British Aerospace (BAE) Systems is claiming that NAVSOP (Navigation Via Signals of Opportunity) technology will be able to replace the global positioning system (GPS) for the creation of location data.
BAE Systems is a Defense and Security Company in Britain which is developing the NAVSOP on a worldwide basis. It is going to use a different method for locating a position fix. This new system will use the ether of transmission waves for Wi-Fi, televisions, radios and cell phones to get the details on a position within a radius of two metre variance. This will be an improvement over the current systems being used like the GPS or the GLONASS (Global Navigation Satellite System). GLONASS uses the satellites to get data on longitude and latitude.
The new positioning system, NAVSOP, does not need an expensive satellite cluster in the sky. The infrastructure that is needed is present through household and hand-held equipment that emits waves which can be identified. Android phones are already using A-GPS to retrieve locations with the help of a data network. NAVSOP will not find it difficult to be functional in areas with weak reception like subways or indoors unlike GPS. NAVSOP has another advantage by being resistant to jamming interference and spoofing. This is another area which troubles GPS as it can be misled by a bogus signal that can trap a device into misidentifying a location.
BAE Systems has reported that the NAVSOP technology makes its calculations using many different signals instead of just one signal. This will make it more reliable than GPS which is vulnerable to possible disruptions.