China builds ground service center for satnav system

A ground data center that will support China's independent satellite navigation system was given the go-ahead Friday to offer location based services (LBS).

Located in central China's Henan Province, the center features 63 data stations that are able to increase the resolution of images downloaded from the Beidou Navigation Satellite System from ten meters to mere millimeters.

"From chips, receivers to servers, all of the center's components are 'Made-in-China,' which makes it the first independent data system under total control of our country. It's of crucial significance to our country's infrastructure and information security," said Beidou expert Li Guangyun.

China began developing the satellite system in 1994 as an alternative to the U.S.-operated GPS. It plans to complete a constellation of 35 satellites, achieving global coverage, by 2020.X The data center was developed by the Information Engineering University of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) in cooperation with various domestic companies and research institutes. The university also headed the original development of Beidou.

With myriad functions that include satellite navigation, precision time synchronization and speed measuring, the center's services will first be applied in traffic, water resources, agriculture and police affairs, with a project to monitor the province's freeway network soon to go live.

According to Li, a professor with the university, the Henan center, the first of its kind at the provincial level, has laid the technical foundation for the navigation system to share data with more users in the future. Endi