Agilent Technologies and Spirent Communications will join CSR and Motorola in the EGPS Forum, an open industry forum for evaluating and fostering enhanced Global Positioning System (EGPS) technologies. Working with CSR, each company has created a building block of a system that can simulate both GPS and cellular signals. This system provides a development and test platform on which to build EGPS technologies.
CSR and Motorola announced the intention to create the forum in January 2008. Spirent specializes in test equipment for satellite navigation technologies, and the company has provided CSR with its GPS satellite simulation and cellular multipath fader systems.
Agilent has a long history of working with handset makers and network providers to develop measurement systems for a diverse range of cellular technologies. The forum will leverage Agilent's experience and its network emulation equipment.
EGPS technologies augment GPS to provide timely and accurate position information in demanding environments. The EGPS Forum advocates improvement to location technologies in mobile devices and is committed to meeting the need for precise and consistent levels of location information.
The EGPS Forum is open to an array of participants from the telecommunications industry, including handset manufacturers, location technology companies, network infrastructure providers, and mobile network carriers. Its initial activities will focus on evaluating hybrid technologies that enhance GPS by combining satellite measurements with timing measurements taken from cellular networks and on establishing the underlying infrastructure to ensure interoperability of this technology.
In addition to the launch of the EGPS Forum in January, CSR gave demonstrations at Mobile World Congress 08 in February, announcing at the same time that its own eGPS silicon was back from the fab and was working.
Visit www.egpsforum.org for more information.