Miles Ware, director of marketing at Hemisphere. “Vega 60 brings our industry-leading heading and position solutions to an OEM board footprint with very few affordable upgrade paths.”

Spirent Communications plc has chosen Navmatix s.r.o., a Czech-based company that provides cloud infrastructure for real-time data delivery, to provide cloud infrastructure for its GNSS Foresight service.

Spirent GNSS Foresight is a cloud-based service delivering real-time data on the availability and quality of GNSS signals. The solution accurately forecasts when and where GNSS positioning and navigation will be most reliable through a combination of high-definition maps and precise orbital modelling. This makes it possible to obtain a clear picture of the operating environment at a moment’s notice.

GNSS Foresight will ultimately allow unmanned vehicles, air taxis and drones to operate beyond-visual-line-of-sight (BVLOS) safely.

Navmatix will provide the cloud infrastructure required to deliver GNSS forecast data as real-time data via an API. Navmatix will be deploying full operational and developmental support, including hosting for collection and processing the GNSS forecast data through its content delivery network (CDN). The CDN allows the end user to efficiently query, comprehend and interact with the data. Navmatix will handle the foundational infrastructure of the project, a significant phase in expansion of the company as a whole.

“Spirent Communications are pioneers in GNSS test and assurance solutions, and the Spirent GNSS Foresight service expands our solutions to help autonomous systems reliably use GNSS,” said Jeremy Bennington, vic president of PNT Assurance. “Navmatix has built a framework that can deliver mission-critical services, which is also reliable and scalable. We’re excited to be partnering with Navmatix and look forward to growing Navmatix’s CDN to support the growth of Spirent GNSS Foresight solution throughout its complete lifecycle.”

Because of the amount of data generated, the architecture delivers a robust and sophisticated solution, according to Navmatix. Being entirely cloud based, it allows for continual updates and remote access. The cloud infrastructure will provide the tools necessary to deliver Spirent GNSS Foresight services to Spirent customers worldwide.

Navmatix offers managed infrastructure solutions for the operation, development and ongoing maintenance of GNSS services worldwide.

Esri has released ArcGIS IPS, an indoor positioning system. ArcGIS IPS adds a blue dot to indoor maps, enabling users to locate their current position inside a building in the same way GPS enables outdoor location indicators.

ArcGIS IPS is designed to enable new use cases to improve on-site experiences, workplace operations and efficiencies. It uses an alternative technology to enable real-time positioning inside buildings that unlocks a variety of use cases, the company said.

Use cases inside buildings include:

• real-time localization and positioning
• real-time navigation and wayfinding
• live location sharing and tracking
• live location tracking
• location data capture and analytical insights
• real-time localization and positioning.

ArcGIS IPS is available for users of ArcGIS Indoors, an indoor mapping system for smart building management, and ArcGIS Runtime SDKs, which enables the indoor positioning capability in custom-built apps.

ArcGIS IPS comes with the mobile ArcGIS IPS Setup app, which allows collection of radio signals from Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) beacons inside buildings to enable an indoor positioning system. It can make use of an existing or new beacon infrastructure and is vendor agnostic.

ArcGIS IPS geoprocessing tools are also included to set up and author an IPS environment in ArcGIS Pro.

Users can navigate to specific points of interest — places, assets or people — in real time. This requires an existing app based on ArcGIS Runtime to support routable networks. ArcGIS Indoors can also display the route to a destination.

As most GNSS industry insiders already know, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has licensed adjacent GNSS L1 protection frequencies to Ligado Networks (formerly Lightsquared) for its nationwide 4G-LTE network.

Many objections emerged as expected this second time around from government agencies, industries and U.S. forces — yet the roll-out is still underway, pending actual interference occurring. This all in an attempt to find communications bandwidth for many emerging commercial radio applications.

Now, as 5G C-Band 3.7–3.98 GHz wireless phone networks begin their FCC approved roll-out, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has apparently lodged an unanticipated objection on the grounds that cross-interference could compromise aircraft radar altimeter and wireless communications that operate at 4.2 to 4.4 GHz in the C-band.

While 5G wireless has already been operating in many parts of the world without reports of interference with aircraft systems, the FAA appears to be taking a more conservative approach to how aviation in the United States should co-exist with the new 5G phone wireless system. The FAA has proposed imposing an exclusion zone around airports for 5G wireless networks — which apparently have already been operating with reduced power in these areas — until cooperative operation has been proven.

Now along comes a new C-band wireless network (SkyLink) aimed at providing high-integrity unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) command and control (C2). The SkyLink company uAvionix has also developed a C-band Control & Non-Payload Communications (CNPC) radio for UAS applications.

Together with Thales, uAvionics recently tested its radio with its SkyLink radio network. The network has been qualified in accordance with the RTCA DO-377 standard for a network management system that monitors network and radio link health, and the radio has been developed to the draft FAA Technical Standard Order (TSO) C-213A to support critical UAS operations.

The network uses new DO-362A-compliant SkyLink C-band radios, integrates certifiable aviation-grade hardware and software, uses frequency agility, and provides critical fault monitoring and control capability. The objective is to obviate the loss of the C2 link with the vehicle, and thereby enable beyond-visual-line-of-sight (BVLOS) operations without an FAA waiver.

It’s unclear whether the emergence of the C-band network — approved by both the FAA and FCC — will play a role in the current phone network interoperability issue. However, uAvionix reports that several sites in the United States and offshore are either rolling out C-band SkyLink networks or evaluating doing so.

• North Dakota already has an ISM-band SkyLink network at its UAS test site that will shortly transition to C-band.
• The Choctaw Nation in Oklahoma under an FAA program seeks to enable BVLOS operations through a C-band C2 network.
• New Mexico State University will use a Skylink C2 network around Las Cruces airport for small UAS (sUAS) operations and testing to overcome anticipated interference from nearby Air Force and Space Force operations.
• The Tillamook UAS test range in Oregon has already installed the first ground site of a SkyLink network.
• The University of Alaska at the Fairbanks UAS test site will use uAvionics radios for testing large, heavy UAS operations.
• In Canada near the Jonesburg airport, a Skylink C2 network will support the safety case for BVLOS pipeline inspection operations for the oil industry.

While many of these new networks are not yet fully online, the use of frequency hopping, safety-monitored C-band, and certifiable transmissions for UAS command and control appears to be moving forward rapidly. Because the FAA is supporting this testing phase, it seems inevitable that large-scale C-band network rollout for UAS C2 will happen eventually.

5G phone networks, wireless UAS command and control, and aircraft safety systems essential for landing will need to find a way to co-exist and provide reliable, sustained service to their respective customer bases. Look for much more to develop in this ongoing tussle between industry groups and agencies who appear to have little in common, other than grudgingly sharing a crowded radio spectrum.

Tony Murfin
GNSS Aerospace

Successful European Cooperation

Galileo is Europe’s civil global satellite navigation constellation and a major success, being the world’s most precise satnav system and offering meter-scale accuracy to more than two billion users around the globe.

The signature of the Financial Framework Partnership Agreement (FFPA) on June 22, 2021, further strengthened effective cooperation between the European Commission (EC), the European Union Agency for the Space Program (EUSPA), and the European Space Agency (ESA) — key to successfully achieving a crucial EU Space Program component like Galileo in the current EU Multi Financial Framework (2021–2028).

The EC is the program manager, with EUSPA acting as the exploitation manager and ESA as the system development prime.

Stable Service Performance

Galileo continues to deliver excellent service performance every month in a safe, secure and seamless manner. Delivery of Galileo services is managed by EUSPA, as the Galileo service provider, with industrial partner SpaceOpal, the Galileo service operator prime contractor. The performance of Galileo services is independently monitored by the Galileo Reference Center (GRC) and regularly published on the GNSS Service Center (GSC) web portal at www.gsc-europa.eu — both agencies were developed by GMV. The security of the Galileo System is monitored by the Galileo Security Monitoring Centers (GSMC), operated by EUSPA.

With 22 satellites in service, the open service is already delivering more than 99% availability of PDOP <= 6 worldwide. This, together with the excellent ranging accuracy, suggests that most Galileo dual-frequency users are typically experiencing positioning accuracy in the order of only 2 to 3 meters.

Timing users also continue to receive accurate (in the order of 5 ns) access to Galileo System Time, which they can trace to Universal Coordinated Time (UTC) through the corresponding offset parameters transmitted by the satellites.

The SAR/Galileo service, contributing to COSPAS/SARSAT, continues to deliver both the Forward Link Service (FLS) and the Return Link Service (RLS) with more than 99% availability, allowing users in distress not only to issue an alert and be located within a few minutes, but also be notified that the alert was successfully processed and rescue is on the way. The SAR/Galileo control center is located in Toulouse (France) and operated by CNES under the authority of EUSPA. The excellent performance of the service has been demonstrated both through several rescue exercises and real-life emergencies.

Galileo Launch 11

Soyuz launcher VS-26 lifted off from French Guiana with the first pair of Galileo Batch 3 satellites on Dec. 5, 2021, at 01:19 CET. This marks the 11th Galileo launch of operational satellites in 10 years: a decade of hard work by Europe’s Galileo partners and European industry. With these satellites, the robustness of the constellation has increased, guaranteeing a higher level of service.

Thanks to an upgrade of the Ground Control Segment, the Launch and Early Orbit Phase has been for the first time conducted directly from the Galileo Control Center, rather than requiring an external mission control site. This version of the ground segment increases overall reliability and cybersecurity and opens the way to significant expansion of the Galileo constellation, allowing command and control of up to 38 satellites. The development has been performed by an industrial consortium led by GMV, harnessing state-of-the-art technology using the latest solutions on the market.

On Route to Full Operational Capability

This year will pave the way toward Full Operational Capability of Galileo services.

Industrial prime contractor OHB Systems has nearly completed production of the additional 10 recurrent satellites belonging to Galileo Batch 3. Six of them are undergoing final acceptance testing at the ESA satellite test center, and the other four are under integration at the satellite prime facilities.

Preparation for Launch 12 has already started, with the satellites’ acceptance for a launch date planned in the first months of 2022, followed by Launch 13 in autumn. This is leading toward completion of the Galileo constellation, providing an increased availability of the Galileo signal in space for both GNSS and search-and-rescue users.

From 2023 onward, the remaining Batch 3 satellites will be launched with the new Ariane 62 launch vehicle, a variant of Ariane 6 with two strap-on solid boosters. The launcher is undergoing the final stages of development, led by prime contractor ArianeGroup.

The Galileo Ground Mission Segment will undergo a complete technological refresh, including hardware virtualization and porting of several million lines of code, performed by an industrial consortium led by Thales France. A series of improvements will be introduced to increase system resilience, including an extended mode of operation to improve service continuity and robustness.

Cybersecurity monitoring of all the ground assets will be introduced as an overlay to the current ground infrastructure. The upgrade will undergo a rigorous level of qualification testing followed by worldwide deployment in a seamless way in both Galileo control centers, in both Galileo security monitoring centers, and at all remote locations without affecting continuity of service.

The service facilities that contribute to the delivery of Galileo services (the European GNSS Service Center, the Galileo Reference Center, and the SAR data service providers) will also evolve to support not only the transition from Initial Services to Full Operational Capability, but also the early roll-out of service evolutions. In this regard, extensive work is ongoing to deliver an exciting set of improvements, some of which are already in development or testing, to reach the users in the year to come:

• Improvements of the I/NAV signal to increase robustness and time-to-first-fix, while assuring full backward compatibility with legacy receivers.
• OS Navigation Message Authentication (OS-NMA) to support applications that require trust in the authenticity of the data transmitted by the Galileo satellites (a public observation campaign was launched in November 2021 to engage stakeholders and collect their feedback before moving to the initial service provision).
• An initial phase of the High Accuracy Service, delivering corrections in the Galileo E6 signal and over terrestrial network to allow users to perform precise point positioning over Europe; test signals were already transmitted with promising results.
• A Search and Rescue Beacon Command Service complementing the SAR Return Link, providing improved capabilities to timely locate beacons under authorized emergency situations (such as the disappearance of Flight MH370 in the Indian Ocean in 2014).
• A first implementation of an Emergency Warning Service over Europe, allowing the authorized national emergency-management authorities of the EU Member States to relay alert messages through Galileo signals, which can reach target areas even in case of disrupted terrestrial communications (such as due to floods or earthquakes).

Second Generation in the Making

The FFPA will bring Galileo to the next level with the development of the second generation, a further step forward with the use of many innovative technologies to guarantee the system’s unprecedented precision, robustness and flexibility.

In parallel to the completion of the first generation of Galileo, Europe has conducted in recent years preparation activities for the Second Generation (G2). Elaborating on market, user and exploitation needs collected by EUSPA, ESA identified a number of system evolution scenarios, which were discussed among relevant EU stakeholders to select the second-generation mission and services baseline to build the system infrastructure.

The evolution of Galileo capabilities will not only provide better services through advanced technical solutions identified by ESA, but will also ensure continuity of service and backward compatibility for
first-generation legacy users.

Two parallel contracts to develop and manufacture each of the six Galileo Second Generation Batch#1 satellites were kicked off in the first half of 2021 with Thales Alenia Space (Italy) and Airbus Defence & Space (Germany). The new G2 satellites will be constructed on a short time scale, with their first launch via Ariane-62 expected in less than four years, allowing them to commence operations in space as soon as possible. Both contracts have already undergone preliminary design reviews.

Development of the G2 satellites is supported by the Galileo Payload Test Bed, which provides an early proof-of-concept of the advanced G2 payload architecture. These satellites will provide, among others, the following key innovations:

• Reconfigurable fully digital navigation payload.
• Point-to-point connection between satellites by Inter-Satellite-Link for command and control and ranging functionalities.
• Electric propulsion for orbit-raising capabilities.
• Advanced jamming and spoofing protection mechanisms to safeguard Galileo signals.

System and Ground Segment definition studies, together with the associated technology pre-developments, have been performed, leading to the definition of the preliminary design and technical requirement baseline for the G2 system, a project involving most of Europe’s space industrial partners.

The G2 In-Orbit Validation Ground Segment and System Test Bed have been defined and relevant procurement procedures are ongoing, with these objectives:

• G2 Batch#1 satellites launch and early orbit phase, in-orbit testing and enhanced legacy services provision.
• G2 new capabilities in-orbit validation, including prototyping and validation of all the novel technologies that can exploit the full capabilities of the G2 Batch#1 satellites.

Definition activities for the G2 Initial Orbit Capability (IOC) are progressing well and are expected to converge in the first half of 2022, in order to establish the future roadmap for new G2 services provision in the years to come.

2022 will be a key year for the evolution of Galileo Second Generation activities, through the consolidation of the first batch of G2 satellite design and development activities and the start of development of associated G2G IOV Ground Segment and System Test Beds.

A bright future awaits Galileo, both through the completion of its Final Operational Capability and the start of evolution towards Galileo Second Generation.

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Guerric Pont is Galileo Exploitation Program manager for the European Union Agency for the Space Program (EUSPA).

Marco Falcone is Galileo First Generation Project manager for the European Space Agency (ESA).

Miguel Manteiga Bautista is Galileo Second Generation Project manager for the European Space Agency (ESA).

The digital transformation of the global economy requires precise time synchronization and valid object position information. Global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) are the most accurate tool for such tasks.

This year will be 40th anniversary of the launch of the first GLONASS satellite, and we see that the quality of navigation services is driven by the characteristics of today’s satellite navigation signals.

The first fourth-generation Glonass-K2 #13L satellite is scheduled for launch in 2022. It will broadcast a full ensemble of navigation signals — both Frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA) signals in the L1 and L2 bands and Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) signals in the L1, L2 and L3 bands. This long-awaited launch will cap a 10-year effort and begin to provide a new platform by broadcasting all the CDMA signals through a single antenna array on the satellite’s geometric axis.

The FDMA antenna array is displaced by 0.9 m from this axis, but this arrangement is done on only two satellites. The next Glonass-K2 satellites, which will be launched beginning in 2024, will have a single antenna array for all navigation signals.

The final second-generation Glonass-M satellite, scheduled to be placed in orbit next year, will provide services by open FDMA signals in the traditional bands at 1.6 GHz and 1.25 GHz. This satellite will be the seventh Glonass-M vehicle able to broadcast GLONASS L3 CDMA signals. There are only two Glonass-K satellites broadcasting this signal now, but more satellites with such a signal will be activated by the end of testing of the GLONASS modernized ground control facility.

We expect the number of satellites able to provide this service to increase by two per year as we replace Glonass-M satellites with Glonass-K and Glonass-K2 satellites.

As of this writing, 15 satellites (62% of the constellation) are working past their guaranteed life times, limiting our ability to increase the system’s accuracy. For the last decade, the signal-in-space range error (SISRE) was 1.4 m, despite the fact that newly launched satellites provide a SISRE of about 0.8 m.

Glonass-K satellites will be launched to maintain the orbit constellation within the next three years, and the accuracy of their signals will be the same or even better. These satellites have a single antenna array for all three bands and could broadcast either FDMA or CDMA signals.

In 2022, the constellation orbits will increase to six satellites in three planes, as we aim to increase the navigation service accuracy and availability (FIGURE 1). See TABLE 1 for satellite orbit parameters. This constellation will make it possible to increase navigation accuracy in the Eastern Hemisphere by about 25% through decreasing the value of the geometric factor.

Additionally, this will greatly improve the availability of the GLONASS navigation service in difficult conditions, such as locations where current users can only receive navigation signals from satellites at least 25° above the horizon. New constellation satellites will be based on the Glonass-K platform, which has passed in-orbit qualification and proved it can provide SISRE at 0.3 m. The preliminary design proved that satellites on this platform could provide an in-orbit SISRE below 0.4 m with standard cesium on-board clocks. This signal-in-space accuracy level with valid ionospheric and tropospheric model data from the navigation signal will allow users to receive a position determination error below 2 m in the plane. Navigation services from these satellites will be provided by the CDMA signal in three frequency bands.

The new satellite will weigh about 1,000 kg and be launched into orbit from both Russian spaceports (northern Plesetsk and eastern Vostochny) by the highly reliable Soyuz-2 rocket. The first launch is scheduled for 2026.

One of GLONASS’ important tasks is to transmit the UTC (SU) national time scale to consumers. Over the past few years, significant results have been achieved in this area.

• A complex of high-precision measuring instruments to compare the national coordinate timescale UTC (SU) with the GLONASS timescale was put into operation. These instruments include a transported quantum clock that provides timescale storage with an uncertainty of no more than 1 ns at an observation interval of one day, and with a transportation time of no more than 12 hours. It also provides duplex comparisons of timescales, comparing objects with the permissible uncertainty of ±1.5 ns.
• Timescale storage complexes of secondary and working standards of time and frequency VET1-5 (Irkutsk), VET 1–19 (Novosibirsk), VET 1–7 (Khabarovsk) and RET1-1 (Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky) were modernized and put into operation, providing an overall uncertainty of 3 · 10^-15 and with a maximum permissible shift of the timescale of the complex relative to the national timescale UTC (SU) of ± 10 ns.
• An optical ground-based frequency reference on cold strontium atoms was developed with an uncertainty of reproduction of the frequency unit and time of no more than 1 · 10^-17 .
• A keeper of time and frequency units was developed on the basis of a “fountain” of rubidium atoms having a frequency instability of no more than 2 · 10^-16 for equipping the standards of time and frequency units and subsequent transmission of more accurate time-frequency information to precision ground and onboard equipment and GLONASS systems.
• A developmental prototype of the national timescale storage complex of the Russian Federation was developed on the basis of a new generation of hydrogen keepers.

The application of the newly developed technical equipment made it possible to significantly reduce the maximum displacement of the national timescale relative to the International Coordinated Time Scale (UTC), which in 2020 was less than ± 3 ns (FIGURE 2). The UTC (SU) timescale ranks among the best national implementations of UTC, according to the International Bureau of Weights and Measures (BIMP).

Many important events are coming for GLONASS users in 2022. They will improve the user characteristics and lay the foundation for further development of the system.

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Sergey Karutin is general designer of the Russian GNSS program GLONASS.

Nicolay Testoedov is CEO of JSC Information Satellite Systems Reshetnev (ISS JSC), a Russian satellite manufacturing company.

Sergey Donchenko is general director of the Federal State Unitary Enterprise, Russian metrological institute of technical physics and radio engineering, VNIIFTRI FSUE.

Construction of the BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS-3) has been completed. The system was formally commissioned on July 31, 2020. In 2021, BDS continued to improve performance, expand applications and deepen cooperation, and has achieved sustained, stable and rapid development.

System Performance and Services

Currently, 45 BDS satellites are operational in orbit — 15 BDS-2 satellites and 30 BDS-3 satellites jointly provide seven types of services to users. Specifically, for the entire planet, the system provides three services:

• Positioning, navigation and timing (PNT).
• Global short-message communication.
• International search-and-rescue (SAR) services.

For the Asia-Pacific region, the system provides four additional services:

• Satellite-based augmentation.
• Ground-based augmentation.
• Precise point positioning.
• Regional short-message communication services.

The system has been operating continuously and stably since commissioning, with the average value of satellite availability better than 0.99 and the average value of satellite continuity better than 0.999.

PNT Service. As actually measured by the International GNSS Monitoring and Assessment System (iGMAS), the global horizontal positioning accuracy is about 1.52 meters, the vertical positioning accuracy is about 2.64 meters (B1C signal single frequency, 95% confidence), the velocity measurement accuracy is better than 0.1 m/s, and timing accuracy is better than 20 nanoseconds. The performance is better in the Asia-Pacific region.

FIGURE 1 shows the number of visible BDS satellites worldwide at BDT 00:00 on Nov. 18, 2021. Among them, the number of visible BDS satellites exceeds 20 in some areas of the Asia-Pacific region.

Global Short Message Communication Service. Trial service is provided through 14 medium-Earth-orbit (MEO) satellites for authorized users and low-orbit satellites, with a maximum single-message length of 560 bits, equivalent to about 40 Chinese characters.

Search-and-Rescue Service. A COSPAS/SARSAT-compliant MEOSAR service is provided by six payloads deployed on six MEO satellites. A B2b signal-based Return Link Service (RLS) is provided through 24 MEO and three IGSO satellites, which have completed testing and verification and are in the process of coordination within the framework of COSPAS-SARSAT.

Satellite-Based Augmentation Service. China’s Civil Aviation Administration is organizing satellite-ground integrated test and evaluation, and the positioning accuracy, alarm time, integrity risk and other indicators meet the requirements.

Ground-Based Augmentation Service. Real-time centimeter-level and post-processing millimeter-level services are provided for industrial and public users, based on the regional network reference stations built in China.

Precise Point Positioning Service. PPP signals are broadcast by three GEO satellites. The measured horizontal positioning accuracy is 0.24 m, the vertical positioning accuracy is 0.41 m (95% confidence), and the convergence time is less than 20 minutes.

Regional Short Message Communication Service. The short-message communication function has been tested and verified for integration into public mobile phones; large-scale application is planned.

Development of the Applications Industry

Large-scale applications of BDS have entered a critical stage of liberalization, industrialization and internationalization. The overall output value of China’s satellite navigation and location-based service industry continued to grow in 2020, up to 403.3 billion yuan (US$63.2 billion), which is about 16.9% more than its value in 2019. In terms of BDS-3-enabled basic products, an industrial chain is gradually maturing, comprised of BDS/GNSS basic chips, modules, boards, antennas and other components.

The certification and testing system of basic BDS products has been established and implemented. BDS is already supported by most mainstream chips. BDS is increasingly being integrated into the daily life of the general public. It is becoming the standard configuration for positioning functions of smartphones and other mass-market products.

Smartphone manufacturers such as Xiaomi, Huawei, Apple and Samsung already support BDS. In the first three quarters of 2021, among all types of smartphones applying for online access in China, 72.3% supported positioning function based on BDS, accounting for 93.5% of the total sales volume. The BDS ground-based augmentation function has been introduced into smartphones to achieve high-precision positioning at the 1-meter level; lane-level navigation is being piloted in several cities in China.

In terms of industrial applications, BDS has fully served multiple industries including transportation, public security, disaster relief, agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry and fishing. It has accelerated the integration into electricity, finance, communications and other infrastructure. In particular, in the fight against COVID-19 through scientific and technological approaches, BDS-based precise positioning has facilitated the efficient supply and circulation of anti-epidemic materials.

BDS-based solutions for land rights determination, precision agriculture and smart ports have served the economic and social development of countries in Asia, Eastern Europe and Africa, and BDS-based products have been applied in more than half of the world’s countries and regions.

International Cooperation

BDS has always adhered to the development concepts of openness, cooperation and resource sharing; actively carried out practical international exchanges and cooperation; and contributed to China’s peaceful use of outer space.

Bilaterally, the Eighth Meeting of the China-Russia Project Committee on Major Strategic Cooperation in Satellite Navigation was held in October 2021. Both sides jointly formulated and signed the Roadmap for Cooperation in the Field of Satellite Navigation from 2021 to 2025, providing planning and guidance for China-Russia satellite navigation cooperation in the next five years. Also, China’s Satellite Navigation Office signed a memorandum of understanding on satellite navigation cooperation with the National Committee on Space Activities of the Republic of Argentina and the South African National Space Agency, and formally established a regular cooperation mechanism.

BDS is gradually being integrated into international standards, and is steadily promoting ratification by international standards bodies, including in the civil aviation, maritime, SAR, mobile communications and electrotechnical fields. Several international standards supporting BDS have been released. The Chinese government has drafted a letter of commitment to the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), stating that BDS will provide basic services free of charge to civil aviation users around the world. The International Association of Marine Aids to Navigation and Lighthouse Authorities (IALA) has officially issued a standard that ratifies BDSBAS, so that global marine users can carry out applications based on it. The Third Generation Partnership Project has started the standardization of BDS-3’s B2a and B3I signals. In the detection standard for Indicating Radio Beacon Locator of the Global Maritime Distress and Safety System issued by the International Electrotechnical Commission, BDS receivers and BDS-based SAR services will be supported.

The Chinese government is steadily advancing the rule of law, attaching great importance to and comprehensively promoting the rule of law for satellite navigation. A legal system on BDS has been formed, consisting of national policies, industrial and local policies and regulations, and more. The legislative process of the Satellite Navigation Regulations of the People’s Republic of China has been actively promoted to ensure the healthy, rapid and sustainable development of the satellite industry. In May 2021, China issued a development report on the rule of law of BDS.

Follow-Up Plan

In the future, on the one hand BDS will ensure stable operation, while on the other hand it will focus on the development of backup satellites, and complete the production, state optimization and ground testing of backup satellites. Backup BDS-3 satellites with better performance will be launched as needed to further improve the reliability of the constellation. By adhering to the development concept of “BDS is developed by China, dedicated to the world and aiming to be first class,” carrying forward the BDS spirit of the new era of “independent innovation, open integration, unity of all, pursuit of excellence,” BDS will serve the world and benefit all humankind.

• Number of BDS-3 satellites in orbit: 30
• Signals broadcast: B1I, B3I, B1C, B2a, and B2b

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Yang Changfeng is chief architect of the BeiDou Navigation Satellite System and a Chinese Academy of Engineering academician.

“Seen & Heard” is a monthly feature of GPS World magazine, traveling the world to capture interesting and unusual news stories involving the GNSS/PNT industry.

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Where Sea Turtles Nest

Florida’s Sea Turtle Grants Program — funded with proceeds from special license-plate sales — were used to purchase Trimble TDC100 and TDC600 handheld GNSS receivers for state park staff to gather data about turtle nesting activity. The staff also uses Esri’s ArcGIS Survey123 field-capture software to report on turtles using the 108 miles of beach in 40 of Florida’s state parks. Negative impacts from commercial fishing, plastic waste and climate change have become a threat to sea turtles, which are now classified as an endangered species.

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Paris up in the Air

Paris has begun testing electric air taxis at a new site outside the French capital, with an eye toward creating at least two demonstration flight paths during the 2024 Olympics to ferry passengers from nearby airports. Inaugurated in November, the test site is dedicated to new sustainable urban air mobility, and will study the use of electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft. Choose Paris Region, Groupe ADP and RATP Group are managing the effort with VoloCity taxis by Volocopter onboard.

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Russia Threatens GPS

The Kremlin warned it could blow up 32 GPS satellites with its new anti-satellite technology (ASAT), which it tested Nov. 15 on a retired Soviet Tselina-D satellite, according to numerous news reports. Russia then claimed on state television that its new ASAT missiles could obliterate NATO satellites and “blind all their missiles, planes and ships, not to mention the ground forces,” said Russian Channel One TV host Dmitry Kiselyov, rendering the West’s GPS-guided missiles useless. “It means that if NATO crosses our red line, it risks losing all 32 of its GPS satellites at once.”

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Indonesia Goes Cashless

Indonesia’s GNSS-based cashless toll system will take effect by the end of 2022, reports Indonesia Expat. The country’s Public Works and Public Housing Ministry plans to have its multi-lane, free-flow-based non-cash toll transaction system implemented on 40 toll roads on the islands of Java and Bali. MLFF uses GNSS plus a map-matching process and special toll road apps on smartphones to determine fees. The system is expected to increase efficiency, effectiveness, security and convenience in conducting toll road payment transactions.