What is GLONASS And How It Is Different From GPS

42 Comments

1. The Russian network uses different software to plot the course of a river overflowing.

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2. What I just read is scary! First off the “Evil Empire” as Ronald Reagan put it, never gives ANYTHING for free. What about GLONASS? Well, to see where this may be headed, you first off need to understand how the GPS system works. The GPs satellite does not tell you where you are. It sends a signal to all GPS receivers telling them where IT is. Your receiver then takes that info along with info from the other GPS satellites it is in line of site with and, through a procedure called triangulation, your receiver determines its’ location on earth. I have somewhat simplified the process but the operative situation here is that your receiver is “receiving a signal” from the GPS satellites. If GPS receivers are also set up to receive a signal from GLONASS it would be simple to add a jamming capability to GLONASS that could simultaneously render essentially, the entire US without communication or navigation. That’s what’s scary and that is why I would not use or have GLONASS,,,,EVER!

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3. I have a samsung j2. It isn’t on list. However, somehow my phone was”find my android device” twice at 4:20am. And I didn’t do it. Canu help please?

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4. How is the Russian system farther out but has a faster orbit?

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5. my lumia 820 has an ofline map which is live and most accurate and works without internet connection, but my new redmi note 4 cant work ofline, it requited internet, with internet it cant give perfect location. whats the reason ?

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   1. For android devices, you can download Here WeGo, It has offline maps capability, as long as your phone has satellite GPS functionality it will be able to track your location when out of range of cell towers. Some phones, mostly older ones, only use cell towers for GPS, for phones that only use cell towers for GPS your phone must be able to reach at least 3 towers to find your location.

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6. Wow, yes I use GPS but I also have the lost talent of knowing how to read a paper map.

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7. `reboot`

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8. I believe all the 3 (GPS, Glonass or Beidou) will be useful based on the demand and geography!

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9. Most of us are concerned about our smartphones’ accuracy & abilities for location & navigation. People should know that in addition to GPS-type satellite information (that requires only a decent radio “view” of the sky), our phones build in additional triangulation from known wifi locations, cell towers and its onboard gyros & magnetometers.

   GPS only needs the ability to receive a signal, and so doesn’t use much battery. That’s why it can be in a titbit-type device with tiny batteries lasting days. Other location information—and especially, updated local maps—require your phone to ask a service provider for the relevant data. It’s too much, and changes enough with new landmarks, road changes etc. to store locally

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10. with so many devices up in space glonass / gps etc ? but nobody was able to track down the missing airliner ?

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    1. Of course not. The aircraft without doubt had the required GPS and perhaps also GLONAS and some of the others installed. But right from the early days it was reported that somebody had switched off power to sucsh navigation systems. Therefore, such systems were unavailable to track the airliner. It now looks like it will never be found. SAD INDEED!

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11. How do the positioning systems provide turn-by-turn navigation. I always thought the positioning systems provide a device’s position in longitude and latitude to a maps software which then calculates turn-by-turn navigation. Is anyone able to explain?

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    1. Turn by Turn navigation is provided not only by the use of GPS or Glonass. Its a combination of other sensors. For example a magnetometer provides north south east west heading. Accelerometer and Gyroscope provides directional and rotational acceleration. A combination of these sensors and a lot of filtering and algorithms are used to calculate the position as accurately as possible.

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    2. It sounds like hype. It looks like an identical system to GPS, except that Russia does not have to rely on the USA for it, and maybe you can get a bit better coverage and accuracy by using both.

       You are correct that GPS only reports position and the map software does the rest. Other sensors are not necessary to compute turn by turn directions. Frequent GPS sampling will give heading (course actually, but it’s hopefully the same for a car), speed and angular rate of change in course for turns. The software on the device or on the server that the device is communicating via cell towers figures out the rest.

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       1. Any halfway-smart system designer will get a host of inputs with different types of errors so they can correct against each other.

          Gyroscopes and magnetometers all provide much quicker indications of changes in direction and short-term speed than relying on the satellites’ positioning info, which are fine for higher-speed, straight-line use—like a car on a highway—but their uncertainty area can’t detect that you walked around the corner until you’ve gone a ways in that direction.

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12. Well copied from Wikipedia.. Its like making notes from a book for exams..Comparison image content of GLONASS and GPS is not even visible.

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    1. At least he sumerizd this technologies properly and we can get all the information in one place …

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13. Thank you for this article.

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14. Very helpful article. One question though: Can devices equipped with GPS/GLONASS receivers provide navigation *without* a cell phone or WiFi connection? Thank-you.

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    1. Sure, just make sure your maps are downloaded for offline usage

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15. So, when SpaceX has launched all its 700 micro-satelites providing blanket low earth orbit wifi coverage of the planet, will these be any use for navigation (from a positioning POV)?

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    1. Not unless they know where they are and have atomic clocks on board. My understanding is that the micro-satellites you are talking about will not be in geosynchronous orbit, so they will have to know where they are and the most logical way they might know that is from the GPS satellites.

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16. The picture shows GLONASS to be at a lower altitude than GPS, yet the table shows Orbital Height of 21150 Km for GLONASS, and 19130 km for GPS. Where is the error? Or am I reading something incorrectly?

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    1. I noted this as well. I need clarification on that.

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    2. Unless the picture changed the picture shows GLONASS as clearly higher than GPS. It’s not vague or close.

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17. Ahh, Gordon Freeman, in the flesh – or, rather, in the hazard suit.

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18. Thank you very much for great information.

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19. What if all these countries worked together?? Wouldn’t the resulting system be incredible… just sayin’

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    1. Mr Mark… What if they all worked together ? They do.

       Modern receivers can receive GLONASS/GPS/Galileo so they do work together.
       The more satellites you have , the greater the accuracy.

       And a note to the author. Please use articles. It’s not “Soviet union did X. European Union did Y” they are THE soviet union and THE European union. It’s a small thing, but it makes your article read so much better if you use them.

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20. I just hope that all these little gadgets never fell down into our heads!

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21. Thanks Buddy!

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22. Thanks from Athens Greece.

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23. great article

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24. Thanks alot for this info

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25. thanks dear

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26. Thank you very much for providing this information, your working so appreciable on this article. Thanks again bro.

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27. Thanks

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28. Thank you !

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29. If all countries worked together to share all navigational and construction positioning satellites, what would be the optimum number?

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    1. That would be dependent upon how accurate you want the positioning to be. Current systems are accurate to within 2M generally, and 0.5M with a higher satellite count. To get more accurate than that, the number of satellites would have to become exponentially greater. This is almost always the case, no matter what type of system you are using. For instance, to double the range of a radio signal, you need 4 times the power. With satellites, you’re also dealing with atmospheric anomalies, extra solar radiation, and other factors, so it isn’t as cut and dried as you might think.

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       1. Ahh, Gordon Freeman, in the flesh – or, rather, in the hazard suit.

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