PNT Order Seen Maybe Muddying GPS Terrestrial Alternate Rollout
A White House directive on a non-satellite backup of GPS positioning, navigation and timing services could affect plans for that terrestrial version, or at least muddy a related issue, PNT experts told us. White House officials told reporters, on condition they not be identified, about the PNT executive order issued Wednesday. It said the Department of Transportation is testing 11 commercial terrestrial backup technologies for GPS. Testing's to be completed by May and a recommendation for a backup system issued by year's end.
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Spectrum for that additional PNT system "is going to be a challenge" given the paucity of unencumbered spectrum, Texas A&M Transportation Institute Agency Director Greg Winfree told us. The PNT order gives the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy a one-year deadline for developing a national plan for R&D and pilot testing "of additional, robust and secure PNT services that are not dependent on global navigation satellite systems" (GNSS). That likely means a high-power low-frequency terrestrial system in contrast to GPS' low-power high-frequency system, Winfree said.
It's unclear whether the additional PNT system is to be global or just covering the U.S., said Winfree, formerly a DOT assistant secretary. Given the presumed national security implications of having a backup PNT system, federal spectrum might be one option, he said.
Dana Goward, Resilient Navigation and Timing Foundation president, emailed us the EO might slow that backup PNT system "if appropriators and others think that Commerce is going to do something [it] is not." He said there have been "more than enough studies to inform intelligent action" and the one-year OSTP deadline is just pushing the issue down the road.
The EO gives the Commerce Department one year to create "PNT profiles" to be used by the private and public sector to identify networks and assets that rely on PNT and detect disruption or manipulation of them. Federal agencies then are to develop contractual language for federal contracts aimed at encouraging the private sector to use those backup PNT services.
Commerce gets 180 days to make available "a GNSS-independent source" of coordinated universal time available to the private and public sectors. Goward said that's available via the NIST master clock in Boulder, Colorado, but the challenge is getting that time signal out to users and there's no requirement for that.
Winfree said the order's timetables are likely unrealistic. At least there will be movement on hardening the nation against PNT threats, he said. It will force after-market technology development for current systems to make them less susceptible to issues like jamming and spoofing, he noted.
Resiliency is one of the chief attributes "that have made GPS the gold standard" for delivering PNT functions to military, utility and commercial users, said the GPS Innovation Alliance. It said the EO is "a crucial next step in ongoing efforts to maintain the security, robustness, and redundancy of PNT capabilities, including GPS, that millions of Americans rely on every day."