Abstract:
With the development of GNSS, the LBS (Location Based Service) has been popularized rapidly. Meanwhile, people’s demand for PNT service with high reliability, high credibility and high precision is increasingly urgent. PNT is a system which integrates multi-technology and multilevel systems. Focusing on the optimization of PNT service, domestic and overseas scholars have put forward several new architectures and technical systems such as All Source Positioning and Navigation, Resilient PNT and Cloud Positioning. This study states, that with heterogeneous positioning resources which are capable in communication, calculation, storing, positioning and sensing as infrastructure construction, PNT service with high reliability, high credibility and high precision can be realized by intelligent management and scheduling of heterogeneous positioning resources distributed in different geolocations. Further, the definitions of Fog Positioning and Omnipresent Positioning and Navigation are given. It is argued that the definition of Fog Positioning is evolved from distributed computing architecture and emphasizes the architecture for PNT service. While the definition of Omnipresent Positioning and Navigation is evolved from the development of positioning technology and emphasizes the ability to realize omnipresent positioning by collaborative fusion processing of omnipresent positioning resources. On this basis, by comparing Fog Positioning with Cloud Positioning, this study points out that Fog Positioning is the extension of Cloud Positioning towards the user side and the omnipresent realization of positioning resources. Meanwhile, Fog Positioning is one kind of dynamic and elastic cloud, so Fog Positioning can be seen as a PNT architecture with the property of elasticity. Omnipresent positioning is an important target of PNT architecture, and Fog Positioning gives the potential means for this target, e.g., Omnipresent Positioning and Navigation. At last, this contribution analysis the basic service mode for Fog Positioning or Omnipresent Positioning and Navigation under the city environment and indoor environment.