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Best Paper Awards - 2000 Studies on Global Positioning System Receive Best Paper Awards for 2000 Two papers that address important aspects of the Global Positioning System (GPS) have received the Best Paper Awards for calendar year 2000. The first, "A Single-Chip Narrow-Band Frequency Domain Excisor for a Global Positioning System Receiver," by Paul T. Capozza, Brian J. Holland, Thomas M. Hopkinson and Roberto L. Landrau (all of the Development Communications & Networking department), details the design of an integrated circuit (IC) that is having a significant impact on next-generation military GPS user equipment. Tests have shown that the novel IC architecture can suppress narrowband interference in the GPS receiver—a problem that has plagued both military and civilian applications of the system—while having only a minor impact on GPS navigation accuracy. Lead author Paul Capozza reports, "Since the publication of our article in the IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits, a second-generation version of the frequency-domain interference suppressor (FDIS) IC has been designed, fabricated, and tested. The FDIS-II IC features lower power, higher performance, and a smaller package than the original chip. It was used in the design of a digital anti-jam module for GPS applications that significantly improves interference/jamming protection for military GPS user equipment. The module has been tested extensively in MITRE's laboratories and was involved in a series of very successful government-run performance tests on military aircraft in the spring of FY01 at Holloman AFB in New Mexico. MITRE currently offers the FDIS technology through the government sponsor for technology transition." There is a growing international consensus that GPS is critical to enhancing the safety and capacity of aviation systems. Because unaugmented GPS signals are currently not accurate or reliable enough to meet international safety requirements for precision landing and approach, the European Union, Japan, and the United States are building satellite-based augmentation systems (SBASs) to improve the integrity, accuracy, and availability of GPS-based positioning services. At the same time, however, nations recognize that the diverse systems for communication, navigation, and surveillance must become interoperable to achieve the full benefits of GPS. The co-winner of this year's Best Paper award is "Interoperability of Satellite-Based Augmentation Systems," written by James Paul Fernow, Daniel G. O'Laughlin, T. Thomas Hsiao, and James K. Reagan (all of F082), together with colleagues from Stanford University, and published in the Institute of Navigation Collected Papers on GPS, Volume VI. The analysis contained in the paper paper has contributed to international cooperation on this important issue. The paper defines several types and degrees of interoperability and quantifies their benefits, and also describes and quantifies "out-of-zone" error degradation. This analysis helped achieve consensus on key technical issues and potential resolutions with respect to SBASs. The international community subsequently changed requirements in the Minimum Operational Performance Standards for Wide-Area Augmentation System user equipment and to the International Civil Aviation Organization SBAS Standards and Recommended Practices in order to solve the "out-of-zone" problem. These changes will allow SBASs to communicate explicitly to user equipment the satellite position and time error covariance based upon ground station geometry and measurement error. According to Senior Vice President for Information and Technology David H. Lehman, who chairs the Best Paper Awards committee, the competition in 2000 was exceptionally strong, with several entries presenting innovative research results that have already proven important in applications for MITRE's clients. "In fact, it was impossible to choose only one overall winner, and even narrowing the choice down to two papers was very difficult," said Lehman. "I congratulate not only the winners, but also the other authors who sent in such outstanding papers." The 2000 contest attracted 31 entries from MITRE's four Centers. In addition to the Best Paper winners, 25 papers met the competition's criteria for technical content and required level of peer review, and received incentive awards. Because several excellent entries were written or coauthored by staff members who are ineligible for cash awards because they are above the level of AC5 or line manager 2, the Best Paper committee has instituted a new policy to reward these authors for their contributions. Beginning with the 2000 competition, the general fund of the ineligible author's department or division will receive a $250 award for team-building activities, in addition to the $1,000 award shared among authors at lower corporate levels. A full listing of the 2000 award winners, many of which include abstracts of the entries and links to the full papers, follows. Award Winners
Page last updated: November 9, 2005 | Top of page |
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