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Published in:
2013 | OriginalPaper | Chapter
International Committee on GNSS
Author : Dr. Sergio Camacho-Lara
Published in: Handbook of Satellite Applications
Publisher: Springer New York
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Abstract
Global navigation satellite systems (GNSS), with their extremely high accuracy, global coverage, all-weather operation, and usefulness at high velocities, are a dual-use technology that are becoming a new global utility that increasingly improve people’s daily lives. GNSS applications are growing and their quality is improving in such areas as aviation, maritime and land transportation, mapping and surveying, agriculture, power and telecommunications networks, disaster warning and emergency response, and a host of commercial and social applications.
At the turn of the millennium, it became apparent that the two global navigation satellite systems that had existed, the Global Positioning Systems (GPS) of the United States and the Global Navigation Satellite System (GLONASS) of the Russian Federation, would soon be joined by the Galileo system of Europe and the Compass/Beidou of China, as well as by the regional Quasi-Zenith Satellite System (QZZS) of Japan and the Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS) of India. The emergence of new GNSS and regional augmentations focused attention on the need for the coordination of program plans among current and future operators in order to enhance the utility of GNSS services. It also made clear that the providers of GNSS services should pursue greater compatibility and interoperability among all current and future systems in terms of spectrum, signal structures, time, and geodetic reference standards to the maximum extent possible.
Although coordination between the providers of the GNSS was already taking place on a bilateral basis, the desirability of having a forum in which all GNSS providers participated became an attractive idea. Such a forum would allow discussion and coordination on issues of common interest such as protection of the radionavigation spectrum from disruption and interference, global compatibility, and interoperability of space-based position, navigation, and timing services (PNT) that could be used separately or together without interfering with each other. After 1999, and following several years of discussing terms of reference, objectives, and work plan, the International Committee on GNSS (ICG) became such a forum.