NovAtel GNSS Receivers Provide BeiDou Support

NovAtel announces support for the BeiDou Navigation Satellite System on its OEM6 family and select OEMStar GNSS receivers.

The long-anticipated BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS) Interface Control Document (ICD) release is a significant milestone that facilitates global acceptance of BeiDou into the growing range of satellite-based positioning applications, NovAtel said.

NovAtel has a long-standing partnership with several Chinese GNSS system manufacturers. This partnership has allowed NovAtel to verify B1 and B2 signal tracking on its latest generation receivers. The company has been supplying GNSS receivers that include the BeiDou constellation since Q4 2010.

“We are excited to see what performance improvements BeiDou will provide to our AdVance RTK, GL1DE and SPAN GNSS/INS positioning algorithms,” said Pat Fenton, NovAtel CTO.

BeiDou positioning has been available through NovAtel’s Chinese partners utilizing the receiver Application Programming Interface (API) feature. With the BeiDou ICD made available to the public, NovAtel is now able to offer BeiDou positioning on its receiver products directly.

Firmware updates for the OEM6 and OEMStar receivers will enable tracking of the BeiDou signal in conjunction with GPS, GLONASS, Galileo and QZSS signals that are currently supported. Over the coming months NovAtel will be working with early-adopter customers to optimize their receiver positioning engines to support the BeiDou signals.

Customers interested in trialing BeiDou functionality on their receivers should contact NovAtel Customer Support at Support@novatel.com.