Reviewing the GPS system

basic understanding of how the Internet works.

 GPS: Global Positioning System is a worldwide
radio-navigation system formed from a
constellation of 24 satellites and their ground
stations.

Uses the principle of

triangulation and time-
of-arrival of signals to
determine the location
of a GPS receiver.
 Location - determining a basic position

Navigation - getting from one location to

another

Tracking - monitoring the movement of

people and things.

Mapping - creating maps of the world

Timing - bringing precise timing to the world

 To triangulate, a GPS receiver measures
distance using the travel time of radio signals.

To measure travel time, GPS receiver needs

very accurate timing.

Along with distance, receiver need accurate

data on where satellites are in space.

System will also need to correct for any delays

the signal experiences as it travels through
atmosphere.
 Control Segment: five ground stations located
on earth.

Space Segment: satellite constellation (24

active satellites in space).

User Segment: GPS receiver units that receive

satellite signals and determine receiver location
from them.
 Falcon AFB
Colorado Springs, CO
Master Control Monitor Station

Kwajalein
Monitor Station
Hawaii
Monitor Station
Ascension Island Diego Garcia
Monitor Station Monitor Station
 These stations are the eyes and ears of GPS,
monitoring satellites as they pass overhead by
measuring distances to them every 1.5 seconds

This data is then smoothed using ionospheric

and meteorological information and sent to
Master Control Station at Colorado Springs.

The ionospheric and meteorological data is

needed to get more accurate delay
measurements, which in turn improve location
estimation.
 Master control station estimates parameters
describing satellites' orbit and clock
performance,. It also assesses health status of
the satellites and determines if any re-
positioning may be required.

This information is then returned to three

uplink stations (collocated at the Ascension
Island, Diego Garcia and Kwajalein monitor
stations) which transmit the information to
satellites.
 Space segment is the satellite constellation.

24 satellites with a minimum of 21 operating

98% of the time
6 Orbital planes
Circular orbits
20-200 km above the Earth's surface
11 hours 58 minute orbital period
Visible for approximately 5 hours above the
horizon
 We can obtain updates of GPS satellites at
http://www.ngs.noaa.gov/GPS/GPS.html
 Orbits of GPS satellites need to be updated
every once in a while because orbit does not
stay circular without adjustments.

Adjustments needed because:

Other objects exert gravitational force on each
satellite (e.g. sun, moon)
Effect of gravity is non-uniform during orbit.
Radiation pressure (due to solar radiation).
Atmospheric drag
Other effects
 When GPS satellites are decommissioned, they
are placed on a disposal orbit (outside the
operating GPS orbit).

Some studies show that satellites in disposal

orbits can eventually, perhaps over 20-40
years, encroach into operating constellation.
 This is because disposal orbits, while circular
initially, become increasingly elliptical, mostly
as result of sun-moon gravitational
perturbations.

Besides intersecting GPS constellation, these

satellites eventually could pose a threat to
operational satellites in low Earth and
geosynchronous orbits
 Similar threats posed by other satellite
systems.

The Russian Glonass constellation, a navigation

system similar to GPS, will also experience orbit
eccentricity growth and may pose a collision
risk to itself and GPS.
Glonass, which has about 100 failed satellites
within its constellation, is located about 1,000
kilometers (621 miles) lower than GPS and
could pose a collision problem in 40 years, the
studies show.
 Galileo satellites also may pose a threat to GPS.

Galileo is Europes own global navigation

satellite system.

First experimental satellite will be launched in

second half of 2005.

Galileo will be under civilian control.

 User segment comprises receivers that have
been designed to decode signals transmitted
from satellites for purposes of determining
position, velocity or time.

Receiver must perform the following tasks:

select one or more satellites in view
acquire GPS signals
measure and track signal
recover navigational data
 Satellite transmits Ephemeris and Almanac Data
to GPS receivers.
Ephemeris data contains important information
about status of satellite (healthy or unhealthy),
current date and time. This part of signal is
essential for determining a position.
Almanac data tells GPS receiver where each GPS
satellite should be at any time throughout day.
Each satellite transmits almanac data showing
orbital information for that satellite and for
every other satellite in the system.
 GPS uses concept of time of arrival (TOA) of
signals to determine user position.

This involves measuring time it takes for a

signal transmitted by an emitter (satellite) at a
known location to reach a user receiver.

Time interval is basically signal propagation

time.
 Time interval (signal propagation time) is
multiplied by speed of signal (speed of light) to
obtain satellite to receiver distance.

By measuring propagation time of signals

broadcast from multiple satellites at known
locations, receiver can determine its position.

Assuming we have precise clocks, how do we

measure signal travel time?
 At a particular time (let's say midnight), the
satellite begins transmitting a long, digital
pattern called a pseudo-random code (PRC).

The receiver begins running the same digital

pattern also exactly at midnight.

When the satellite's signal reaches the receiver,

its transmission of the pattern will lag a bit
behind the receiver's playing of the pattern.
 The length of the delay is equal to the signal's
travel time.
The receiver multiplies this time by the speed of
light to determine how far the signal traveled.

Assuming the signal traveled

in a straight line, this is the
distance from receiver to
satellite.
 In order to make this measurement, the
receiver and satellite both need clocks that can
be synchronized down to the nanosecond.

Accurate time measurements are required. If

we are off by a thousandth of a second, at the
speed of light, that translates into almost 200
miles of error.
 To make a satellite positioning system using
only synchronized clocks, you would need to
have atomic clocks not only on all the
satellites, but also in the receiver itself.
But atomic clocks cost somewhere between
$50,000 and $100,000, which makes them a
just a bit too expensive for everyday consumer
use.
The Global Positioning System has a clever,
solution to this problem. Every satellite
contains an expensive atomic clock, but the
receiver itself uses an ordinary quartz clock,
which it constantly resets.
 The Global Positioning System has a clever,
effective solution to this problem.

Every satellite contains an expensive atomic

clock, but the receiver itself uses an ordinary
quartz clock, which it constantly resets.

In a nutshell, the receiver looks at incoming

signals from four or more satellites and gauges
its own inaccuracy.
 When you measure the distance to four located
satellites, you can draw four spheres that all
intersect at one point.
Three spheres will intersect even if your
numbers are way off, but four spheres will not
intersect at one point if you've measured
incorrectly.
Since the receiver makes all its distance
measurements using its own built-in clock, the
distances will all be proportionally incorrect.
 The receiver can easily calculate the necessary
adjustment that will cause the four spheres to
intersect at one point.

Based on this, it resets its clock to be in sync

with the satellite's atomic clock.

The receiver does this constantly whenever it's

on, which means it is nearly as accurate as the
expensive atomic clocks in the satellites.
 The receiver can easily calculate the necessary
adjustment that will cause the four spheres to
intersect at one point.

Based on this, it resets its clock to be in sync

with the satellite's atomic clock.

The receiver does this constantly whenever it's

on, which means it is nearly as accurate as the
expensive atomic clocks in the satellites.
 In order to properly synchronize clocks and
figure out which PRC signal to listen to, the
receiver has to know where the satellites
actually are.

This isn't particularly difficult because the

satellites travel in very high and predictable
orbits.
 The GPS receiver simply stores an almanac that
tells it where every satellite should be at any
given time.

Things like the pull of the moon and the sun do

change the satellites' orbits very slightly.

However, the Department of Defense

constantly monitors their exact positions and
transmits any adjustments to all GPS receivers
as part of the satellites' signals.
 Errors can be categorized as intentional and
unintentional.

Intentional errors: government can and does

degrade accuracy of GPS measurements. This
is done to prevent hostile forces from using
GPS to full accuracy.

Policy of inserting inaccuracies in GPS signals

is called Selective Ability (SA). SA was single
biggest source of inaccuracy in GPS. SA was
deactivated in 2000.
Source of Error Typical Error in Meters
(per satellite)

Satellite Clocks 1.5

Orbit Errors 2.5
Ionosphere 5.0
Troposphere 0.5
Receiver Noise 0.3
Multipath 0.6
SA 30
 Technique called differential correction can
yield accuracies within 1-5 meters, or even
better, with advanced equipment.

Differential correction requires a second GPS

receiver, a base station, collecting data at a
stationary position on a precisely known point.

Because physical location of base station is

known, a correction factor can be computed by
comparing known location with GPS location
determined by using satellites.
Source Uncorrected With Differential

Ionosphere 0-30 meters Mostly Removed

Troposphere 0-30 meters All Removed
Signal Noise 0-10 meters All Removed
Orbit Data 1-5 meters All Removed
Clock Drift 0-1.5 meters All Removed
Multipath 0-1 meters Not Removed
Receiver Noise ~1 meter Not Removed
SA 0-70 meters All Removed
 A GPS receiver essentially determines the
receiver's position on Earth.
Once the receiver makes this calculation, it can
tell you the latitude, longitude and altitude of
its current position. To make the
navigation more user-
friendly, most receivers
plug this raw data into
map files stored in
memory.
 You can
use maps stored in the receiver's memory,
connect the receiver to a computer that can hold
more detailed maps in its memory, or
simply buy a detailed map of your area and find
your way using the receiver's latitude and longitude
readouts.

Some receivers let you download detailed maps

into memory or supply detailed maps with
plug-in map cartridges.
 A standard GPS receiver will not only place you
on a map at any particular location, but will
also trace your path across a map as you move.

If you leave your receiver on, it can stay in

constant communication with GPS satellites to
see how your location is changing.

This is what happens in cars equipped with

GPS.
 With this information and its built-in clock,
the receiver can give you several pieces of
valuable information:
How far you've traveled (odometer)
How long you've been traveling
Your current speed (speedometer)
Your average speed
A "bread crumb" trail showing you exactly where
you have traveled on the map
The estimated time of arrival at your destination if
you maintain your current speed
 One of the greatest things about the Internet is
that nobody really owns it.

It is a global collection of networks, both big

and small.

These networks connect together in many

different ways to form the single entity that we
know as the Internet. In fact, the very name
comes from this idea of interconnected
networks.
 Since its beginning in 1969, the Internet has
grown from four host computer systems to
tens of millions.

However, just because nobody owns the

Internet, it doesn't mean it is not monitored
and maintained in different ways.

The Internet Society, a non-profit group

established in 1992, oversees the formation of
the policies and protocols that define how we
use and interact with the Internet.
 In the next few slides, we will review basic
underlying structure of the Internet.

We will learn about domain name servers,

network access points and backbones.

First, we review how your computer connects to

others.
 Every computer that is connected to the
Internet is part of a network, even the one in
your home.

For example, you may use a modem and dial a

local number to connect to an Internet Service
Provider (ISP).

At school/work, you may be part of a local area

network (LAN), but you most likely still connect
to the Internet using an ISP that your
school/company has contracted with.
 When you connect to your ISP, you become part
of their network.

The ISP may then connect to a larger network

and become part of their network.

The Internet is simply a network of networks.

 Most large communications companies have
their own dedicated backbones connecting
various regions.

In each region, the company has a Point of

Presence (POP).

The POP is a place for local users to access the

company's network, often through a local
phone number or dedicated line.
 The amazing thing
here is that there is
no overall controlling
network.
Instead, there are
several high-level
networks connecting
to each other
through Network
Access Points or
NAPs.
 Imagine that Company A is a large ISP. In each
major city, Company A has a POP.
The POP in each city is a rack full of modems
that the ISP's customers dial into.
Company A leases fiber optic lines from the
phone company to connect the POPs together

Fiber Optic
Connections
POP

POP POP
 Imagine that Company B is a corporate ISP.
Company B builds large buildings in major
cities and corporations locate their Internet
server machines in these buildings.
Company B is such a large company that it runs
its own fiber optic lines between its buildings
so that they are all interconnected.

Building 1 Building 2 Building N

 In this arrangement, all of Company A's
customers can talk to each other, and all of
Company B's customers can talk to each other.

There is no way for Company A's customers

and Company B's customers to
intercommunicate.

Therefore, Company A and Company B both

agree to connect to NAPs in various cities, and
traffic between the two companies flows
between the networks at the NAPs.
 In the real Internet, dozens of large Internet
providers interconnect at NAPs in various cities,
and trillions of bytes of data flow between the
individual networks at these points.

The Internet is a collection of huge corporate

networks that agree to all intercommunicate
with each other at the NAPs.

In this way, every computer on the Internet

connects to every other.
 Up until just a few years ago, there was really
only one way to connect to the Internet, dial-
up.

Connection speed bottlenecks were simply

determined by the call letters (speed) of your
PCs modem 14.4Kbps, 28.8Kbps, 56Kbps,
etc.

Well, now there are several, easily available

options for getting online, both at home and in
the office.
Connection Download Upload Cost/Month Installation Availability
Dial-up 56Kbps 56Kbps $0-20 $0 Universal
Cable Modem 15-50Mbps 128Kbps $30-70 $0-100 Limited
ISDN 128Kbps 128Kbps $25-70 $100-300 Universal
DSL 6-8.5Mbps 128Kbps $0-80 $0-250 Limited
T1 1-10Mbps 1-10Mbps $300+ $400+ Fairly
Universal
T3 40-100Mbps 40-100Mbps $1000+ NA Fairly
Universal
 All the networks that make up the Internet rely
on NAPs, backbones and routers to talk to each
other.

What is incredible about this process is that a

message can leave one computer and travel
halfway across the world through several
different networks and arrive at another
computer in a fraction of a second!
 Routers determine where to send information
from one computer to another.

Routers are specialized computers that send

your messages and those of every other
Internet user speeding to their destinations
along thousands of pathways.

Cable/DSL Router
Wireless Router
Industrial Router
 A router has two separate, but related, jobs:

It ensures that information doesn't go where it's not

needed. This is crucial for keeping large volumes of
data from clogging the connections of "innocent
bystanders."

It makes sure that information does make it to the

intended destination.
 A router is extremely useful in dealing with two
separate computer networks.
It joins the two networks, passing information
from one to the other. It also protects the
networks from one another, preventing the
traffic on one from unnecessarily spilling over
to the other.
Regardless of how many networks are attached,
the basic operation and function of the router
remains the same.
Since the Internet is one huge network made
up of tens of thousands of smaller networks,
its use of routers is an absolute necessity.
 Backbones are high-speed lines that connect
networks together.

Backbones are typically fiber optic trunk lines.

The trunk line has multiple fiber optic cables
combined together to increase the capacity.

Fiber optic cables are designated OC for optical

carrier, such as OC-3, OC-12 or OC-48. An
OC-3 line is capable of transmitting 155 Mbps
while an OC-48 can transmit 2,488 Mbps
(2.488 Gbps).
 Today there are many companies that operate
their own high-capacity backbones, and all of
them interconnect at various NAPs around the
world.

In this way, everyone on the Internet, no matter

where they are and what company they use, is
able to talk to everyone else on the planet.
 Every machine on the Internet has a unique
identifying number, called an IP Address.

The IP stands for Internet Protocol, which is the

language that computers use to communicate
over the Internet.

A protocol is the pre-defined way that

someone who wants to use a service talks with
that service. The "someone" could be a person,
but more often it is a computer program like a
Web browser.
 A typical IP address looks like this:

216.27.61.137

To make it easier for us humans to remember,

IP addresses are normally expressed in decimal
format as a dotted decimal number like the one
above. But computers communicate in binary
form. The same IP address in binary:

11011000.00011011.00111101.10001001
 It can be shown that there are a possible of
4,294,967,296 unique IP address values!

Of these about 4.3 billion possibilities, certain

values are restricted from use as typical IP
addresses.

The values indicate the network the machine is

on and the identifier for the machine in that
network.
 IP addresses are difficult to remember,
especially with so many of them.

In 1983, the University of Wisconsin created

the Domain Name System (DNS), which maps
text names to IP addresses automatically.

So, if you want to connect to the main machine

at Lehigh University, you connect to lehigh.edu.
The DNS maps this text to the binary IP address
value.
 Internet servers make the Internet possible. All
of the machines on the Internet are either
servers or clients.
The machines that provide services to other
machines are servers.
The machines that are used to connect to those
services are clients.
There are Web servers, e-mail servers, FTP
servers and so on serving the needs of Internet
users all over the world.
 When you connect to www.cnn.com to read a
page, you are a user sitting at a client's
machine.
You are accessing the cnn Web server. The
server machine finds the page you requested
and sends it to you.

Clients that come to a server machine do so

with a specific intent, so clients direct their
requests to a specific software server running
on the server machine. For example, if you are
running a Web browser on your machine, it will
want to talk to the Web server on the server
machine, not the e-mail server.
 A server has a static IP address that does not
change very often.
A home machine that is dialing up through a
modem, on the other hand, typically has an IP
address assigned by the ISP every time you dial
in.
That IP address is unique for your session -- it
may be different the next time you dial in.
This way, an ISP only needs one IP address for
each modem it supports, rather than one for
each customer.
 Any server machine makes its services available
using numbered ports -- one for each service
that is available on the server.

For example, if a server machine is running a

Web server and a file transfer protocol (FTP)
server, the Web server would typically be
available on port 80, and the FTP server would
be available on port 21.

Clients connect to a service at a specific IP

address and on a specific port number.
 It turns out that everything you do on the
Internet involves packets.

For example, every Web page that you receive

comes as a series of packets, and every e-mail
you send leaves as a series of packets.

Networks that ship data around in small

packets are called packet switched networks.
 On the Internet, the network breaks an e-mail
message into parts of a certain size in bytes.
These are the packets.

Each packet carries the information that will

help it get to its destination -- the sender's IP
address, the intended receiver's IP address,
something that tells the network how many
packets this e-mail message has been broken
into and the number of this particular packet.
 The packets carry the data in the protocols that
the Internet uses: Transmission Control
Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP). More on
this later.

Each packet contains part of the body of your

message. A typical packet contains perhaps
1,000 or 1,500 bytes.
 Each packet is then sent off to its destination
by the best available route -- a route that
might be taken by all the other packets in the
message or by none of the other packets in the
message.

This (packet switching) makes the network

more efficient.
 First, the network can balance the load across
various pieces of equipment on a millisecond-
by-millisecond basis.

Second, if there is a problem with one piece of

equipment in the network while a message is
being transferred, packets can be routed
around the problem, ensuring the delivery of
the entire message.
Packets are split into three parts:
Header - contains instructions about the data
carried by the packet.
Payload contains actual data that the packet is
delivering to the destination
Trailer - typically contains a couple of bits that tell
the receiving device that it has reached the end of
the packet. It may also have some type of error
checking. This error checking allows destination to
confirm the contents of the packets have reached
without errors.
 How the packet is exactly constructed (what
goes where in the header, payload, and trailer)
depends on the protocols adopted by the
network.

A protocol is basically a common language

enables two people to understand what the
other person means.

Next, we review network protocols that enable

one user (or service) to communicate with a
service (or another user).
 Two devices exchanging information need to
follow some simple rules or protocols so that
information can be interpreted correctly.

A network protocol gives a set of rules that are

to be followed by entities (machines) situated
on different parts of a network.

These protocols can be listed in order. The

resulting order can be used to defined protocol
layers.
 To communicate from information from one
machine to another, data has to be prepared in
a special format.

Think of protocol layers as an assembly line.

At each layer, certain things happen to the data

that prepare it for the next layer.

To understand this concept, lets look at 3

layer communication between two
philosophers.
 Assume there are two philosophers, A and B.
Philosopher A is in the U.S. and B is in France.

Philosopher A has thoughts (in English) and

wishes to communicate them to philosopher B,
who only understands French.

Clearly the data (the thought) has to be

properly prepared at Philosopher As office and
sent to Philosopher Bs office. There the
information has to be processed and conveyed
to philosopher B in the language he
understands.
 Assume no one in philosopher As office
speaks French and no one in philosopher Bs
office speaks English.

Assume that a translator and a secretary work

at each philosophers office.

Somehow an agreement had to have been

established between Philosopher A and B so
that they can talk to each other.
 The contents of this agreement are the
protocols of this communication link.

From these protocols, we will see that an

assembly line is constructed at both
Philosopher As office and Philosopher Bs
office.

This assembly line will give us the protocol

layer.
 Location A Location B

Dest: B Jaime
I like Message les
rabbits
Philospher
lapins

L: Dutch Information L: Dutch

Dest: B Dest: B
Ik hou For the remote Translator Ik hou
Van translator Van
konijnen konijnen

Fax # --
Fax # -- Message L: Dutch
L: Dutch for the remote Secretary Dest: B
Dest: B
Ik hou secretary Ik hou
Van
Van
konijnen
konijnen
Fax Fax
 This communication architecture has three
layers, at each end of the communication link.

In the first layer, the philosopher generates a

thought. He/she decides this thought should
be conveyed to philosopher B (whose office
may employ several philosophers).

He/she writes this thought on paper and

indicates on it the destination of this
message. He/she then sends it to a translator.
 In the second layer, the translator looks at the
destination of the message and realizes that
the destination office does not speak English.

The translator then determines a common

language between the two offices, Dutch.

He/she converts the philosphers message to

Dutch and adds a header to the message
indicating that it has been converted to Dutch.
 Note, the translator cares only about the
conversion of the message, not its meaning.

In the third layer, the secretary takes the

message (not caring about what language it is
in or what it means) and determines the fax
number of the destination office where
philosopher B works.

He/she then faxes the message to the

Philosopher Bs office fax number.
 This type of layered conversation also happens
in computer/telecommunication networks.

Most of these networks operate on either a 4, 5

or 7 layer protocol stack.

Layer n on one host carries a conversation with

layer n on another host.
Rules/conventions used in this conversation
are collectively known as the layer n protocol.
 5 M M

4 H4 M H4 M
Layers

3 H3 H4 M1 H3 M2 H3 H4 M1 H3 M2

2 H2 H3 H4 M1 T2 H2 H3 M2 T2 H2 H3 H4 M1 T2 H2 H3 M2 T2

1
Source Destination
Host Host
 Protocols used in internet communications
constitute a four layer protocol stack.

TCP/IP
Application

Transport (TCP, UDP)

Internet Protocol (IP)

Host
to
Network
 This is the layer that actually interacts with the
operating system or application whenever the
user chooses to transfer files, read messages
or perform other network-related activities.
Typical applications: email, ftp, www, etc.
This layer also takes converts data into a
standard format that the other layers can
understand.
And this layer establishes, maintains and ends
communication with the receiving device.
 This layer maintains flow control of data and
provides for error checking and recovery of
data between the devices.

Flow control means that the Transport layer

looks to see if data is coming from more than
one application and integrates each
application's data into a single stream.
 Sometimes information will be received out of
order, this layer also reorders the received
data.

If application packets are too long, this layer

will segment them into smaller pieces that can
pass through the network.

The protocols used to do all this is collectively

called Transport Control Protocol (TCP).
 This layer determines the way that the data will
be sent to the recipient device is determined in
this layer. It no longer cares about what
application the data corresponds to.

In this layer, packets may be further

segmented, addresses for packet
source/destination are determined, the routes
used a particular packet to get from source to
destination are determined, etc.

In the internet, the protocols used for all this

are called the Internet Protocol (IP).
 Sources and destinations are converted to IP
addresses.

Routes are determined using IP addresses.

Recall the internet is a packet-switched

network, so the layer determines the route for
each packet independently (packets for the
same destination may/may not follow the same
route).
 Because of packet switching, packets may be
received at the destination out of order.

It is for this reason that the layer above

(transport layer) has to reassemble packets in
order.

Essentially this packets performs functions on

packets so they can move from one network to
another.
 This layer is has the responsibility of moving
bit streams thru a local network.

This layer deals with packets in the local

network, breaking them down to bit streams,
and converting them to voltage levels or radio
signals that will be transmitted over the
physical media (optical fiber, copper wire, radio
spectrum, etc.).

This layer also handles multiple access within a

local network.

It allows performs error-checking.

 Wi-fi is a protocol for this lowest layer.

For example, it allows a laptop to connect to

the internet. In the local network, the laptop
communicates to a wireless access point, which
may be connected to a wireless router. The
wireless router connects this local network to
the Internet.

We will review wi-fi protocols next time.

 Next time, we start looking at the WiFi system.

Specifically, we look at how to setup a WiFi

system at home.

Dimitri Demergis, a graduate student from

Lehigh, will help us understand this setup via a
demonstration.