Welcome to a new series of posts on Electro-ramblings concerning the wonderful but sometimes weird world of wireless comms, written by Joel Young, CTO of Digi InternationalAs far as I can tell, my GPS unit doesn't have a transmitter, so how do those satellites know where I am?
When I was a freshman engineering student at the University of Southern California in 1982, I got to go on a tour of TRW's Space Division where I saw one of the first GPS satellites being assembled. We were told that this technology was going to revolutionise navigation. Yet I couldn't help but wonder how the satellites would know where I was.
Today that thought reminds me of a trip to the mall when my children were very young. We looked at the mall map and found the label saying, "You are here" and my son asked me how the mall people knew where we were.
So goes the world of GPS. GPS technology has evolved over the past 27 years and become much more accurate. Nonetheless, the basic principle remains the same and you don't have to be an RF expert or a math wizard to understand it. With GPS, most of the satellites know very little except the exact time.
The GPS unit you hold in your hand or in your car has all the smarts. The simple version of GPS, without any of the fancy corrections follows basic geometry.
It goes like this. Say you know that you are a distance of 100 miles from a point of known location, even if you know nothing about direction, then you know you are someplace on a sphere with a radius of 100 miles from that point.
Now, let's say you know that you are 100 miles from one point and 50 miles from a different known point. In this case your location is a point which is common among two spheres of radios 100 miles and 50 miles respectively. Since the intersection of two spheres is a circle, you know you are some place on that circle. Finally, let's add a third point. Using the same logic you know your location is the intersection of three spheres.
Geometrically speaking, the intersection of three spheres is exactly one point.
So all your GPS receiver does is calculate the distance from satellites of known location by measuring the delay in the time-stamped signals from the satellites, then calculating your point location by intersecting spheres. Now because this measurement is not perfect, we add extra satellites to reduce the error and provide a time reference. All you really need to know is basic geometry.
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Joel Young, VP of Research and Development and CTO at Digi International, has more than 22 years of experience in developing and managing data and voice communications. He joined Digi International in June 2000 and in his current role he is responsible for research and development of all of Digi's core products.
Prior to joining Digi, Joel was VP of Sales & Marketing at Transcrypt International where he was responsible for sales, marketing, and product development for all information security products. During his tenure at Transcrypt, he also served as VP of Product Development and VP of Engineering where he was responsible for engineering, research and product development for wireless communications products, cellular telephony, wireline telephony and land mobile radio, data security and specialized digital radio products.
He also served as District Manager for AT&T Business Communications Services where he was responsible for the creation and implementation of voice processing and network database strategies, including deploying new voice processing platforms into the AT&T switched network for private network and other outbound calling services.
It goes like this. Say you know that you are a distance of 100 miles from a point of known location, even if you know nothing about direction, then you know you are someplace on a sphere with a radius of 100 miles from that point.
Now, let's say you know that you are 100 miles from one point and 50 miles from a different known point. In this case your location is a point which is common among two spheres of radios 100 miles and 50 miles respectively. Since the intersection of two spheres is a circle, you know you are some place on that circle. Finally, let's add a third point. Using the same logic you know your location is the intersection of three spheres.
Geometrically speaking, the intersection of three spheres is exactly one point.
So all your GPS receiver does is calculate the distance from satellites of known location by measuring the delay in the time-stamped signals from the satellites, then calculating your point location by intersecting spheres. Now because this measurement is not perfect, we add extra satellites to reduce the error and provide a time reference. All you really need to know is basic geometry.
--
Joel Young, VP of Research and Development and CTO at Digi International, has more than 22 years of experience in developing and managing data and voice communications. He joined Digi International in June 2000 and in his current role he is responsible for research and development of all of Digi's core products.Prior to joining Digi, Joel was VP of Sales & Marketing at Transcrypt International where he was responsible for sales, marketing, and product development for all information security products. During his tenure at Transcrypt, he also served as VP of Product Development and VP of Engineering where he was responsible for engineering, research and product development for wireless communications products, cellular telephony, wireline telephony and land mobile radio, data security and specialized digital radio products.
He also served as District Manager for AT&T Business Communications Services where he was responsible for the creation and implementation of voice processing and network database strategies, including deploying new voice processing platforms into the AT&T switched network for private network and other outbound calling services.
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Comments (5)
So the answer to the question, ".. how do those satellites know where I am?" is:
"The satellites don't know anything at all!"
This is pretty important for those who think that satellites track them; they do no such thing!
Posted by Friend | July 6, 2009 12:49 PM
Posted on July 6, 2009 12:49
The question is not ".. how do those satellites know where I am?" but "how do _I_ know where those satellites are?".
Posted by Tom Clarke | August 27, 2009 11:20 AM
Posted on August 27, 2009 11:20
"Geometrically speaking, the intersection of three spheres is exactly one point"
Thats not stricly true, The intersection of three spheres is two points on the circle. A Fourth shpere would be needed to locate an object in 3d.
GPS systems can ignore one of the points using only 3 satalites because one point would be on the planets surface and the other would be in space.
Posted by Tom | August 27, 2009 11:27 AM
Posted on August 27, 2009 11:27
Generally speaking 3 spheres intersect at two
points not one as suggested. If the third sphere cuts the circle of the intersection of the first two, it will do so at two points except in the limiting case of tangential contact. In GPS terms this does not matter as the second point will far out in space at the mirror image of your position in the plane of the three satellites.
Posted by Nick Rouse | August 27, 2009 11:31 AM
Posted on August 27, 2009 11:31
Exactly, the GPS receiver knows where it is, not the satellites. A little confusion with the words perhaps?
Posted by ideer | August 27, 2009 3:56 PM
Posted on August 27, 2009 15:56