Enhancing public safety and security of critical national infrastructure utilizing the Nigerian Satellite Augmentation System (NSAS)

After the First World War, radio time signals offered alternative technology for determination of the Greenwich time and thus longitude at sea. The first manifestation of new technology capable of usurping the super accurate mechanical chronometers occurred in 1904, when the United States Navy began to experiment with the transmission of radio-time signals as an aid to the determination of longitude (Davies, 1978; Lawal & Chatwin, 2011). The challenge in precision continued with precision in Navigation systems, which depends on electromagnetic waves travelling at 300,000,000 m/s, which means that one microsecond error in a vessel’s time will result in 300metres of navigational error. The Global Positioning System (GPS) originated from the Navigation System with Timing and Ranging known as NAVSTAR, which was initiated by the Joint Program Office (JPO) of the U.S. Department of Defence (DoD) in 1973.The first GPS satellite was sent into orbit in 1978. Initial Operational Capability (IOC) was reached in July 1993 with 24 satellites, while Full Operational Capability (FOC) was declared on July, 17th, 1995. Improvement in accuracy for general transportation, especially in aviation, ushered in augmentation systems. The quest for performance focused on the ability to accurately transmit and keep time signals stable up to the picosecond level and even more in receivers and clock reference signals for space systems, especially in navigation satellites using high performance oscillators ranging from ultra-stable quartz crystals with ovenized control to high performance atomic circuits (Lawal & Chatwin, 2011). The Satellite-Based Augmentation System (SBAS) arose from the need to provide continuity, availability, integrity and accuracy of global positioning signals to eliminate errors and compensate for discrepancies associated with GPS signals and other navigation systems. The NigComSat-1R Navigation (L-band) payload is a Space Based Augmentation System meant to provide a Navigation Overlay Service (NOS) similar to the European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service (EGNOS). This paper describes the huge untapped potential that the hybrid satellite offers in the area of public safety, security of critical national infrastructure, aviation, maritime, defense, effectiveness of Location Based Services for Emergency and Crisis management amongst other applications; it thus fills a great gap in the augmentation systems for Africa

How to Recover a Qubit That Has Fallen Into a Black Hole

We demonstrate an algorithm for the retrieval of a qubit, encoded in spin angular momentum, that has been dropped into a no-firewall black hole. Retrieval is achieved analogously to quantum teleportation by collecting Hawking radiation and performing measurements on the black hole. Importantly, these methods only require the ability to perform measurements from outside the event horizon.Comment: 6 pages v2: modified protocol to discuss total angular momentum, corrected typos, added references v3: updated with referee feedbac

Delivery of broadband services to SubSaharan Africa via Nigerian communications satellite

Africa is the least wired continent in the world in terms of robust telecommunications infrastructure and systems to cater for its more than one billion people. African nations are mostly still in the early stages of Information Communications Technology (ICT) development as verified by the relatively low ICT Development Index (IDI) values of all countries in the African region. In developing nations, mobile broadband subscriptions and penetration between 2000-2009 was increasingly more popular than fixed broadband subscriptions. To achieve the goal of universal access, with rapid implementation of ICT infrastructure to complement the sparsely distributed terrestrial networks in the hinterlands and leveraging the adequate submarine cables along the African coastline, African nations and their stakeholders are promoting and implementing Communication Satellite systems, particularly in Nigeria, to help bridge the digital hiatus. This paper examines the effectiveness of communication satellites in delivering broadband-based services

A review of global navigation satellite and augmentation systems

The importance and application of global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) has never been greater; there is increasing demand for both commercial and government projects; indeed, owning and operating a GNSS facility has become a matter of national esteem. This article reviews some of the history that led up to the USA building its benchmark Global Positioning System (GPS) exploiting electromagnetic waves and reviews the progress being made by other nations in constructing accurate navigation positioning systems

The communications satellite industry as an element in Nigeria’s attempt to modernise its economy and society

There is general consensus that Nigeria’s inordinate reliance on oil has not had a positive impact on its social and economic development – indeed, that Nigeria has suffered from the ‘resource curse’. In 2009, the National Planning Commission of Nigeria, the custodian of the Vision 20:2020 document as well as the 30-year National Integrated Infrastructure Master Plan (NIIMP), which stressed the need for Nigeria to reduce its reliance on hydrocarbons, a crucial element in this goal is Information and Communications Technology. This paper examines the establishment of the communications satellite industry and its strategic role as critical ICT backbone infrastructure in driving Nigeria’s national ICT revolution beyond cities and urban areas to unserved and underserved areas and its growing value chain in key economic sectors of the Nigerian economy and society

The Communications Satellite Industry as an Element in Nigeria’s Attempt to Modernise Its Economy and Society

There is general consensus that Nigeria’s inordinate reliance on oil has not had a positive impact on its social and economic development – indeed, that Nigeria has suffered from the ‘resource curse’. In 2009, the National Planning Commission of Nigeria, the custodian of the Vision 20:2020 document as well as the 30-year National Integrated Infrastructure Master Plan (NIIMP), which stressed the need for Nigeria to reduce its reliance on hydrocarbons, a crucial element in this goal is Information and Communications Technology. This paper examines the establishment of the communications satellite industry and its strategic role as critical ICT backbone infrastructure in driving Nigeria’s national ICT revolution beyond cities and urban areas to unserved and underserved areas and its growing value chain in key economic sectors of the Nigerian economy and society. Keywords: Nigeria, Resource Curse, ICT, Communication Satellites

Comparison of Howland and General Impedance Converter (GIC) circuit based current sources for bio-impedance measurements

The current source is a key component in bio-impedance measurement systems. The accuracy of the current source can be measured in terms of its output impedance together with other parameters, with certain applications demanding extremely high output impedance. This paper presents an investigation and comparison of different current source designs based on the Enhanced Howland circuit combined with a General Impedance Converter (GIC) circuit using both ideal and non-ideal operational amplifiers. Under differing load conditions two different settings of the GIC are evaluated and the results are compared to show its performance settings. Whilst the study has shown that over a wide bandwidth (i.e. 100Hz-100MHz) the output impedance is limited, operation over a more limited range offers output impedance in the Giga-ohm range, which can be considered as being infinite

Implementing renewable energy technologies in the city of Jeddah

This research investigates the possibility of implementing different renewable energy technologies in a city and integrating them into the electrical supply grid. A system model is created using Simulink to explore and manage the different technologies. Several energy storage systems are used to compensate for the fluctuations caused by the inconsistency of the different renewable sources

A flexible low-cost, high-precision, single interface electrical impedance tomography system for breast cancer detection using FPGA

Typically, in multi-frequency Electrical Impedance Tomography (EIT) systems, a current is applied and the voltages developed across the subject are detected. However, due to the complexity of designing stable current sources, there has been mention in the literature of applying a voltage to the subject whilst measuring the consequent current flow. This paper presents a comparative study between the two techniques in a novel design suitable for the detection of breast cancers. The suggested instrument borrows the best features of both the injection of current and the application of voltage, circumventing their limitations. Furthermore, the system has a common patient-electrode interface for both methodologies, whilst the control of the system and the necessary signal processing is carried out in a field programmable gate array (FPGA). Through this novel system, wide-bandwidth, low-noise, as well as high-speed (frame rate) can be achieved

Tackling natural resource depletion an revenue decline through diversification: the case of Brunei Darussalum

Exports of hydrocarbons have been a great boon to the small state of Brunei Darussalam and, as such, this paper argues that it provides an example of a country that has not been overly afflicted by the “resource curse” or “Dutch disease”. But it has been adversely affected by oil and gas price volatility that inevitably has a profound impact on hydrocarbon exporters, despite resorting to futures markets. Given Brunei’s minimal non-hydrocarbon tradable sectors, and like all other countries that are heavily reliant on the export of hydrocarbons, it is confronted by the iron law of resource depletion, compounded by the volatility of the oil market. This reality has prompted the government of Brunei to embark on industrial diversification. This paper provides 3 hi-tech sectors which can be deemed as comprising the basis for an industrial policy: semi-conductors and fibre optics, hi-tech farming, and advanced manufacturing