GNSS module supplier u-blox and Rohde & Schwarz (R&S) have successfully validated u-blox’s latest automotive GNSS module in accordance with the recently published Chinese GB/T test requirement for automotive onboard GNSS positioning systems, using an automated R&S SMBV100B-based GNSS simulator solution.
Global navigation satellite system (GNSS) plays an increasingly important role in the automotive industry to enable new infotainment and autonomous driving applications. To ensure the required quality of onboard automotive GNSS systems, the Chinese National Automotive Standardization Technical Committee has created the “Technical requirements and test methods for on-board positioning system” guidelines.
Rohde & Schwarz is proud to have contributed to the drafting of the standard. These requirements were released on November 28, 2024 with an “implementation date“ of June 2025. While the test specification is currently only recommended, it is expected to become mandatory within the upcoming Chinese eCall standard.
The automotive GNSS standard (GB/T 45086.1-2024) requires onboard positioning systems to pass a range of requirements, such as for tracking sensitivity, acquisition sensitivity, time to first fix, location accuracy and velocity accuracy, in different multi-constellation and BeiDou-only modes. The standard also defines special events such as week number rollover tests, leap second handling, radio frequency interference and unexpected pseudo range errors to test the overall robustness of the positioning system. In order to pass the test cases, the GNSS receiver must be able to process signals from two frequency bands simultaneously.
Many of the tests cannot be performed in a real-world environment with live GNSS signals since they are difficult to implement, time-consuming, costly and impossible to reproduce. However, these tests can be performed with the R&S SMBV100B GNSS simulator in the lab under controlled and repeatable conditions. It provides advanced simulation capabilities for configuring realistic and complex, yet repeatable GNSS scenarios that can be run under controlled conditions.
Together with the R&S CMWrun sequencer software, a R&S NGC101 power supply and the R&S SMBVB-K364 software option, the R&S SMBV100B becomes an automated test solution executing the test sequence and providing a pass/fail result as well as test reports. The test solution is of special interest to GNSS silicon suppliers, GNSS module providers, Tier 1 developers of Telematic Control Units (T-Box in China) and infotainment system certification companies and vehicle OEMs selling to the Chinese market.
For the automotive ecosystem to validate compliance to this new test specification in an automated, standards-compliant, repeatable and timely manner, cooperation between suppliers in this industry becomes increasingly important. To this effect, Rohde & Schwarz is pleased to co-operate with u-blox. Gerald Tietscher, VP signal generators, remarked, “We are delighted to collaborate with u-blox to enable the automotive positioning ecosystem with a robust, standard compliance and automated solution to validate their products against the emerging Chinese GNSS standard.”
This partnership enabled pre-compliance tests across the u-blox portfolio of automotive GNSS receivers, including the ZED-F9L and ZED-F9K, as well as the upcoming u-blox 20 product family.
Andreas Thiel, head of business units and co-founder at u-blox, said, “We are pleased that Rohde & Schwarz selected u-blox and our EVK-F9DR as reference kit to showcase this new automated test solution. With R&S advanced testing tools, automotive companies targeting the Chinese market can seamlessly validate their u-blox-based onboard positioning systems against GB/T 45068 and other standards.”