Fall 2008

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Sorting out adverse signal anomalies from normal phenomena can be difficult — especially in real-time and in safety-critical applications.Researchers at Ohio University’s Avionics Engineering Center have developed a system that does just that.

Replacement of the Galileo public-private partnership (PPP) approach to building and implementing the system infrastructure, authorization of a final budget to complete a constellation with fully operational capability, and passage of a new regulation on Galileo have resolved most of the roadblocks and removed much of the doubt surrounding the program.

Robust GNSS signal processing depends on capturing essential information and abandoning the rest of the data. But interference, masking, attenuation, ionosphere scintillation, and multipath often cause signal degradation. Using flight-validated experience, the author describes methods for extracting maximum performance in the roughest environments

Telecom services providers are betting that self-installed femtocells — small local versions of wireless base stations — will catch on with customers. A hybrid TV/assisted GPS approach may offer the best way to simplify these home and office setups.

Hardware GNSS receivers can be hard on users — especially in applications requiring special features and functionality, such as customs enforcement. Faced with expensive proprietary solutions, Sogei, a government-owned Italian company, decided to come up with a software-based receiver of its own.

“Working Papers” and “GNSS Solutions” are on vacation. They will return in the November/December 2008 issue.

Actually,  six percent isn’t the solution, it’s the problem — fewer than six percent of high school seniors in the United States plan to pursue degrees and careers in science or engineering. That’s the discouraging fact of American life discovered in a recent study by the Aerospace Industries Association (AIA).

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