Prasad
and Ruggieri give us a detailed look at how to use the constellations
of navigation satellites for many economically important tasks.
Actually, in practice, the greatest usage is of the Global
Positioning System (GPS), which is provided by the US government and
its Department of Defense. The dominance of GPS in satellite
navigation is probably comparable to Microsoft on the computer
desktop. To the layman, GPS is synonymous with satellite navigation.
Thus, much of the book is devoted to explaining GPS.
But
not exclusively. The authors also explain how the European Union is
rolling out Galileo. In part to build out its own technological
capability in this field, and to not be solely dependent on the US.
The text goes into the technical differences between Galileo and GPS.
The most important of which is that Galileo is meant to be a strictly
civilian system.
Who are the readers of this book?
Mostly communications engineers, judging by much of the technical
content. Though not exclusively. The later sections of the book have
an interesting synopsis of the ways that GPS is used in many
industries. Including at the level of a single consumer, for personal
navigation. Where the GPS device is quite possibly built into the
functionality of a cellphone. Numerous location based services are
possible, like emergency caller location. Indeed, increasingly in
many countries, new cellphones are mandated to have such abilities.
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