FIG Vice President Matt Higgins Attends the Fifth Meeting of
the International Committee on Global Navigation Satellite Systems
(ICG-5)
Turin, Italy, 18-22 October 2010
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Participants of the meeting |
Introduction
The Fifth Meeting of the International Committee on Global Navigation
Satellite Systems (ICG) was
held in Turin, Italy from 18 to 22 October 2010. The ICG has been formed as
a result of
recommendations of the UN Committee on the Peaceful Use of Outer Space (COPUOS),
as ratified by
the General Assembly of the UN. The United Nations Office for Outer Space
Affairs (UN OOSA) acts
as the secretariat for the ICG. It should also be noted that FIG has an MoU
with UN OOSA.
The International Federation of Surveyors (FIG) is an Associate Member of
the ICG and I was there as
the FIG representative and as Co-Chair of Working Group D of the ICG. Mikael
Lilje, the incoming
Chair of FIG Commission 5 on Positioning and Measurement for the period 2011
to 2014, was also at
the meeting as FIG’s representative on Task Force D1 on Geodetic References.
Joint Statement from ICG-5
At the end of each meeting, the ICG issues a Joint Statement outlining the
highlights of the work of
the ICG and any major developments. The overview presented by the Joint
Statement from ICG-5 will
not be repeated here but is included in this report as
Attachment A.
Various presentations were made at the plenary sessions and working group
sessions of the meeting
and they form a very useful snap shot of the state of the art with the
various GNSS and also with
issues across key user groups. The Joint Statement, Working Group Reports
and all of the Presentations made at ICG-5 are now available on the ICG
Information portal.
See
www.oosa.unvienna.org/oosa/en/SAP/gnss/icg/meetings.html).
Providers Forum Joint Statement from ICG-5
A key part of the membership of the ICG is the so-called “Provider’s Forum”.
A summary of the 6th
Meeting of the Provider’s Forum held in Turin is also available on the ICG
Information portal.
See
www.unoosa.org/pdf/icg/2010/pf/PROVIDERS_FORUM_SUMMARY-22_October_2010.pdf
Reports on the Status of All of the Major GNSS Sub-systems
The system providers are at the core of the overall work of the ICG and a
feature of the first Plenary
Session of the ICG is a series of presentations on the status of all of the
major GNSS sub-systems.
Presentations also outline the views of each of the system provider nations
on the issues of
Compatibility and Interoperability. System developments to note at ICG-5
include:
The Russian Federation continues on track to complete the
GLONASS constellation in coming
months:
- Russia also presented their plans for transition to
supplement their
current FDMA signals with new CDMA signals;
- The status of Russia’s Space Based Augmentation System (SBAS)
known as the System for Differential Correction and Monitoring
(SDCM) was also outlined;
- An interesting development were several orbit configurations
being
considered for further augmentation to GLONASS to give better
regional coverage over Russian territory, along the lines of
Japan’s QZSS.
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China P. R. presented the planned phases of Beidou including:
- Phase 1: 2000 to 2003 saw the launch of 3 Geostationary
orbit satellites (GEOs);
- Phase 2: Commenced in 2007 with the launch of the first
Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) satellite followed by three Phase 2
GEOs and then in August 2010, the first ever GNSS satellite
launched into an Inclined GeoSynchronous Orbit (IGSO). Since the
meeting the fourth GEO
has been launched and another IGSO is planned for launch in
December 2010, bringing the Phase 2 deployment to 7 satellites.
The
completion of Phase 2 is planned for 2012 and will bring the
constellation to 5 GEOs, 5 IGSOs and 4 MEOs;
- Phase 3: In 2012 Beidou will begin transition from regional
coverage to a truly global GNSS with the constellation reaching
5 GEOs, 3 IGSOs and 27 MEOs in the 2018 to 2020 timeframe;
- Latest plans for the Beidou signals structures were also
presented;
- China also released a video on Beidou, which can also be
viewed at the Beidou website.
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European Community presented progress with EGNOS (its SBAS)
and its
Galileo GNSS:
- Galileo seems to be back on track with the deployment of 4
Initial
Orbit Validation Satellites and Ground Segment coming during
2011;
- Initial Operational Capability with 18 satellites is planned
for
2014/15 and Full Operational Capability with 30 satellites by
2016/17.
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Japan presented their progress featuring the recent launch of
their first QZSS satellite.
- In a later presentation, JAXA also continued to show strong
commitment to their proposal that was accepted by ICG in 2009
for a Multi-GNSS demonstration project in Asia and Oceania;
- JAXA is working with a leading manufacturer to develop 30
receivers (216 channel, Javad Delta-G3Ts) capable of tracking
the
QZSS and other Multi-GNSS signals. Those will be made available
for a reference station network as a key part of the
demonstration project.
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India presented an update on its space based augmentation to
GPS known as GAGAN and the planned independent Indian Regional
Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS)
- GAGAN will have 3 GEO Satellites; 2 operational and 1
in-orbit
spare navigation payload;
- IRNSS Phase 1: 7 satellite constellation and corresponding
ground
segment with coverage of Indian territory and 1500 km beyond. 3
GEO and 4 IGSO satellites launched on indigenously developed
Indian PSLV.
- First satellite launch by second half of 2011.
- Full constellation completion by mid 2014;
- IRNSS Phase 2: Space segment proposed to be augmented with 4
more satellites to make an 11 satellite constellation with
better coverage and accuracy.
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Of course as well as all of these new developments, the USA
continues to
operate GPS at high service levels for performance and reliability.
The USA
presented a comprehensive overview of GPS status and future
development
as well as the significant array of infrastructure now in place to
augment and
improve GPS, including the Wide Area Augmentation System, Local Area
Augmentation System, National DGPS System, National CORS Network
and NASA's Global Differential GPS Service and TDRSS Augmentation
Service for Satellites. |
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Other Issues to Note from the Meeting
There were many other interesting presentations, discussions and
decisions at the meeting and the
following is an outline of some that the author found particularly
interesting:
- As the use of GNSS grows and especially with increasing
reliance for safety-of-life and mission
critical applications, an issue that is gaining a lot of
prominence in the thinking of system
providers and user groups alike is that of interference
(intentional and/or unintentional) to GNSS
signals. It is likely that the ICG will continue to discuss and
address such issues in the work of its
Providers Forum and Working Groups;
- The ICG Session on GNSS technology in the era of
multi-systems receivers was particularly good
and gave a nice overview of latest trends in receiver
development especially from the GNSS
system provider countries, including the growing capability in
Russia, China and India.
- A good example was the presentation from Unicore
Communications of China on
Beidou/Compass and its Unique Contributions to GNSS - New
Applications in China. The
company will be interesting to watch as a potential player
in the emergence of high end
professional GNSS equipment from China and for accelerating
the availability of
sophisticated capabilities in consumer devices.
- The issue of improving consumer device capabilities was
also addressed in the
presentation from CSR (who offer the SIRFstar family of
chips used in many consumer
devices). Only a couple of years ago most manufacturers saw
little need for sophisticated
capabilities (like multi-GNSS or multi-frequency) in
consumer GNSS equipment.
However, CSR believe the driver for consumer devices is now
switching from a need to
improve sensitivity to a need to improve availability. That
is seeing GLONASS capability
in consumer devices and extending to hybrid approaches using
cellular and WiFi
positioning. CSR predict that the next trend after
exhausting availability improvements is
likely to be a desire for improved accuracy, leading to
adaptable dual frequency consumer
receivers (e.g. using L1 and L2 now but perhaps switching to
L1 and L5 in future).
- These presentations and others at ICG-5 showed that
predictions about centimetre
accuracy migrating from surveyors to consumers are not that
far-fetched.
Meetings of Working Group D and Its Task Forces
on Geodetic a d Timing References
Of note for the surveying and geodesy community is the continuation
of the work of the Task Forces
on Geodetic and Timing References. The Task Forces are convened
under Working Group D, which is
Co-Chaired by John Dow and Ruth Neilan (IAG/IGS) and myself. The
detailed report of Working
Group D activities at ICG-5 will be available on the ICG web site
(same link as given above) and the
following is a summary of the major issues covered during ICG-5.
Task Force D1 on Geodetic References
- There were several presentations on Geodetic Reference
issues (available on the web site);
- “Latest Developments with ITRF 2008” (by
Zuheir Altamimi, IERS, France);
- “Recent Development of CGCS2000” (by Prof.
YANG Yuanxi from CNAGA, China);
- “Realization of Terrestrial Reference Frame for
GNSS” (by Hongping ZHANG, Wuhan
University, China);
- “The WGS84 Instance of the Template for
Global and Regional Reference System
Description” (by Barbara Wiley, NGA, USA)
- The presentations were followed by discussion of the
progress by system providers in supplying templates
describing their particular Geodetic Reference;
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- The following templates (at least in draft form) were
available by the end of the meeting:
- World Geodetic System 1984 (WGS84);
- Galileo Terrestrial Reference Frame (GTRF);
- International Terrestrial Reference Frame
(ITRF);
- International Terrestrial Reference System
(ITRS).
Task Force D2 on Time References
- There were several presentations on Timing
Reference issues (available on the web site
- “COMPASS/BEIDOU Time System” (by Prof.HAN
Chunhao, BGIC, China);
- “The GPS Instance of the Template for GNSS
GNSS Timescale Description” (by Ed
Powers, USNO, USA).
- The presentations were followed by discussion of
the progress by system providers in supplying
templates describing their particular Timing
Reference;
- There was also a session in the ICG plenary on
timing issues, centred on the fact that some of the
core timing components for the Galileo programme are
being developed in the Turin area.
Working Group D Outcomes
- The first key outcome from the meeting was that
all System Providers that have not already
submitted templates on their Geodetic and/or Timing
References agreed to do so by the end of
November 2010. The Working Group also discussed the
next steps in its work following
publication of the Templates on References, e.g.
issues such as extending to best practices for
system providers and whether the WG’s role extends
further to issues like user education on
Geodetic and Timing Reference topics;
- The second key outcome from the meeting was a
series of recommendations to the ICG on the
following topics:
- WG-D Recommendation #06 - New Name and
Updated Work Plan
- WG-D Recommendation #07 - Multi-GNSS
Demonstration
- WG-D Recommendation #08 - Adoption of the
International Terrestrial Reference System
by the General Conference on Weights and
Measures in October 2011
- WG-D Recommendation #09 - Liaison with Radio
Technical Commission for Maritime
Services (RTCM)
- WG-D Recommendation #10 - Retro-reflectors
for Laser Ranging to GNSS Satellites
- (Full wording of Recommendations available
in the Working Group D Report to the ICG)
- The third point to note was a very useful
discussion about the future work of the Task Forces,
which centred on the idea that ensuring
interoperability is about more than simply
documenting
the existing Geodetic and Timing References used in
each of the systems. An example that was
discussed was on the templates were completed, the
Task Forces should perhaps identify best
practices among the current approaches and work
towards some recommended practices to further
improve interoperability in the future.
Next Meetings of the ICG
As outlined in the attached Joint Statement, Japan will
host ICG-6 in Tokyo, from 5 to 9 September
2011. ICG also noted the expression of interest by China
to host ICG-7 in 2012.
23 November 2010
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