Global Positioning System(GPS)

GPS was established for military purposes and when time went on, this system has been doing great job in different areas, Transportation , Tourism, Education, Agriculture and so on. 

The majority telecommunication systems were born by military needs then turn into civil uses.

Global Positioning System(GPS)

GPS Components

There are main elements in this system to achieve the whole goal, and get the right position.

Satellites 

They are distributed in different orbits to cover more areas, their number are 32 satellite for the whole system. Not all them working together but only 24 are necessary for the main purpose, whereas the rest are spare for either emergency cases or maintenance. 

Global Positioning System(GPS)

Satellites are provided by survival power by special batteries beside solar panels help to charge batteries and run the system as well.

Ground station 

It is considered as the main linker between the entire system elements , it receives and sends signals to keep receiver and satellite see each other. It has huge antennas to catch different-strength signals, some signals are too weak after travelling through space till reaching earth, so with these massive antennas the mission is easy. 

Receivers 

They have various forms , they could be mobile, car, bike, ship....etc 

All of these elements have a special electronic circuit that has antenna and chips to process signals, Moreover; the receiver could be only a small chip was built in shoe for a very old man, or a young boy to all their relative keep tracking him.

How does it work?

Those main parts stand together to give a wonderful service, whatever, it was, either for economic purposes or for fun. When a request has ordered from a receiver, It should be that receiver being seen from at least 4 satellite of 24-satellite GPS system and when this number goes up, the accuracy is also raising gradually.

Global Positioning System(GPS)

Each satellite sends a report about the position, and with a reference database in the Ground station, a compassion is made between all the requests and database information to conclude the precise position for the receiver.

Ground station has details about all satellite, stating time, orbit, live position, status, so, that is why Ground station is playing the reference point to check how accurate the ordered position it is. 

References

Wikipedia