THE APPLICATION OF NAVSTAR DIFFERENTIAL GPS IN THE CIVILIAN COMMUNITY

Jacques Beser and Bradford W. Parkinson

Peer Reviewed

Abstract:	The NAVSTAR Global Positioning System (GPS), currently being developed for the Department of Defense, is a space based navigation system that will provide the user with precise position, velocity and time information on a 24-hour basis and in all weather conditions at any point on the globe. The potential unauthorized use of this source of very precise navigation information has prompted the DOD to intentionally contaminate the signals and to provide only authorized users with the necessary information to recover the original signals. The high probability of the implementation of these techniques, known as Selective Availability, indicated the need for a variation of the baseline GPS, so as to allow for an assured, uninterrupted level of accuracy, if the system was to be used effectively in the civilian sector. Differential GPS provides such a capability. This paper presents the current thinking in the implementation of Selective Availability and its impact on the civilian use of GPS. Further, different possible implementations of differential GPS are presented and their performance compared with the baseline system, with or without the use of Selective Availability. Finally, the support in the civilian community for the development of differential GPS and the potential market size are assessed.
Published in:	NAVIGATION: Journal of the Institute of Navigation, Volume 29, Number 2
Pages:	107 - 136
Cite this article:	Beser, Jacques, Parkinson, Bradford W., "THE APPLICATION OF NAVSTAR DIFFERENTIAL GPS IN THE CIVILIAN COMMUNITY", NAVIGATION: Journal of The Institute of Navigation, Vol. 29, No. 2, Summer 1982, pp. 107-136.
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