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The limitations of the existing Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) integrated with Inertial Measurement Units (IMU) have presented significant challenges in meeting the stringent demands of precision maneuvering. The identified constraints in terms of accuracy and availability have required the development of an alternative solution to enhance the performance of navigation systems in dynamic and diverse environments. This paper summarizes the research regarding the integration of ultra-wideband (UWB) technology as an augmentation of the conventional GNSS+IMU system; it proposes an approach that aims to overcome the limitations of conventional navigation systems. By making use of UWB technology, the proposed low-cost UWB-augmented GNSS+IMU system not only fulfils the required performance standards but also offers the unique capability to navigate seamlessly across indoor and outdoor environments. The developed system was validated through comprehensive testing and analysis in both the automotive and maritime sectors. The obtained results highlight the system’s capacity as a dependable and resilient solution for precise navigation, and they promote its use within the domain of accurate maneuvering.

Railway applications are in continuous evolution with the aim of offering a more efficient, sustainable, and safer transportation system for the users. Generally, these applications are constantly exchanging information between the systems onboard the train and the trackside through a wireless communication. Nowadays, Global System for Mobile communications-Railway (GSM-R) is the technology used by European Train Control System (ETCS), but it is becoming obsolete. Therefore, alternatives for this technology have to be found for the different railway applications. Its natural evolution is to move forward with the latest technology deployed: Long-Term Evolution (LTE), which the Public Land Mobile Networks (PLMN) have already deployed. Therefore, testing the performance of this communication technology in the railway environment could be useful to assess its suitability and reduce the cost of railway network dedicated deployment. In order to do that, a methodology to characterize the communication environment is proposed. The main goal is to measure geolocated impairments of any communication channel in a railway environment being able to determine its behavior of the different communication technologies and find out possible coverage issues. Moreover, it could help in the selection of suitable communication technology for railway. This paper presents a brief description of the communication for railways and its QoS parameters for performance measuring. Afterward, the testing methodology is described, and then, the communication channel measurement campaign on a real track in Spain where the railway environment is variable is presented (tunnels, rural/urban area…). Finally, the measurements and results on this real track in Spain are shown. The results provide suitability of the 4G technologies based on the delay requirements for the implementation of ETCS over it.