All CGSIC,
Recap of the 57th meeting of the U.S.
Civil GPS Service Interface Committee
The
57the meeting of the U.S. Civil GPS Service Interface Committee was held
September 25-26, 2017 at the Oregon Convention Center in Portland, OR in
conjunction with the Institute of Navigation’s Global Navigation Satellite
System (GNSS)+ conference. For readers who were unable to attend a synopsis of
the meeting and presentations is provided below. The full agenda and
presentations are available for download from the GPS.gov website.
The
meeting of the CGSIC is an annual event, free and open to the public, conducted
to provide official updates from U.S. GPS program officials and ensure
effective information exchange between the U.S. government and civil GPS users.
The two-day meeting is hosted by the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT)
and the Coast Guard Navigation Center (NAVCEN). DOT serves as the civil lead
for the GPS and chairs the CGSIC in this capacity. NAVCEN is assigned duties as
deputy chair and executive secretariat for the CGSIC.
The
four subcommittees of the CGSIC (Timing, State and Local Government,
International Information, and Survey, Mapping, and Geosciences) held focused
discussions on specific GPS topics and contained a variety of interesting user applications.
Summaries of these meetings were presented to the CGSIC Plenary Session by the Subcommittee
Chairs on September 26th.
The keynote speaker for this year's plenary session was Dr. Keith
Conner, Senior Engineer, Science and Technology First Responders Group, U.S.
Department of Homeland Security.
He spoke of resilience as the ability to prepare and adapt to changing
conditions and withstand and recover rapidly from disruptions, deliberate
attacks, accidents or naturally occurring events. He reminded us that GPS is a
20th century technology with receivers that are inherently radios
designed to trust the source of their signals with little regard for
interference sources. The 21st century is bringing to GPS receivers
a need to “Trust but Verify” and be wary of signals that are “too good.” The
DHS Science and Technology (S&T) component is actively engaging the
community of interest to address the constantly changing nature of the threats
to GPS security and resiliency through information sharing, cooperative
research and development as well as testing and evaluation. Three Best
Practices documents relating to GPS receiver resiliency have been published
that are available to the public at www.gps.gov. S&T has hosted multiple
“Live Threat” events for the community including a First Responder electronic
jamming exercise as well as testing for GPS receivers used in critical
infrastructure. S&T and the National Institute of Science and Technology
(NIST) are working towards a compliance program that will collaborate with
multiple industry groups, leverage existing standards and specifications, and
include best practices and testing procedures that address both hardware and
software device components.
Presentations during the Plenary session focused on the operational
status and modernization of the GPS constellation and ground control system,
U.S. Space-Based Positioning, Navigation, and Timing (PNT) policy, GPS
augmentation systems, U.S. engagement with other international GNSS providers,
as well as a variety of topics related to the status and progress of ongoing
GPS programs in the U.S. government.
If you have suggestions for topics
to include in upcoming CGSIC meetings, would like to present a topic, or if you
found information from past meetings useful and would like to hear more, please
contact us via our Navigation
Center “contact us” form. Please be sure to select “Civil GPS Service
Interface Committee (CGSIC)” from the pull-down menu.
From
a GPS operational perspective, civilian non-aviation users can submit GPS-related
inquiries or report signal interference or degradation to the U.S. Coast Guard
Navigation Center online at: https://www.navcen.uscg.gov/?pageName=gpsUserInput or to the 24
hour watch desk at 703-313-5900.
Civil aviation users within the
United States should contact the Federal Aviation Administration
for GPS user support.
The GPS Operations Center at Schriever Air Force Base, Colorado, is
the lead in the Department of Defense for operational issues and questions
concerning military use of GPS.
Rick Hamilton
CGSIC Executive Secretariat
GPS Information Analysis Team Lead
U.S. Coast Guard Navigation Center
703-313-5930
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