Open Source GNSS Reference Server for Assisted-Global Navigation Satellite Systems

Assisted-Global Navigation Satellite Systems (A-GNSS), or Assisted-Global Positioning Systems (A-GPS) in particular, are now commonly accepted as an effective way to reduce the time-to-first-fix (TTFF) in GNSS-unfriendly environments, e.g. in areas of weak GNSS signals. Today’s location-based service (LBS) devices such as GPS-enabled mobile phones and personal digital assistants (PDA) rely on A-GPS; however, such commercial devices are equipped with an integrated A-GPS chip that makes customisation very difficult. The Open Source GNSS Reference Server (OSGRS) provided by the University of New South Wales is an open source Java application that can generate the necessary data for A-GPS clients. The GNSS Reference Interface Protocol (GRIP), based on extensible mark-up language (XML), is employed as the OSGRS interface protocol. This paper describes the current status of OSGRS: a client simulator is available open-source; client software which supports four different types of A-GPS-enabled receivers has been developed and used to test OSGRS. The performance of the OSGRS is analysed based on intensive tests. The challenges for OSGRS and future work are also discussed.