Global Positioning Without GPS

GadgetMike sends word of an award to Boeing for work on a Robust Positioning System that could make use of cell signals, television transmissions, and other clues to provide position information when GPS is unavailable. (Wonder if they've heard about Skyhook Wireless, which does a similar job based on Wi-Fi hotspots, for 2500 US cities and towns.) The work is being sponsored by the US military, so it's not surprising that they don't want to rely on upcoming GPS enhancers or replacements from France, China, and Russia. Here is the Boeing press release.

Comments

Re:not really a new secure idea

[zappepcs]

Well, if you were relying on single source beacons, that might be true. But think of all the commercial beacons that are available, from TV and radio stations, to emergency radio towers, ham radio repeaters, VOR beacons... there are hundreds of radio beacons around you, no matter where you live in the civilized world. All of these, when incorporated into a positioning scheme, become more or less redundant sources of triangulation that would have to be disabled in some form or another to stop this from working. It would take a lot of effort to disable such a system as they do not rely on the same infrastructure or control systems.