Programming GPS and OpenStreetMap Applications with Java

40 4. Space & Time

4.5.1 NMEA 0183

Although there is a (growing) number of GPS devices and vendors on the

market, they all perform the same core task—acquire their current position

via satellites. In the early years of GPS device development, a standardized

data transmission protocol called NMEA was defined. The NMEA 0183

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format allows a vendor-neutral development of GPS applications. Many

PC map applications allow the user to connect a GPS NMEA device to

the serial port of the computer and display its position on the map. The

NMEA 0183 Interface Standard defines specific sentence formats (ASCII)

for a 4800-baud serial data bus (RS-232-standard for COM ...