Spirent announces portable, high-resolution system for navigation testing

Spirent Communications plc, a manufacturer of test equipment and services for improving positioning, navigation and timing (PNT) system performance, today announced the new Spirent GSS6450 RF record and playback system.

RF record and playback systems capture the rich, real-world radio frequency environment and bring it into the lab. This enables receiver, system and application technology developers to optimize performance and robustness.

The GSS6450 uniquely combines high-resolution, 16-bit-wide band sampling in a highly portable unit measuring 22 x 20 x 7.3 centimeters and weighing only 2 kilograms. The high-resolution capability means it can capture a more detailed RF environment, including RF interference, complex atmospheric scintillation and space weather impacts on the GNSS signal, so users can improve receiver performance against these signals.

With its compact size, the GSS6450 is designed for capturing data in the field such as on foot or in vehicles, and easily portable when traveling.

“The GSS6450 offers high resolution in a small self-contained battery powered unit,” said Rahul Gupta, commercial segment lead for Spirent’s positioning division. “Until now, high-resolution record and playback systems have been mains powered and not designed for in-field use. The GSS6450 changes that, enabling a range of signal powers and characteristics to be sampled, recorded, brought into the lab and replayed.”

It offers a choice of 4-, 8- or 16-bit I/Q quantization, and a 10-, 30- or 50-MHz recording bandwidth. Up to four GNSS frequency bands can be recorded simultaneously, making the GSS6450 suitable for a wide range of applications, from testing new devices, such as wearable tech and unmanned vehicles, to chipset development using new GNSS frequencies, and high-end system test.

The 16-bit I/Q quantization option gives up to 96 dB of dynamic range, so it also can be used for interference analysis and improving receiver resilience to GPS jamming.

The GSS6450 is also capable of recording additional non-RF sources including inertial sensor outputs, dead reckoning, and up to four video streams. Long recordings are achieved using up to 4 terabytes of on-board storage. An additional 8 terabytes of RAID storage can be added externally.

The Spirent GSS6450 is available now.