The Global Positioning System will witness “GPS Week Rollover Event” starting April 6th. US government owned 31 GPS satellites will see a date counter reset which could impact several smart devices globally. Similar to Y2K, the issue is related to dates.

Unlike Gregorian calendar, where we use days, months and years date format, these GPS satellites use 10 bits to count the week number. In a single run, GPS stores and count up to 1024 weeks (~19.7 years) before resetting and starting again from zero. Well, the reset time is on April 6th, and it should’ve taken place by now.

The counter reset could trouble the devices using GPS services. The impact is not only limited to smartphones, tablets, TVs or cars, but it can also disturb scientific instruments, power grids, and other essential systems.

According to the US Department of Homeland and Security guidance report, the GPS rollover event may affect the reported UTC reliability. Devices with updated firmware won’t be affected, but those machines running with outdated software will undoubtedly cause some trouble. The devices with I-GPS-200 should not be adversely affected.

The agency reveals,”However, tests of some GPS devices revealed that not all manufacturer implementations correctly handle the April 6, 2019 WN rollover. Additionally, some manufacturer implementations interpret the WN parameter relative to a date other than January 5, 1980. These devices should not be affected by the WN rollover on April 6, 2019 but may experience a similar rollover event at a future date.”

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Most of the GPS manufacturers are aware of the issue and will ensure smooth GPS rollover globally.

(via)

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