#1 Test anytime, anywhere from the convenience of your bench
You can test GPS by creating and maintaining the infrastructure to pipe “live-sky” GPS signals from a roof-top antenna to your test bench, or you can test your product in the parking lot of your facility. Sometimes easy (small devices). Sometime hard (rolling aircraft out of the hanger). Always inefficient. Alternatively, save time and money with GPS simulation. Test your device any place and time, virtually.
#2 Test any environmental condition
Testing with GPS signals from the live-sky limits the test to existing environmental conditions. Only what exists on that date, time and place. Only those satellites. Testing with a record-replay box is limited to the recorded environment in the same way. Simulation allows the control of any parameter – creating and saving scenarios so testing is repeatable across every scenario set that you want to maintain. Only then do you have confidence that your product will perform in the conditions you design to.
#3 Test receiver movements without taking a step
Sure field trips are fun, but tell that to the tester verifying GPS performance at highway speeds. Worse yet, at aircraft speeds! GPS simulation allows you to quickly test any motion pattern from portable consumer electronics to UAVs and missiles. Save the cost of rocket fuel. Simulate.
#4 Understand problematic error sources
Live-sky signals will include whatever impairments to the signals that exist at that particular time and place, however fleeting such as those from atmospheric conditions, signal obscuration, or multipath/fading. And worse, those impairments are unknown to the tester. Understand exactly how your device performs under a variety of error sources. Simulation eliminates fear of the unknown.