Feedback sought on federal GPS backup plan

The U.S. Department of Transportation is seeking feedback on the potential use by the federal government of one or more positioning, navigation and timing (PNT) technologies to back up GPS signals and ensure resiliency of PNT for critical infrastructure (CI).

A Federal Register notice was published Nov. 30, with a deadline for comments of Jan. 30, 2017.

The Transportation Department also said it is interested in “leveraging PNT service technology initiatives under consideration or currently undertaken by industry.”

“The federal government is presently documenting civil requirements for PNT capabilities to serve as the basis for potential future acquisition activity. The initial objective is to support sustainment of domestic CI timing continuity with the capability to extend service(s) in the future to provide positioning/navigation continuity as well.”

The “Presidential Policy Directive on Critical Infrastructure Security and Resilience” (PPD-21; Feb. 12, 2013) designates 16 CI sectors: Chemical; Commercial Facilities; Communications; Critical Manufacturing; Dams; Defense Industrial Base; Emergency Services; Energy; Financial Services; Food and Agriculture; Government Facilities; Healthcare and Public Health; Information Technology; Nuclear Reactors, Materials, and Waste; Transportation Systems; and Water and Wastewater Systems. To support the initial objective, CI sectors need access to timing information for both nationwide applications and, in some cases, for more stringent regional and local applications.

For more information, see the notice.