Note: In May 2013 this newsletter published a column on “What’s New in GNSS Simulation.” This month, Editor Tony Murfin takes a brief look at a new start-up in GNSS simulation, Skydel, and its software signal simulator. We also provide quick updates on the latest from those simulation companies and others.

Skydel
Software-defined simulator
Skydel provides a software-defined simulator using generic hardware to accommodate system integrators who may have a consumer product or application with GNSS inside, and may not require a full-function simulator. Skydel uses a regular GPU to perform modulate the GNSS signal. The computer can be a laptop or desktop, but must include an Nvidia graphics card. The Universal Software Radio Peripheral (USRP) here is the Ettus N210. Skydel also uses the bladeRF x40 made by nuand, an alternative USB 3.0 Software Defined Radio, and Averna RP-6100 Record & Playback system.

“What’s New in GNSS Simulation” Updates

 
Spirent
Spirent debuts practical PNT framework for more robust position, navigation and timing systems
Threats to GNSS and related PNT applications are more orchestrated and coordinated, with the motivation to disrupt or cause financial loss. The technology to disrupt GPS has also become much more accessible, resulting in GPS vulnerability even gaining attention at hacker conventions. Spirent’s GNSS Interference Detector System helps users solve these problems.

Rohde & Schwarz
Solutions for all aspects of LBS testing
Need to verify your location based service (LBS) applications based on A-GNSS, OTDOA and eCID? Rohde & Schwarz offers a wide range of testing solutions for all aspects of LBS testing, including protocol conformance, minimum performance and OTA. Applicable from development and production to installation, the solutions support the positioning techniques and protocols deployed by mobile network operators.

CAST
CAST lightweight GPS Satellite Simulator
With its compact size of 7 x 11 x 3 inches and weighing in at just over four pounds, the SGX is CAST’s smallest fully capable simulator to date. The SGX lightweight portability features 16 channels of L1 C/A and P codes and is extremely accurate and repeatable. Features include a touchscreen, individual satellite power control and start-and-stop scenarios with the touch of a button.

Spectracom
GNSS Simulator Compatible with IRNSS and QZSS
Spectracom’s GPS/GNSS simulator is now available for testing receiver compatibility with India’s global navigation satellite system, IRNSS, and Japan’s regional satellite system, QZSS. The Spectracom GSG-6 Series multi-frequency GNSS signal simulator is designed to be field upgradeable to readily enable the addition of all current and future GNSS constellations.

iFEN
SX3 GNSS Software Receiver
The SX3 Black Edition is a modular dual-RF multi-GNSS software receiver with superior flexibility and performance, whether processing the dual-RF front-end data stream in real-time or post-processing IF samples from storage. Graphical user interface provides easy access to signal processing configuration properties and gives real-time feedback for channel output, correlation function and RF spectrum.

RaceLogic
The 2015 leap second – LabSat scenarios now available
With the LabSat 3 Simulator you can reliably test your products on the bench to see how they cope with events such as the leap second, alongside standard issues such as multipath and signal obscuration. Recordings of the leap second from the three main constellations are now available for use with LabSat 3.

IP-Solutions
Replicator
GNSS RF simulator, recorder and playback device — inexpensive, economical, flexible, with a high-fidelity GNSS simulation solution. This product was originally developed cooperatively for JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency). Originally developed for, and in cooperation with, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA).

Cobham AvComm
ATC-5000NG NextGen ATC/DME Test Set
Formerly the Aeroflex AvComm business unit, Cobham introduced this year the ATC-5000NG NextGen ATC/DME Test Set, an RF signal generator/receiver for testing Mode A, C and S transponders. The ATC-5000NG was designed with modern software-defined radio technology for engineering development, design validation, manufacturing and return-to-service testing.

TeleOrbit
GIPSIE
TeleOrbit’s software-based GNSS multi-system performance simulation environment, GIPSIE, consists of a satellite constellation simulator and an intermediate frequency simulator. The digital signal simulator GIPSIE streams the software-generated signals or recorded live data exactly into the receiver’s baseband processing chain to support development, test, verification, validation, qualification and certification.

Averna
RP-6100
The Averna RP-6100 Multi-Channel RF Record & Playback for RF application testing allows users to to record real-world signals such as GNSS, HD Radio, LTE and Wi-Fi, plus impairments, to advance projects and harden product designs. Frequency range of 10–6000 MHz, up to 4×40 MHz or 2×80 MHz bandwidth, 14-bit resolution, tight channel synchronization. Records up to 22 hours, supports Skydel’s software-defined, real-time GNSS Simulator.

Syntony GNSS
Syntony RTG2 Constellation Simulator
Syntony offers the RTG2, a GNSS constellation simulator that generates realistic GNSS RF signals, taking into account the current and future GNSS constellations. The generator is entirely configurable (troposphere and ionosphere effects, simulated receiver trajectory, etc) through a user friendly interface accessible on a separated PC through Ethernet.

Stéphan Hamel, CEO and co-founder of Skydel, describes Skydel’s GNSS simulator, which runs on an SDR, at ION GNSS+ 2015. Hamel also touches on the company’s partnership with Averna, a test engineering software, solutions and services company.

Cast Navigation

CAST-3000: Complete GPS/INS Integration Testing

CAST GNSS/INS simulators generate high-fidelity GNSS RF signals along with the coherent digital inertial signals that allow for the precise stimulation of the next generation of GNSS/INS navigation equipment. CAST’s GNSS/INS systems provide the highly precise system performance that is required to aid in the integration and testing of the next-generation of GNSS navigation system technologies. The 35-year-old company’s business focus is supplying GNSS/INS simulators, GNSS/INS test equipment, and GPS/INS support services to government and military avionics laboratories, prime contractors, GNSS receiver manufacturers and system integrators.

The CAST-3000 fully supports integration testing of GPS/INS navigation systems where the inertial sensor and GPS receiver are either tightly or ultra-tightly coupled. The CAST-3000 produces GPS RF signals coincident with simulated IMU sensor data that provide dynamic testing in the laboratory environment for military and government applications. CAST has worked closely with both Honeywell and Northrop Grumman over the past two decades in the development of the CAST-3000, which

• provides strapdown IMU measurement data synchronized with GPS RF data to the navigation system under test.
• contains a mature avionic sensor simulation Barometric Altimeter model.
• includes high rate inertial measurements with very high degree of fidelity to support testing of high-performance coupled systems.
• simulates sensors to provide the necessary fully coordinated, dynamic vertical channel aiding needed to maintain Kalman filter stability of the navigation system.
• includes years of development and refinement of the precise GPS/INS synchronization capability needed for simulation of aircraft dynamics.
• includes a complete 6-DOF motion generation capability.

www.castnav.com
phone: 978 858-0130
email: sales@castnav.com

Ifen GmbH

NavX-NCS Professional GNSS Simulator
NavX-NCS Essential GNSS Simulator

The flexibility of the NavX-NCS Professional GNSS Simulator allows it to be configured with up to 108 channels and all of the following signals:

• GPS L1/L2/L5 C/A and P-code and L2C
• GLONASS G1/G2 standard and high-accuracy codes
• Galileo E1/E5/E6 (BOC/CBOC/AltBOC)
• BeiDou B1/B2/B3
• SBAS L1/L5 (WAAS, EGNOS, MSAS, GAGAN, SDCM)
• IRNSS L5/S-band
• QZSS L1 and L1-SAIF
• IMES

The user can assign signals freely to any of the RF modules fitted to the simulator. This allows the same hardware to be used in a range of different configurations.

Signals can be added by software license with no need to return the hardware for upgrade.

Up to four independent RF outputs can be fitted, enabling the user to simulate multiple antenna locations simultaneously (allowing simulation of multiple antennas on one vehicle, multiple vehicles simultaneously, a mixture of static locations and mobile vehicles, and multiple antenna elements for Controlled Reception Pattern Antenna [CRPA] testing).

The comprehensive and easy-to-use Control Center operating software allows the operator to quickly create realistic test scenarios for effective testing of user equipment.

IFEN also offers the NavX-NCS Essential GNSS Simulator, which is available with 21 or 42 channels and is capable of simulating GPS L1 (including SBAS L1), GLONASS G1, Galileo E1, BeiDou B1, QZSS L1 and IMES. The simulator is also supplied with Control Center operating software for comprehensive scenario generation.

www.ifen.com
For USA and Canada:
Mark Wilson
phone: 951-739-7331
email: m.wilson@ifen.com
For Rest of World:
Dr. Guenter Heinrichs
phone: +49-8121-2238-20
email: sales@ifen.com

Racelogic

LabSat 3 and LabSat Real-Time

LabSat 3 from Racelogic is a low cost, stand-alone, battery-powered, multi-constellation, RF record and replay device, designed to assist GNSS engineers in the development and testing of their products. By capturing live-sky RF signals, it enables repeatable and realistic testing to be carried out under controlled conditions, and is available as a record and replay, or replay only version; either one, two or three constellation types generate a single, dual or triple constellation file.

With standalone operation, LabSat 3 can be used in any outdoor location to create real-world scenarios for eventual replay back in the lab. As well as being able to simultaneously record or replay GPS, GLONASS, BeiDou, QZSS, Galileo and SBAS signals, it can log CAN bus, serial or digital data, embedded alongside the satellite information. This additional information can then be replayed alongside the GNSS output, with synchronization to within 60 nanoseconds. A 1 PPS signal can also be generated using the internal GPS receiver.
LabSat 3 can be used as a replay system out of the box with a set of 60 pre-recorded scenarios supplied as part of the package, recorded from various locations around the globe.

Additionally, SatGen software allows for scenario generation of user-defined trajectories, with precise control over velocity, heading, height and constellation profiles, giving the test engineer the ability to develop their product using simulations that would be difficult or impossible to record due to geographic location or safety constraints. NMEA and KML imports are supported.

New for 2016 is LabSat Real-Time, which allows for bench testing of GNSS devices where a current time stamp is required. SatGen V3 PC software generates a live signal stream to a LabSat RT unit which up converts the RF data from digital to analogue with less than one second latency. LabSat RT operates on any two of the three constellations of GPS, GLONASS and BeiDou.

www.labsat.co.uk
phone: +44 (0)1280 823803

Skydel

SDX: Software-Defined GNSS Simulator
Software-Defined Innovation

Skydel brings a new generation of GNSS simulators to the market. With the SDX simulator, signals are modulated by the graphics processing unit (GPU) as opposed to dedicated FPGAs found in traditional simulators. This allows new possibilities, such as adding signals and constellations without resorting to additional hardware. This design offers many benefits:

• The number of channels is defined by the GPU, eliminating the need to buy additional proprietary FPGA-based hardware whenever more channels are needed.
• Price per simulated channel is greatly reduced by using powerful, mass-produced off-the-shelf hardware such as graphic cards and software-defined radios. Moreover, the same hardware can be repurposed for numerous applications.
• Numerous hardware configurations provide flexibility ranging from single software-defined receiver (SDR) setups to racked instruments multi-element systems.
• SDX can be distributed over many computers, GPUs and signal generators to expand its capabilities.

Turnkey or Software-Only Solutions

SDX users can reuse their own SDR with the software-only solution, or choose a turnkey solution that comes with all the required hardware and a preconfigured laptop or desktop. Skydel can customize turnkey solutions to meet special requirements.

SDX Key Features

• Real-time signal generation for multiple GNSS constellations
• Directional jammers
• Multi-element antenna with better than 1 degree of phase offset
• SDK for GNSS signal customization (injection and modification of navigation message and code)
• 1000-Hz update rate: realistic high-dynamic trajectories
• High-quality and precise GNSS signal
• Hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) integration
• Generate Python automation scripts from the simulator’s graphical user interface (GUI)
• Powerful Python, C++ and C# API to configure and control the simulator remotely
• Windows and Linux compatible

SDX is designed for military, research, industrial and consumer applications.

www.skydelsolutions.com
info@skydelsolutions.com

Spectracom

All Constellations, All Frequencies

Spectracom GSG-5/6 series simulators are easy-to-use, feature-rich and affordable, offering value compared to the limitations of testing from “live sky” signals. The Spectracom platform approach allows users to buy what they need today and upgrade later. The adaptability of the GNSS RF generation platform can extend it to applications for intelligent repeating and meaconing.

Test Solutions

• Position accuracy and dynamic range/sensitivity
• Simulate movements/trajectories anywhere on or above Earth
• Sensitivity to GPS impairments: loss of satellites, multipath, atmospheric conditions, interference, jamming and spoofing
• Conducted or over-the-air RF
• GPS time-transfer accuracy
• Effect of leap-second transition
• Multi-constellation testing
• Modernization signals/ frequencies
• Keyless military SAASM and dual-frequency and survey-grade receiver testing
• Application packages for RTK, A-GPS, CRPA (controlled radiation pattern antennas)
• Hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) integration

Infrastructure Possibilities

• Zone-based indoor location (intelligent repeating)
• Other meaconing applications

GSG-6 Series 64-channel multi-frequency, advanced GNSS simulator is powerful enough for any cutting-edge test program. GPS, GLONASS, Galileo, Beidou, QZSS and IRNSS signals are available across multiple frequencies. The GSG-6 is designed for military, research or professional applications.

GSG-5 Series 16-channel multi-constellation L1-band GNSS simulator is designed for commercial development/integration programs. If the user is developing commercial products with GNSS capability, the GSG-5 will shorten test programs with confidence.

GSG-51 single channel signal generator is designed for one purpose — fast, simple Go/No-Go manufacturing test and validation, ensuring the manufacturing line is operating at full capacity with confidence in quality.

spectracom.com
email: sales@spectracom.com
phone: +1-585-321-5800

Spirent Federal Systems

GSS9000 simulator, CRPA Test System, GSS6425 RPS

Spirent Federal provides simulators that cover all price points, from high-end research and development, to integration/verification, to single-channel production testing.

GSS9000. The Spirent GSS9000 multi-frequency, multi-GNSS RF constellation simulator can simulate signals from all GNSS and regional navigation. The GSS9000 offers a four-fold increase in RF signal iteration rate (SIR) over Spirent’s GSS8000 simulator.

The GSS9000 SIR is 1000 Hz (1ms), enabling higher dynamic simulations with more accuracy and fidelity. It includes support for restricted and classified signals from the GPS and Galileo systems, as well as advanced capabilities for ultra-high dynamics. It can evaluate resilience of navigation systems to interference and spoofing attacks, and has the flexibility to reconfigure constellations, channels and frequencies between test runs or test cases.

Hardware changes can be made in the field, supported by the new on-board calibrator module. The GSS9000 is extensible and can support the widest range of carriers, ranging codes and data streams for the Galileo, GPS, GLONASS, and BeiDou systems, as well as regional/augmentation systems. Multi-antenna/multi-vehicle simulation for differential GNSS and attitude determination, and interference/jamming and spoofing testing, are also supported.

CRPA Test System. Spirent’s Controlled Reception Pattern Antenna (CRPA) Test System generates both GNSS and interference signals. Users can control multiple antenna elements. Null-steering and space/time adaptive CRPA testing are both supported by this comprehensive approach.

GSS6425. The Spirent GSS6425 RPS quickly and simply records complex real-world RF environments, capturing both GNSS signals and atmospheric/interference effects. These environments can then be replayed repeatedly to the hardware software under test, reducing project, travel and engineering costs.

www.spirentfederal.com
phone: 801 785 1448; fax: 801 785 1294
email: info@spirentfederal.com
Key contacts:
Jeff Martin, Sales East
Kalani Needham, Sales West

Back again in Portland, Oregon, the 2016 Institute of Navigation’s ION GNSS+ conference was a great opportunity for the GNSS community to catch up on what’s been cooking in the industry, and of course who’s been doing what in the research community.

The attendees eagerly took to a wide range of technical paper presentation sessions, and from time to time came to take a look at what industry had to offer on the exhibit floor. Lots of engaging research reports, from work undertaken over the last year by academia, again drew a significant number of attendees from around the world.

On the other hand, industry continued the trend to go to trade shows in application sectors and pull back somewhat from ION GNSS+ as a place to look for product sales. So the number of companies on the ION show floor remained around the same or maybe a little less than in the previous few years. Nevertheless, the quality of the companies exhibiting remained high and there were some interesting newcomers.

A number of major GNSS receiver manufactures have pulled back from ION, so there were only two established U.S. companies and two new U.S. entrants at the show. On the other hand, GNSS simulation companies were at ION in force — eight all told, or twice as many as the receiver manufacturers present who have been their historic customers. But the trend in GNSS simulation now appears to be to move down stream towards the needs of integrators and systems outfits — in segments such as automotive, UAV and agriculture — with lower cost, very capable simulators.

Receiver makers roll out new tech

As a consequence, the NovAtel and Septentrio booths got a lot of attendee traffic, while BDStar (Unicore receivers and Harxon antennas) and ComNav also had a number of visitors to their booths. As usual, NavTech, who represent almost all the manufacturers, also had a busy exhibit.

OEM7600 dual-frequency receiver.

NovAtel chose to launch its OEM-7 series of GNSS receivers and a newly designed VEXXIS high-precision antenna at ION GNSS+, which is a somewhat refreshing return to the ION GNSS+ launch platform we used to see in the past. A new highly integrated ASIC at the heart of this receiver now provides, amongst other features, 555 channels, L-band support, inertial SPAN capability and an intriguing “Interference Toolbox”. The toolbox enables integrators to localize interference effects over a wide band — especially helpful for densely packed electronics, which you might expect in a UAV, for instance.

Interference Toolbox Screenshot.

Septentrio didn’t have a whole lot of new product announcements, but as usual the company has been working hard at improving existing capabilities on its receivers. The AsteRx4 receiver that uses a new ASIC has been available for a while, but it too boasts 544 channels — perhaps too many to actually be used in practice — robust heading, centimeter-level RTK and decimeter-level PPP (with TerraStar and Veripos corrections) with dual L-band channels, and an improved suite of advanced interference mitigation (AIM+) capabilities. This helps detection and removal of the effects of “chirp jamming” from low-power “cigarette-lighter” jammers — using signal analysis and adjustment of adaptive notch filters.

Septentrio did announce a new PolaRx5TR packaged time-and-frequency transfer receiver and a contract with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) for reference stations and timing. A report by UNAVCO also found its way into my inbox, which related comparative testing of the PolaRx5 and other manufacturers’ receivers in connection with a UNAVCO RFP – Septentrio did O.K. and was selected as a preferred vendor, which no doubt influenced the JPL award and added to an already good first half year for the company.

The Septentrio PolaRX5TR.

BDStar had a range of GPS, GLONASS, Beidou receivers from its subsidiary Unicorecomm, along with an impressive selection of antennas from Harxon, another of its Chinese subsidiaries. Both product lines have done very well in the Chinese market, and BDStar would like to sell more in North America.

ComNav also displayed a similar range of GNSS receivers and antennas, with new versions of both since last year, and a strong desire to break through into the US market.

Simulators a big presence

Simulator companies at ION included the more established Spirent, Spectracom, CAST, IFEN and Rohde & Schwarz — we could even now consider RaceLogic/LabSat as a record-and-playback fixture in the market. But in the wings and making lots of waves at the show were Syntony from France and Skydel from Montreal, Canada.

Spirent brought its usual large-scale GNSS simulators to ION, but also featured an interference detection and software analysis suite, a 16-bit high-fidelity record/playback unit, along with a new multi-frequency simulator aimed at downstream integrators. The GSS200D Detector finds interference effects and is able to relate them to the threats in the environment around a receiver. The object is to help debug an installation by finding internal interferers. The analysis tools can also help differentiate between regular equipment interference and potential external jammers.

Spirent’s new GSS200D detector.

Spirent also displayed a record/playback unit that has 16-bit playback capability, enabling a user to record and review a particular interference event, and then feed their new commercial simulator in order to replicate the interference. So a passing isolated jamming event can be analyzed in detail. Multiple reruns are possible to confirm the effect on the target system, and following equipment modifications, prove that the problem has indeed been neutralized.

Spirent analysis tools.

RaceLogic introduced its new wideband LabSat 3 record/playback system for GPS L1, GLONASS L1, Galileo E1, BeiDou B1, QZSS and SBAS. Recording live signals for any or all of these signals then allows later playback of a canned sample for equipment debugging on the bench. The LabSat product line has been around for some time, and this addition increases the debug capability for downstream users at an affordable price in a very portable format. When used with the RaceLogic SatGen software system, the user has access to a powerful toolset for testing new GNSS devices.

LabSat 3 and SatGen test set-up.

Spectrcom displayed its multi-frequency, multi-constellation simulator and also featured a GNSS vulnerability test system for interference detection and system debugging. The company’s approach requires two simulators, both synchronized by an atomic clock, allowing a PC-based Test Scenario Control to generate reproducible interference effects for debugging.

CAST Navigation is already moving downstream quite quickly with its CAST-SGX handheld GNSS simulator. With a touchscreen display, this simplified L1 GPS simulator (with P-code option) is ideal for test-bench debugging.

Rohde & Schwarz had its usual array of high-end test equipment, with a test set-up aimed at demonstrating testing of a Wi-Fi indoor location application on a smartphone.

IFEN showed up with a completely re-engineered simulator with huge frequency/channel capacity. The Titan GNSS Simulator houses up to 8 RFSIM modules, each of which carries 32 configurable satellite signals. A fully configured Titan chassis can therefore provide 256 channels of GPS L1/L2/L5, GLONASS G1/G2/G3, Galileo E1/E5/E6, Beidou B1/B2/B3, IRNSS L5 and S-band, QZSS L1/L2/L5/LEX and all current L1/L5 SBAS signals. Titan also has up to four independent RF outputs.

IFEN Titan GNSS Simulator.

Skydel is one of the newcomers in GNSS simulation, but has made significant inroads first appearing last year at ION. Skydel now boasts a full-up, reconfigurable GPS, GLONASS, Galileo, Beidou “software” simulator which the company claims to sell at a 1/3 the price of a conventional hardware simulator. And during the year, Skydel teamed up with Talen-X in Ohio, who have embedded Skydel software-defined in a U.S.-sourced GPS/GLONASS/Galileo/Beidou simulator that can include GPS P/Y and M-code.

Broadsim from Talen-X powered by Skydel.

Syntony rises high by going under (the ground)

The noise in simulation at ION was, however, created by Syntony from Toulouse in France. Syntony recently won a 15-simulator order from OneWeb — the outfit that plans to launch a 640 internet connectivity satellite constellation through 2020. With funding secured from Virgin Group and Qualcomm in 2015, initial satellite build is underway at Airbus Defence and Space, launch services are contracted with Arianespace to provide 21 multi-sat launches on Soyuz beginning in 2017 with optional launch service with Virgin Galactic. So Syntony is likely going to be able to build, deliver and be paid for its 15 simulators, which will be used for testing GPS capability that is integrated into each comms satellite.

Syntony 128-channel GNSS Simulator “Constellator.”

Syntony’s simulator is also software-defined and is reconfigurable. The software-defined heart of this system comes from a Syntony GPS/Galileo receiver, and a version of this receiver has now been sold for use in the Airbus Adeline re-usable space module. This receiver is a “multi-antenna receiver” in order to avoid signal or tracking loss while switching between antennas during the Safran launcher rotation. The catch here is that Syntony must develop this receiver to Airbus critical airborne software=qualification standards — no mean feat! Syntony is also providing a version of its Constellator simulator for testing this multi-antenna input receiver.

An ECHO record/playback system is also available, which includes high-fidelity 16-bit RF outputs.

Finally, Syntony was able to capture a proof-of-concept location infrastructure project for Stockholm, Sweden’s, underground metro. The metro stations are pretty deep underground, as they have been dug under the sea in and around Stockholm, and no one had been able to come up with 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 GPS-like signal infrastructure at the stations which is compatible with GPS-enabled smartphones. It worked well, and Syntony verified that there was no radiation of the signal outside any of the entrances to the test station — so no GPS interference. It actually worked so well that Syntony got the contract to equip all 50 metro stations in Stockholm, and the Syntony is now working to spread its system around the metros of all major cities, worldwide.

Defining the Galileo PRS signal…

Then I came across Fraunhofer towards the end of the show, and their posters about a Galileo PRS (Public Regulated Service) receiver. Now, we know that there has been significant discussion between the different security services of countries across the European Union, and its taken a lot of time to get to a definition of the PRS signal and who has access. So it wasn’t surprising that there was no hardware on the Fraunhofer booth; what’s surprising is that there was any mention of such a receiver being available and telling attendees at a conference in the U.S. that it’s available.

I talked to a couple of people at their booth, and indeed there is such a receiver, but they really couldn’t tell me anything about it because telling is strictly verboten! Another strange anomaly of the Galileo program — the participants seem to want to let the U.S. know that they have the capability for a special access service, and a receiver is available to work with it, but they can’t tell us anything about it. I guess the idea may be to rattle the cage of the U.S. P-code/M-code guys, and let them know Galileo has caught up at last… But Fraunhofer has an idea of how to make things available to, well, err …. to somebody. They have a concept to have cellphone users who want PRS to connect with their cloud receiver, and they will decode and provide PRS position back over the internet. That solves the whole security thing…. OK, that should do it.

Where inertial stands

I also made the rounds of the inertial and inertial/GPS guys at the show, and there were quite a few. From Northrop Grumman and Systron Donner and their mil-spec high-end FOG and RLG and Quartz MEMS tube-shaped inertial units — could they be for shells or missiles? — to Silicon Sensing’s MEMS accels and gyros and their move out of automotive and towards high-precision performance, to Sensonor’s high-performance commercial MEMS/GNSS units, there were actually only a few of the inertial-aiding outfits present. Yet everything we hear is that for anything that moves, we really should use integrated inertial/GNSS, and UAVs especially want lots of that! So this part of the business looks to be quite healthy too…

Now another ION GNSS+ conference has come and gone — and I was reminded that maybe I’ve actually been to 95 percent of the ION September conferences over the last 30 years. And as I write, the last of the late Friday paper sessions are crawling to a close.

ION still remains a good place to come and learn, a place to meet industry colleagues and a place to see a little of what industry is up to. Definitely worth the trip, and don’t forget your business cards next year.

Tony Murfin
GNSS Aerospace

Skydel SDX Release 17.1 adds a fine level of control on signal multipath to the software-defined GNSS simulator.

User interface for multipath.

SDX 17.1 introduces a powerful multipath simulation option, enabling users to create less-than-ideal signal propagation conditions for GNSS testing. Multipath echoes can be added and fined-tuned for each satellite, per signal. Control is possible via four fundamental attributes: pseudorange offset, power loss, Doppler shift and carrier-phase offset.

It’s now convenient to create simplified test conditions otherwise impossible to achieve with the live sky. The new options are fully controllable through the SDX application program interface (API), and can be modified on the fly while the simulation is running.

CNAV message modification and corruption.

Release 17.1 also adds L2C navigation message modification. Besides the usual conditions such as start and stop time and PRN number, users can specify the message type, and the message content to match.

Because the CNAV message is 300 bits long and not subdivided in words like the NAV message, managing the modifications as a per-bit fashion would be tedious. The interface solves this by letting you add modifications for portions of the message — and lets users add as many as they need.

The new arm button in the dashboard.

Software-defined radios (SDR) can take a few seconds to initialize when starting the simulation. To improve software synchronization performance, Skydel has added an armed state. Upon clicking the arm button (or issuing the command through the API), the armed state prepares all hardware. When the start command is later received, the delay to emit the GNSS signals is minimal.

Other updates have also been made. See the release notes for the full list. As always, existing licensees benefit from an immediate upgrade.

Among the next items on SDX’s development agenda is the release of advanced jamming capabilities through an innovative integration with the GNSS simulator.

Cast-5000 GPS wavefront generator

CRPA and Attitude Determination Receiver Testing

The CAST-5000 produces a single coherent wavefront of GPS RF signals to provide repeatable testing in the laboratory environment or anechoic chamber. The basic system generates four independent, coherent simulations that reference a single point and is upgradeable to support seven elements for CRPA testing. With an intercard carrier- phase error of less than 1 centimeter, the CAST-5000 is extremely accurate.

The system generates a wavefront of GPS when its GPS RF generator cards are operated in a ganged configuration. Each generator card provides a set of GPS satellites coherent with the overall configuration. Several RF generator cards may be utilized together, ensuring phase coherence among the bank of signal generator cards.

The CAST-5000 Controlled Reception Pattern Antenna (CRPA) tester allows a full end-to-end test of the antenna system. The CRPA antenna, antenna electronics and the GPS receiver can be tested as a unit with or without radiating signals.

Features

• Generates single coherent wavefront of GPS.
• 6-DOF motion generation capability.
• Complete SV constellation editing.
• Post-mission processing via ICD-GPS-150/153.
• Differential/relative navigation.
• Antenna pattern modeling.
• Waypoint navigation.
• RAIM events.
• Multipath modeling.
• Spoofer simulation.
• Satellite clock errors.
• External trajectory input.
• External ephemeris and almanac.
• Several iono and tropo models.
• Modifiable navigation message.
• Modeled selective availability.
• Time-tagged satellite events.
• Selectable host vehicle parameters.

www.castnav.com
phone: 978 858-0130
email: sales@castnav.com

iP-Solutions, Zero-C Seven Inc.

Simceiver, Replicator, ReGen

iP-Solutions brings its 10-year development for designated users — including the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) COSMODE ionospheric scintillation monitor — to general users worldwide.

iP-Solutions users have a complete GNSS lab at their disposal. They can simulate, record and process signals in real-time with the company’s receiver, and playback almost any GNSS signal.

Moreover, users have complete control over the simulated signals in real-time and with high fidelity.

iP-Solutions provides mid-level and high-end simulation solutions with the same level of accuracy and fidelity.

Mid-Level Solution
iP-Solutions’ mid-level Simceiver simulator allows multi-frequency simulation of various GNSS signals with all essential models. The additional ANSI C API allows users to modify existing models or introduce their own.

iP-Solutions’ mid-level solution range even includes a comprehensive interference and spoofing laboratory.

The Simceiver is controlled usign the comprehensive ReGen software, providing the user with great freedom to create any desired signal.

High-End Solution
iP-Solutions’ high-end Ninja simulator allows for multi-antenna controlled radiation pattern antenna (CRPA) and local-area augmentation system (LAAS) simulation.

Academia
iP-Solutions’ educational packages for academia combine hardware at a special academic price with academic versions of all the software and two textbooks authored by iP-Solutions’ lead engineer Ivan Petrovski and JAXA lead scientist Toshiaki Tsujii (published by Cambridge University Press).

www.ip-solutions.jp
phone: +81-3-3560-7747
e-mail: tak@ip-solutions.jp (Japan)
chris@ip-solutions.jp (Nth. America)
kyron@ip-solutions.jp (International)

Racelogic

LabSat 3 Wideband
LabSat is a cost-effective and intuitive GNSS simulator.

New to the LabSat range of GNSS record and replay devices is LabSat 3 Wideband, which continues with the established reliability, cost-effectiveness, and simplicity of operation that are the benchmarks of the LabSat system.

A recording bandwidth of 56 MHz allows for the capture of a very wide range of live-sky satellite signals:

• GPS: L1 / L2 / L5
• GLONASS: L1 / L2 / L3
• BeiDou: B1 / B2 / B3
• QZSS: L1 / L2 / L5
• Galileo: E1 / E1a / E5a / E5b / E6
• IRNSS: L5
• SBAS: WAAS / EGNOS / GAGAN / MSAS / SDCM

Depending on the desired bandwidth, recording resolution can be set to 2, 4, or 6 bit. Check out the GNSS frequency guide on the LabSat website — labsat.co.uk — to see exactly which signals can be recorded and at which resolution.

Even with this greatly increased capacity over the original LabSat 3, the new simulator remains extremely easy to use: one-touch recording, no connection to PC required, battery powered for up to two hours, and with a removable 1-TB solid-state hard drive that can be replaced in no time, the LabSat 3 Wideband is convenient to use. It measures a compact 167 x 128 x 46 millimeters and weighs 1.2 kilograms.

SatGen Wideband
For product future-proofing, the soon-to-be-launched SatGen Wideband will allow for testing with signals not yet fully available, such as GPS L2C and L5 — further increasing the power and versatility of the new LabSat 3 Wideband.
www.labsat.co.uk
phone: +44 (0)1280 823803

Skydel

SDX: Software-Defined GNSS Simulator

SDX uses GPU-accelerated computing and software-defined radios (SDR) to create an advanced and fully-featured GNSS simulator. SDX is available as complete turnkey systems or software only.

The software-defined approach offers many benefits:

• COTS hardware offers economy of scale and eliminates dependency over dedicated hardware platforms.
• Generic hardware allow users to repurpose their equipment for different projects.
• Configurable output to test receiver at various entry point with RF, IF or IQ data.
• Uncompromised performance with high dynamics and accuracy.
• Record user interactions and export them to scripts to automate complex use cases intuitively. The export feature reduces the learning curve for advanced concepts.
• Advanced signal customization (signal signature, private encryption, etc.)

SDX Key Features

• Multi-constellation (GPS, GLONASS, Galileo, BeiDou), multi-frequency (upper and lower L-band).
• Selectable RF, IF frequency and IQ file data.
• GPS encrypted codes.
• Fully integrated jammers (static or moving) with over 120-dB jamming-to-signal ratio.
• Multipath.
• Additive pseudorange (PSR) ramps.
• Message modification and corruption.
• 1000-Hz update rate and high dynamics.
• Space (LEO-GEO), air and ground vehicle with 6DoF trajectories.
• Hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) integration.
• Street maps integration.
• Raw data logging.
• Real-time receiver deviation analysis.
• Powerful and simple API.
• On-the-fly reconfiguration.
• Windows and Linux compatible.

SDX is ideal for design and validation of GNSS receivers, complex integration, academic research, NAVWAR and test engineering.

Skydel engineering and research teams offer direct support to clients to ensure prompt deployment and integration, or review advanced customization requirements.

www.skydelsolutions.com
info@skydelsolutions.com

Spectracom

For mission-critical PNT applications

The Spectracom GSG series of GPS/GNSS simulators are an essential tool to evaluate risk to jamming, spoofing or any other threat. Spectracom GSG-5/6 series simulators are easy-to-use, feature-rich and affordable, offering high value for hardening GPS-based systems compared to the limitations of testing from live-sky signals. The Spectracom platform approach allows users to buy what they need today and upgrade later. The adaptability of the GNSS RF generation platform can extend to applications for intelligent repeating and meaconing.

Test Solutions

• Position accuracy and dynamic range/sensitivity.
• Simulate movements/trajectories anywhere on or above Earth.
• Sensitivity to GPS impairments: loss of satellites, multipath, atmospheric conditions, interference, jamming and spoofing.
• Conducted or over-the-air RF.
• GPS time-transfer accuracy.
• Effect of leap-second transition.
• Multi-constellation testing.
• Modernization signals/frequencies.
• Keyless military SAASM, dual-frequency and survey-grade receiver testing.
• Application packages for, RTK, CRPA (controlled radiation pattern antennas).
• Hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) integration.
• Test solutions for eCall and ERA-GLONASS Infrastructure Possibilities.
• Zone-based indoor location (intelligent repeating).
• seudolite applications.

GSG-6 Series 64-channel, multi-frequency, advanced GNSS simulator is powerful enough for any cutting-edge test program. GPS, GLONASS, Galileo, Beidou, QZSS and IRNSS signals are available across multiple frequencies. The GSG-6 is designed for military, research and professional applications.

GSG-5 Series 16-channel multi-constellation L1-band GNSS Simulator is designed for commercial development/integration programs. If the user is developing commercial products with GNSS capability, the GSG-5 will shorten test programs with confidence.

GSG-51 single channel signal generator is designed for one purpose — fast, simple Go/No-Go manufacturing test and validation, ensuring the manufacturing line is operating at full capacity with confidence in quality.

spectracom.com
email: sales@spectracom.com
phone: +1-585-321-5800

Spirent Federal Systems

GSS9000, CRPA Test System, GSS6450 RPS, GSS200D
Spirent Federal provides simulators that cover all applications, including research and development, integration/verification and production testing.

GSS9000. The Spirent GSS9000 Multi-Frequency, Multi-GNSS RF Constellation Simulator can simulate signals from all GNSS and regional navigation. The GSS9000 offers a four-fold increase in RF signal iteration rate (SIR) over Spirent’s GSS8000 simulator. The GSS9000 SIR is 1000 Hz (1ms), enabling higher dynamic simulations with more accuracy and fidelity. It includes support for restricted and classified signals from the GPS and Galileo systems as well as advanced capabilities for ultra-high dynamics. It can evaluate resilience of navigation systems to interference and spoofing attacks, and has the flexibility to reconfigure constellations, channels and frequencies between test runs or test cases.

CRPA Test System. Spirent’s Controlled Reception Pattern Antenna (CRPA) Test System generates both GNSS and interference signals. Users can control multiple antenna elements. Null-steering and space/time adaptive CRPA testing are both supported by this comprehensive approach.

GSS6450. The GSS6450 RF Record Playback System (RPS) takes RF recording and playback systems to a whole new level of performance and flexibility, while being housed in a small (8.5 x 7.8 x 3 inch) portable case. The GSS6450 can record any GNSS signals currently available with bit depths up to 16 bits (I&Q) and bandwidths of up to 50 MHz. The flexible product structure allows the system complexity to grow with the user’s testing needs.

GSS200D. A truly end-to-end solution that builds up a complete picture of interference activity at site of interest. It continuously monitors the GNSS frequency bands for interference, then captures and analyzes them. The GSS200D is a detection system that operates simultaneously on multi-frequency.

Spirent Federal Systems
1402 W. State Rd.
Pleasant Grove, UT 84062
www.spirentfederal.com
gnssinfo@spirentfederal.com
phone: 801-785-1448
fax: 801-785-1294

Key contacts: Jeff Martin, VP of Business Development and Sales
Kalani Needham, Sales West
Tyson Gurney, Sales East

Syntony-GNSS

Constellator is Syntony’s cost-effective full soft multi-constellation GNSS simulator. Designed to test receivers against current and future signals, Constellator matches top-end processing performance and RF quality and offers utmost flexibility in simulation control.
Constellator

• performs fair-weather tests, but also is designed to subject receivers to suboptimal conditions, extreme situations and combinations of errors difficult to access in real-world tests — all of it finely controlled and indefinitely repeatable.
• is compatible with other best-in-class test solutions providing GNSS component end-to-end system tests, including hardware in the loop.
• core is software, ensuring that all future constellations, satellites and codes can be handled. Most functional upgrades will then be software-only.
• is used in aerospace and defense (among others) for: multi-antenna receiver testing for spacecraft launcher, satellite onboard receiver testing (telecom and observation) and defense UAV receiver testing.

Main Features

• 128 channels (extensible) delivering high-quality satellite signals on six distinct frequencies (L and S band)
• Hardware-in-the-loop testing at 10- to 100-Hz refresh rates
• Extensive simulation options:
  • • Full-time and location control
  • Receiver trajectories with extreme dynamics
  • Background noise, interference and jamming/spoofing (two units)
  • Atmospheric propagation errors
  • Satellite errors
  • Multipath and obscuration
  • On-the-fly scenario modifications
  • Receiver attitude control
  • Very accurate spaceborne trajectories

Main Simulation and Modeling Capabilities

Receiver trajectories: Includes four spatial reference frames and trajectory editors for ground, marine, aerial and spatial motion and import facility.

Hardware-in-the-loop: Receives receiver’s position updates from test-rig in real time and generates corresponding GNSS signals and messages.

Atmospheric errors: Propagation issues can be simulated at individual signal level with different models provided for ionosphere and troposphere.

Satellite error modeling options include orbital errors, onboard clock errors, satellite electronics (front-end) defects, satellite dysfunctions and signal fade, disappearance and “evil waveform” incidents.

www.syntony-gnss.com
contact@syntony-gnss.com
phone :+33(0) 581 319 919

Talen-x

BroadSim: The NAVWAR Simulator
BroadSim was developed to simplify advanced jamming and spoofing scenarios with Navigation Warfare (NAVWAR) testing in mind. Powered by Skydel SDX, a 1000-Hz GNSS simulator engine, BroadSim is able to simulate multiple vehicles, constellations, and code types (military and civil). BroadSim is ideal for supporting real-world field tests, NAVWAR testing and jamming.

Field Testing. Field testing GPS receivers to determine their performance and vulnerabilities in degraded or competing environments is becoming standard practice. BroadSim has proven to excel in field testing events due to its integrated GPS receiver allowing for built-in live-sky synchronization, four independent RF outputs, and a wide dynamic range with up to 0 dBm transmit power. A typical configuration for a live-sky field test would have BroadSim time synchronized to live sky, transmitting C/A, P, Y and M on L1 while simultaneously transmitting P, Y and M on L2 all at 0 dBm.

NAVWAR. BroadSim is great for NAVWAR testing because of how easy it is to use and configure multiple vehicles. Talen-X has carefully designed the simulator such that users can easily create true signals using two RF outputs and spoofed signals using the other two RF outputs. BroadSim’s graphical user interface (GUI) is intuitive and designed to meet the demand of NAVWAR testing.

Advanced Jamming. An innovative feature that has been added to BroadSim is the ability to generate jamming signals without any additional hardware. Using a simple interface, users can specify the jammer location, power level, waveform type and antenna pattern. BroadSim uses its 1000-Hz engine to compute the I/Q data incident on the user antenna for both the GNSS and jammer signals. This new paradigm of jamming simulation makes it easy to simulate complex jamming environments.

www.talen-x.com
phone: +1-319-382-5369
email: sales@talen-x.com

Skydel, a GNSS test solutions company, has partnered with Germany-based Noffz to deliver SDX GNSS simulation to clients in Europe.

Noffz creates test systems and solutions in the area of the Internet of Things (IoT) — especially in automotive RF-test applications around eCall, network access devices, telematics control units, infotainment/multimedia units and automotive radar.

With nearly 30 years of experience, Noffz delivers worldwide turnkey solutions and PC-based measurement, as well as automation systems.

“With their broad expertise in test solutions, Noffz is well positioned to bring Skydel’s SDX GNSS simulation solutions to clients located in Europe and beyond,” Skydel said in a blog.

“Technology is constantly evolving,” reads the blog. “With the advent of new satellite constellations, such as Galileo, expanding needs for position and navigation in the transportation industry, and the growing threats of RF interferences, GNSS simulation is more than ever a key component in the arsenal needed to design and validate new products.

“Skydel SDX delivers a new paradigm in GNSS simulation, featuring an exclusive mix of performance, flexibility and unique capabilities. With the addition of Noffz’s know-how covering multiple industries, we now have an outstanding team that’s ready to tackle today and tomorrow’s technological integration challenges.”

Galileot will reach Full Operational Capability (FOC) in 2019. Simulation of the complete Galileo constellation is possible with Skydel’s SDX GNSS simulator.

In mid-2017, Talen-X and Skydel engineers began to conceptualize a GNSS simulation system emanating from their BroadSim platform for the purpose of fortifying anechoic chambers.

Over the next six months, Talen-X and Skydel designed, built, tested and delivered an anechoic chamber simulator capable of simultaneously generating multi-GNSS jamming and spoofing signals.

BroadSim Anechoic can be used to support a wide variety of operational tests.

“Our new Anechoic Chamber solution will radically change the way in which mission critical platforms and systems are tested because we are enabling our customers to create real-world threats,” said Talen-X Chief Technology Officer Tim Erbes said. “Not only will BroadSim Anechoic be able to emulate real-world threat scenarios, it will be easier than ever before to create and simulate these environments.”

BroadSim Anechoic is used to test GNSS spoofing and jamming in an anechoic chamber. The BroadSim Controller is at the heart of the system running Skydel’s SDX software suite. Using SDX, users can create advanced scenarios that include both jamming and spoofing signals.

The 16 software-defined radios (SDRs) each with dual transmit ports (32 total outputs) can be configured to output GNSS or jamming signals, giving users flexibility to run test after test. The transmit chains include the hardware to power 16 dual-frequency antennas. The included GNSS receivers allow users to monitor the environment inside the chamber, providing confidence that tests are running correctly.

The BroadSim Anechoic can also be used in controlled radiation pattern antenna (CRPA) testing. Many ground-, airborne- and water-based platforms are transitioning to using CRPAs because of their added jamming resiliency and significant tracking advantages in degraded environments.

Validation and real-world testing is critical to understanding and characterizing the mitigation these antennas can add in highly degraded areas. By using BroadSim Anechoic, users have the ability to create representative jammers with real-world characteristics (modulations, frequencies, angles, power levels, etc).

“Skydel developed an innovative approach for time offset calibration between multiple transmitting antenna using a COTS Software-Defined Radio (SDR),” said Skydel Solutions Chief Technology Officer, Iurie Ilie. “This approach allows for very precise measurements and adjustments (better than 100ps) to be done automatically before simulation start. At the same time, transmitting signal power is automatically adjusted to keep the power offset at receiving antenna better than 0.1dB.”

BroadSim Anechoic takes advantage of state-of-the-art software defined radios (SDR) for RF up-converting while signal IQ generation is done using high performance commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) graphics-processing units (GPU). The ability to generate the IQ data in software (using the GPU) as opposed to hardware (FPGA) significantly reduces the cost while maximizing capability, value, and time to market.

BroadSim Anechoic has the capability of powering up to 16-dual frequency antennas requiring 32 RF transmit outputs. The architecture used for this system required the ability to receive signals in a manner such that precise processing could be done on the receive signal.

The SDR selected for this application has one receiver channel for every transmit channel giving BroadSim Anechoic 32 RF receive ports. Innovative software techniques have been developed enabling the accurate time and power calibration for each antenna transmit chain using the SDR receive ports.

Images: Talen-X

GMV, Tecnobit and Skydel are aiming to provide corporations, universities and research labs with a reliable, advanced simulation system that closely follows the latest Galileo capabilities.

“Together with our partners at Tecnobit, and taking advantage of SDX’s unique software-defined architecture, we are currently working to add Public Regulated Service (PRS) support to Skydel SDX,” said Manuel Toledo, head of the GNSS Advanced User Segment Solutions Division at GMV. PRS provides position and timing data for sensitive applications that require the highest level of service continuity.

Skydel and GMV are also joining efforts on developing SDX’s capabilities for signal authentication with Galileo Commercial Service and Open Service. The goal of such authentication is to increase the safety level of signals and to avert their falsification or fraud. It is currently a unique feature that only the Galileo constellation can provide, the companies said.

Skydel and GMV are also collaborating on projects that aim to provide signal simulation solutions for Galileo’s second generation (G2G). Galileo’s second-generation satellites are scheduled to be launched in 2025 and beyond.

“With Galileo’s full operational capabilities approaching soon, we must focus on the system’s upcoming G2G services,” said Pierre-Marie Le Véel, business development director at Skydel. “Skydel’s top priority for the European market is to provide simulation tools for the design of these next-generation GNSS devices.”

The partnership among the three companies unites the unique strengths of each organization, GMV said. While GMV brings its expert knowledge of both the European market and the Galileo system and Tecnobit brings its expertise as developer of cryptographic systems, Skydel adds its versatile and extensible GNSS simulator, resulting in a solid technical and commercial synergy for establishing an improved GNSS service offering for Europe.

Click to enlarge. (Image: Skydel)

Galileo, BeiDou, QZSS, IRNSS, and more join GPS and GLONASS to bring you wider, broader, greater, more accessible and above all more accurate PNT. How to get all that’s coming at you?

Multi-GNSS paves the way for complete exploitation of new signals and constellations in navigation, surveying, geodesy and remote sensing.

What exactly are the benefits of multi-GNSS, and how can you access them? For a start, download the multi-GNSS signal schema, and follow that up by attending a free webinar, “Multi-GNSS: Advantages, Challenges and Test Solutions.”

The free 1-hour webinar, which will take place at 1 p.m. Eastern [10 a.m. Pacific,  7 p.m. (1900h) Central European Time] on Thursday, Sept. 20, will review advantages of using multi-GNSS for the end-user and challenges in obtaining maximum efficiency when combining multiple constellations and signals. It will also discuss different approaches of testing GNSS receivers against jamming and spoofing attacks.

You will learn:

• Advantages of using multi-GNSS
• Challenges when combining multiple constellations
• Robustness of multi-GNSS receivers to jamming and spoofing
• Test solutions for GNSS receivers.

The webinar presents sponsored content by Skydel and Talen-X. Register for it here.

Skydel CEO and co-founder Stéphane Hamel discusses the company’s latest updates, which include new features for its software-defined GNSS simulator, at ION GNSS+ 2018 in Miami. Hamel also talks about a new feature to deploy the solution in anechoic chambers.
 
 
(Background image: iStock.com/imaginima)

Back again in Portland, Oregon, the 2016 Institute of Navigation’s ION GNSS+ conference was a great opportunity for the GNSS community to catch up on what’s been cooking in the industry, and of course who’s been doing what in the research community.

The attendees eagerly took to a wide range of technical paper presentation sessions, and from time to time came to take a look at what industry had to offer on the exhibit floor. Lots of engaging research reports, from work undertaken over the last year by academia, again drew a significant number of attendees from around the world.

On the other hand, industry continued the trend to go to trade shows in application sectors and pull back somewhat from ION GNSS+ as a place to look for product sales. So the number of companies on the ION show floor remained around the same or maybe a little less than in the previous few years. Nevertheless, the quality of the companies exhibiting remained high and there were some interesting newcomers.

A number of major GNSS receiver manufactures have pulled back from ION, so there were only two established U.S. companies and two new U.S. entrants at the show. On the other hand, GNSS simulation companies were at ION in force — eight all told, or twice as many as the receiver manufacturers present who have been their historic customers. But the trend in GNSS simulation now appears to be to move down stream towards the needs of integrators and systems outfits — in segments such as automotive, UAV and agriculture — with lower cost, very capable simulators.

Receiver makers roll out new tech

As a consequence, the NovAtel and Septentrio booths got a lot of attendee traffic, while BDStar (Unicore receivers and Harxon antennas) and ComNav also had a number of visitors to their booths. As usual, NavTech, who represent almost all the manufacturers, also had a busy exhibit.

OEM7600 dual-frequency receiver.

NovAtel chose to launch its OEM-7 series of GNSS receivers and a newly designed VEXXIS high-precision antenna at ION GNSS+, which is a somewhat refreshing return to the ION GNSS+ launch platform we used to see in the past. A new highly integrated ASIC at the heart of this receiver now provides, amongst other features, 555 channels, L-band support, inertial SPAN capability and an intriguing “Interference Toolbox”. The toolbox enables integrators to localize interference effects over a wide band — especially helpful for densely packed electronics, which you might expect in a UAV, for instance.

Interference Toolbox Screenshot.

Septentrio didn’t have a whole lot of new product announcements, but as usual the company has been working hard at improving existing capabilities on its receivers. The AsteRx4 receiver that uses a new ASIC has been available for a while, but it too boasts 544 channels — perhaps too many to actually be used in practice — robust heading, centimeter-level RTK and decimeter-level PPP (with TerraStar and Veripos corrections) with dual L-band channels, and an improved suite of advanced interference mitigation (AIM+) capabilities. This helps detection and removal of the effects of “chirp jamming” from low-power “cigarette-lighter” jammers — using signal analysis and adjustment of adaptive notch filters.

Septentrio did announce a new PolaRx5TR packaged time-and-frequency transfer receiver and a contract with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) for reference stations and timing. A report by UNAVCO also found its way into my inbox, which related comparative testing of the PolaRx5 and other manufacturers’ receivers in connection with a UNAVCO RFP – Septentrio did O.K. and was selected as a preferred vendor, which no doubt influenced the JPL award and added to an already good first half year for the company.

The Septentrio PolaRX5TR.

BDStar had a range of GPS, GLONASS, Beidou receivers from its subsidiary Unicorecomm, along with an impressive selection of antennas from Harxon, another of its Chinese subsidiaries. Both product lines have done very well in the Chinese market, and BDStar would like to sell more in North America.

ComNav also displayed a similar range of GNSS receivers and antennas, with new versions of both since last year, and a strong desire to break through into the US market.

Simulators a big presence

Simulator companies at ION included the more established Spirent, Spectracom, CAST, IFEN and Rohde & Schwarz — we could even now consider RaceLogic/LabSat as a record-and-playback fixture in the market. But in the wings and making lots of waves at the show were Syntony from France and Skydel from Montreal, Canada.

Spirent brought its usual large-scale GNSS simulators to ION, but also featured an interference detection and software analysis suite, a 16-bit high-fidelity record/playback unit, along with a new multi-frequency simulator aimed at downstream integrators. The GSS200D Detector finds interference effects and is able to relate them to the threats in the environment around a receiver. The object is to help debug an installation by finding internal interferers. The analysis tools can also help differentiate between regular equipment interference and potential external jammers.

Spirent’s new GSS200D detector.

Spirent also displayed a record/playback unit that has 16-bit playback capability, enabling a user to record and review a particular interference event, and then feed their new commercial simulator in order to replicate the interference. So a passing isolated jamming event can be analyzed in detail. Multiple reruns are possible to confirm the effect on the target system, and following equipment modifications, prove that the problem has indeed been neutralized.

Spirent analysis tools.

RaceLogic introduced its new wideband LabSat 3 record/playback system for GPS L1, GLONASS L1, Galileo E1, BeiDou B1, QZSS and SBAS. Recording live signals for any or all of these signals then allows later playback of a canned sample for equipment debugging on the bench. The LabSat product line has been around for some time, and this addition increases the debug capability for downstream users at an affordable price in a very portable format. When used with the RaceLogic SatGen software system, the user has access to a powerful toolset for testing new GNSS devices.

LabSat 3 and SatGen test set-up.

Spectrcom displayed its multi-frequency, multi-constellation simulator and also featured a GNSS vulnerability test system for interference detection and system debugging. The company’s approach requires two simulators, both synchronized by an atomic clock, allowing a PC-based Test Scenario Control to generate reproducible interference effects for debugging.

CAST Navigation is already moving downstream quite quickly with its CAST-SGX handheld GNSS simulator. With a touchscreen display, this simplified L1 GPS simulator (with P-code option) is ideal for test-bench debugging.

Rohde & Schwarz had its usual array of high-end test equipment, with a test set-up aimed at demonstrating testing of a Wi-Fi indoor location application on a smartphone.

IFEN showed up with a completely re-engineered simulator with huge frequency/channel capacity. The Titan GNSS Simulator houses up to 8 RFSIM modules, each of which carries 32 configurable satellite signals. A fully configured Titan chassis can therefore provide 256 channels of GPS L1/L2/L5, GLONASS G1/G2/G3, Galileo E1/E5/E6, Beidou B1/B2/B3, IRNSS L5 and S-band, QZSS L1/L2/L5/LEX and all current L1/L5 SBAS signals. Titan also has up to four independent RF outputs.

IFEN Titan GNSS Simulator.

Skydel is one of the newcomers in GNSS simulation, but has made significant inroads first appearing last year at ION. Skydel now boasts a full-up, reconfigurable GPS, GLONASS, Galileo, Beidou “software” simulator which the company claims to sell at a 1/3 the price of a conventional hardware simulator. And during the year, Skydel teamed up with Talen-X in Ohio, who have embedded Skydel software-defined in a U.S.-sourced GPS/GLONASS/Galileo/Beidou simulator that can include GPS P/Y and M-code.

Broadsim from Talen-X powered by Skydel.

Syntony rises high by going under (the ground)

The noise in simulation at ION was, however, created by Syntony from Toulouse in France. Syntony recently won a 15-simulator order from OneWeb — the outfit that plans to launch a 640 internet connectivity satellite constellation through 2020. With funding secured from Virgin Group and Qualcomm in 2015, initial satellite build is underway at Airbus Defence and Space, launch services are contracted with Arianespace to provide 21 multi-sat launches on Soyuz beginning in 2017 with optional launch service with Virgin Galactic. So Syntony is likely going to be able to build, deliver and be paid for its 15 simulators, which will be used for testing GPS capability that is integrated into each comms satellite.

Syntony 128-channel GNSS Simulator “Constellator.”

Syntony’s simulator is also software-defined and is reconfigurable. The software-defined heart of this system comes from a Syntony GPS/Galileo receiver, and a version of this receiver has now been sold for use in the Airbus Adeline re-usable space module. This receiver is a “multi-antenna receiver” in order to avoid signal or tracking loss while switching between antennas during the Safran launcher rotation. The catch here is that Syntony must develop this receiver to Airbus critical airborne software=qualification standards — no mean feat! Syntony is also providing a version of its Constellator simulator for testing this multi-antenna input receiver.

An ECHO record/playback system is also available, which includes high-fidelity 16-bit RF outputs.

Finally, Syntony was able to capture a proof-of-concept location infrastructure project for Stockholm, Sweden’s, underground metro. The metro stations are pretty deep underground, as they have been dug under the sea in and around Stockholm, and no one had been able to come up with 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 GPS-like signal infrastructure at the stations which is compatible with GPS-enabled smartphones. It worked well, and Syntony verified that there was no radiation of the signal outside any of the entrances to the test station — so no GPS interference. It actually worked so well that Syntony got the contract to equip all 50 metro stations in Stockholm, and the Syntony is now working to spread its system around the metros of all major cities, worldwide.

Defining the Galileo PRS signal…

Then I came across Fraunhofer towards the end of the show, and their posters about a Galileo PRS (Public Regulated Service) receiver. Now, we know that there has been significant discussion between the different security services of countries across the European Union, and its taken a lot of time to get to a definition of the PRS signal and who has access. So it wasn’t surprising that there was no hardware on the Fraunhofer booth; what’s surprising is that there was any mention of such a receiver being available and telling attendees at a conference in the U.S. that it’s available.

I talked to a couple of people at their booth, and indeed there is such a receiver, but they really couldn’t tell me anything about it because telling is strictly verboten! Another strange anomaly of the Galileo program — the participants seem to want to let the U.S. know that they have the capability for a special access service, and a receiver is available to work with it, but they can’t tell us anything about it. I guess the idea may be to rattle the cage of the U.S. P-code/M-code guys, and let them know Galileo has caught up at last… But Fraunhofer has an idea of how to make things available to, well, err …. to somebody. They have a concept to have cellphone users who want PRS to connect with their cloud receiver, and they will decode and provide PRS position back over the internet. That solves the whole security thing…. OK, that should do it.

Where inertial stands

I also made the rounds of the inertial and inertial/GPS guys at the show, and there were quite a few. From Northrop Grumman and Systron Donner and their mil-spec high-end FOG and RLG and Quartz MEMS tube-shaped inertial units — could they be for shells or missiles? — to Silicon Sensing’s MEMS accels and gyros and their move out of automotive and towards high-precision performance, to Sensonor’s high-performance commercial MEMS/GNSS units, there were actually only a few of the inertial-aiding outfits present. Yet everything we hear is that for anything that moves, we really should use integrated inertial/GNSS, and UAVs especially want lots of that! So this part of the business looks to be quite healthy too…

Now another ION GNSS+ conference has come and gone — and I was reminded that maybe I’ve actually been to 95 percent of the ION September conferences over the last 30 years. And as I write, the last of the late Friday paper sessions are crawling to a close.

ION still remains a good place to come and learn, a place to meet industry colleagues and a place to see a little of what industry is up to. Definitely worth the trip, and don’t forget your business cards next year.

Tony Murfin
GNSS Aerospace

Skydel SDX Release 17.1 adds a fine level of control on signal multipath to the software-defined GNSS simulator.

SDX 17.1 introduces a powerful multipath simulation option, enabling users to create less-than-ideal signal propagation conditions for GNSS testing. Multipath echoes can be added and fined-tuned for each satellite, per signal. Control is possible via four fundamental attributes: pseudorange offset, power loss, Doppler shift and carrier-phase offset.

It’s now convenient to create simplified test conditions otherwise impossible to achieve with the live sky. The new options are fully controllable through the SDX application program interface (API), and can be modified on the fly while the simulation is running.Release 17.1 also adds L2C navigation message modification. Besides the usual conditions such as start and stop time and PRN number, users can specify the message type, and the message content to match.

Because the CNAV message is 300 bits long and not subdivided in words like the NAV message, managing the modifications as a per-bit fashion would be tedious. The interface solves this by letting you add modifications for portions of the message — and lets users add as many as they need.

Software-defined radios (SDR) can take a few seconds to initialize when starting the simulation. To improve software synchronization performance, Skydel has added an armed state. Upon clicking the arm button (or issuing the command through the API), the armed state prepares all hardware. When the start command is later received, the delay to emit the GNSS signals is minimal.

Other updates have also been made. See the release notes for the full list. As always, existing licensees benefit from an immediate upgrade.

Among the next items on SDX’s development agenda is the release of advanced jamming capabilities through an innovative integration with the GNSS simulator.

Cast-5000 GPS wavefront generator

CRPA and Attitude Determination Receiver Testing

The CAST-5000 produces a single coherent wavefront of GPS RF signals to provide repeatable testing in the laboratory environment or anechoic chamber. The basic system generates four independent, coherent simulations that reference a single point and is upgradeable to support seven elements for CRPA testing. With an intercard carrier- phase error of less than 1 centimeter, the CAST-5000 is extremely accurate.

The system generates a wavefront of GPS when its GPS RF generator cards are operated in a ganged configuration. Each generator card provides a set of GPS satellites coherent with the overall configuration. Several RF generator cards may be utilized together, ensuring phase coherence among the bank of signal generator cards.

The CAST-5000 Controlled Reception Pattern Antenna (CRPA) tester allows a full end-to-end test of the antenna system. The CRPA antenna, antenna electronics and the GPS receiver can be tested as a unit with or without radiating signals.

Features

• Generates single coherent wavefront of GPS.
• 6-DOF motion generation capability.
• Complete SV constellation editing.
• Post-mission processing via ICD-GPS-150/153.
• Differential/relative navigation.
• Antenna pattern modeling.
• Waypoint navigation.
• RAIM events.
• Multipath modeling.
• Spoofer simulation.
• Satellite clock errors.
• External trajectory input.
• External ephemeris and almanac.
• Several iono and tropo models.
• Modifiable navigation message.
• Modeled selective availability.
• Time-tagged satellite events.
• Selectable host vehicle parameters.

www.castnav.com
phone: 978 858-0130
email: sales@castnav.com

iP-Solutions, Zero-C Seven Inc.

Simceiver, Replicator, ReGen

iP-Solutions brings its 10-year development for designated users — including the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) COSMODE ionospheric scintillation monitor — to general users worldwide.

iP-Solutions users have a complete GNSS lab at their disposal. They can simulate, record and process signals in real-time with the company’s receiver, and playback almost any GNSS signal.

Moreover, users have complete control over the simulated signals in real-time and with high fidelity.

iP-Solutions provides mid-level and high-end simulation solutions with the same level of accuracy and fidelity.

Mid-Level Solution
iP-Solutions’ mid-level Simceiver simulator allows multi-frequency simulation of various GNSS signals with all essential models. The additional ANSI C API allows users to modify existing models or introduce their own.

iP-Solutions’ mid-level solution range even includes a comprehensive interference and spoofing laboratory.

The Simceiver is controlled usign the comprehensive ReGen software, providing the user with great freedom to create any desired signal.

High-End Solution
iP-Solutions’ high-end Ninja simulator allows for multi-antenna controlled radiation pattern antenna (CRPA) and local-area augmentation system (LAAS) simulation.

Academia
iP-Solutions’ educational packages for academia combine hardware at a special academic price with academic versions of all the software and two textbooks authored by iP-Solutions’ lead engineer Ivan Petrovski and JAXA lead scientist Toshiaki Tsujii (published by Cambridge University Press).

www.ip-solutions.jp
phone: +81-3-3560-7747
e-mail: tak@ip-solutions.jp (Japan)
chris@ip-solutions.jp (Nth. America)
kyron@ip-solutions.jp (International)

Racelogic

LabSat 3 Wideband
LabSat is a cost-effective and intuitive GNSS simulator.

New to the LabSat range of GNSS record and replay devices is LabSat 3 Wideband, which continues with the established reliability, cost-effectiveness, and simplicity of operation that are the benchmarks of the LabSat system.

A recording bandwidth of 56 MHz allows for the capture of a very wide range of live-sky satellite signals:

• GPS: L1 / L2 / L5
• GLONASS: L1 / L2 / L3
• BeiDou: B1 / B2 / B3
• QZSS: L1 / L2 / L5
• Galileo: E1 / E1a / E5a / E5b / E6
• IRNSS: L5
• SBAS: WAAS / EGNOS / GAGAN / MSAS / SDCM

Depending on the desired bandwidth, recording resolution can be set to 2, 4, or 6 bit. Check out the GNSS frequency guide on the LabSat website — labsat.co.uk — to see exactly which signals can be recorded and at which resolution.

Even with this greatly increased capacity over the original LabSat 3, the new simulator remains extremely easy to use: one-touch recording, no connection to PC required, battery powered for up to two hours, and with a removable 1-TB solid-state hard drive that can be replaced in no time, the LabSat 3 Wideband is convenient to use. It measures a compact 167 x 128 x 46 millimeters and weighs 1.2 kilograms.

SatGen Wideband
For product future-proofing, the soon-to-be-launched SatGen Wideband will allow for testing with signals not yet fully available, such as GPS L2C and L5 — further increasing the power and versatility of the new LabSat 3 Wideband.
www.labsat.co.uk
phone: +44 (0)1280 823803

Skydel

SDX: Software-Defined GNSS Simulator

SDX uses GPU-accelerated computing and software-defined radios (SDR) to create an advanced and fully-featured GNSS simulator. SDX is available as complete turnkey systems or software only.

The software-defined approach offers many benefits:

• COTS hardware offers economy of scale and eliminates dependency over dedicated hardware platforms.
• Generic hardware allow users to repurpose their equipment for different projects.
• Configurable output to test receiver at various entry point with RF, IF or IQ data.
• Uncompromised performance with high dynamics and accuracy.
• Record user interactions and export them to scripts to automate complex use cases intuitively. The export feature reduces the learning curve for advanced concepts.
• Advanced signal customization (signal signature, private encryption, etc.)

SDX Key Features

• Multi-constellation (GPS, GLONASS, Galileo, BeiDou), multi-frequency (upper and lower L-band).
• Selectable RF, IF frequency and IQ file data.
• GPS encrypted codes.
• Fully integrated jammers (static or moving) with over 120-dB jamming-to-signal ratio.
• Multipath.
• Additive pseudorange (PSR) ramps.
• Message modification and corruption.
• 1000-Hz update rate and high dynamics.
• Space (LEO-GEO), air and ground vehicle with 6DoF trajectories.
• Hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) integration.
• Street maps integration.
• Raw data logging.
• Real-time receiver deviation analysis.
• Powerful and simple API.
• On-the-fly reconfiguration.
• Windows and Linux compatible.

SDX is ideal for design and validation of GNSS receivers, complex integration, academic research, NAVWAR and test engineering.

Skydel engineering and research teams offer direct support to clients to ensure prompt deployment and integration, or review advanced customization requirements.

www.skydelsolutions.com
info@skydelsolutions.com

Spectracom

For mission-critical PNT applications

The Spectracom GSG series of GPS/GNSS simulators are an essential tool to evaluate risk to jamming, spoofing or any other threat. Spectracom GSG-5/6 series simulators are easy-to-use, feature-rich and affordable, offering high value for hardening GPS-based systems compared to the limitations of testing from live-sky signals. The Spectracom platform approach allows users to buy what they need today and upgrade later. The adaptability of the GNSS RF generation platform can extend to applications for intelligent repeating and meaconing.

Test Solutions

• Position accuracy and dynamic range/sensitivity.
• Simulate movements/trajectories anywhere on or above Earth.
• Sensitivity to GPS impairments: loss of satellites, multipath, atmospheric conditions, interference, jamming and spoofing.
• Conducted or over-the-air RF.
• GPS time-transfer accuracy.
• Effect of leap-second transition.
• Multi-constellation testing.
• Modernization signals/frequencies.
• Keyless military SAASM, dual-frequency and survey-grade receiver testing.
• Application packages for, RTK, CRPA (controlled radiation pattern antennas).
• Hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) integration.
• Test solutions for eCall and ERA-GLONASS Infrastructure Possibilities.
• Zone-based indoor location (intelligent repeating).
• seudolite applications.

GSG-6 Series 64-channel, multi-frequency, advanced GNSS simulator is powerful enough for any cutting-edge test program. GPS, GLONASS, Galileo, Beidou, QZSS and IRNSS signals are available across multiple frequencies. The GSG-6 is designed for military, research and professional applications.

GSG-5 Series 16-channel multi-constellation L1-band GNSS Simulator is designed for commercial development/integration programs. If the user is developing commercial products with GNSS capability, the GSG-5 will shorten test programs with confidence.

GSG-51 single channel signal generator is designed for one purpose — fast, simple Go/No-Go manufacturing test and validation, ensuring the manufacturing line is operating at full capacity with confidence in quality.

spectracom.com
email: sales@spectracom.com
phone: +1-585-321-5800

Spirent Federal Systems

GSS9000, CRPA Test System, GSS6450 RPS, GSS200D
Spirent Federal provides simulators that cover all applications, including research and development, integration/verification and production testing.

GSS9000. The Spirent GSS9000 Multi-Frequency, Multi-GNSS RF Constellation Simulator can simulate signals from all GNSS and regional navigation. The GSS9000 offers a four-fold increase in RF signal iteration rate (SIR) over Spirent’s GSS8000 simulator. The GSS9000 SIR is 1000 Hz (1ms), enabling higher dynamic simulations with more accuracy and fidelity. It includes support for restricted and classified signals from the GPS and Galileo systems as well as advanced capabilities for ultra-high dynamics. It can evaluate resilience of navigation systems to interference and spoofing attacks, and has the flexibility to reconfigure constellations, channels and frequencies between test runs or test cases.

CRPA Test System. Spirent’s Controlled Reception Pattern Antenna (CRPA) Test System generates both GNSS and interference signals. Users can control multiple antenna elements. Null-steering and space/time adaptive CRPA testing are both supported by this comprehensive approach.

GSS6450. The GSS6450 RF Record Playback System (RPS) takes RF recording and playback systems to a whole new level of performance and flexibility, while being housed in a small (8.5 x 7.8 x 3 inch) portable case. The GSS6450 can record any GNSS signals currently available with bit depths up to 16 bits (I&Q) and bandwidths of up to 50 MHz. The flexible product structure allows the system complexity to grow with the user’s testing needs.

GSS200D. A truly end-to-end solution that builds up a complete picture of interference activity at site of interest. It continuously monitors the GNSS frequency bands for interference, then captures and analyzes them. The GSS200D is a detection system that operates simultaneously on multi-frequency.

Spirent Federal Systems
1402 W. State Rd.
Pleasant Grove, UT 84062
www.spirentfederal.com
gnssinfo@spirentfederal.com
phone: 801-785-1448
fax: 801-785-1294

Key contacts: Jeff Martin, VP of Business Development and Sales
Kalani Needham, Sales West
Tyson Gurney, Sales East

Syntony-GNSS

Constellator is Syntony’s cost-effective full soft multi-constellation GNSS simulator. Designed to test receivers against current and future signals, Constellator matches top-end processing performance and RF quality and offers utmost flexibility in simulation control.
Constellator

• performs fair-weather tests, but also is designed to subject receivers to suboptimal conditions, extreme situations and combinations of errors difficult to access in real-world tests — all of it finely controlled and indefinitely repeatable.
• is compatible with other best-in-class test solutions providing GNSS component end-to-end system tests, including hardware in the loop.
• core is software, ensuring that all future constellations, satellites and codes can be handled. Most functional upgrades will then be software-only.
• is used in aerospace and defense (among others) for: multi-antenna receiver testing for spacecraft launcher, satellite onboard receiver testing (telecom and observation) and defense UAV receiver testing.

Main Features

• 128 channels (extensible) delivering high-quality satellite signals on six distinct frequencies (L and S band)
• Hardware-in-the-loop testing at 10- to 100-Hz refresh rates
• Extensive simulation options:
  • • Full-time and location control
  • Receiver trajectories with extreme dynamics
  • Background noise, interference and jamming/spoofing (two units)
  • Atmospheric propagation errors
  • Satellite errors
  • Multipath and obscuration
  • On-the-fly scenario modifications
  • Receiver attitude control
  • Very accurate spaceborne trajectories

Main Simulation and Modeling Capabilities

Receiver trajectories: Includes four spatial reference frames and trajectory editors for ground, marine, aerial and spatial motion and import facility.

Hardware-in-the-loop: Receives receiver’s position updates from test-rig in real time and generates corresponding GNSS signals and messages.

Atmospheric errors: Propagation issues can be simulated at individual signal level with different models provided for ionosphere and troposphere.

Satellite error modeling options include orbital errors, onboard clock errors, satellite electronics (front-end) defects, satellite dysfunctions and signal fade, disappearance and “evil waveform” incidents.

www.syntony-gnss.com
contact@syntony-gnss.com
phone :+33(0) 581 319 919

Talen-x

BroadSim: The NAVWAR Simulator
BroadSim was developed to simplify advanced jamming and spoofing scenarios with Navigation Warfare (NAVWAR) testing in mind. Powered by Skydel SDX, a 1000-Hz GNSS simulator engine, BroadSim is able to simulate multiple vehicles, constellations, and code types (military and civil). BroadSim is ideal for supporting real-world field tests, NAVWAR testing and jamming.

Field Testing. Field testing GPS receivers to determine their performance and vulnerabilities in degraded or competing environments is becoming standard practice. BroadSim has proven to excel in field testing events due to its integrated GPS receiver allowing for built-in live-sky synchronization, four independent RF outputs, and a wide dynamic range with up to 0 dBm transmit power. A typical configuration for a live-sky field test would have BroadSim time synchronized to live sky, transmitting C/A, P, Y and M on L1 while simultaneously transmitting P, Y and M on L2 all at 0 dBm.

NAVWAR. BroadSim is great for NAVWAR testing because of how easy it is to use and configure multiple vehicles. Talen-X has carefully designed the simulator such that users can easily create true signals using two RF outputs and spoofed signals using the other two RF outputs. BroadSim’s graphical user interface (GUI) is intuitive and designed to meet the demand of NAVWAR testing.

Advanced Jamming. An innovative feature that has been added to BroadSim is the ability to generate jamming signals without any additional hardware. Using a simple interface, users can specify the jammer location, power level, waveform type and antenna pattern. BroadSim uses its 1000-Hz engine to compute the I/Q data incident on the user antenna for both the GNSS and jammer signals. This new paradigm of jamming simulation makes it easy to simulate complex jamming environments.

www.talen-x.com
phone: +1-319-382-5369
email: sales@talen-x.com

Skydel, a GNSS test solutions company, has partnered with Germany-based Noffz to deliver SDX GNSS simulation to clients in Europe.

Noffz creates test systems and solutions in the area of the Internet of Things (IoT) — especially in automotive RF-test applications around eCall, network access devices, telematics control units, infotainment/multimedia units and automotive radar.

With nearly 30 years of experience, Noffz delivers worldwide turnkey solutions and PC-based measurement, as well as automation systems.

“With their broad expertise in test solutions, Noffz is well positioned to bring Skydel’s SDX GNSS simulation solutions to clients located in Europe and beyond,” Skydel said in a blog.

“Technology is constantly evolving,” reads the blog. “With the advent of new satellite constellations, such as Galileo, expanding needs for position and navigation in the transportation industry, and the growing threats of RF interferences, GNSS simulation is more than ever a key component in the arsenal needed to design and validate new products.

“Skydel SDX delivers a new paradigm in GNSS simulation, featuring an exclusive mix of performance, flexibility and unique capabilities. With the addition of Noffz’s know-how covering multiple industries, we now have an outstanding team that’s ready to tackle today and tomorrow’s technological integration challenges.”

Galileot will reach Full Operational Capability (FOC) in 2019. Simulation of the complete Galileo constellation is possible with Skydel’s SDX GNSS simulator.

In mid-2017, Talen-X and Skydel engineers began to conceptualize a GNSS simulation system emanating from their BroadSim platform for the purpose of fortifying anechoic chambers.

Over the next six months, Talen-X and Skydel designed, built, tested and delivered an anechoic chamber simulator capable of simultaneously generating multi-GNSS jamming and spoofing signals.

BroadSim Anechoic can be used to support a wide variety of operational tests.

“Our new Anechoic Chamber solution will radically change the way in which mission critical platforms and systems are tested because we are enabling our customers to create real-world threats,” said Talen-X Chief Technology Officer Tim Erbes said. “Not only will BroadSim Anechoic be able to emulate real-world threat scenarios, it will be easier than ever before to create and simulate these environments.”

BroadSim Anechoic is used to test GNSS spoofing and jamming in an anechoic chamber. The BroadSim Controller is at the heart of the system running Skydel’s SDX software suite. Using SDX, users can create advanced scenarios that include both jamming and spoofing signals.

The 16 software-defined radios (SDRs) each with dual transmit ports (32 total outputs) can be configured to output GNSS or jamming signals, giving users flexibility to run test after test. The transmit chains include the hardware to power 16 dual-frequency antennas. The included GNSS receivers allow users to monitor the environment inside the chamber, providing confidence that tests are running correctly.

The BroadSim Anechoic can also be used in controlled radiation pattern antenna (CRPA) testing. Many ground-, airborne- and water-based platforms are transitioning to using CRPAs because of their added jamming resiliency and significant tracking advantages in degraded environments.

Validation and real-world testing is critical to understanding and characterizing the mitigation these antennas can add in highly degraded areas. By using BroadSim Anechoic, users have the ability to create representative jammers with real-world characteristics (modulations, frequencies, angles, power levels, etc).

“Skydel developed an innovative approach for time offset calibration between multiple transmitting antenna using a COTS Software-Defined Radio (SDR),” said Skydel Solutions Chief Technology Officer, Iurie Ilie. “This approach allows for very precise measurements and adjustments (better than 100ps) to be done automatically before simulation start. At the same time, transmitting signal power is automatically adjusted to keep the power offset at receiving antenna better than 0.1dB.”

BroadSim Anechoic takes advantage of state-of-the-art software defined radios (SDR) for RF up-converting while signal IQ generation is done using high performance commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) graphics-processing units (GPU). The ability to generate the IQ data in software (using the GPU) as opposed to hardware (FPGA) significantly reduces the cost while maximizing capability, value, and time to market.

BroadSim Anechoic has the capability of powering up to 16-dual frequency antennas requiring 32 RF transmit outputs. The architecture used for this system required the ability to receive signals in a manner such that precise processing could be done on the receive signal.

The SDR selected for this application has one receiver channel for every transmit channel giving BroadSim Anechoic 32 RF receive ports. Innovative software techniques have been developed enabling the accurate time and power calibration for each antenna transmit chain using the SDR receive ports.

Images: Talen-X

GMV, Tecnobit and Skydel are aiming to provide corporations, universities and research labs with a reliable, advanced simulation system that closely follows the latest Galileo capabilities.

“Together with our partners at Tecnobit, and taking advantage of SDX’s unique software-defined architecture, we are currently working to add Public Regulated Service (PRS) support to Skydel SDX,” said Manuel Toledo, head of the GNSS Advanced User Segment Solutions Division at GMV. PRS provides position and timing data for sensitive applications that require the highest level of service continuity.

Skydel and GMV are also joining efforts on developing SDX’s capabilities for signal authentication with Galileo Commercial Service and Open Service. The goal of such authentication is to increase the safety level of signals and to avert their falsification or fraud. It is currently a unique feature that only the Galileo constellation can provide, the companies said.

Skydel and GMV are also collaborating on projects that aim to provide signal simulation solutions for Galileo’s second generation (G2G). Galileo’s second-generation satellites are scheduled to be launched in 2025 and beyond.

“With Galileo’s full operational capabilities approaching soon, we must focus on the system’s upcoming G2G services,” said Pierre-Marie Le Véel, business development director at Skydel. “Skydel’s top priority for the European market is to provide simulation tools for the design of these next-generation GNSS devices.”

The partnership among the three companies unites the unique strengths of each organization, GMV said. While GMV brings its expert knowledge of both the European market and the Galileo system and Tecnobit brings its expertise as developer of cryptographic systems, Skydel adds its versatile and extensible GNSS simulator, resulting in a solid technical and commercial synergy for establishing an improved GNSS service offering for Europe.

Click to enlarge. (Image: Skydel)

Galileo, BeiDou, QZSS, IRNSS, and more join GPS and GLONASS to bring you wider, broader, greater, more accessible and above all more accurate PNT. How to get all that’s coming at you?

Multi-GNSS paves the way for complete exploitation of new signals and constellations in navigation, surveying, geodesy and remote sensing.

What exactly are the benefits of multi-GNSS, and how can you access them? For a start, download the multi-GNSS signal schema, and follow that up by attending a free webinar, “Multi-GNSS: Advantages, Challenges and Test Solutions.”

The free 1-hour webinar, which will take place at 1 p.m. Eastern [10 a.m. Pacific,  7 p.m. (1900h) Central European Time] on Thursday, Sept. 20, will review advantages of using multi-GNSS for the end-user and challenges in obtaining maximum efficiency when combining multiple constellations and signals. It will also discuss different approaches of testing GNSS receivers against jamming and spoofing attacks.

You will learn:

• Advantages of using multi-GNSS
• Challenges when combining multiple constellations
• Robustness of multi-GNSS receivers to jamming and spoofing
• Test solutions for GNSS receivers.

The webinar presents sponsored content by Skydel and Talen-X. Register for it here.

Skydel CEO and co-founder Stéphane Hamel discusses the company’s latest updates, which include new features for its software-defined GNSS simulator, at ION GNSS+ 2018 in Miami. Hamel also talks about a new feature to deploy the solution in anechoic chambers.
 
 
(Background image: iStock.com/imaginima)

Skydel Solutions has updated its SDX GNSS simulator to version 19.1. The new version adds Galileo AltBOC signal generation, new atmospheric errors, SBAS improvements and SV antenna patterns.

Galileo AltBOC. SDX now supports Galileo AltBOC as a new GNSS signal type. Current SDX users licensed with the Galileo E5 signal will be able to generate 8 Phase Shift Keying (8-PSK) constant envelope AltBOC after upgrading to SDX 19.1.

The signal can be generated by selecting both Galileo E5a and E5b in the output – signal selection panel.

A montage of screenshots showing the various updates. (Image: Skydel)

Atmospheric Delays and Improvements to SBAS. Version 19.1 adds a new error type to all SDX users: atmospheric delays. These errors can be compensated with SBAS for SDX licensees with the SBAS option installed. The SBAS message now broadcasts ionospheric error corrections.

Three new interfaces help create, manage and use these error values in simulation scenarios.

Atmospheric Errors (Settings : Global). This panel enables users to review and edit the ionospheric delay values for any SBAS Ionospheric Grid Points (IGPs) . The map view can be navigated (pan and zoom) much like the map panel of the simulation. The edit button brings up an IGP editor used to assign the points values or increase their current value by a set amount.

Since the number of points in the grid is fairly large, the user interface works with a selection of points, allowing users to add or remove the current selection in order to quickly work your way around the whole map.

Atmospheric errors are available to all SDX licensees with the 19.1 upgrade.

Ionospheric Masks (Settings : SBAS). SDX users with the SBAS option can use this new interface to assign the true/false value for each point of the different SBAS bands, per service provider. It reuses most of the paradigm of the aforementioned atmospheric error pane.

Ionospheric GIVE Indicators (Settings : SBAS). Using a similar map interface as the two previous panels, the GIVEI (GIVE Indicators) panel enables you to provide the GIVE Indicator values for each IGP that is configured in the mask, per service provider.

The grids created or modified with these new options can all be saved and imported back into future SDX scenarios.

New GNSS Satellite Antenna Patterns. Also new in SDX 19.1 is the possibility to add user-defined antenna patterns to GNSS satellites. These new antenna pattern options show SDX’s flexibility by allowing any user-defined antenna pattern to be applied to any satellites in any GNSS constellation.

This can prove especially useful for scientists and engineers working with space vehicles, due to their unusual orientation when compared to surface vehicles. High-Earth-orbiting spacecraft benefit from the side lobes of GNSS satellites to improve navigation performance. In fact, when tracking the signal from side lobes, the number of visible satellites is drastically increased, and the precision can improve from the kilometer to the meter level.

In addition, the new antenna patterns can be a potent tool in the context of research projects that experiment with user-defined GNSS SV Antennas.

SV antenna patterns in SDX. SDX now allows you to create, define, and manage antenna patterns for GNSS satellites using an interface very similar to the one we introduced for vehicles in SDX 18.10. As with that release, the various patterns are organized into antenna models that can be named, managed, exported, and reimported back into other simulation scenarios.

The user interface has also been improved. Read more about the changes in Skydel’s blog.