Open Source Summit + ELC Europe 2018

Over the past decade and owing largely to the smartphone revolution, GNSS (e.g. GPS) receivers have become ubiquitous with the number of devices in use estimated to surpass that of the world population within a couple of years.

So far GNSS receivers have lacked a representation in the Linux device model and have instead been handled entirely in user space. With the introduction of the serial-device bus, it has now become possible to add a higher-level abstraction and to utilise the kernel's infrastructure to provide better power management and simplified device detection.

This presentation will give an introduction to the recently merged GNSS subsystem. After providing some historical background, the design and interfaces of the new subsystem will be reviewed, and some known limitations and possibilities for future enhancements will be discussed.