IS4S Co-Presents at GPS World Webinar About Timing & System Architecture for Assured PNT
Dr. John Raquet, IS4S vice president and site lead at our Dayton office, co-presented a GPS World magazine webinar about the necessary timing and system architecture for assured positioning, navigation, and timing (PNT). He joined Tyler Hohman from SiTime Corporation and Brandon Koslow from Safran Federal Systems to dive into both why timing is important and how it can be maintained in contested environments.
Tyler Hohman kicked off the webinar and shared, “We now need to have local sensors, more than ever, not only to provide positioning and navigation, but to provide timing.” Homan shared details of the SiTime MEMS oscillators and how they are a key component in improving performance compared to quartz oscillators.
In his presentation, Brandon Koslow discussed the importance of resilient time: “The reality is, GNSS denial and degradation aren’t rare events anymore, they are normal, they are expected, and they hit at the worst possible moment.” He stated that to deliver assured PNT in contested environments, rugged precision timing components and resilient system-level architectures must work together, and he shared some of the Safran units accomplishing that goal.
Dr. John Raquet discussed an IS4S-developed approach called software-defined timing (SDT). He explained how inherently the problem of resilient time is different than resilient navigation and how traditionally systems have had to select a timing source instead of blending multiple solutions. SDT uses multiple timing sources, doesn’t discipline the system reference clock, enables modularity and easy additions, and can leverage common standards such as ASPN and pntOS. Beyond describing the strategy, Dr. Raquet shared that IS4S has proven this approach by developing and using SDT systems in the lab, ground vehicles, and flight.
The webinar ended with the three presenters answering questions from attendees. Watch the recording of the webinar here: When GNSS Falters webinar.
