The 4th CSNC took place at Wuhan International Conference & Exhibition Center

The fourth China Satellite Navigation Conference (CSNC 2013) took place on May 15–17, 2013 at Wuhan InternationalConference & Exhibition Center. The theme of CSNC 2013 is “BeiDou Application — Opportunities and Challenges.” It incorporated a wide range of activities, such as academic exchange, high-end forum, exhibition as well as science popularization. The well-known experts and entrepreneurs in the field of satellite navigation from home and abroad shared the latest developments of their academic research, displayed the latest application achievements in satellite navigation, discussed the application service model and planned the future developments of satellite navigation industry.

The BeiDou system is steadily accelerating the construction based on a “three-step” development strategy, following the general guideline of starting with regional services and then expanding to global services, first active positioning, and then passive positioning, to develop a road that highlights the surrounding areas, faces the world and riches in features for Beidou satellite navigation system. On Dec.27, 2012, the Beidou system officially provided regional service, indicating that China has completed the second step of the system over a period of 8 years. At present, positioning, navigation, timing, short message communications and other services provided by the BeiDou Navigation Satellite System have been widely used in transportation, weather forecasting, marine fisheries, forest, surveying and mapping，emergency rescue and many other fields, which has been resulting in significant social and economic benefits. With the applications such as vehicle-mounted mobile phone, smart cell phone coming to the market, ordinary people have access to them.

Liu Guozhi, Vice chairman of China Satellite Navigation System Committee pointed out at the opening ceremony that after the Beidou system completed the construction of its second step and came into service in 2012, it joined in the international satellite navigation community. As a new member of GNSS, the Beidou system is at the new starting point, new stage, facing new opportunities and new challenges. Our goal is to provide stable, reliable and advanced system and applications to benefit mankind. The rapid development of the Chinese economic society and even modern information technology have created unprecedented opportunities for the Beidou system, whereas the system faces challenges as well with compatibility and outperforming of the multi-systems in the world and competition between application enterprises. China will become more open to the world, integrating the Beidou system with the other systems and the other technologies, firmly taking the road of cooperation and win-win development; Being more pragmatic. Face the economic and social issues, not only seeking the best, but also seeking practical applications on the principle of consumers-orientation, to create more values and convenience for the users; Being more aware. Grab the opportunities of the rapid technology improvement to lay a solid foundation for the application industry. Being more creative. Keep up with the step of times to pursue more made-by-China in application industry; Being more cooperative. Enhance communication and coordination between governments, governments and enterprises, industries and even systems to give full play to the comprehensive uses of the global resources.

Academician Sun Jiadong, "Two bombs and one satellite" meritorious scientist, receiver of State Top Scientific and Technological Award, chief designer of Beidou satellite navigation system said that satellite navigation has opened up an age of using spatial and temporal information more precisely. At present, with the integration of satellite navigation with various information technology, an age of using spatial and temporal information more intelligently will open. It will inject new vitality to the development of the social productivity. On the one hand, since satellite navigation is integrating composite intelligent information technology industries such as software, manufacturing, data and service, the people have surpassed the basic uses of navigation information to find out more values of spatial and temporal information. On the other hand, satellite navigation industry has expanded from traditional products industry to the related industries including precision enhancement, electronic map, location-based service, quality examination and standard, and further integrated with industries like vehicle electronics, geographical information, mobile internet, internet of things and smart cities. So a new spatial and temporal service system is being constructed and the huge industry of comprehensive information service is starting to take shape.

During the event, officials and well-known international experts from China, the US, Russia, Europe and other countries and regions delivered special reports on the latest developments and trends of satellite navigation, making in-depth communication and discussion on the planning, developments, applications and policies in satellite navigation system. CNSC Excellent Paper Award, the Excellent Youth Paper, Essay Organization Award, the Best Creative Award for Exhibition and Display, Beidou Satellite Navigation Application Promotion Award and the Fourth BD-CASTIC Award were issued, and the fourth technology and application achievements exhibition of Beidou satellite navigation system was held, which displayed the developments and achievements in application, industrialization and international cooperation of the Chinese home-grown satellite navigation system.

Since the Beidou system provided services, space signal quality, space signal precision, positioning, velocity measurement, timing service capabilities have been tested. The results show that the system runs consistent and stable, and its performance meets expectations. On the aspects of application promotion and industrialization, the reliability, stability and sensitivity of the home-grown Beidou/GPS two-mode chips are upgraded, the step of their pragmatic uses in the market is speeding up, a large scale application has occurred in transportation, weather forecasting and industries in the Pearl River Delta region. The system will enhance the cooperation between government departments, strengthen satellite navigation product quality supervision, complete the construction of Beidou Satellite Navigation Standard Technology Committee, discuss Beidou intellectual property strategy, speed up the construction of Beidou ground-based augmentation systems, Chinese location system, facilitate its integration with internet, internet of things, cloud computing and major data to lay a foundation for Beidou industrial ecosystem. Combine with the departments in charge and local governments, build up batch promotion mechanism, carry out large-scale Beidou model applications. Find out public demand, create application service model, face the heated discussed tough issues in the economic society, boost the economic growth of Beidou industry scale. On the aspect of international cooperation, China hosted the 7th ICG Meeting successfully, promoted Beidou/GNSS Application Demonstration & Experience Campaign (BADEC for short), pushed forward GNSS International GNSS Monitoring & Assessment Service (iGMAS) initiative, enhanced iGMAS construction. China will continue to deepen its bilateral cooperation with the US, Europe, Cuba, Indonesia and the other countries. With the help of the multi-lateral platforms such as APSCO and ASEAN "10+1" cooperation, it will carry out GNSS BADEC, push forward iGMAS cooperation and carry out international standard activities organized by International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), International Maritime Organization (IMO), mobile communication 3GPP and so on.

The event is jointly hosted by the organizations including: the China Satellite Navigation Office; Department of High and New Technology Development and Industrialization, Ministry of Science and Technology, P.R.C.; Technology and Industry for National Defense; Department of Comprehensive Planning, Ministry of Transport, P.R.C.; Department of Science and Technology, Ministry of Education, P.R.C.; China National Administration of GNSS and Applications; Bureau of High-Tech Research and Development, Chinese Academy of Sciences; Bureau of International Cooperation, Chinese Academy of Engineering; China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation; China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation; China Electronics Technology Group Corporation; The People’s Government of Wuhan and etc. Over 2000 officials, experts, scholars and entrepreneurs from governments, academic research institutes and enterprises participated in the event.