GPS World, August 2009

THE BUSINESS Timing Vulnerability Concern Grows Industrial and enterprise users in telecommunications and utilities privately express concern over revelations from the April Government Accounting Office GAO report Global Positioning System Significant Challenges in Sustaining and Upgrading Widely Used Capabilities The GPS signal is used for synchronizing almost all global computer networks belonging to the military utilities banks telecomms television companies and many more Backup What Backup These same companies point to a continued lack of commitment on the part of the U S government to stable and reliable backup for GPS As long ago as 2007 in comments before the Department of Transportation wireless carrier Sprint Nextel stated Sprint Nextel Corporation respectfully requests that the U S government continue to operate and invest in the LORAN C and eLORAN systems Should the DOT and DHS decide to decommission the LORAN C system Sprint Nextel recommends that the agencies delay doing so until the eLORAN system is fully operational Sprint Nextel and other communications providers use the frequency signals of the Global Positioning System LORAN and atomic clocks for multiple levels of redundancy and diversity in their networks Therefore Sprint Nextel urges the DOT and DHS to carefully weigh decisions which might impact LORANs availability to the nations voice EVENTS Institute of Navigation ION GNSS 2009 September 22 125 2009 Savannah Georgia Among many other technical sessions Session F6b chaired by GPS World Innovation editor Richard Langley covers Timing Scientific Applications Dont miss the continuous blog all this month and next by various conference participants www gpsworld com ion 7th Institute of Electrical Electronics Engineers IEEE Consumer Communications Networking Conference January 9 12 2010 Las Vegas Nevada This conference will be held in conjunction with the international Consumer Electronics Show CES www ieee ccnc org 2010 See all events at www gpsworld com events Å GAO REPORT FIGURE 5 Probability of maintaining constellation of at least 18 21 and 24 GPS satellites based on reliability data as of March 2009 and a two year GPS III launch delay and data communications networks The loss of a primary reference source PRS can negatively impact a telecommunications network and those impacts can vary from minor short term noise impairments to long term network wide outages Both traditional wireline services and newer wireless services require a precise frequency reference for basic service delivery The continental U S portion of the Sprint Nextel network requires a PRS at thousands of switch sites interconnection sites and cell tower sites to ensure reliable service delivery Deadlock on Capitol Hill Competing resolutions to either discontinue or adequately fund LORAN and eLORAN continue fencing in Congressional subcommittees in both chambers Nothing has changed since Sprint commented two years ago aside from a potential rise in the susceptibility of GPS to jamming unintentional interference and decreased availability Telecom Clock from EndRun EndRun Technologies announced a Telecom Clock Option for its Meridian Precision GPS Timebase which provides accurate and stable GPS synchronized outputs for military communications aerospace broadcast engineering and calibration laboratories telecommunications and more The option was designed as a plug and play module that can supply any combination of E1 T1 J1 and or composite clock outputs An alarm output is also available and single satellite mode SSM is supported The Telecom Clock Option can be installed in EndRuns GPS or CDMAbased Meridian and Tycho product lines MORE ONLINE In depth Coverage Find more details on these stories at gpsworld com For the latest GPS news sign up for GPS World Alerts GPS World August 2009 www gpsworld com 18