The Canada-Wide Differential GPS (CDGPS) Service: New Infrastructure Launched for GPS-based Geo-Referencing and Navigation

Amin Kassam, Brad Hlasny, Vern Vogt, Kim Lochhead, Gyles Panther and Michael Carter

Abstract:	The new Canada-wide differential GPS (CDGPS) service will be launched by the end of 2002. This is an important development for spatial data gatherers in Canada (and in fact North America). Under development over the past few years, this free service will enhance the availability of real-time DGPS corrections across Canada. All provinces, the government of Nunavut and the Federal government have partnered to bring quality geo- referencing capability for GPS users within the Canadian Spatial Reference System (CSRS). CDGPS will augment the Coast Guard’s marine beacon DGPS service as well as the United States' Wide Area Augmentation Service (WAAS) by providing complete Canadian coverage and simple access to the CSRS. Governments have recognized the need for and the utility of DGPS serving the land and resource sectors. As such, efforts have been underway in both the United States and Canada to cost-effectively build the necessary infrastructure to support real-time DGPS. CDGPS is the Canadian response. CDGPS is based on the Canadian government’s Canadian Active Control System (CACS) and its wide-area based real-time GPS correction (GPS•C) product. As its first release under CDGPS in 2002, GPS•C is being delivered to the users through the MSAT-1 communications satellite operated by Mobile Satellite Ventures (MSV). Mobile Knowledge Inc. (formerly SiGEM Inc.) of Kanata, Canada is the prime contractor who developed and built the satellite network components, including the open broadcast protocol, the hub, and the radio (user receiver). MSV was sub-contracted for some of the hub development and will be responsible for the network operation. As an initial seed to the marketplace, a user receiver has been built and will be offered to the marketplace to help launch the CDGPS service. The user receiver is designed to be highly portable and permit three output options: • CSRS position (i.e. corrected position) in NMEA format, • Local differential RTCM-104 correction stream, and • GPS·C in modified RTCA (MRTCA) format.
Published in:	Proceedings of the 15th International Technical Meeting of the Satellite Division of The Institute of Navigation (ION GPS 2002) September 24 - 27, 2002 Oregon Convention Center Portland, OR
Pages:	1798 - 1805
Cite this article:	Kassam, Amin, Hlasny, Brad, Vogt, Vern, Lochhead, Kim, Panther, Gyles, Carter, Michael, "The Canada-Wide Differential GPS (CDGPS) Service: New Infrastructure Launched for GPS-based Geo-Referencing and Navigation," Proceedings of the 15th International Technical Meeting of the Satellite Division of The Institute of Navigation (ION GPS 2002), Portland, OR, September 2002, pp. 1798-1805.
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