Background

The GPS network of the Region FVG was founded in 1999 with the objective of providing assistance for the georeferencing in advanced systems of geographical features to be positioned on regional cartography. Initially composed of only three permanent stations (with Palmanova as the regional barycentric point, and Ampezzo and Moggio Udinese as reference points in the mountain areas), the configuration of the network has been upgraded and finalised in successive phases to reach the current structure of ten stations. The first upgrade in 2005 brought a technical adjustment of the GPS receivers in order to make evolved instrumentation available, along with an architectural modification of the management software. The improvement of the technological communication infrastructure was another key point of that intervention, ensuring that all the permanent stations were connected to the control centre via HDSL technology. New services were made accessible on the internet in a completely open and free way also for private users (freelance professionals, technicians, companies, universities); in particular, RTK real-time differential correction utilising the Ntrip protocol was activated. In the upgrade of 2007 the network was expanded to link 10 stations, and slight modifications were made. There was also a further augmentation of the real-time positioning service by making the VRS (Virtual Reference Station) methodology available that enables improvements to be made to the positional accuracy of corrections provided to users of the GPS FVG network. In the course of 2012 the instrumentation was completely renovated, expanding and optimising the network functionality. The intervention has enabled every station to manage, in addition to data from the GPS constellation, both GLONASS and GALILEO. The real-time positioning services have been expanded, making the correction data stream available for MAC type and the RTCM 3.1 format. In November 2012, the permanent station in Palmanova ceased operation. It was replaced, in June 2013, by a new structure in Cervignano del Friuli. In July 2019, real-time and post-processing services were updated to integrate the GALILEO European satellite constellation. In 2024, a technological modernization of the receivers and management software was carried out, which allowed the supply of Virtual Rinex and the use of the BEIDOU constellation's data.

Dedication to Antonio Marussi

Since 12 October 2008, the permanent station network of the Friuli Venezia Giulia Autonomous Region is titled Professor Antonio Marussi, on the occasion of the centenary of the birth. Marussi was born in Trieste on October 12, 1908, he was a Professor of Geodesy at the University of Trieste and founder of the Geodesy and Geophysical Institute of the same University. He also chaired the Italian Geodetic Commission, in which the parameters for the realization of regional technical mapping were set. As Chairman of the Regional Technical Paper Advisory Committee, established in 1969, Antonio Marussi has made a significant contribution to the birth of the CTRN of our Region, in whose project the regional GPS network has subsequently come into.

Integration with the FReDNet network

The Region of Friuli Venezia Giulia and the Centre for Seismological Research (CRS) of the National Institute of Oceanography and Experimental Geophysics (OGS), are present in the territory of Friuli Venezia Giulia with two networks of permanent GNSS stations: the "A. Marussi" network and the FReDNet network (Friuli Regional Deformation Network). The Region of Friuli Venezia Giulia and the OGS have, pursuant to Regional Law no. 63 of 27th December 1991, signed a convention for the free exchange of cartographic and territorial data, not for profit and for the purpose of public interest. That Convention was integrated with an Addendum in which the entities commit to: collaborate in the field of the exchange of GPS/GNSS data registered by the respective GPS/GNSS permanent networks, in the maintenance of the functionality of the networks and their respective services, and in the improvement of the GPS/GNSS monitoring infrastructure managed by them; define and implement a protocol of exchange for GPS/GNSS data distribution in real-time (differential corrections) for the provision of real-time precise positioning services, following the modality of GPS RTK and VRS, or equivalent, in the territory of the Friuli Venezia Giulia region; collaborate for maintaining or improving the positioning services already realised within the territory of the Friuli Venezia Giulia region, following the modality of GPS-RTK and VRS, or equivalent. In order to achieve an integrated GNSS positioning service in the region, currently the calculation centres of the Region FVG and OGS acquire and distribute, via the internet using the Ntrip protocol, all the differential corrections in RTK single base mode, for both networks ("A. Marussi" and FReDNet).