Complementary PNT Technology Demonstration

Andrew Hansen, Stephen Mackey, Hadi Wassaf, Karen Van Dyke

Abstract:	Positioning, Navigation, and Timing (PNT) supports critical infrastructure with its most known service: Global Positioning System (GPS). The presence of signals broadcast from satellites in Medium Earth Orbit (MEO), results in low signal strength from the receiver making it vulnerable to intentional and unintentional disruptions which could lead to public sector economic and safety losses including transportation services, property damage, environmental damage, injury, and loss of confidence for the system. With guidance from current legislation, the main goal within these field demonstrations is to find a suitable vendor(s) to offer complementary service in the event of GPS disruptions with an emphasis for a scenario-based demonstration rather than a technological based demonstration. The purpose of the demonstration was to gather information on PNT technologies at a high Technology Readiness Level (TRL) that can work in the absence of GPS. Six key constructs were implemented when considering potential stakeholders including timing performance, positioning performance, Timing-terrestrial broadcast, PNT-Terrestrial Broadcast, and PNT broadcast. Across eleven vendors, five timing scenarios were assessed including: 72 Hour Bench Static Timing, Static Outdoor Timing, Static Indoor Timing, Static Basement Timing, and eLORAN Reference Station Offset. Four positioning scenarios were also developed to assess vendor systems based on these five attributes: Dynamic Outdoor Positioning with Holds, 3D Positioning, Static Outdoor Positioning, and Static Indoor Positioning. The purpose of the positioning scenarios was to exemplify: coverage, two-dimensional (2D) dynamic positioning/three-dimensional (3D) dynamic positioning, static positioning including service availability/accuracy, and static positioning under long term service availability/accuracy under normal conditions as well as challenged GPS signal conditions in relevance to multimodal transportation and other critical infrastructure applications From the vendors’ technological demonstration, four key findings were issued and the decision to achieve resilient PNT service across all categories is to pursue multiple technologies while promoting diversity across PNT functions in areas including transportation and further infrastructure sectors.
Published in:	Proceedings of the 34th International Technical Meeting of the Satellite Division of The Institute of Navigation (ION GNSS+ 2021) September 20 - 24, 2021 Union Station Hotel St. Louis, Missouri
Pages:	3127 - 3141
Cite this article:	Hansen, Andrew, Mackey, Stephen, Wassaf, Hadi, Van Dyke, Karen, "Complementary PNT Technology Demonstration," Proceedings of the 34th International Technical Meeting of the Satellite Division of The Institute of Navigation (ION GNSS+ 2021), St. Louis, Missouri, September 2021, pp. 3127-3141. https://doi.org/10.33012/2021.18075
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