Romania’s CORS Network Expansion: Fostering Development with Geospatial Data

Providing centimetre-level GNSS positioning across Romania’s 238,000+ square kilometres (92,000+ square miles) is no small feat. However, Romania’s National Center for Cartography (NCC) undertook to do just that, taking on the ambitious project to upgrade and expand the existing continuously operating reference stations (CORS) network, ensuring everyone across the country dependent on high-accuracy geospatial data could access it.

Over two phases, across cities and rural areas, and in all kinds of weather, the teams brought a new, latest-tech system online featuring Leica Geosystems GNSS reference network antennas, receivers, and software. The upgrades not only improved network performance for their current customers but also broadened opportunities for new users and applications across sectors, promoting development and research across the country.

The ROMPOS network
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In Romania, GNSS positioning data helps drive interconnected impacts across sectors, fostering economic development and responsible land use. It creates a positive chain reaction among industries, resulting in responsible growth.

For example, GNSS positioning data plays a crucial role in Romania’s cadastral applications, providing the foundation for accurate land registration, property boundary determination, and effective land management. These precise cadastral records are essential across industries, including real estate, agriculture, urban planning, and infrastructure development and monitoring.

Romania's CORS network, ROMPOS, makes the seamless integration of GNSS data into these cadastral systems possible. It continually collects and makes available high-precision, real-time positioning data nationwide.

Updating a legacy system
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The ROMPOS network has long provided the positioning infrastructure that enables industries reliant on GNSS positioning to thrive. Developed and maintained by geodetic experts from Romania’s NCC, ROMPOS is part of a larger mission to use advanced technologies to meet evolving needs. This mission includes supporting Romania’s development through high-accuracy geospatial data.

“Our innovative approach and use of state-of-the-art technology position us as leaders in the geospatial field. We take pride in supporting national development through precise mapping and geodetic data, facilitating applications from land registration to infrastructure development, and many others,” says Miluță Flueraș, the director of the ROMPOS network.

However, when legacy equipment started to limit capabilities, it became clear the network needed modernisation and expansion to provide country-wide service with reliable state-of-the-art positioning data.

“The outdated system lacked the capability to upgrade to multi-constellation functionality and did not support new, useful features such as interference detection and mitigation,” explains Flueraș.

Without the ability to accommodate advancements in satellite navigation, the accuracy and reliability of geospatial data diminishes — an impact that extends to the applications dependent on this data, like land surveying, mapping, geodetic research, and industry applications. Therefore, the modernisation was essential to ensure ROMPOS could benefit from current technologies and remain ready for future advancements.

In response, the NCC led an extensive update of the ROMPOS system in 2024, including tendered technology selection, tricky and time-sensitive installation coordination, and the creation of easy user management tools.

Caption: Miluță Flueraș, Head of Geodesy and ROMPOS, stands beside one of the 50 rooftop Leica AR20 antenna installations from the first phase of the ROMPOS expansion project.

Seeking technical excellence
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Before installation could proceed, however, the NCC needed to evaluate and select the new network hardware and software via the legal tender process.

The products selected for the network upgrade needed to fulfil a comprehensive set of technical performance criteria ensuring the best value and specifications, including high accuracy, integrated communication redundancy, reliability and durability, and ease of integration and maintenance. Additional requirements included autonomous velocity estimation for real-time monitoring and analysis of positioning changes for advanced quality control.

“Through this carefully managed selection process, the Leica Geosystems equipment emerged as the top choice,” Flueraș reflects.

The new network toolkit included Leica GR50 reference servers, which offer 555 channels and support all global GNSS constellations and regional systems – solving the problem of limited constellation functionality. Paired with Leica AR20 antennas fitted with LEIM protective radome, RefWorx software on the receiver side, and Leica GNSS Spider Software on the server side, multi-constellation and multi-frequency data can be acquired and made available together, enabling GNSS services with access to both real-time and post-processing data.

Coordinating a complex installation

Minimising network downtime during the ROMPOS Network upgrade was crucial for the many users who rely on the high-precision positioning data it provides. Any significant service interruptions could disrupt a range of activities, from land surveying to geodetic research.

To realise minimal downtime, four dedicated teams, including members from the NCC and Top Geocart, Romania’s Leica Geosystems distribution partner, completed the expansion in two phases with a tightly coordinated timeline. From scaling slanted and snow-capped rooftops to clipping into sky-high industrial towers with climbing gear, the team braved a range of environs to install the antennas at locations across the country.

“We achieved this rapid deployment through meticulous planning and coordination among the teams, including our instrumental collaboration with Top Geocart,” says Flueraș.

Spanning two primary phases, the first commenced in January and ended in February 2024, while the second spanned June and July 2024.

“The initial batch of 50 receivers and antennas was successfully installed within just 20 days, covering approximately 70% of Romania’s territory,” explains Flueraș. “The remaining 24 stations installed over the summer months ensure full national coverage of the ROMPOS Network.”

Caption: A skilled professional scales a tall antenna tower to install a Leica AR20, ensuring an open path to the sky for uninterrupted signal acquisition.

Accessing corrections, mitigating interference
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With over 6,000 annual ROMPOS users, the upgraded network provides high-accuracy data with extensive coverage for real-time corrections, enhancing RTK positioning solutions. Additionally, Receiver Independent Exchange Format (RINEX) files, available through a customer client application developed by the NCC, provide users with easy access to historical GNSS reference station data for post-processing positioning purposes.

To help ROMPOS network operators and customers alike, the NCC developed the ROMPOS Interference and Mapping Analysis Tool, a comprehensive web-based application designed to visualise and analyse GNSS signal interference observed by the reference stations across Romania. The tool is based on the Leica Interference Toolbox, which is available for Leica GR-receivers and automatically monitors, detects, and notifies operators about the presence of radio frequency interference signals, including frequency, power, and bandwidth.

In the application, users simply select a station within the intuitive map interface to access real-time signal interference information. The application then generates detailed graphs depicting interference patterns across different GNSS frequencies. These graphs offer insights into signal strength, interference events, and potential disruptions — information that empowers users with detailed analysis for informed decision-making.

Additionally, the tool offers robust API access for developers and researchers who require direct access to the interference data. This API endpoint allows users to retrieve detailed interference data for specific stations and dates for easy integration into other applications or research tools.

With this information, network operators and users can troubleshoot problems, better understand if network performance is impacted by radio frequency interference and take action to mitigate the problem.

Expanded applications and a growing customer base
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 With wider coverage, strong technical performance, quality assurance, and easy data accessibility, the upgrades have made ROMPOS a strong choice for customers needing GNSS corrections in real-time or for post-processing.

“The high performance and reliability of Leica Geosystems products led to improved operational efficiency, translating into better service delivery,” says Flueraș.

In addition to core geospatial applications like cadastral mapping and surveying, the expansion of the network also allows ROMPOS to support a broader range of new applications, like autonomous vehicle navigation, smart city infrastructure management, and advanced environmental monitoring. For example, the network allows researchers to access comprehensive displacement data for seismic monitoring, infrastructure stability analyses, and geodetic research.

“The transition to the latest generation of GNSS reference station receivers and a modernized GNSS network software has significantly bolstered our market competitiveness. By adopting technology from Leica Geosystems, we can now support multi-constellation capabilities, providing a technological edge that has allowed us to attract a broader user-base, including new sectors,” says Flueraș.

“This comprehensive approach supports a wide array of geospatial applications, demonstrating our commitment to delivering precise, reliable, and transparent geospatial services.”