Satellite radio navigation system beidou. BeiDou: what is it in a smartphone

Choosing a new smartphone and studying the characteristics, you might have noticed such a parameter as BeiDou. This parameter began to appear in the characteristics of smartphones recently, so most users do not know what it means. In this article we will tell you about what BeiDou is in a smartphone, how useful it is for Russian users, and whether it is worth focusing on this parameter when choosing a new device.

BeiDou or Beidou is a Chinese satellite navigation system, an analogue of the American GPS system and the Russian GLONASS. China began construction of this navigation system back in 2000, when its first experimental version was launched. In 2012, the system covered China and became available for commercial use.

It is planned that by 2020 BeiDou will reach full capacity and will include 5 vehicles in geostationary orbit, 3 vehicles in geosynchronous orbit, as well as 27 satellites in conventional near-earth orbit.

BeiDou history

Despite the fact that the GPS navigation system is widely known to users, most ordinary people have not even heard of the BeiDou system, although it has been around for many years.

Development of BeiDou began back in 1983, when China decided to build its own navigation system. In 1989, the concept of a system based on two geostationary satellites (the working name of the system is Twinsat) was tested.

In 1994, the first stage of construction of a full-fledged navigation system began. In 2000, China launched the first two satellites in geostationary orbit. In 2003, the first phase of construction was completed and the first generation BEIDOU navigation system was put into operation.

The second phase of construction of the BeiDou navigation system started in 2004 and by the end of 2012 the system already consisted of 14 satellites. Of these, 5 satellites operated in geostationary, 5 in inclined geosynchronous and 4 in conventional orbit. This constellation of satellites made it possible to provide navigation in the countries of the Asia-Pacific region.

The third phase of construction began in 2009. The main goal of this stage is to provide satellite navigation in the territory and water area of \u200b\u200bboth Silk Roads (land and water), as well as to complete the deployment of a group of 35 satellites that will be able to provide global navigation by 2020.

BeiDou in a smartphone

Although the BeiDou navigation system is still under construction, many smartphone manufacturers already include support for it in their devices. This is primarily done by Chinese manufacturers, but there are also manufacturers from other countries. For example, many smartphones from Samsung, LG, ASUS and Sony have BeiDou support.

In the future, when the BeiDou navigation system becomes global and works all over the planet, its support will certainly be in all smartphones released. The data from the BeiDou system will complement the information received from GPS / GLONASS and smartphones will be able to determine their own location even more accurately.

But, until users from outside China, there is not much benefit from BeiDou. Therefore, when choosing a smartphone, you should not pay special attention to the support of this navigation system.

Priorities 2014: serve the community benefit humanity - the system is developing!

Chengchi Ren (Chengqi Ran),

general directorchinese

Bureau of Satellite Navigation

Transferarticles Directions 2014: Serve the World, Benefit Mankind - A System Matures (GPS World, 1 december 2013) completedCompany « PRINCE» in 2013 year.

Adhering to the principles of independence, openness, interoperability, and gradual development, China is progressively deploying its own BeiDou Global Navigation Satellite System (BDS), following its planned three-stage development strategy.

By 2000, the BeiDou demonstration satellite navigation system of the first phase of development was created. By December 2012, a regional navigation satellite system was deployed: five geostationary satellites (GEO), five satellites in inclined geosynchronous orbit (IGSO), and four medium-orbit satellites (MEO) were launched to form a working constellation, and the provision of navigation services for Asia Pacific region.

Chengchi Ren (Chengqi Ran) is the Director General of China Bureau of Satellite Navigation and Spokesperson for Bei Navigation Satellite SystemDou... He graduated from Tsinghua University with a Master's degree in Industrial Engineering and was previously the Director of the General Department of Technology at the China Satellite Navigation Project Center.

BDS's contributions to users in China and around the world are well recognized. The system will be fully functional and provide services to users around the world by 2020.

Deployment systems

Developing further, new satellites will be launched in 2014 to complement the existing constellation, while regional operational capabilities will be upgraded and expanded to international level. In total, about 40 satellites are to be launched by 2020.

Current system performance

The determination accuracy from single-frequency observations in plan, in height and in space was achieved at a level of less than 10 meters, 10 meters, and 14 meters, respectively. Time synchronization accuracy is less than 50 nanoseconds. The accuracy of determining the speed is less than 0.2 meters per second. The accuracy of the carrier phase differential solution is about 2-3 centimeters. Over the past year, the BDS system has been continuously improved and expanded, and its performance in some regions has significantly exceeded the indicators given earlier.

Assistance in application

The use of BDS plays an important role in China, especially in promoting science and technology. Chinese scientists and engineers have consciously and enthusiastically embraced the emergence of an independent navigation satellite system and have taken a big step forward in the research and development of navigation satellite technology, as well as new advances in the production of navigation chips, antennas, terminals and integrated services.

In 2012, the total output of the Chinese satellite navigation and location services industry reached 81 billion yuan (equivalent to $ 13.2 billion), accounting for 8 percent of the industry worldwide. At the end of 2012, the number of BDS devices for civilian use stood at 230,000 units, and the total production of the BDS-related industry was close to 4 billion yuan ($ 652 million), which is about 5 percent of the total national product.

China's policy to expand the use of satellite navigation is under development. Medium and long term plans for the development of the national satellite navigation industry have been issued. Satellite navigation has become one of the emerging industries of strategic importance. BDS is moving China's satellite navigation and positioning industry into a new era.

Distributionvisiblein orbitsatellitesBeiDou.

The international cooperation

China stands for and adheres to the concept of "BeiDou for China and for the whole world", advocating the compatibility and interoperability of all navigation satellite systems, and strives to stimulate the global application of navigation satellite systems. To enable users to enjoy more reliable and reliable satellite navigation services, BDS has joined the international GNSS monitoring and quality assurance community. With tracking stations around the world, international observation exchange, and collaborative assessment studies, BDS strives to offer reliable monitoring, assessment and data to users.

To more quickly reach the envisaged BDS coverage area, campaigns have been initiated to use, demonstrate and test the BeiDou system. BeiDou Asia Pacific and BeiDou ASEAN Tour were launched to accelerate the use of satellite navigation systems in many countries. To popularize satellite navigation technology, in particular to expand its acceptance and application in developing countries, BDS has provided academic education, short-term training and topical lectures with the support of the GNSS International Center for Exchange and Training.

China also hosts an annual satellite navigation conference, actively participates in international exchange events in the field of satellite navigation, and promotes scientific exchange, high-level forums and the promotion of knowledge.

A look into the future

BDS is actively interested in:

• the creation of navigation-satellite differential correction systems in the Asia-Pacific region and around the world, the development of more efficient services to ensure the decimeter level of accuracy in real time and the centimeter level of accuracy as a result of post-processing;
• creation of certification and testing centers for the quality of satellite navigation products;
• accelerating the development of norms and intellectual property rights;
• joining international organizations such as the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), the International Maritime Organization (IMO), a consortium developing specifications for mobile telephony (3GPP);
• enhancing compatibility and interoperability with other navigation satellite systems;
• promoting the use of BDS / GNSS in transport, energy, government, finance, telecommunications, disaster risk reduction, relief, etc. to realize BDS's goals of serving the world and humanity.

BDS will take full advantage of the unique advantages of navigation, communications, and differential correction services to improve its own short message service (SMS), as well as provide operational positioning and synchronization capabilities. The BDS effectively integrates satellite and terrestrial differential correction systems and insists on introducing compatibility and interoperability between different GNSSs. This will ensure its seamless integration with mobile communications, positioning services, the Internet, high quality, reliable and efficient operation for environmental and social development, public safety, and individual users.

Modern GNSS receivers from Trimble support the reception of signals from the BeiDou satellites with the possibility of post-processing of the received data and operation in RTK mode:, - as standard, R8s, R9s, and - optional. All PrinCe receivers support the Beidou satellites by default.

25 /01
2019

TBC 5.0 Should you upgrade? 10 reasons "For"!

Recently, we began to receive quite a lot of requests from users who are planning to upgrade to the latest version of Trimble Business Center 5.0, but before that we would like to understand whether it is really worth updating to the new version or is it better to follow the saying “The old horse does not spoil the furrow” and stay on the familiar outdated version.

Already in May this year, negotiations will begin on the merger of GLONASS and the Chinese navigation system BeiDou. What can this alliance do for the IT industry?

The initiative comes from the Chinese, negotiations will be held in Harbin. It is clear that it is planned to make a global unified monitoring system for navigation satellite systems. So that all this, at least for the SCO, would work.

How will it work? In real time, the united system will exchange data on the positions of the satellite constellations, signal quality, and transmit corrective corrections for positioning to each other. For GLONASS, this is a very profitable story. Both in terms of quality and the number of consumers of the system.

"If such a scenario is realized, this will make it possible to multiply the accuracy when consumers use two global navigation satellite systems at once," said a representative of Roscosmos.

Let's go in order. Let's start with the fact that among all existing navigation systems, the Chinese one is one of the youngest. Only Galileo from Europe is younger. China made its first launch in 2000, and Galileo in 2006.

Why is the navigation system so important today? From an economic point of view, the navigation system is an integral part of the modern transport system. Navigation plays a very, very important role not only for a simple consumer, but also for a business. All uberized services, cargo delivery, navigation of water transport, air. This is a lot of money, which simply cannot be appreciated at the first approximation. So with the system turned off, you, as a country, find yourself somewhere in 1940 in terms of transport infrastructure.

But from the point of view of security, it is exactly the same story: if you do not have your own navigation system, at any moment all your military equipment ends up in the same 1940, and the enemy's equipment - in 2020. The gap is so significant that I don't think so much. needs an explanation. And at the same time to all those who like to tell that GPS will not be turned off, you can recall 2008, when the United States cut down the positioning system for Russian military equipment in Georgia during the conflict. Locally. They just took it and cut it out. They can afford, what is already there.

As a result, it turned out that our GLONASS was clearly not done in vain. China, by the way, then closely watched this and made its own conclusions. Chris was in crisis, and the Chinese continued to work on their system.

If we are talking about the maximum error that GLONASS, GPS and BeiDou give under operating conditions, then everything is quite interesting. It turns out that this is open data, by the way, that our system is the most accurate in world history. The Chinese have an error of 10 meters, GPS - 5 meters, and GLONASS - about 2.5 meters. For civilian use, of course. This is to the question that some people think that we are crooked, we are not capable of creating anything modern. So we can do it whenever we want.

The next aspect. There are two global systems that work equally well around the globe today: the same GPS and GLONASS. The Chinese system can become global only in 2 years, but in reality another 5 years. Galileo from Europe - at about the same time. And then, if the UK does not want to return the 1.5 billion euros invested in the project. And such discussions are already underway in Britain that it is necessary to make our own system independent.

"We are considering a number of options, but if our partners in the EU refuse, we will withdraw from the project. We are also considering the possibility of launching our own system," a source in the UK government told the Financial Times.

Brexit is the same. So you have to either integrate back and share your technologies, or mold your own. But the EU does not want the military part of the Galileo program to be transferred to a non-EU member. By the way, the entire budget of Galileo is estimated at 10 billion euros.

Do you feel where this is going? On the one hand, to delimitation, when each country tries to create its own navigation system. At least regional. For example: India 2 years ago "finished" NavIC with seven satellites. And Japan has established a regional positioning system QZSS (Quazi-Zenith Satellite System, "Quasi-anti-aircraft satellite system"), designed to serve in the Asia-Pacific region.

On the other hand, the integration of regional and global systems is coming. This is beneficial to everyone except the United States, which at one time was a monopolist in global positioning. Imagine that China, with our help, gets an unprecedented positioning accuracy on its territory, excellent globally (and these are just the same sea vessels, for example). And we get a multiple increase in the number of users of the system and use the funds received to develop the technology further. Is it profitable? Not that word!

Only the United States will not just leave it. Everything will go by their pockets. Therefore, they organized the first years of the GLONASS operation, they mocked as best they could over the fact that the first military samples of chips were larger than those in GPS, but the Chinese, with our help, quickly made dual-use chips. And now they are producing a triple. In the same phones, for example. There are three navigation systems supported. So do not worry, the road will be mastered by the walking one. Orbiting satellite.

When you look at a new smartphone to buy, you are looking not only at its appearance, but also at its characteristics. In the characteristics you can often see such a bundle: GPS / GLONASS / BeiDou. If everything is clear with GPS and GLONASS, what is BeiDou?

BeiDou (read Beidou) is a Chinese satellite navigation system. It was put into commercial operation in 2012, and will reach full capacity by about 2020.

In fact, it represents an analogue of GPS and GLONASS - these two systems are standardly supported by most new smartphones. Recently, the BeiDou navigation system has been added to them, so you can often see in the "Satellite navigation" characteristics column support for three satellite navigation systems - GPS, GLONASS and BeiDou.

Many smartphones have already received BeiDou support, but not all. This is done primarily by Chinese companies, but there are also companies from other countries, such as Samsung, which has included BeiDou support on many of its devices.

And what of all this to the user, you ask? In fact, the user of the device benefits. Look, each navigation system has its pros and cons, but be that as it may, in combination, they allow you to more accurately position the device by satellites. And do not forget that when the Internet is on, positioning also occurs on it. The more sources, the more accurately the user's location with the device is indicated. Of course, there is nothing wrong here, solid pluses.

In the future, it is likely that BeiDou will support almost all smartphones, as was the case with GPS or GLONASS.

In recent years, Asian countries have stepped up their space development activities. China, India and Japan are especially successful in this. Irina Prokopenkova, senior researcher at the Center for Economic Research at the Russian Institute for Strategic Studies, tells the site about the achievements of these countries and their rivalry in space.

Asia rushes into space

- Irina, has cosmonautics ceased to be a terribly closed sphere due to the fact that international cooperation is developing now?

- Partly, yes. Overall, there have been very significant changes since the 1990s. After the space race stage of the Cold War period, the saturation of astronautics began, the pace of development slowed down in the leading countries - Europe, the USA, and there was a revision of priorities and development strategies. And they switched more to the commercialization of space activities, to the development of application systems that give a return and allow you to make a profit. These are commercial systems of telecommunications, remote sensing.

And in recent years, this trend has superimposed on the cyclical downturn in the commercial space satellite market and coincided with the global economic recession. Therefore, there has been a certain stabilization of government funding.

Over the past 5 years, global spending on space programs at the level of $ 70 billion has remained - and is not growing. On the other hand, there is an intensification of secondary space powers. And this is not only China, India, Japan, which are on everyone's lips, but also, which is remarkable, developing countries, and mostly Asian.

In 10 years their number has doubled, although each of them invests very little in space, but in general, costs have doubled in recent decades, now they are collectively estimated at $ 7 billion.

- Why is it so important for them? Do they have any more pressing economic problems?

- The leadership of these countries considers space exploration as a way to solve social and economic problems, pressing problems that these countries face. For example, for the organization of rational use of natural resources, for monitoring natural disasters, for ensuring communication in hard-to-reach areas.

And this has also been facilitated by the fact that in recent years there has been a breakthrough in small spacecraft technology. They have become smaller, lighter, cheaper, and at the same time allow solving problems at a fairly decent level, which for these poor countries has lowered the threshold for entering space activities.

That is, they can afford to order or even manufacture, if they have the appropriate resources, their own satellite. They do not need ultra-high resolution, as for the USA, Russia, China, which solve military problems using satellites.

Plus, in a country that can launch a satellite itself into space, this presupposes the presence of a very serious industry and related industries. Because a rocket is a very complex product, it contains several thousand parts, all this requires very high precision, a very large amount of testing. Because the technique is very responsible and unique.

- And tell me, in order to join the pool of space powers, a country must have its own rocket, launch it into space, or now you can somehow join this pool, get the status of a space power, as you say, at work with these small space devices.

- Here it is necessary to clarify, because the very concept of a space power is a little unofficial. There is a formal name "Big Space Club". This includes the countries that themselves launched a satellite into space on their own. There are 11 such countries in the world now. In addition to the well-known Russia, the USA, Europe, these are China, India, Japan and three other Asian countries that have received this status literally in the last five years: Iran in 2009, North Korea and South Korea in 2012 and 2013 years.

- And what is the nature of the current international cooperation? Can we say that Asian countries such as India and China have developed their space industry largely due to the fact that the United States moved its production to these countries?

- Not certainly in that way. That is, of course, both for India, and for China, and for Japan there was a key factor precisely in borrowing foreign technologies. For India and China - Russian, first of all, for Japan - American. But at the present stage, the space industry is very balanced and careful about cooperation. The states have a legal limitation in general on any cooperation with China in the field of space. This law was passed in 2011.

- And what then is this cooperation?

- It turns out that at the moment the United States and China do not cooperate in space at all. Although until 1999, US satellite service companies actively collaborated with China, they launched satellites on Chinese rockets. But then, after 1999, it was suspended. There was a big scandal due to the fact that there was a technology leak to China.

But Europe, despite the fact that there is an embargo, did not cut off contacts with China, continued cooperation on scientific projects. It is noteworthy that just last year the European Space Agency declared China a strategic partner for the first time in its space strategy.

- How far are Asian countries moving in terms of their own technological and scientific developments? That is, to what extent do they work ahead of the curve? It's not enough to catch up.

- They have one of the pillars of their space strategy - the development of their own innovations, their own space potential. They have come very far along this path. That is, in 10 years there has been just a colossal leap forward.

Now China, for example, is among the three countries in the world that is engaged in manned projects. Given that the Shuttle does not fly, in fact only China and Russia can launch a man into space at the moment.

And, as expected, the next 5 years for China should be a decisive stage, three major projects should be implemented - the deployment of its own global navigation satellite system by 2020, the creation of an orbiting space station and the study of the moon by automatic spacecraft. We should have a soft landing on the moon this year, which will bring the lunar soil to earth.

- If the United States imposed an embargo on China, can Russia take advantage of this and work more closely with China in the space industry?

- Our cooperation has not been interrupted. We have cooperated with both India and China. We have close ties with both countries. It is enough to look at the Chinese manned spacecraft Shenzhou-5, to put our Soyuz next to it - everything is immediately clear.

China has undoubtedly drawn a lot from our experience. And after the imposition of sanctions against Russia, of course, this area becomes especially relevant for Russia, the development of cooperation with India and China.

- How do India and China manage to make large-scale investments in space? Are there any special conditions being created, are private investments attracted? Is the model of attracting private investment different for the United States, Russia and Asian countries?

- The Asian countries, in fact, are very different from the States and from each other. In China, for example, the entire space industry is in the hands of state corporations. There are two huge public corporations, which sometimes compete in separate areas, and each has its own specialization.

But China is very actively studying and using the US experience. That is, individual divisions of these corporations, although they are state-owned, are corporatized, their shares are traded on stock exchanges, and China sets itself the goal of ultimately creating an advanced space industry on a global level.

That is, these two corporations will be comparable to Lockheed or Boeing. It's a little different in India. In contrast to China, the Indian space industry is very limited in scale, and in fact all space technology is now produced not even at enterprises, but by the Indian Space Research Organization.

- China, Japan, India, in particular, nevertheless act as competitors to each other in the political arena. Does this somehow affect the regional cooperation of the space countries of the Asian region?

- Undoubtedly. That is, there is no interaction between these countries. But there is competition between them at the regional level for influence on neighboring countries. That is, since 2008, two organizations for the commonwealth in the field of space have been operating in the region in parallel. One under the auspices of China, the other under the auspices of Japan. And this direction is very important for China, Japan, India. It is a means for them to project their influence on their neighbors in the region through space technologies.

- And who and whom are they building local ties in the region?

- China has established the Asia-Pacific Space Cooperation Program. In addition to China, there are Bangladesh, Indonesia, Iran, Mongolia, Pakistan, Peru, Thailand and Turkey. In addition to China, the rest of the countries in this organization have very moderate opportunities in the field of space. That is, China is positioning itself as an undoubted leader.

And now each of these countries wants to lead the emerging trend in the formation of a new space center in Asia, each wants to become a leader in this process.

- What dividends does the status of a leader give?

- Entering the world market, the regional market. Because China, for example, is creating its own navigation satellite system, it already provides services in the region, and by 2020 China plans to occupy a very significant niche in the navigation satellite systems market. Primarily in the region.

Still, the space industry of Asian countries is very dependent on the United States and Europe. Technology transfer saves billions of dollars, tens of billions, but the US is doing its best to prevent transfer. If it happens somehow, then somehow indirectly.

And since the United States broke off cooperation with China, that China, that India rely on their own forces, but for electronic components they depend on the United States. In 2013, the Chinese Ministry of Commerce published data that the volume of imports of radio electronic components is second only to oil imports. That is, this is the second position.

- I just wanted to ask how dependent they are?

- Everyone depends on the United States, even Europe.

- Can you tell us about some joint space projects between Russia and Asian countries?

- We will now most actively develop cooperation on a series of navigation satellite systems between our GLONASS system and the Chinese Beidou system. Integration of standards, integration of systems.

Also, stations will be built on Russian territory to correct the Beidou system, and stations will be located in China to improve the accuracy of GLONASS signals. Plus, we have already created the R-GLONASS system - an emergency response system in case of accidents based on GLONASS.

China is interested in this experience, it now wants to build its own system based on Beidou, but an agreement was reached to unify the standards.

Since we are still cooperating within the framework of the SCO and BRICS, now China is very much developing the "Economic Search for the Silk Road" project; the development of transport infrastructure is very important. And this is exactly where these systems can play a great role in tracking traffic flows, managing traffic flows.