Issues certification of navigation OEM-modules.

17 Мая 2012

Steps taken by the Russian government on "commercialization" of GLONASS are bearing tangible results. However, Russia's lack of obligatory certification for navigational equipment puts the customers in a very difficult situation. On the one hand, existing legal requirements, on the other hand the absence of quality control mechanisms of the supplied equipment creates conditions for unfair competition and entering poor quality and outdated solutions on the Russian market. One side of the issue regarding OEM modules certification we will cover today.
Since 2008 on the Russian satellite navigation market are available new generation receivers in the format of OEM modules that are designed for the further integration into user’s equipment. The OEM module is not completed navigation device. It provides only basic navigation functions by using which customers may develop various types of equipment for application in personal devices, monitoring and security systems, time-frequency synchronization equipment.
In order to ensure the quality of navigational equipment it is required to create a system which will be able to confirm compliance with technical specifications by independent certification tests. For this purpose it was created several laboratories that performed OEM modules tests for compliance with technical specifications claimed in the manufacturer's documentation.
According to the Russian Federal Law from June 26, 2008 "On ensuring the unity of measurements" were defined requirements for the control of the supplied equipment in the field of state regulation. Under this law within the scope of state regulation must be supplied only equipment which has metrological evidence that it is a means of measurement. This federal law was ambiguously understood by the customers – what is an object the survey? OEM module itself or navigation equipment supplied to the customer or the system that includes hardware and software for processing navigation data? OEM module could potentially be the subject of testing, but we should take into consideration that during it installation into the user’s equipment necessary to perform a number of operations, such as OEM module refitting, the installation of the necessary additional hardware (electronic components required for the proper operation of navigation receiver), connect frequency and interface cables, connect antenna and other units within the equipment. All these activities may have a significant impact on the OEM module operation and its metrological parameters. Therefore, the end navigation equipment should be the subject of independent tests by applying all the components that will be used together with it during the operation. A certificate issued after testing only OEM module can’t be applied to the module containing the equipment. Confirmation that the navigation equipment was successfully tested for approval type of measuring instruments is the a certificate which must be accompanied by testing methodology, photo of the test item, verification period as well as the sign placed on the engineering documentation and on the product itself ensuring that it has been surveyed as a means of measurement. In order to confirm the metrological parameters of each navigation equipment samples should be carried out its primary verification, which is conducted by the manufacturer or by the accredited laboratory.
In case of OEM module certification as a means of measurement for the OEM module checking navigation equipment must be removed from the testing facility, the OEM module must be removed from the equipment, sealed in the test rig for further calibration tests (the parameters of the test equipment may differ from the metrological characteristics of equipment), then the OEM module must be sealed again in the equipment. As a result of these operations OEM module working capacity can’t be guaranteed. In the case of the end product verification all operations can be performed without interference in the work of its separate components, and will not affect the equipment working capacity. According to this fact OEM module may be certified in order to confirm its characteristics including metrological ones, but it can’t be supplied independently as a means of measurement and the certificate obtained for the OEM module can’t apply to the final hardware.
The federal law "On ensuring the unity of measurements" placed the requirements for approval type of standard samples or types of measuring instruments, i.e. requirements placed to the system or hardware, not to the components. For application in the state regulation area must be tested the end equipment having final body frame which allows to excluding the changes in its metrological characteristics. For equipment certification must be approved all types of its component units and modules that will allows to ensure the quality of their performance and will not bring a deterioration in the metrological parameters of the equipment. Besides the equipment itself the monitoring system may also include a system that processes data received from the hardware. Therefore in case of the navigation system delivery the procedure for approval measurement type must be provided for both hardware and software of the system.
With the development of navigation technologies and the formation of services and GLONASS-based equipment domestic market the issues of conformity assurance of new solutions appearing on the market by claimed specifications will arise more sharply. There are too many problems in this sphere which are not paid much attention yet. For discussion of this issue not once we’ll return on the pages of “VESTNIK GLONASS” magazine.

Igor Lissovoy
Chief in Editor “VESTNIK GLONASS”