Photo: oneNav

oneNav has released the results of a test evaluating the resilience of its technology to widespread GPS interference. The testing was conducted in and around Haifa, Israel and focused on the performance of its L5-direct GPS receiver compared to GPS receivers in top smartphone and smartwatch brands.

For this test, oneNav compared its L5-direct GPS receiver to receivers found in iPhone, Samsung Galaxy and Google Pixel smartphones and Garmin watches. While these receivers all experienced navigation failure due to GPS interference, oneNav’s L5-direct test solution maintained accurate location fixes despite active jamming and spoofing.

This resilience is due to L5-direct’s ability to directly acquire L5 GPS signals and bypass the L1 GPS signal, which was first invented more than 50 years ago. While current commercial GPS receivers in smartphones, car navigation systems, and airplanes can process the L5 band, they can only do so in a hybrid system that must first acquire L1.

According to the company, L5-band signals are 30 times harder to jam and interfere with than L1 and offer improved performance in difficult-to-navigate areas such as urban canyons and tree-covered regions.

“We now have clear, indisputable evidence that L5-direct is resilient to widespread GPS jamming and can provide precision location in GPS-contested environments,” said, Steve Poizner oneNav CEO. “This test is a real-world validation of our first-of-its-kind technology and shows the potential for L5-direct to revolutionize how we use GPS for civilian and military purposes in Israel and globally.”

While the field testing took place in Israel, GPS interference is a global security concern due to the increase in attacks on GPS systems worldwide. In Ukraine, Russia is countering American-made smart weapons on the battlefield through GPS-jamming technology and is accused of interfering with GPS navigation systems in more than 46,000 flights across Europe.

oneNav’s IP core is available for evaluation and integration by select chip developer partners and its low-SWaP chips and modules will soon be available for select partners. L5-direct is compatible with all GNSS constellations.

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Discover more about oneNav’s L5-direct GNSS technology.

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Photo: oneNav

oneNav L5-direct GNSS technology is the first and only commercial solution that directly acquires and tracks L5-band satellites. By fully eliminating reliance on the outdated L1 band, the L5-direct receiver is simpler, lower power, and better.  Compared to complex L1/L5 dual-band receivers:

• L5-direct requires only a single antenna and RF chain for lower cost, smallest size and up to 3x lower power.
• Has 8x better TTFF, and 2x more accuracy in dense urban areas.
• Is immune to widespread L1-band jamming.

Suitable for cellular, wearable, IOT, automotive, military, survey, and timing markets, oneNav technology is available in three distinct configurations:

1. 1. Licensable digital L5-direct IP core: A fully synthesizable RTL digital signal processing core includes a complete, scalable L5-direct measurement solution that has been fully simulated from 22 nm down to 4 nm.
   2. pREX SIP – Mixed signal hard macro in 22 nm GlobalFoundries silicon technology: The pREX SIP couples the L5-direct IP core with an RF front end that includes a highly optimized, low power amplifier, PLL and A/D converter. Implemented in GF22 FDX process and packaged in a SIP that can be soldered onto a PC board, or also as a hard macro for silicon platform integration.
   3. Position determination firmware:The position engine firmware converts L5-direct measurements into position, velocity, and time, and is provided as an embedded library for the platform microcontroller.

oneNav can further customize any of these deliverables in partnership with a licensee to bring this performance to any end product. Click here to learn more.

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Image: OneNav

OneNav is sharing side-by-side test results comparing its pureL5 GNSS receiver customer evaluation system to a leading Android smartwatch.

OneNav is a Silicon Valley, California-based technology company designed to power high-performance positioning for location-dependent mobile services.

In a challenging urban environment, oneNav averaged six times better accuracy than the smartwatch. Both units used commercial-wearable antennas for testing. While the oneNav system used only GNSS measurements, the smartwatch GNSS results were augmented by inertial sensors.

At the 95th percentile, the pureL5 unit reported 8-meter accuracy compared to nearly 29-meter accuracy for the smartwatch; pureL5 accuracy includes artificial intelligence/machine learning algorithms that improve the system over time.

“The L5 signal is more accurate and reliable than L1, it has higher power and wider bandwidth, and it is less jammable,” said Steve Poizner, co-founder and CEO of oneNav. “We looked at where the market is heading, with the wearables and tracking device markets exploding and the demand for higher accuracy increasing, and we asked, ‘Why keep two bands/two RF chains/two antennas when you can get superior performance with just L5?’”

The oneNav team comprises top GNSS experts from Qualcomm, Apple, Intel, SnapTrack, SiRF, Trimble and eRide who have decades of GNSS and mobile industry experience. The team has expertise in GNSS system architecture, multipath mitigation, signal processing, ASIC design and AI/machine learning, and collectively has filed more than 300 career GNSS patents.

Investors include Google Ventures, Norwest Venture Partners and GSR Ventures.

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Silicon Valley, California-based technology company oneNav is opening its first European office in Tampere, Finland.

oneNav Finland Oy will be led by Florean Curticapean, director of position engineering. He has more than two decades of professional experience in GNSS and mobile communications.

oneNav is developing a next-generation GNSS receiver for smartphones, wearables and tracking and augmented reality (AR) devices. The oneNav pureL5 GNSS solution was built from the ground up to fully leverage the modernized E5/L5/B2 signaling band deployed on multiple constellations including GPS, Galileo and BeiDou.

The new E5/L5/B2 signal has considerable benefit over the legacy L1 signal that has been used since the 1980s, according to oneNav. E5/L5/B2 enables higher precision and better multipath mitigation, improves coverage and reliability, and is a unified signal, ensuring global interoperability.

The oneNav pureL5 system utilizes machine learning and artificial intelligence to improve its solution by removing reflected signal errors that most commonly cause GNSS inaccuracy in deep urban environments.

Devices powered by oneNav’s technology will produce high accuracy in challenging signal conditions while benefiting from reduced component bulk and complexity, oneNav said.

“Talent is the key to attract such investments, but this does not appear overnight or by accident. Our businesses are benefitting from many years of research and education at Tampere University, more specifically in the Electrical Engineering Unit, in fields such as GNSS, system-on-chip, network-on-chip, embedded processor architecture, software-defined radio and more,” said Oliver Hussey, senior business advisor for the Tampere subsidiary.

Tampere is the host of the ICL-GNSS Conference, welcoming a global audience to address the latest research on wireless and satellite-based positioning techniques to provide reliable and accurate position information with low latency.

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OneNav has announced performance results from field testing its latest pureL5 customer evaluation system (CES) software in both open-sky and challenging signal environments.

The patent-pending oneNav GNSS system, including a custom array processor and a library of machine-learning algorithms, demonstrated consistent sub-meter accuracy and rapid time-to-first-fix (<2 sec) in open-sky testing.

In very challenging urban and deep urban canyon environments, the pureL5 CES field-test equipment outperformed the commercial precision L1 GNSS unit against which it was compared, demonstrating tracking of satellite signals as weak as –160 dBm.

The oneNav system was able to acquire directly and track L5 signals in all environments with no L1 receiver present, greatly simplifying the RF front end and antenna subsystem and making the pureL5 solution suitable for space- and power-constrained mobile and internet of things (IoT) devices requiring reliable high performance.

Results of a representative urban drive test route are shown below (the map describes the route driven). During this test, the CES and the commercial precision L1 receiver were both connected to a common antenna, fixes were taken once/second, and the results were compared to a common ground truth position. On average, the oneNav system demonstrated a 55% improvement in accuracy over the precision.

Image: oneNav

OneNav’s family of  algorithms improves pureL5 system performance by predicting whether the received signal is line of sight (LOS) and correcting non-line-of-sight (NLOS) signals to increase the number of measurements available for accurate positioning.

The pureL5 algorithms characterize signal and multipath environments. Accordingly, algorithms developed in one deep urban area can be used to mitigate multipath in areas geographically different, but that present similar multipath signatures. This obviates the need for field-test teams to collect data in thousands of urban areas around the globe.

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OneNav has announced the commercial availability of its pureL5 GNSS digital IP core.

The pureL5 digital IP core’s architecture enables it to directly acquire and track L5 signals from GPS, Galileo, BeiDou, QZSS and GLONASS without any L1 aiding. This eliminates the entire L1 RF chain, saves space on the printed circuit board, and simplifies the RF front-end and antenna subsystem in smartphones, wearables and trackers.

The pureL5 digital IP core’s massively parallel array processor searches the entire 1-millisecond L5 code space in parallel, delivering 1 second time to first fix (TTFF). The pureL5 digital IP core is 0.28mm² in the 3-nm semiconductor process and consumes 4.7 mW of power in 1-Hz tracking mode.

OneNav has delivered the pureL5 digital IP core register-transfer level (RTL) to its first system-on-chip (SOC) customer. IP core RTL verification and physical implementation are complete, and oneNav’s SOC licensee will tape out in the first quarter of this year. The pureL5 digital IP core RTL is available for customer licensing and shipment now.

Customer Evaluation System. OneNav’s pureL5 Customer Evaluation System is being tested by companies in California and China. The system is available for smartphone and wearable OEMs and SOC providers who want to evaluate oneNav’s pureL5 in the field and the lab.

PureL5 GNSS Features

• Smaller footprint than L1+L5 hybrids, simplifying implementation in highly space-constrained devices such as 5G smartphones and wearables
• Lowers bills of material (BOM) cost and simplifies the RF front-end and antenna subsystem by eliminating the entire L1 RF chain
• No L1 aiding required: directly acquires L5/E5/B2 with 1-second TTFF
• Less software complexity, simplifies RF coexistence engineering
• Better interference resiliency
• Scalable IP signal processing core is semiconductor process-node independent
• Multi-constellation L5: Beidou, Galileo, GPS, QZSS, GLONASS.

<p>The post OneNav announces pureL5 GNSS digital IP core first appeared on GPS World.</p>

A new L5-only GNSS receiver is now available from oneNav. The mobile receiver provides high location accuracy with half the footprint of existing solutions.

OneNav has signed a strategic partnership agreement with In-Q-Tel Inc., providing U.S. intelligence and defense agencies with a GNSS technology solution that is the first of its kind, according to the company. The company also closed a $21 million Series B funding round, led by GV, with participation from Norwest Venture Partners and GSR Ventures, bringing total funding to $33 million.

“Navigation satellite constellations are getting a major upgrade — L5 signaling. oneNav has built the first Pure L5 mobile receiver to leverage these modernized signals, and we will deliver our solution in a flexible licensing model, as a scalable and customizable IP core,” said Steve Poizner, co-founder and CEO of oneNav. “I’m proud to be working with such an outstanding team of GNSS experts, as well as our top-notch investors GV, Norwest and GSR.”

“Pure L5 is a more cost-, size- and power-efficient method to enable the benefits of modernized signals compared to current hybrid solutions,” added Paul McBurney, oneNav co-founder and CTO.

Other GNSS solutions that fuel location-based services — rideshare, smartphone navigation and 911 emergency calls — depend on L1 satellite signals developed in the 1970s. According to oneNav, legacy L1 systems can have significant accuracy deficiencies, especially in dense urban areas, placing users on the wrong side of the street or on the wrong block.

L1 signals are also susceptible to jamming. Recently, satellite constellations have been upgraded with state-of-the-art L5 signaling. L5 enables higher accuracy, broadcasts in a protected frequency band, has modern error correction and is transmitted at higher power.

OneNav’s Pure L5 solution is built from the ground up to fully leverage modernized L5 signals from the GPS, Galileo, Beidou and QZSS navigation satellite constellations. Unlike current L1+L5 hybrid solutions that must first acquire on L1, oneNav’s Pure L5 solution both acquires and tracks on the new L5 signals, without L1 aiding, thereby taking full advantage of L5 benefits.

By eliminating the need for L1 circuitry, oneNav cuts GNSS RF size, power and cost in half. Supercharged by AI/machine learning, oneNav Pure L5 delivers much higher accuracy, even in challenging areas such as urban canyons. OneNav Pure L5 is ideal for highly space-constrained devices such as smartphones, wearables and IoT tracking modules. The solution is delivered in a semiconductor IP license package that includes register-transfer level (RTL), software and reference designs that can be integrated into a system on a chip (SOC) or built as a discrete chip.

The oneNav L5 mobile GNSS system architecture. (Image: oneNav)

Pure L5 Use Cases

OneNav’s technology will dramatically improve location-based services that are used every day by individuals across the world to pinpoint their location. Common use cases include:

• Rideshare. Today’s mobile positioning technologies often place users on the wrong side of the street, or on the wrong block, making rideshare services very difficult to use. oneNav enables riders to more effectively match up with their drivers in downtown areas and other heavily blocked environments.
• Smartphone Navigation. It is sometimes difficult to establish your exact location, or to determine which way to turn when using a mobile navigation application in a dense urban area. oneNav’s high availability and precise accuracy enables reliable turn-by-turn directions.
• Emergency Calls. First responders need to accurately pinpoint the location of accidents in order to get to the right place quickly. oneNav’s reliable positioning and high accuracy get the right location information to ambulances, fire and police, enhancing public safety.
• Asset Tracking. COVID-19 has increased the need for supply-chain assets to be transported and tracked with precision. oneNav enables accurate position reporting for asset tracking and other IOT applications.

“The mobile device industry — from phones to wearables — has made tremendous progress over the last 20 years,” said Karim Faris, GV general partner. “What’s surprising is that location-based services continue to have a significant margin of error, which can make all the difference when locating a rideshare passenger or pinpointing an emergency situation. With oneNav’s Pure L5 Mobile GNSS receiver, OEMs and application service companies will have the opportunity to provide their customers with state-of-the-art location-based services, driving competitive advantage.”

<p>The post OneNav unveils L5-only mobile GNSS receiver first appeared on GPS World.</p>