Australia’s first PNT Labs: safeguarding navigation in the digital age
FrontierSI has launched Australia’s first Positioning, Navigation, and Timing (PNT) Labs, a groundbreaking network of facilities dedicated to testing and analysing the performance and resilience of PNT technologies.
PNT Labs will collaborate with industry and research partners to assess both current and emerging satellite navigation systems. The first lab will be established at the Victorian Goldfields Railway (VGR) in Central Victoria, providing a controlled and consistent real-world environment for PNT testing.
The VGR Lab will focus on evaluating how Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) receivers respond to various radio frequency interference (RFI) scenarios. Using a software-defined radio to introduce controlled disruptions, researchers will assess how different GNSS hardware and positioning algorithms handle these challenges.
Why PNT matters
PNT technologies are fundamental to Australia’s national security, commercial applications, and daily operations. However, these systems face critical vulnerabilities:
- Weak signals: By the time GNSS signals reach Earth, they are extremely faint, making them highly susceptible to RF interference.
- Lack of security: Civilian GNSS signals are unencrypted and unauthenticated, leaving them vulnerable to spoofing attacks.
PNT Labs will play a crucial role in understanding and quantifying these vulnerabilities, offering valuable insights for key sectors such as defence, transport, and critical infrastructure.
Initial trial success
In December 2024, FrontierSI conducted a preliminary trial to assess the suitability of the Victorian Goldfields Railway for the PNT Lab. The trial involved measuring the track to 1cm accuracy using four high-precision GNSS receivers mounted on two separate rail vehicles. This known trajectory will serve as the reference benchmark for all future tests, enabling rigorous evaluation of GNSS receivers and Inertial Navigation Systems.
To join us in progressing this exciting new initiative please contact pnt@frontiersi.com.au.
About FrontierSI
FrontierSI is a social enterprise focused on bringing the best people together to anticipate and solve large problems using our space and spatial expertise. Through collaboration with government, research, and industry networks, we bring innovative ideas through to real-world products and services to create commercial and public good impact. We focus our deep spatial expertise in positioning, geodesy, spatial data management and data analytics to develop and implement solutions to meet challenges across multiple sectors from defence to resources.
