Global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) testing solutions provider Spirent Communications has added support for signals from Phase 3 of the Chinese BeiDou navigation system to its GNSS RF constellation simulators.
The first two satellites for the third phase of the BeiDou system, China's answer to GPS and the European Galileo system) launched in November.
Phase 3 of the project will extend BeiDou's coverage from Asia to worldwide, providing additional GNSS signals to improve the accuracy of positioning, navigation and timing systems and support the development of new applications such as autonomous vehicles.
But with BeiDou using the same carrier frequencies as GPS and Galileo, chipset and device developers will need to test integrated designs to avoid problems caused by confusing data from different GNSS.
“By offering the BeiDou Phase 3 signals, our customers can test their designs well before the system is fully operational, which is expected in 2020,” Spirent lead project manager Stuart Smith said.
“With signals already starting to appear, it is important for developers to have test tools that can ensure devices will successfully make use of all GNSS signals.”