Smartphone GPS Just Got A Whole Lot Better with Glonass

Sputnik is waiting to boost your GPS reception. The American GPS satellites aren't the only location-finding birds in the sky. Silently and invisibly, the 22 satellites of Russia's GLONASS system partner our GPS, and starting next year smartphones based on Qualcomm chipsets will be able to boost their prowess with GLONASS signals.

"It's like dual-core location," said Rob Chandhok, president of Qualcomm Internet Services. "You actually have the system able to look at both satellite constellations at one time and leverage them so … you can get a more accurate fix, or a faster fix." According to Qualcomm, adding GLONASS improves GPS accuracy in "deep urban environments" by 50 percent.

Qualcomm announced its GLONASS support in May, spurred in part by a new Russian government requirement that phones sold there include GLONASS or pay additional import taxes. But this is a good thing for Americans and especially Canadians: because the satellites target Russian latitudes, they perform especially well in northern countries.

GLONASS support won't cost extra, and it won't require expensive recoding of GPS software, Chandhok said. It will, however, require GLONASS radios in devices, so it's not just a software upgrade for existing phones.

"The whole point of what we provide in our solution is that the software above [the chipset level] doesn't have to know where the data is coming from," he said.

GLONASS Takes New York
We got to see GLONASS in action, and it's pretty simple. A Qualcomm rep took a development phone out onto 28th Street in midtown Manhattan, a tough spot for GPS because of the tall buildings all around. With only GPS turned on, the phone saw two satellites, not enough for a location fix.
In testing dozens of phones, this has been my experience: generally, phones have to rely on inaccurate cell-tower triangulation when they're on side streets in New York City. Sensitive GPS chipsets can find a fix at a corner, where there's a bit more sky. Some phones make me walk several blocks down to a park.

We were impressed when the Qualcomm guy hit the vodka-fueled-turbo-boost button, and pow: 9 of 22. 14 of 22. Bang. Location locked in. Between GPS and GLONASS there are now 55 satellites to choose from, which makes it much easier to find a fix in a narrow slice of sky.

Commercial GLONASS phones are already out in Russia, and Garmin's new eTrex series of handheld GPS devices already combine GPS and GLONASS in the U.S. The eTrex units aren't phones, though.
The first combined GPS/GLONASS phones will hit the US market "in the coming year," Qualcomm said. The majority of new Qualcomm S2 and S3 processors support GLONASS, which includes the dual-core chips coming out in smartphones like the HTC EVO 3D and T-Mobile MyTouch 4G Slide. Those existing phones won't be able to use GLONASS, though, because the system requires additional radio hardware.

China and the EU are also working on their own GPS satellite constellations, but they won't be ready for a few years.

For more insights visit us at www.GlonassCentral.com
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New ChipSets and Modules to be released in Fall 2011

We are pleased to announce that a new GPS/ Glonass/ Galileo chipset and module will be released by GlonassCentral.com this September 2011. Stay tuned for details.

We are very excited about this new launch, and realized that so will our customers!

GLONASS Goes Global

The next decade promises drastic improvements to global navigation satellite systems. The USA is modernizing GPS, Russia is refreshing GLONASS, Europe is moving ahead with its own Galileo system, and The People’s Republic of China is expanding its Beidou-1 system from a regional navigation system to a full constellation global navigation satellite system known as Compass/BeiDou-2, which consists of thirty five satellites including geostationary satellites, MEO satellites, and geosynchronous satellites in the coming year. Extra satellites will improve performance for all applications, and especially wheresatellite signals can be obscured, such as in urban canyons, under tree canopies, or in open-cut mines.

The benefits of the expected extra satellites and their signals are increased availability, accuracy,
continuity, and reliability. The advent of hybrid GNSS constellation has made the study of compatibility and interoperability increasingly important. A number of performance analyses have been conducted on a global scale with respect to availability, reliability, accuracy, and integrity in different simulated scenarios (such as open sky and urban canyons) for each system individually as well as for all possible combinations. Since the Compass/BeiDou-2 has received increasing attention from GNSS communities, the main objective of this study is to investigate the performance of Compass/BeiDou-2 in comparison with GPS, GLONASS, and Galileo in the greater Asia region; and also to explore whether combining Compass/BeiDou-2 with another GNSS would yield performance improvements in the region.

GLOBAL POSITIONING GROWING- GLONASS GOING GLOBAL

Technology Update: GLONASS goes global

GLONASS Complimentary, NOT competitive to GPS

An excellent discussion outlining the complimentary opportunities for the future of glonass.



As Glonass is improving quickly, it's availability is a key factor to success. Particularly the Northern latitudes, Glonass compliments the GPS system with greater accuracy and dependability. It's RTCM for regular road navigation is a key differentiator as well. For the full interview and details for glonass receivers and their applications visit http://www.glonasscentral.com/

Full interview with Rene Pischel, the head of the Moscow office of the European Space Agency, visit RT.com

Glonass Antenna (Combo GPS-Glonass)

New Product introduction

The combination Glonass/GPS antenna is a small mag mount antenna that can be used for a variety of professional and commercial applications. Hardmount version is available as well:

Dielectric Antenna
Frequency: 1575MHZ/1602MHz
Center Frequency: 1590MHz
V.S.W.R: 1.5:1
Band Width : 50 MHz Min. at -10dB
Impendence: 50 ohm
Peak Gain: 5dBic Min/1575MHz. 4dBic Min/1602~1616MHz
Gain Coverage: =- 4dBic at -90°~90°(over75% volume)
Power Handling: 1 watt
Polarization: RHCP

LNA
LNA Gain(Without cable): 32dB Typical
Noise Figure: 1.5dB

Mounting: Magnetic base
Housing: Black

Environmental
Working Temp: -40℃~+85℃
Storage Temp: -45℃~+100℃
Vibration:Sine sweep 1g(0-p)10~50~10Hz each axis
Humidity: Humidity95%~100%RH
Weatherproof: 100%Waterproof