GSA releases first GNSS User Technology Report

What lies ahead in the GNSS chipset and receiver domain, and what are the trends sure to transform the GNSS landscape of tomorrow? To answer those questions, the European GNSS Agency (GSA) has released its first GNSS User Technology Report.

In recent years, GNSS technology has experienced a period of rapid development — both on the side of global constellations and user receivers. With this development, European systems such as EGNOS and Galileo are becoming increasingly present in GNSS receivers, providing enhanced performance to users both in Europe and worldwide. Even with the increased deployment of other positioning technologies, because it is the most widespread and cost-effective source of location information, GNSS will remain at the core of all positioning technology.

“In view of the changing user needs in terms of expected positioning experiences, the appearance of new and modernized GNSS signals, and advances in semiconductor technologies, we felt the need to take a closer look at the impact these changes will have on user technology and GNSS’ role in the positioning solutions of the future,” said GSA Executive Director Carlo des Dorides.

A closer look

The outcome of this closer look is the GSA’s first GNSS User Technology Report. As a sister publication to the GNSS Market Report, the GNSS User Technology Report zeros in on the state-of-the-art GNSS receiver technology, along with analyzing the trends that are sure to change the entire GNSS landscape.

The report provides an in-depth analysis of GNSS user technology as it pertains to:

• mass-market solutions
• transport safety and liability-critical solutions
• high-precision, timing and asset management solutions.

In addition, the report gives a general overview of the latest GNSS receiver technology, common to all application areas, along with a supplement on location technologies that looks beyond GNSS in the positioning landscape.

Written with contributions from leading GNSS receiver and chipset manufacturers, the GNSS User Technology Report is meant to serve as a valuable tool to support planning and decision-making in regards to developing, purchasing and using GNSS user technology.

“GNSS user technology is, now more than ever, experiencing a rapid and exciting evolution, answering the needs of ubiquity, automation and secure positioning,” said des Dorides. “This report explores in detail all of these new developments and how they will bring continuous location service, reliability and robustness to the main application domains.”

Among the findings:

• Nearly 65 percent of all chipsets and modules currently on the market support multiple constellations.
• Within the next few years, it is expected that 100 percent of all new devices will be multi-constellation capable.
• The leaders in multi-constellation capability are mass-market receivers and high-accuracy professional receivers, with nearly 30 percent already capable of using the four available global constellations.
• Receivers targeting such safety-critical applications as aviation must wait for new technologies to be proven and new standards or regulations to become available before implementing them.
• In terms of supported frequencies, 30% of all receivers implement more than one frequency, mostly in high precision.
• With the increasing demand for better resilience across all applications, the need for higher accuracy and integrity that automation demands, adoption of dual-frequency solutions (E1/L1 + E5/L5) is expected to grow.
• In the mass market, the chipset supply chain is extremely consolidated, with a few players worldwide driving innovation.
• For liability and safety-critical transport solutions, a consolidated industry with an important European presence dominates innovation in automotive, maritime and aviation, while new players are expected to emerge in such new applications as autonomous vehicles.
• In high precision, timing and asset management, the suppliers are specialized in various professional fields, although their products are based on a relatively low number of GNSS chipsets.

The report is free and can be downloaded here.