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Vision: Leveraging Low Earth Orbit Satellites for Future Ubiquitous Positioning

Published: 22 November 2024 Publication History

Abstract

Designing a globally ubiquitous positioning system that works seamlessly in all environments remains a critical area of ongoing research. While Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS), such as GPS, are the predominant technology for global outdoor positioning, they fail in areas with physical obstructions (e.g., dense urban regions and indoors) and are prone to jamming. These limitations significantly restrict their global accessibility and dependability, highlighting the need for supplementary positioning technologies.
Recently, private companies like SpaceX have started deploying Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites for various applications, primarily communication. LEO satellites operate at much lower altitudes than GNSS satellites, offering higher signal penetration capabilities and reduced susceptibility to jamming, making them a promising complementary positioning technology. In this paper, we present our vision for opportunistically leveraging LEO satellite signals to achieve ubiquitous and reliable global positioning. We explore diverse opportunities enabled by our vision and discuss the multi-disciplinary challenges that must be addressed for its realization.

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Cited By

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  • (2024)ModeSense: Ubiquitous and Accurate Transportation Mode Detection using Serving Cell Tower InformationProceedings of the 32nd ACM International Conference on Advances in Geographic Information Systems10.1145/3678717.3691250(184-195)Online publication date: 29-Oct-2024
  • (2024)Accurate and Ubiquitous Floor Identification at the Edge using a Single Cell Tower2024 IEEE/ACM Symposium on Edge Computing (SEC)10.1109/SEC62691.2024.00024(206-219)Online publication date: 4-Dec-2024
  • (undefined)Ubiquitous and Low-Overhead Floor Identification with Limited Cellular InformationACM Transactions on Spatial Algorithms and Systems10.1145/3708986

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cover image ACM Conferences
SIGSPATIAL '24: Proceedings of the 32nd ACM International Conference on Advances in Geographic Information Systems
October 2024
743 pages
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution International 4.0 License.

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Publication History

Published: 22 November 2024

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Author Tags

  1. GNSS
  2. LEO satellites
  3. Navigation
  4. Ubiquitous positioning

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SIGSPATIAL '24 Paper Acceptance Rate 37 of 122 submissions, 30%;
Overall Acceptance Rate 257 of 1,238 submissions, 21%

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View all
  • (2024)ModeSense: Ubiquitous and Accurate Transportation Mode Detection using Serving Cell Tower InformationProceedings of the 32nd ACM International Conference on Advances in Geographic Information Systems10.1145/3678717.3691250(184-195)Online publication date: 29-Oct-2024
  • (2024)Accurate and Ubiquitous Floor Identification at the Edge using a Single Cell Tower2024 IEEE/ACM Symposium on Edge Computing (SEC)10.1109/SEC62691.2024.00024(206-219)Online publication date: 4-Dec-2024
  • (undefined)Ubiquitous and Low-Overhead Floor Identification with Limited Cellular InformationACM Transactions on Spatial Algorithms and Systems10.1145/3708986

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