Resilient PNT is neither a particular technology nor a service; it is actually a combination of many things, depending on the scale and scope of applications and systems.
NextNav CEO Ganesh Pattabiraman was quoted in GeoSpatial World magazine about the need for resilient GPS:
One of the most recognized and industry-tested solution is the terrestrial PNT system. Local terrestrial beacons play an essential role in GPS augmentation and are foreseen to be an essential backup for certain critical infrastructure sectors. These systems provide stronger and exceptionally accurate signals with good indoor penetration, bringing a higher level of resilience at a lower cost and allowing for customized deployments to meet the specific needs of different application sectors.
Ganesh Pattabiraman, Co-founder and CEO of NextNav, says, “There is a need for land-based systems to complement space-based systems. Terrestrial beacons, such as those in our TerraPoiNT solution, are complementary to GPS. The solution is encrypted in a way that it can operate independent as well as in complementarity to the GPS and deliver the same services, powering critical national infrastructure in the event of a GPS failure.”
In a recent industry-first trial conducted by the Science & Technology Directorate (S&T) of the Department of Homeland Security, in a simulated 72-hour GPS outage, TerraPoiNT’s capabilities were validated — delivering a timing accuracy better than 50 nanoseconds in the urban and semi-urban environment, and successfully meeting timing requirements for various applications like 5G networks, power grid, and more. The terrestrial system provided precise timing and redundancy, utilizing two alternate timing sources —atomic clock (Cesium/Rb) and LEO satellite (Satelles).