Dr. Michael O’Connor, CEO of Satelles, issued a position statement in response to a U.S. Department of Transportation report on alternative sources of PNT. This new report was submitted to U.S. Congress as a follow-up to DOT’s March 2020 demonstration of multiple technologies.
The Complementary Positioning, Navigation, and Timing (PNT) and GPS Backup Technologies Demonstration Report found that multiple forms of PNT are urgently needed to meet wide-ranging performance specifications and operational requirements of critical infrastructure providers that must back up or augment GPS.
The report also detailed the performance of Satellite Time and Location (STL), one of the 11 technologies subjected to a range of scenarios during the testing last year. Highlights of STL’s exemplary performance include:
- top-ranked wide-area PNT system for both timing and positioning
- received top-tier scores in categories such as PNT Signal Robustness, Service Resilience, and Service Synchronization
- rated at the highest level of technology readiness (TRL 9) in all categories for which it was evaluated (including the challenging underground environment test)
- rated ‘Low’ (best) in the Service Deployment Effort category
- rated ‘Short’ (best) in the Time to Service Implementation category
- rated ‘High’ (best) in the Service Interoperability category
- rated ‘High’ (best) in the PNT Information Security category
Additionally, the report called out some of STL’s important distinctions compared to other solutions demonstrated, such as being the only solution that is nationally and globally scalable without incremental infrastructure expense. STL provides timing and 3-D positioning coverage today across the entire United States — including urban centers, rural areas, and navigable waterways — as well as globally.
The report is also aligned with the principles of the Open PNT Industry Alliance, a coalition of PNT equipment manufacturers and service providers. In its own statement, the alliance expressed its belief that within the market there are “several innovative technologies and multiple forms of PNT that can meet the wide-ranging performance specifications and operational requirements of critical infrastructure owners and operators.”
Satelles was honored to be one of the demonstration participants last year. The company looks forward to working with civil government officials and private sector leaders to implement precise time and location solutions that provide uninterrupted access to PNT sources that protect critical infrastructure and strengthen our national resilience.
