• CAN-GPS
• MultiPoint
• GPS-REF

MultiPoint GPS Field Station

In 2004, Orion developed an innovative field station design that leveraged one enclosure, one wireless transceiver and one power source to house and support multiple GPS receiver-antenna pairs. The MultiPoint GPS station integrated a high-performance GPS antenna (fixed phase center, 27 dB pre-amp gain and low-elevation phase rolloff) with high-grade, low-attenuation coaxial cables to support remote GPS antenna placement. Stations were deployed at distances of up to 150 meters from the base enclosure to enable local, multiplexed monitoring clusters.

The MultiPoint system evolved partly from our experience in tall-building monitoring projects on the Century Plaza Towers in Los Angeles and the Pacific Gas and Electric Building in San Francisco, CA. The PG&E system used tens of meters of low-loss coaxial antenna cables to pass GPS RF signals to receivers located in the telecommunications center of the Tower's penthouse. Once a reliable multi-port wireless transceiver was identified, we extended that model into the remote installation domain.

MultiPoint allows localized clusters of GPS monitoring points to be served by a central power and communications hub. This approach provides a number of benefits for networks that are suited to clustered deployments:

1. Lowers system price by cutting costs for enclosure, power and communications. This stretches budgets, and may allow for a greater number of points under a fixed price.
2. Minimizes the number of managed wireless end-points by clipping the one-radio-per-point paradigm, which simplifies field wireless management and may reduce RFI.
3. Reduces the risk to the core system hardware by removing them from the most hazardous locations (open-pit bench and slope faces).

We have deployed MultiPoint stations hosting up to four (4) GPS points at dams, landslides and open-pit mines. However, they will be effective for more dense occupations, and could be easily applied to other 'cluster' applications such as long-term structural monitoring. In 2012, the MultiPoint design was updated with multi-port Ethernet device servers for remote wired and wireless networking.