National Positioning Infrastructure: identifying and evaluating high accuracy GNSS service coverage across Australia

摘要

Governments, industry, and the research community in Australia have acknowledged the need for a National Positioning Infrastructure that enables uniform, equitable and coordinated access to Australia's positioning assets. High accuracy GNSS service coverage is currently limited to coastal regions with higher population densities and inland regions where demand from primary industries is greater. This paper identifies technical methodologies and organisational business drivers that have led to inefficient investment and a subsequent lack of national access to high accuracy positioning services across Australia. Government and privately owned networks that offer comparable service accuracy, availability and network design, and may therefore contribute to and benefit from a NPI, are used to analyse the location and coverage of Continuously Operating Reference Station infrastructure. High accuracy service coverage is mapped against road transport corridors and regions of higher economic productivity, which provides insights into the marginal utility of positioning services and issues of duplication.