Broadcast Positioning System (BPS): Deployment Progress, Industry Collaboration and the Path Beyond GNSS

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Broadcast Positioning System (BPS): Deployment Progress, Industry Collaboration and the Path Beyond GNSS

Saturday, April 18 | 3:30 – 4:30 p.m. | N261

Broadcast Engineering and IT (BEIT) Conference Add to MY Show Planner

This session features two complementary panels focused on the rapid advancement of the Broadcast Positioning System (BPS™) as a terrestrial alternative and complement to GNSS. The first provides a comprehensive project update, covering recent deployments, U.S. DOT testing, new receiver and network management developments, and expanding international and industry collaborations.

The second panel convenes leading experts to examine BPS’s current state, market opportunities, infrastructure requirements for broadcast facilities, and the critical considerations facing receiver manufacturers. Together, these discussions highlight BPS’s growing momentum and its potential role in strengthening national timing resilience.

Subsessions

BPS Project Update: New Activities, Industry Collaborations, and Deployments

Saturday, April 18 | 3:30 – 4 p.m. | N261

Tariq Mondal

GNSS vulnerability is well-known, and search continues to find another independent system, preferably terrestrial, that can provide PNT services when GNSS services are denied or unavailable. NAB has invented and has been deploying, in collaboration with TV broadcasters, a terrestrial PNT solution known as Broadcast Positioning System (BPS™) that uses the ATSC 3.0 enabled TV facilities to deliver time. BPS service can provide timing to national critical infrastructure that depends on GNSS time and thus is vulnerable. When fully deployed, free-to-use BPS service can also be used to complement GNSS service for the public. US Government agencies are aware of BPS’s potential, and they have explicitly mentioned BPS in public communications. NAB has won a DOT contract to provide BPS service for testing in the Washington DC area. Companies in the PNT industry are collaborating with us, and potential users of BPS have approached us for trials. The new 4-channel receiver has been developed and is being tested in our lab. BPS Aggregator module for the transmission chain and a network management system is under development and will have beta versions available by early 2026. Additional deployments and testing in New York are being planned. South Korea and Canada are interested in BPS research and collaboration. This presentation will be a progress report summarizing the BPS activities NAB and its partners are pursuing.
Broadcast Positioning System – Experts Gather to Discuss Current State

Saturday, April 18 | 4 – 4:30 p.m. | N261

Fred Engel, Harvey Arnold, Mark Corl, Patrick Diamond, Sam Matheny, Vladimir Anishchenko

We will assemble a panel to discuss the current status of the Broadcast Positioning System (BPS) efforts. We will include Dr. Pat Diamond to provide his expertise on the critical needs for BPS as a compliment to GPS. Others will discuss the markets to be addressed, what key infrasturcture will be needed for broadcast plants, as either the lead or follower stations, how the broadcast plant will be provisioned for effective broadcast, and what are the critical factors facing receiver manufacturers.