Short Range Connectivity for Satellite Navigation

The Internet of Things era is driving demand for numerous connectivity options into a whole range of products across multiple industries. The global positioning market is experiencing this demand and Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) product vendors are now incorporating a number of short range wired and wireless standards into their products.

NovAtel is well known as a high quality vendor of high precision OEM GNSS positioning technology.

The Clarinox Bluetooth and Wi-Fi stacks, ClarinoxBlue and ClarinoxWiFi, enable Bluetooth and Wi-Fi functionality inside the new Novatel ProPak6 GNSS receiver.

NovAtel® designs, manufactures and sells high precision OEM GNSS positioning technology. NovAtel products are built to the highest standard to ensure robust, reliable products that can be integrated rapidly into customer applications.

NovAtel sets this high quality expectation for all component vendors. So when NovAtel sought a supplier for the Bluetooth and WiFi functionality of its ProPak6 receiver, robustness and reliability were key priorities. ClarinoxBlue and ClarinoxWiFi running on INTEGRITY passed this test and were chosen as the winning combination. The OMAP 3 general processor and LSR TiW-R2 module (based upon TI WiLink chipset) completed the major components of the target platform.

Clarinox Role

Clarinox stacks, ClarinoxBlue and ClarinoxWifi, and Clarinox debugging and protocol analyzer were used to provide Bluetooth and Wi-Fi connectivity to the ProPak6 product. This project demonstrated the simultaneous running of the ClarinoxBlue and ClarinoxWiFi on a Texas Instruments OMAP DM3730 board running GHS INTEGRITY operating system and Texas Instruments WiLink6 based wireless modules.

Outcome for Client

The Clarinox team worked with NovAtel to provide valuable support throughout crucial phases of the project. The product was released on time and has been exceptionally well received in the marketplace.

Future Plans

Now that short range connectivity has been included in the product, the possible future additions of features and applications are almost unlimited. As new versions of the technology used come to market, upgrades to the system will be quickly considered and the addition of further wireless technologies is also a possibility.

“NovAtel is very grateful for the contribution Clarinox made to our ProPak6 GNSS (Figure 2) product development efforts. The integration of onboard Bluetooth stack and WiFi functionality held major design challenges and we relied on Clarinox’s technical expertise and customer support to help overcome technical integration issues in a timely manner. Our development teams worked successfully together, despite differences in location and time zones, ensuring a highly successful product launch.”
- NovAtel

The NovAtel ProPak6 GNSS Receiver