TeleCommunication Systems is demonstrating location fixes over a WiMAX network using Assisted Global Positioning System (A-GPS) technology in their TCS Xypoint Location Platform. It runs on a live, commercially-deployed WiMAX network in the Pacific Northwest, presumably Clearwire.
TCS’ Xypoint Location Platform collects the GPS location over the WiMAX network. A Web-based location tracking application regularly queries the Xypoint Location Platform running on a laptop and displays the resulting location on a map. The technology is easily transferable to other wireless devices such as WiMAX-enabled personal digital assistants, says the company.
Conventional GPS can have difficulty providing reliable positions in poor signal conditions, such as in city or rural canyons. Assisted GPS, or A-GPS can locate the device roughly by what cell site it is connected to. The assistance server accesses information from the reference network and has computing power beyond that of the GPS device and communicates with the GPS receiver via a wireless link.
In related news, the latest GPS satellite — the sixth modernized Block IIR-M satellite in the constellation - was successfully launched by the United Launch Alliance early Saturday morning, March 15, from Cape Canaveral, Florida.
The IIR-M satellites are modernized — hence the M designation — with an upgraded antenna panel that provides increased signal power to both military and civilian receivers on the ground, two new military signals for improved accuracy, enhanced encryption and anti-jamming capabilities for the military, and a second civil signal.
The final Block IIR-Ms are scheduled to go up this year on June 8 and September 8. If all goes well, eight IIR-Ms should be in operation by the end of 2008.
The shift in GPS from an essentially military application to a dual-use system can be traced back to 1983, when Soviet fighter jets shot down a civilian passenger plane that had strayed into Soviet airspace. In response, President Reagan declared that GPS should be available for worldwide civilian use.
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