GMV, Tecnobit and Skydel are aiming to provide corporations, universities and research labs with a reliable, advanced simulation system that closely follows the latest Galileo capabilities.
“Together with our partners at Tecnobit, and taking advantage of SDX’s unique software-defined architecture, we are currently working to add Public Regulated Service (PRS) support to Skydel SDX,” said Manuel Toledo, head of the GNSS Advanced User Segment Solutions Division at GMV. PRS provides position and timing data for sensitive applications that require the highest level of service continuity.
Skydel and GMV are also joining efforts on developing SDX’s capabilities for signal authentication with Galileo Commercial Service and Open Service. The goal of such authentication is to increase the safety level of signals and to avert their falsification or fraud. It is currently a unique feature that only the Galileo constellation can provide, the companies said.
Skydel and GMV are also collaborating on projects that aim to provide signal simulation solutions for Galileo’s second generation (G2G). Galileo’s second-generation satellites are scheduled to be launched in 2025 and beyond.
“With Galileo’s full operational capabilities approaching soon, we must focus on the system’s upcoming G2G services,” said Pierre-Marie Le Véel, business development director at Skydel. “Skydel’s top priority for the European market is to provide simulation tools for the design of these next-generation GNSS devices.”
The partnership among the three companies unites the unique strengths of each organization, GMV said. While GMV brings its expert knowledge of both the European market and the Galileo system and Tecnobit brings its expertise as developer of cryptographic systems, Skydel adds its versatile and extensible GNSS simulator, resulting in a solid technical and commercial synergy for establishing an improved GNSS service offering for Europe.
The European Commission and the European GNSS Agency (GSA) confirm that the first generation of Galileo will already provide users with high accuracy and authentication services. Both the commission and GSA have adopted the Galileo Commercial Service Implementing Decision.
The Commercial Service will complement the Galileo Open Service by providing an additional navigation signal and added-value services in a different frequency band. Unlike the Open Service, the Commercial Service signal can be encrypted in order to control access to Galileo Commercial Services.
“The Commercial Service is unique in that its services are not provided by any other GNSS programme and thus represents a unique opportunity for Galileo to differentiate itself from other systems and offer users an added value to the standard positioning services already available,” says GSA Executive Director Carlo des Dorides.
With the Commercial Service, Galileo users will benefit from:
High Accuracy service based on the transmission of Precise Point Positioning information through its E6-B signal, delivering accuracy below one decimeter worldwide; and
Commercial Authentication service based on the E6 signal code encryption, allowing for increased robustness of professional applications.
Following the Commercial Service Implementing Decision, the user community will also be able to use the Open Service Navigation Message Authentication (OS NMA) for free. The OS NMA is capable of protecting users from spoofing attacks by digitally signing the Open Service message in the E1 band.
The High Accuracy and Commercial Authentication services will most likely be provided for a fee, and at least one signal component of the Galileo E6 signals will remain freely available, allowing user communities to benefit from signals in all Galileo bands.
To avoid disrupting existing professional markets, the Commercial Service will be most likely be operated by at least one yet-to-be-determined commercial service provider. All three services are compatible with the current signal definition and are based on existing infrastructure.
After a test period, the Galileo Commercial Service will become available when Galileo reaches Full Operational Capability, which is expected by 2020. It will complement the Galileo Open Service, Public Regulated Service and Search and Rescue service — all available now via the Galileo Initial Services.
Additional satellites will be successively added to the constellation, with the launch of the next four foreseen in 2017.
Jeremie Godet, Galileo Implementation Head of Sector, European Commission (left); Fiammetta Diani, deputy head of Market Development, European GNSS Agency.
By Jérémie Godet and Fiammetta Diani
The Galileo programme is currently in its deployment phase, which is due for completion in 2020. Following declaration of initial services in 2016, an exploitation phase will start and aim at delivering a fully operational system by the end of 2020. The deployment and the exploitation are entirely financed through the budget of the European Union, while two non-EU members, Norway and Switzerland, contribute through international agreements.
The aim of the Galileo programme is to establish and operate the first global satellite navigation system under the control of the European Union, thus contributing, amongst other things, to the strategic autonomy of the Union. This is the first time that the EU has developed, owned and been responsible for such a large-scale infrastructure.
While independence is the main political objective, ensuring compatibility and interoperability with other existing and future systems is also critical. Indeed, frequency compatibility has been achieved with GPS, IRNSS, QZSS and COMPASS with a range of coordinations achieved in the last two years under the framework of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU). A wider international agreement was previously reached in 2004 between the U.S and the EU, achieving the compatibility and interoperability of their respective systems and resulting in a common modulation for both systems’ state-of-the-art open signals. A positive outcome of this for all GNSS users is that similar signals have been adopted by other global or regional systems, in particular the MBOC modulation jointly defined by the U.S. and the EU (Galileo, GPS, COMPASS, QZSS), the ALTBOC modulation adopted by COMPASS and a common signal in E6 adopted by QZSS.
The Galileo programme will provide unique services, functionalities and performance levels that have never, or not yet, been provided by other satellites navigation providers.
What Will Users Get, and When?
These services, defined in consultation with user communities and EU Member States, will be offered by the system:
An Open Service (OS): With positioning accurate to around 1 meter using up to three different frequencies (E5a, E5b and L1), free of charge to the user and providing positioning and synchronization information intended mainly for high-volume satellite navigation applications;
A Public Regulated Service (PRS): Restricted to government-authorized users, for sensitive applications which require a high level of service continuity. It will use strong encrypted signals. This service is intended for security-related use for the EU Member States, the European Council, the European Commission, the European External Action Service and duly authorized Union agencies. It may be accessed by non-EU states and international organizations subject to bilateral agreements.
A contribution to the Search and Rescue Service (SAR) of the COSPAS-SARSAT system: Galileo’s worldwide search-and-rescue service will help to forward distress signals to a rescue coordination center by detecting emergency signals from beacons and relaying messages to them in near real time.
A contribution to integrity monitoring services by means of Galileo OS signals, in cooperation with other satellite navigation systems, aimed at users of safety-of-life applications in compliance with international standards;
A Commercial Service (CS): Encrypted for authentication purposes and offering very high accuracy to the sub-decimeter level, it will target applications for professional or commercial use owing to improved performance and data with greater added value than that obtained through the open service.
As of 2016, Galileo will progressively offer initial services for the open service, search-and-rescue service and the public regulated service. Those initial services will be gradually improved, and the other two services will be gradually implemented, with the aim of reaching full operational capability by end 2020.
The performance improvements of the services expected between 2016 and 2020 are linked to completion of the constellation deployment. In 2018, this will reach 24 satellites, the number required to achieve Galileo’s positioning performance targets, and the completed constellation with up to 30 satellites will be in place by the end of 2020 to provide the necessary spares to ensure performance commitments.
On top of this, a number of additional capabilities are planned to be added to the core services, including:
An improvement of the OS nav message with full backward compatibility to enhance both the time-to-first-fix and the ability to perform signal acquisition and tracking for users in lower visibility conditions (INAV improvement);
An authentication of the OS navigation message allowing users to verify that a certain number of broadcast parameters are the actual Galileo data — aimed at applications requiring trusted position and timing information for commercial purposes;
An improvement of the PRS;
A new functionality within SAR that provides, via the navigation message, a Return Link Message to distress beacons acknowledging that a rescue center has received their distress signal.
Constellation Status
The current Galileo constellation is composed of two different families of satellites: the In-Orbit-Validation (IOV) satellites procured before 2010 and the Full-Operational-Capability (FOC) satellites procured after 2010. Since the last Galileo launch on Sept. 10, there are four IOV satellites and six FOC satellites in orbit. The FOC satellites have improved capabilities regarding signal transmission compared to the IOV satellites, despite a similar mass and size. The FOC satellites carry a SAR payload; two IOV satellites have this capability. While this initial deployment faced a number of difficulties, these are now well behind us.
Sixteen more FOC satellites are being built. The next launch of two FOC satellites is scheduled for Dec. 17, and four more launches (three Ariane 5 and one Soyuz) are foreseen from 2016 to mid-2018. This implies four to six satellites launched per year, and this is judged perfectly realistic as demonstrated already in 2015.
An additional series of satellites will be procured in 2016 for deployment starting in late 2019/early 2020.
Preparing to Use and Benefit
The ultimate objective of the Galileo program is for its signals to be translated into valuable and reliable services for users across the globe. Europe aims to generate the return on investments in terms of public benefits for citizens and businesses, and for this reason the users are at center of the program.
This is the focus of the European GNSS Agency (GSA), which is in constant dialog with user communities via a wide range of activities.
For example, cooperation with chipset and receiver manufacturers aims to ensure that all products are Galileo-ready. This process involved a successful testing campaign done in cooperation with ESA and the EC’s Joint Research Centre (JRC). Equally important is to work closely with large user communities, such as road, maritime and rail, to support them in updating their systems so that they are ready to use Galileo. This is accomplished by dedicated market and technical support, via cost-benefit analyses, testing campaigns, initiation of standards and certification processes, user satisfaction surveys and more. These actions are part of tailored adoption roadmaps built with each user community. Periodic user fora are also organised to get feedback on current services and collect ideas for the evolution of the European GNSS systems.
EU R&D programmes, such as Horizon 2020 for the development of Galileo applications as well as the recently launched Fundamental Elements program that focuses on funding European GNSS chipset and receiver technologies, are essential tools for preparing users and supporting EU competitiveness in the downstream sector.
The GSA leverages these EU R&D programmes as a tool for adoption with large user communities and receiver manufacturers fully involved. The projects are managed by experienced staff specialised in different markets and application areas. In the case of PRS, the core user equipment technology is being designed and tested. This work is already paying off; today, a growing number of receivers available on the global market are Galileo-enabled, while almost 70 percent of the models have EGNOS.
Among others, Europe’s ST Microelectronics in the automotive sector, and the U.S.’s Broadcom and the Taiwanese Mediatek in smartphones, have already announced their Galileo-ready chipsets. Many other chipset manufacturers are ready and tested for Galileo. It is expected that, with recent successful launches and the deployment schedule, most of them will bring their Galileo products to market in 2016.
Galileo on the Horizon
Despite its particularly challenging complexity, involving extensive technical and security requirements, Galileo deployment is now progressing well and services will be provided starting in 2016, to reach their full operational capability in 2020. One early benefit of interoperability with GPS is that even before the Galileo constellation is completed, the number of L5/E5a signals in space will allow meaningful use of that frequency for the first time. Galileo will deliver real advances in precision, availability, coverage and additional features unprecedented in any other satellite navigation systems to date: while GPS is today’s de facto standard, Galileo is aiming to be the world’s second GNSS reference system by 2020.
Governance Set-up
The European Commission (EC) has overall programme supervision and budget responsibilities. The EC delegates system design and infrastructure procurement to the European Space Agency (ESA) and service preparation, delivery and operations to the European GNSS Agency (GSA). ESA is one of founders of the Galileo system and has been responsible for the development phase, co-financed by the Member States of ESA and the EU. ESA is the procurement agent of core infrastructure and in charge of the overall system integration since 2007.
The GSA’s role will grow considerably in the exploitation phase as it becomes the day-to-day interface with ESA in several areas, including infrastructure roll-out and maintenance. The GSA will procure main operations of the system from 2017 and will operate key services facilities such as the Galileo Security Monitoring Centre in France and the UK, the European GNSS Service Centre in Spain, and the Galileo Reference Centre in the Netherlands. The GSA also supports the enabling of receivers and chipsets for Galileo use and the development of applications in downstream segments, in close cooperation with the major user communities.
The European GNSS Agency (GSA) is working with the European Commission (EC) and the European Space Agency with the support of the EU Member States to define the final characteristics of the future Galileo Commercial Service. Input from industry as well as other actors, such as users and academia, is valuable to define the service and the rationale behind the implementation of the service.
The Galileo Commercial Service, which potentially addresses the authentication and high-precision market segments, will deliver innovative services with improved performance and greater added-value than those obtained through the Open Service.
Consultation participants will be asked to provide a more general perspective about the Commercial Service, as well as validate the main aspects of a preliminary business case developed in cooperation with the EC. Respondents are welcome to propose new ideas and approaches for the service provision, as well as discuss pricing, liability, service level agreements, and required performance levels.
The consultation will be open until the end of September 2012. A final decision on the Commercial Service implementation concept will be reached at the beginning of 2013.
To respond to the consultation and arrange a one-to-one meeting with the GSA, contact [email protected].
