Operational deployment of GPS Dancer: organisation, status and schedule

Henno Boomkamp

Jerôme Verstrynge, Jeff Daniels, Claus Randolph, Veronique Séjan, et al.For list of all project volunteers please see GPSdancer.org Project Credits

IAG REFAG 2014

Luxembourg 13-17 October

IGS core network ITRF densification Regional stations usernr of receivers 400 1,000 25,000 ∞

baselines @ 2.8 mm RMS hours weeks never neverPPP @ 10/20 mm H/V RT RT RT RT

GPS Dancer IN A NUTSHELL (1)

2

current situation

REFAG 2014 Luxembourg

• Global network solutions (IGS) limited to ~250 stations each• Result: layered densification to user level

– Too few stations included at NEQ level (…only EUREF, AFREF, SIGRAS etc)– Each layer adds errors, latency, cost, regulations, …

• High accuracy of ITRF fails to reach regional sites & users

2.8 mm RMS

RTK,DGPS

GPS Dancer IN A NUTSHELL (2)

3REFAG 2014 Luxembourg

Rigorous LSQ solutions for all permanent GPS sites in the world• Pile of computations is too large for one computer …split in many piles

– Price to pay is data traffic and some repeated, parallel computations• Most sites do not publish their data …bring the process to the site

?!?

…

…

… …

IGS core network ITRF densification Regional stations usernr of receivers ∞ ∞

baselines @ 2.8 mm RMS 30 minutes or less maybeDART ??? mm RT RT

GPS Dancer IN A NUTSHELL (3)

4

dancer approach

REFAG 2014 Luxembourg

• IGS-like solutions via a peer-to-peer internet process– Workload for one peer process per receiver: ~0.5 x IGS AC – Data traffic grows as a logarithmic function of network size N– Observations and local products remain private to the receiver!

• High accuracy can reach regional sites and users

2.8 mm RMS

RTK,DGPS

2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018

IAG WG 1.1.1 active period GGGF v1Preparatory discussions in Wg 1.1.1 GGGF v2

Feasibility study & reconnaissance GCCSMatLab prototyping

Software infrastructure DeployParameter estimation ICDs

Models CalValGPS analysis 1 Certification

GPS Analysis 2 Pilot projectDistributed solver DART H2020 project

JXTA & BD triangles Dancer fundraising Nominal serviceGPS process 3 DART fundraising

System tests Dagger fundraisingPPP validSP3 fit valid

Redesign BD --> PCOn-line testing and E2C testing

Prototype 0.7 0.9 1.0 IPR

Old project coordination websiteWebsite remake 1&1

Joomla site goes on-lineGCCS web portal on-line

IGS WS 2010 IGS WS 2012 IAG 2013 REFAG 2014REFAG 2010 AGU 2012

AGU 2010DA meeting

Berkeley WS

GPS Dancer project timeline

REFAG 2014 Luxembourg 5

analysis

software implementation

organization

fundraising

operations

web presence

key meetings

now

releases

Roadmap towards operational system

REFAG 2014 Luxembourg 6

Step 1: Deployment• Build up backbone network for ~100 ITRF sites • Test runs on basis of one week of RINEX files• Near real-time runs in parallel to IGS

Step 2: Calibration / Validation• Routine comparisons against IGS products • Tune all models and standards to IGS repro-2 standard

Step 3: Pilot project• Users can join with their own stations • Alignment to ITRF via backbone network• No guarantee of service

Step 4: Nominal operations• Global products made available to IGS (if desired)• Limited guarantee of service to users (e.g. 99% of time)

• 24 arc length• Low data rate (5 min)• Low product rate (6 hrs)

18 hour arc overlaps

• 24 arc length• High data rate (30 sec)• High product rate (0.5 hrs)

23.5 hour arc overlaps

Computing resources: options consideredPlan A: use the station computers

– but: modern receivers stream data directly– inhomogeneous performance & bandwidth

Plan B: voluntary analysis campaign– but: unreasonable processing load – 100 peers equivalent to ~50 analysis centers

Plan C: cloud computing– unlimited capacity @ low cost to user– highly homogeneous hardware & network– no charge for incoming data or internal data

Funding needed for backbone networks

7

200 MBinternal

100 kB out

1 MB in

REFAG 2014 Luxembourg

Dancer in the cloud = smart receiver!

8

Today Smart receiver 1 Smart Receiver 2 Smart receiver 3 Dancer in the cloud Hardware Software

GNSS observations(RINEX,RTCM)

GNSS products

HF signals

expensivenew hardware

cheapnew hardware

existinghardware

REFAG 2014 Luxembourg

GNSSproducts

2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018

GGGF v1GGGF v2GCCS

DeployICDs

CalValCertification

Pilot projectDART H2020 project

Dancer fundraising Nominal serviceGPS process 3 DART fundraising

Backbone network budget

• Required start-up budget– Step 1: deployment E2C …........~20 k– Step 2: CalVal / ITRF low rate … ~30 k– Step 3: Pilot project …………….. ~50 k Total ~100

k

• DART development by means of EU H2020 projectREFAG 2014 Luxembourg 9

1000 sites(>100 ITRF)

100 ITRF sites

250 ITRF sites

Funding options and their pitfalls

public funding (ESA) single private investor many private investors

REFAG 2014 Luxembourg

• Full funding imposes political constraints

• Development only: ESA is no service operator

• Scientific control is lost

• Difficult to involve other manufacturers

• Weak governance

• Available public funding is not exploited

• Reference frame should not be commercialized, scientific supervision (IAG, IGS) is important

Option A

Option B

Option C

10

GPS Dancer operational organization

REFAG 2014 Luxembourg11

(1) Global Geodetic Grid FoundationGovernance:• 5 (or 7) representatives from the

scientific communityAssets:• IPR of the GPS Dancer software

(…released via Apache 2 license)• Run time start-up passwords• IPR global estimation products

orbits, satellite clocks, ERP• 50% of the GCCS

(3) Users of the serviceAssets:• IPR of GNSS observation data• IPR local estimation products

position, station clocks, tropo

(2) Geodetic Cloud Computing ServiceGovernance:• 50% GGGF (…board votes as one)• Proportional vote by shareholders

50% “virtual vote” for each co-funder !

GGGF

Start-up funding Operational ownership

SmartReceiverManufacturers

Fundraising status Oct 2014

REFAG 2014 Luxembourg 12

First choice: receiver manufacturers (…have been / will be contacted)

Second choice: GNSS / geodesy SME• Known contacts via IGS / IAG• ESA contractor firms• …etc.

Third choice: any private investor

Yes

Maybe

No

…yet to be contacted

Yes

Start of fundraising May 2014Decision deadline Jan 2015

Target # for go-ahead 8 … 10

*

Dart implementation

Schedule 2015

• ESA BIC Evaluation Board Feb 2015– Dancer moves from IAG voluntary project to paid service– Not aimed at profit, but cost must be carried by the users

IAG 2013 Postdam 13

GGGF v1

GGGF v2

GCCS GmbH

Week 7: TEB

Step 1: deployment

Step 2: CalVal

Week 25 AGU 2015 / IGS 2016

Step 3: Pilot project

ICDs with manufacturers

Certification of cloud service

Conclusions• Dancer wants to bridge the accuracy gap from ITRF core to

all regional sites, and then to the user • Progress 2014

– Operational organization developed in detail• Cloud service (GCCS) under scientific supervision (GGGF)• Realistic funding devised and being consolidated

• Target for start of public pilot project is now AGU 2015• DART (Dancer-RT) project now also under preparation

– Aiming for a H2020 project over 2016-2018 period• 2018: 2.8 mm ITRF anywhere on Earth, in real time?

IAG 2013 Postdam 14

…why do we need GPS Dancer?

IAG 2013 Postdam 15

All regional sites at high ITRF accuracy

Guarantee of service

W1

N

W2

street levelpseudolites

roof top GPSbase station

local offsetsurveyed

Densificationsto 1 km or less