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Session A2: Cooperative Space-Based Sources: Experimentation

Testing of Xona PULSAR LEO PNT Signals for Resilience in GNSS Contested Environments
Michael Armatys, Dana Jensen, Dave Anderson, Collins Aerospace; Roger Hart, Phillip Bonilla, Jan Ackermann, Stuart Duncan, Felix Krefft, Spirent; Andrew Neish, Paul Tarantino, Jessica Hulsey, Tyler Reid, Xona Space Systems
Location: Room 1-3
Date/Time: Monday, Jun. 3, 11:30 a.m.

Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS), including GPS, are an invisible utility that provide position, navigation, and timing (PNT) services to more than 6.4 billion devices. As PNT-reliant industries continue to innovate and advance, the performance of GPS has struggled to keep pace. Furthermore, GPS now faces more threats than ever, with the emergence of mainstream radio interference and easily-generated spoof signals misleading receiver navigation. These new threat spaces limit GPS’ utility to satisfy modern PNT requirements, in both government and commercial sectors.
To address these challenges, Xona Space Systems is developing a dedicated satellite navigation system using Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites and a “secure by design” navigation signal to deliver a next-generation PNT service that is higher-performance, high-assurance, jam-resistant, and cryptographically secure. Xona’s PNT service, PULSAR, is designed to be a resilient augmentation / alternative to GPS, providing the needed step-change in navigation and timing performance that will support emerging demands in commercial and government markets. Xona has been developing this technology since 2019, engaging an industry-leading team of technical experts and advisors to work together toward a pilot demonstration launched in 2022 and an initial production capability starting in 2025. This begins with a 1-in-view LEO GNSS enhancement service over mid-latitude population centers and culminates in GPS-level satellite visibility and geometry in the long-term.
In this presentation, we will showcase the capability of a Xona PULSAR-enabled receiver in a simulated GNSS contested environment. Spirent Federal will provide the test environment using SimXona, a versatile test solution designed to generate Xona PULSAR signals, both the demonstration XL signal as well as novel production signals, X1 and X5. Collins Aerospace is implementing the Xona PULSAR X1 and X5 waveforms on the Collins Secure Common Datalink Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (SCISR) radio to expand its suite of Alternate Positioning, Navigation and Timing (A-PNT) sensors for military and commercial applications.
The Spirent testbed allows the creation of user-defined scenarios comprising a blend of RF signals as would be received by an antenna, mounted upon a vehicle anywhere in the world. A range of times can be exercised using conventional GNSS constellation definitions in addition to satellite information available from Xona Space Systems for the Xona constellation. Additionally, the system allows for the introduction of hypothetical or known interference and jamming signals to allow for the exploration of interference resilience of the unit under test.
The Collins SCISR radio is a small form-factor Software Defined Radio (SDR) used in Small Unmanned Aerial System (SUAS) platforms making it suitable to a variety of low-Size, Weight and Power (SWaP) applications. When PULSAR implementation is complete, Collins will initially integrate the SCISR-derived PULSAR measurements into the military navigation product lines navigation fusion engine, expanding Collins’ ability to provide Assured-PNT solutions to the warfighter. Collins has created a digital twin environment to test and evaluate the performance advantages of the Xona PULSAR signals. Acquisition and tracking results will be shown.

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