Report from ENC: Constellation Needs 22 Satellites in Three Years
Launch, deploy, and operate “22 satellites in less than 3 years.” That’s two satellites every three months, leading to a four-at-once launch in 2014. And that’s the challenge that Europe and the European Space Agency (ESA) now face.
This pointed call to action during the opening plenary of the European Navigation Conference (ENC) came from Didier Faivre, director of Galileo Programme and Navigation Related Activities at ESA. It was the only somber note sounded during the keynote speeches, which otherwise paraded the stirring recent accomplishments of the Galileo In-Orbit Validation (IOV) phase. IOV now concludes, and Galileo’s operational phase opens.
The ENC takes place in Vienna, Austria this week (April 23–25), hosted by the Austrian Institute of Navigation. Privately and informally, a handful of knowledgeable conference attendees expressed confidence that OHB System can furnish the completed satellites, at least, according to schedule. OHB System is the prime contractor for construction of 22 Full Operational Capability (FOC) Galileo satellites and is responsible for developing the satellite bus and for integrating the satellites. Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd. (SSTL) is developing and constructing the navigation payload and assisting OHB with final satellite assembly.
“Using only European tools and means, European ground infrastructure deployed on European territory, our conception, machine and design, is totally validated,” stated Faivre, referring to the recent Galileo-only positioning fix by ESA. The March 12, 2013, event marks “the end of the beginning,” and culminates 12 years of intense work at all levels of European industry.
“Europe is at par with GPS” with performance as expected. “I hope that soon our U.S. colleagues will be jealous of our performance,” Faivre stated, implying yet again the persistent Galileo claim that the system will be more accurate than GPS. He returned to this theme with reference to Fugro’s accomplishment of real-time precise point positioning at the centimeter level.
He acknowledged that “It’s a technological competition with the United States, Russia, and China,” even though all may be friendly and collegial.
In that competitive light, “the success of Galileo will be measured by the number of users,” and not by the number of satellites, or the degree of accuracy, or the strength of the signal.
Previously, the ENC audience had heard from Ingolf Schädler that “Europe has closed the gap with the technological superpowers,” in what “may be the most complex invention ever of mankind, the system of navigation that is GNSS.” He also made a proud reference to Austrian-produced signal generators aboard Galileo’s orbiting IOV satellites. Schädler is the deputy director general of innovation for the Austrian federal Ministry for Transport, Innovation and Technology.
“We have reached cruising speed,” announced the third keynote speaker, Carlo des Dorides of the European GNSS Agency (GSA). He was referring explicitly to the re-positioning of the GSA headquarters from Brussels to Prague, but the remarks reverberated to the Galileo program as a whole.
David Blanchard, deputy head of unit, EU Satellite Navigation Programmes for the European Commission, quoted an unnamed U.S. publication: “With the capability to make a position fix from four signal-broadcasting satellites, we can now say that Galileo has truly arrived.”
That statement appeared in the May 2013 GPS World, an issue of the magazine that was distributed in conference bags to all attendees at the ENC.
Blanchard then shifted the focus slightly from Galileo, to Galileo together with the European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service (EGNOS), Europe’s satellite-based augmentation service that also broadcasts GPS corrections. “We have to make sure that all the capabilities afforded by EGNOS are realized.” He also made strong references to the EGNOS Data Access Service (EDAS).
Blanchard cited a current ongoing study that shows that 6 to 7 percent of European gross domestic product (GDP) is dependent upon GNSS.
“A gold mine within arm’s reach of European industry” was how Gard Ueland, head of Galileo Services, characterized the present situation. “Development of European downstream market is crucial; it also has to bring more benefits to European society.” Galileo Services will host a workshop of industry stakeholders in late October, at the OHB System premises in Bremen, Germany. Watch GPS World Events calendar and news for an announcement with specific dates.
Having attained altitude and cruising speed, the Galileo program must now shift to warp speed to hit its goals on time: 18 satellites in orbit by the end of 2014, and a total of 26 by the end of 2015. Early services by the end of 2014, and full services in 2016. Stable, continuous services, as Blanchard emphasized.
Scientists in Hanoi, Vietnam, send word that on March 27 the four Galileo in-orbit validation satellites were visible at the same time in the sky over that Southeast Asian country for nearly two hours (from 2:15 to 4:00 GMT) while transmitting a valid navigation message.The research team of the NAVIS Centre at Hanoi University of Science and Technology (HUST) successfully computed what they claim is the first Galileo-only position fix in Asia.
Figure 1 depicts the obtained positions are depicted on top of the roof of the NAVIS Centre, where the antenna used to receive the signals is located (latitude = 21°00’16.69” N, Longitude = 105°50’37.90” E, height = 35,2 meters).
Figure 1. Positions obtained by only Galileo E1 Open Service (the antenna is located at the roof of the Ta Quang Buu library building inside HUST campus)
Figure 2 shows the positions of the four Galileo satellites and of 12 GPS satellites at time of acquisition, while Figure 3 reports the acquisition results of the four Galileo IOV satellites.
Figure 2. Skyplot of the satellites of the GPS and Galileo systems at the time of the campaign. The Galileo satellites are PFM (PRN11), FM2 (PRN12), FM3 (PRN19), and FM4 (PRN20).Figure 3. Acquisition results of the four Galileo IOV satellites: PRN 11.Figure 3. Acquisition results of the four Galileo IOV satellites: PRN12.Figure 3. Acquisition results of the four Galileo IOV satellites: PRN19.Figure 3. Acquisition results of the four Galileo IOV satellites: PRN20.
Comparison of the position computed using only Galileo, only GPS or both systems together is also presented in Figure 4. It should be noted that during the campaign, the data demodulation process reports that the Galileo system announces the “navigation data valid” status for PFM and FM3, meanwhile the “working without guarantee” for FM2 and FM4.
Figure 4. Position computed when using GPS only, Galileo only, or GPS+Galileo
The NAVIS Centre, located at the Hanoi University of Science and Technology in Hanoi, Vietnam, was established with a project co-funded by the European Union and collaborates with European and Asian partners on research and development of satellite navigation technology in Southeast Asia. This report was made by Dr. Ta Hai Tung, director of the NAVIS Centre, and Prof. Gustavo Belforte, co-director.
by James T. Curran, Mark Petovello, and Gérard Lachapelle
Within a day of their initial activation over central Europe on March 12, Galileo satellites were visible over North America. The PLAN Group of the University of Calgary was successful in capturing and processing the signals from these satellites as they emerged. Galileo PRN 11, 12, and 19 were found and tracked on E1B/C. The PLAN software GSNRx was also able to track simultaneously GPS L1 and GLONASS L1 and produce combined position solutions.
Examining the Galileo navigation message transmitted on the E1B signal, it was found that the satellite health status is flagged as E1BHS=3 meaning Signal Component currently in Test, and the data validity status is flagged as E1BDVS=1 meaning Working without Guarantee. Current Galileo-ready commercial receivers may automatically discard measurements from a satellites broadcasting such messages. Parsing the received words in the I/NAV message, it was noted that more 50 percent of them were of type 0, although all words (types 0 to 10) were decoded at some point during the test.
Data was collected using a roof-mounted NovAtel 702GG antenna and an in-house two-channel digitizing front-end clocked by a high quality OCXO and also a three-channel National Instruments front-end for post-processing. The two-channel intermediate frequency data was streamed live to a laptop computer for real-time processing with GSNRx. Two RF channels were processed, the first centered at 1574.0 MHz with an IF bandwidth of 10.0 MHz, for the GPS L1 C/A and Galileo E1B/C signals and the second centered at 1602.0 MHz again with a bandwidth of 10.0 MHz, for the GLONASS L1 OF signals. The GPS and GLONASS signals were tracked using a Kalman-filter-based tracking strategy while the Galileo signals were tracked using a specialized data-pilot algorithm.
Figure 1. Scatter plot of the north and east position
Pseudorange and Doppler observations were extracted from the tracking strategies at a rate of 2 Hz. A 2D horizontal plot of the combined GPS & GLONASS and the combined Galileo, GLONASS & GPS single-frequency single-point solutions is presented in Figure 1.
Figure 2: Skyplot of the Galileo satellites.
The pseudorange residuals are plotted against time for each PRN tracked from each of the three systems in Figure 3. It is apparent that the addition of the three Galileo observations contributes to a reduction in bias and standard deviation in the horizontal directions, showing an excellent functioning of the Galileo satellites and PLAN Group equipment and software.
Figure 3. Pseudorange residuals are plotted against time for each PRN tracked from each of the three systems.Figure 4. A screenshot of the receiver processing the data.
Septentrio became the first receiver manufacturer to report an autonomous real-time position calculation using Galileo IOV satellites, with its own standard commercial receiver. The company based in Leuven, Belgium announced on March 12 that it performed a first autonomous real-time Galileo position, velocity, and timing (PVT) calculation, based on live Interface Control Document (ICD)-compliant Galileo messages from the four Galileo in-orbit validation (IOV) satellites.
The standalone position was calculated from in-orbit navigation messages using a standard PolaRx4 GNSS receiver equipped with commercially released firmware.
This achievement followed another recent Septentrio milestone; the announcement of a first GPS+Glonass+BeiDou PVT less than two weeks after the BeiDou2 ICD publication in December — and it was itself followed by a Septentrio release stating performance of what it believes to be the first 4-constellation PVT performed by a standard commercial receiver.
“On Tuesday 12-Mar-2013 at approximately 10:35 UTC we included three Galileo IOV satellites (E12, E19 & E20) in a multi-constellation PVT. The 3D-position fix happened shortly after it was brought to Septentrio’s attention that the Galileo IOV satellites were transmitting, for the first time ever, a fully usable navigation message as part of an ESA experiment.
“This ability to rapidly incorporate new constellations demonstrates the flexibility of the architecture of Septentrio receivers,” the company statement continued.
“We are delighted that Septentrio receivers are amongst the first to witness the readiness of the Galileo navigation message to perform a position fix from in orbit signals,” commented Peter Grognard, Septentrio’s founder and CEO. “Septentrio has been involved since 2003 in all major milestones that pave the way for the European constellation genesis.”
Entitling its release “From Orbit with Love,” the European Space Agency (ESA) proudly announced today, March 12, 2013, that the first four satellites of the future Galileo Satellite Navigation constellation achieved their first-ever autonomous position fix. The positioning was replicated and confirmed by a team at the NavSAS group of Politecnico di Torino, Italy.
The obtained accuracy lies in the 10-meter range, according to ESA. ESA added that considering the infrastructure is only partly deployed, this fulfills expectations. As with GPS or any satellite navigation system, a minimum of four satellites is required to make a position fix in three dimensions.
The position fix was obtained by ESA’s navigation laboratory in the Netherlands, using the four satellites, launched in October 2011 and 2012, and the Galileo programme’s ground infrastructure, consisting of control centers in Italy and Germany and a global network of ground stations.
“This fundamental step confirms the Galileo system works as planned,” read the official statement.
“Once testing of the latest two satellites was complete, in recent weeks our effort focused on the generation of navigation messages and their dissemination to receivers on the ground,” explained Marco Falcone, ESA’s Galileo system manager.
Measurements of individual Galileo horizontal position fixes performed for the first time using the four Galileo satellites in orbit plus the worldwide ground system between 1000 and 11:00 CET on Tuesday 12 March 2013, showing an overall horizontal accuracy over ESTEC in Noordwijk, the Netherlands, of 6.3 m.
This first position fix of longitude, latitude, and altitude took place at the Navigation Laboratory at ESA’s technical heart ESTEC, in Noordwijk, the Netherlands, early on the morning of March 12, with an accuracy between 10 and 15 meters, which was expected, taking into account the limited infrastructure deployed so far.
“The test of today has a dual significance: historical and technical,” notes Javier Benedicto, ESA’s Galileo project manager. “From the historical perspective, this is the first time ever that Europe has been able to determine a position on the ground using only its own independent navigation system, Galileo. From the technical perspective, generation of the Galileo navigation messages is an essential step for beginning the full validation activities, before starting the full deployment of the system by the end of this year.”
With only four satellites for the time being, the full Galileo constellation is visible at the same time for a maximum two to three hours daily. This frequency will increase as more satellites join the constellation in orbit, along with extra ground stations coming online, for Galileo’s early services to start at the end of 2014.
The European Commission’s program head for Galileo, Paul Flament, granted an interview last week with GPS World, recapping the coming launch activities and expectations for initial and full operational capabilities, the latter with a target constellation of 30 satellites. The interview will appear in the April issue of the magazine, which is specially devoted to Galileo and European navigation initiatives.
With the validation testing activities under way, users might experience breaks in the content of the navigation messages being broadcast, said ESA. In the coming months the messages will be further elaborated to define the offset between Galileo System Time and Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), enabling Galileo to be relied on for precision timing applications, as well as the Galileo to GPS Time Offset, ensuring interoperability with GPS.
Galileo Is Real, and NavSAS Has the Evidence
Almost simultaneously with the ESA announcement, the NavSAS group of Politecnico di Torino and Istituto Superiore Mario Boella in Turin, Italy, also achieved a position fix using the signals of the four In-Orbit Validation Galileo satellites (PFM, FM2, FM3, FM4) that started today to broadcast a valid navigation message. The researchers of the NavSAS team successfully computed the positions by using full software receivers developed by the team.
The positions obtained are depicted in Figure 1, as red squares on the rooftop of the NavSAS Lab in Turin, Italy, where the antenna is positioned (latitude 45°03’54.98767″ N, longitude 7°39’32.28920″ E, height 311.9667 meters). The navigation message was first successfully decoded at 11.28 on March 12.
Figure 1. Position fixes on the rooftop of the NavSAS lab in Turin, Italy.
The configuration of the four Galileo satellites as seen by the NavSAS lab is reported in Figure 2.
Figure 2. Skyplot of the Galileo IOV satellites at the time of the data acquisition for the fix.
The NavSAS team was earlier among the first research teams worldwide able to receive and process the signal of the PFM and FM2 satellites, in December 2011 after the launch of the earliest Galileo IOV satellites, and again at the end of 2012 for the FM3 and FM4.
The milestone in both accounts of Galileo-only positioning is that it is real-time positioning using the Galileo navigation message. Galileo positioning using a post-processing mode had already been demonstrated, and described by Peter Steigenberger, Urs Hugentobler, and Oliver Montenbruck of the Technische Universität München and the German Space Operations Center, in an account in GPS World, February 2012 issue. (scroll down to “First Demonstration of Galileo-Only Positioning”).
A Case History Using the New Galileo E6-B/C Signal
By Sergei Yudanov, JAVAD GNSS
A method of decoding an unknown pseudorandom noise code uses a conventional GNSS antenna and receiver with modified firmware. The method was verified using the signals from the Galileo In-Orbit Validation satellites.
Decoding an unknown GNSS pseudorandom noise (PRN) code can be rather easily done using a high-gain steerable dish antenna as was used, for example, in determine the BeiDou-M1 broadcast codes before they were publicly announced. The signal-to-noise ratio within one chip of the code is sufficient to determine its sign. This article describes a method of getting this information using a conventional GNSS antenna and receiver with modified firmware. The method was verified using the signals from the Galileo In-Orbit Validation (IOV) satellites. In spite of the fact that only pilot signal decoding seems to be possible at first glance, it is shown that in practice data signals can also be decoded.
Concept
The idea is to do coherent accumulation of each chip of an unknown signal during a rather long time interval. The interval may be as long as a full satellite pass; for medium Earth orbits, this could be up to six hours. One of the receiver’s channels is configured in the same way as for signal tracking. The I and Q signal components are accumulated during one chip length in the digital signal processor, and these values are added to an array cell, referenced by chip number, by the processor. Only a limited amount of information need be known about the signal: its RF frequency; the expected chip rate; the expected total code length; and the modulation method.
The decoding of binary-phase-shift-keying (BPSK) signals (as most often used) is the subject of this article. It appears that the decoding of more complicated signals is possible too, but this should be proved. A limitation of this method (in common with that of the dish method) is the maximum total code length that can be handled: for lengths greater than one second and bitrates higher than 10,000 kilobits per second, the receiver’s resources may not be sufficient to deal with the signal.
Reconstructing the Signal’s Phase
This method requires coherency. During the full accumulation period, the phase difference between the real signal phase and the phase of the signal generated by the receiver’s channel should be much less than one cycle of the carrier frequency. Depending on the GNSS’s available signals, different approaches may be used. The simplest case is reconstruction of a third signal while two other signals on different frequencies are of known structure and can be tracked.
The main (and possibly the only significant) disturbing factor is the ionosphere. The ionospheric delay (or, more correctly, the variation of ionospheric delay) is calculated using the two known tracked signals, then the phase of the third signal, as affected by the ionosphere, is predicted.
The final formula (the calculations are trivial and are widely available in the literature) is:
where:
φ1 , f1 are the phase and frequency of the first signal in cycles and Hz, respectively
φ2 , f2 are the phase and frequency of the second signal in cycles and Hz, respectively
φ3 , f3 are the phase and frequency of the third signal in cycles and Hz, respectively.
It was confirmed that for all pass periods (elevation angles less than 10 degrees were not tested), the difference between the calculated phase and real phase was always less than one-tenth of a cycle. GPS Block IIF satellites PRN 1 and PRN 25 were used to prove this: the L1 C/A-code and L5 signals were used as the first and second signals, with the L2C signal as the third unknown.
If two known signals are not available, and the ionospheric delay cannot be precisely calculated, it is theoretically possible to obtain an estimate of the delay from one or more neighboring satellites with two signals available. Calculations and estimations should be carried out to investigate the expected precision.
The Experiment
The Galileo E6-B/C signal as currently transmitted by the IOV satellites was selected for the experiment, as its structure has not been published. The E6 signal has three components: E6-A, E6-B and E6-C. The E6-A component is part of the Galileo Public Regulated Service, while the two other components will serve the Galileo Commercial Service. The E6-B component carries a data signal, while the E6-C component is a pilot signal.
From open sources, it is known that the carrier frequency of the E6 signal is 1278.75 MHz and that the E6-B and E6-C components use BPSK modulation at 5,115 chips per millisecond with a primary code length of one millisecond. E6-B’s data rate is 1,000 bits per second and the total length of the pilot code is 100 milliseconds (a secondary code of 100 bits over 100 milliseconds is also present in the E6-C signal, which aids in signal acquisition).
A slightly modified commercial high-precision multi-GNSS receiver, with the E6 band and without the GLONASS L2 band, was used for this experiment. The receiver was connected to a conventional GNSS antenna, placed on a roof and was configured as described above. The E1 signal was used as the first signal and E5a as the second signal. The E6 code tracking (using 5,115 chip values of zero) was 100 percent guided from the E1 code tracking (the changing of the code delay in the ionosphere was ignored). The E6 phase was guided from E1 and E5a using the above equation. Two arrays for 511,500 I and Q samples were organized in firmware. The integration period was set to one chip (200 nanoseconds).
Galileo IOV satellite PRN 11 (also variously known as E11, ProtoFlight Model and GSAT0101) was used initially, and the experiment started when the satellite’s elevation angle was about 60 degrees and lasted for only about 30 minutes. Then the I and Q vectors were downloaded to a PC and analyzed.
Decoding of Pilot Signal (E6-C)
Decoding of the pilot signal is made under the assumption that any possible influence of the data signal is small because the number of ones and zeros of E6-B in each of 511,500 chips of the 100-millisecond integration interval is about the same. First, the secondary code was obtained. Figure 1 shows the correlation of the first 5,115 chips with 5,115 chips shifted by 0 to 511,500 chips. Because the initial phase of the E6 signal is unknown, two hypotheses for computing the amplitude or signal level were checked: [A] = [I] + [Q] and [A] = [I] – [Q], and the combination with the higher correlation value was selected for all further analysis.
Figure 1. Un-normalized autocorrelation of E6-C signal chips.
In Figure 1, the secondary code is highly visible: we see a sequence of 100 positive and negative correlation peaks (11100000001111 …; interpreting the negative peaks as zeros).This code is the exact complement (all bits reversed) of the published E5a pilot secondary code for this satellite. More will be said about the derived codes and their complements later. It appears that, for all of the IOV satellites, the E6-C secondary codes are the same as the E5a secondary codes.
After obtaining the secondary code, it is possible to coherently add all 100 milliseconds of the integration interval with the secondary code sign to increase the energy in each chip by 100 times. Proceeding, we now have 5,115 chips of the pilot signal — the E6-C primary code.
To understand the correctness of the procedure and to check its results, we need to confirm that there is enough signal energy in each chip. To this end, a histogram of the pilot signal chip amplitudes can be plotted (see Figure 2). We see that there is nothing in the middle of the plot. This means that all 5,115 chips are correct, and there is no chance that even one bit is wrong.
Figure 2. Histogram of pilot signal chip amplitude in arbitrary units.
But there is one effect that seems strange at first glance: instead of two peaks we have four (two near each other). We will shortly see that this phenomenon results from the influence of the E6-B data signal and it may be decoded also.
Decoding the Data Signal
The presence of four peaks in the histogram of Figure 2 was not understood initially, so a plot of all 511,500 signal code chips was made (see Figure 3).
Interestingly, each millisecond of the signal has its own distribution, and milliseconds can be found where the distribution is close to that when two signals with the same chip rate are present. In this case, there should be three peaks in the energy (signal strength) spectrum: –2E, 0, and +2E, where E is the energy of one signal (assuming the B and C signals have the same strength).
Figure 3. Plot of 511,500 signal code chip amplitudes in arbitrary units.
One such time interval (starting at millisecond 92 and ending at millisecond 97) is shown in Figure 4. The middle of the plot (milliseconds 93 to 96) shows the described behavior. Figure 5 is a histogram of signal code chip amplitude for the signal from milliseconds 93 to 96.
Figure 4. Plot of signal code chip amplitude in arbitrary units from milliseconds 93 to 96.
Then we collect all such samples (milliseconds) with the same data sign together to increase the signal level. Finally, 5,115 values are obtained. Their distribution is shown in Figure 6.
The central peak is divided into two peaks (because of the presence of the pilot signal), but a gap between the central and side peaks (unlike the case of Figure 5) is achieved. This allows us to get the correct sign of all data signal chips. Subtracting the already known pilot signal chips, we get the 5,115 chips of the data signal — the E6-B primary code. This method works when there are at least some samples (milliseconds) where the number of chips with the same data bit in the data signal is significantly more than half.
Figure 5. Histogram of signal code chip amplitude.Figure 6. Histogram of the signed sum of milliseconds chip amplitude with a noticeable presence of the data signal.
Proving the Codes
The experimentally determined E6-B and E6-C primary codes and the E6-C secondary codes for all four IOVsatellites (PRNs 11, 12, 19, and 20) were put in the receiver firmware. The receiver was then able to autonomously track the E6-B and E6-C signals of the satellites.
Initial decoding of E6-B navigation data has been performed. It appears that the data has the same preamble (the 16-bit synchronization word) as that given for the E6-B signal in the GIOVE Interface Control Document (ICD). Convolutional encoding for forward error correction is applied as described in the Galileo Open Service ICD, and 24-bit cyclic redundancy check error detection (CRC-24) is used. At the time of the analysis, all four IOV satellites transmitted the same constant navigation data message.
Plots of PRN 11 E6 signal tracking are shown in Figure 7 and in Figure 8. The determined codes may be found at env-gpsworld-integration.kinsta.cloud/galileo-E6-codes. Some of these codes may be the exact complement of the official codes since the code-determination technique has a one-half cycle carrier-phase ambiguity resulting in an initial chip value ambiguity. But from the point of view of receiver tracking, this is immaterial.
Figure 7. Signal-to-noise-density ratio of E1 (red), E5a (magenta), E5b (blue), and E6 (green) code tracking of Galileo IOV satellite PRN 11 on December 21–22, 2012.Figure 8. Pseudorange minus carrier phase (in units of meters) of E1 (red), E5a (magenta), E5b (blue), and E6 (green) code tracking of Galileo IOV satellite PRN 11 on December 21–22, 2012.
Acknowledgments
Special thanks to JAVAD GNSS’s DSP system developers. The system is flexible so it allows us to do tricks like setting the integration period to one chip, and powerful enough to be able to do required jobs within a 200-nanosecond cycle. This article was prepared for publication by Richard Langley.
Manufacturers
A JAVAD GNSS TRE-G3T-E OEM receiver, a modification of the TRE-G3T receiver, was used in the experiment, connected to a conventional JAVAD GNSS antenna. Plots of E6 code tracking of all four IOV satellites may be found on the company’s website.
Sergei Yudanov is a senior firmware developer at JAVAD GNSS, Moscow.
Two of the Galileo In-Orbit Validation satellites, E11 and E12, began transmitting navigation messages on their Open Service signals on January 17. Several stations in the Cooperative Network for GNSS Observation and the International GNSS Service’s Multi-GNSS Experiment network received the messages. The epheremis data in the messages appears to be updated every 10 minutes.
The Technische Universitaet Muenchen has reported that transmissions of the L1/E1 signal from Galileo satellite IOV-4 (FM-4) started at about 17:15:10 GPS Time December 12. The navigation signals of both of the recently launched in-orbit validation satellites have now been activated.
A number of stations in the Cooperative Network for GNSS Observation as well as some stations participating in the International GNSS Service’s Multi-GNSS Experiment are tracking IOV-4. The satellite is using PRN code E20.
If the commissioning schedule is similar to that of IOV-3, the E5 and E6 signals of IOV-4 should be switched on over the next few days.
One of the GNSS controversies of the past year ended, not with a bang nor with a whimper, but like the fog, silently creeping away on its little cat feet. The UK patent applications against the interoperative GPS/Galileo signal design appear to have been dropped.
Vague rumblings emerged throughout spring and summer this year that two British technologists, backed by the U.K. Ministry Defense, had filed patents on the future interoperable GPS and Galileo binary-offset carrier signal designs. If granted and enforced, the patents would have severely disrupted modernization plans for both systems and levied unexpected costs upon receiver manufacturers. A company called Ploughshare Innovations Ltd. started contacting manufacturers and asking for payment of royalties, based on the patent filings.
After significant uproar and negotiations before and behind the scenes, it now appears that the initiative has been quietly scuttled. The U.S. Patent Office file on application number 11/774,412, Modulation Signals for a Satellite Navigation System, on the Patent Office’s website, now reads “Expressly Abandoned — During Examination.” The status is dated September 16, 2012, some time ago, but none of the parties involved, whether as filers or negotiators, has made any public announcement about it.
Both Sides Now. Checking the European Patent Office and its registry — which is no trivial task of website navigation — turns up a note, dated September 24, under the docket for EP1830199, Modulations Signals for a Satellite Navigation System. The note states “Patent surrendered.” A few days later, another note: “Lapsed in a contracting state announced via postgrant inform. From Nat. Office to EPO,” with further information to the effect of “lapse because of failure to submit a translation or the description or to pay the fee within the prescribed time limit.”
For good measure, a final docket note on October 3: “Lapsed due to resignation by the proprietor.”
Lockheed Martin Logs Enviro OK on GPS III Sat
The Lockheed Martin team developing the U.S. Air Force’s GPS III satellites has completed thermal vacuum testing for the Navigation Payload Element (NPE) of the GPS III Non-Flight Satellite Testbed (GNST). The milestone is one of several environmental tests verifying the navigation payload’s quality of workmanship and increased performance compared to the current generation of satellites.
During thermal vacuum testing, the navigation payload’s performance was proven in a vacuum environment at the extreme hot and cold temperatures it will experience on orbit to ensure it will operate as planned once in space. Following the test, the NPE will now be integrated with the GNST for final satellite level testing.
The GNST is a full-sized prototype of a GPS III satellite used to identify and solve development issues prior to integration and test of the first space vehicle. The approach significantly reduces risk, improves production predictability, increases mission assurance and lowers overall program costs. Following integration and test at Lockheed Martin’s GPS Processing Facility (GPF) near Denver, the GNST will be shipped to Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida, for risk reduction activities at the launch site.
Lockheed Martin is on contract to deliver the first four GPS III satellites for launch. The Air Force plans to purchase up to 32 GPS III satellites.
Galileo IOV Satellites in Position
The Galileo In-Orbit Validation (IOV) satellites launched on October 12 (Flight Model 3 and 4), have now been positioned in their designated orbits, according to tracking data from the U.S. Joint Space Operations Center. A plot of the IOV constellation is now available at http://gge.unb.ca/test/Galileo.argper.690.432000.pdf.
The four IOV satellites are in two orbital planes separated by about 120 degrees. Within each plane, the satellites are separated by about 40 degrees. This orbital arrangement will allow the four satellites to be simultaneously tracked for periods of time by GNSS monitoring stations, permitting positioning tests using only IOV data to be carried out. However, no signals from FM3 or FM4 have yet been detected by stations of the International GNSS Service.
The Galileo In-orbit Validation (IOV) satellites launched on October 12 (Flight Model 3 and 4), have now been positioned in their designated orbits, according to tracking data from the U.S. Joint Space Operations Center. A plot of the IOV constellation is now available.
The four IOV satellites are in two orbital planes separated by about 120 degrees. Within each plane, the satellites are separated by about 40 degrees. This orbital arrangement will allow the four satellites to be simultaneously tracked for periods of time by GNSS monitoring stations, permitting positioning tests using only IOV data to be carried out. However, no signals from FM3 or FM4 have yet been detected by stations of the International GNSS Service.
The European Space Agency (ESA) will be launching a second pair of Galileo IOV satellites tomorrow from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana.
The satellites will ride a Soyuz ST-B rocket from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana. Launch is scheduled for 18:15:00 GMT (20:15:00 CEST) October 12. Live streaming will begin at 17:48 GMT (19:48 CEST) for about one hour.
From launch to final deployment, when the dispenser releases the satellites sideways in opposite directions, takes three hours and 44 minutes. Live coverage resumes at 21:25 GMT (23:25 CEST).
This flight is designated VS03 in Arianespace‘s mission numbering system, and it will be the Spaceport’s third launch since Soyuz was introduced at this near-equatorial facility one year ago. Arianespace is the launch contractor.
The two Galileo satellites will join the first two spacecraft orbited by Arianespace’s historic VS01 flight on October 21, 2011, marking Soyuz’ introduction at the Spaceport. Once all four are operational in space, they will provide the minimum number of satellites required for navigational fixes — enabling system validation testing when all are visible in the sky.
As a European initiative, the Galileo satellite navigation system is being developed in a collaborative effort of the European Union and the European
Space Agency. The In-Orbit Validation (IOV) satellites weigh 700 kg. each and were built by a consortium led by the Astrium division of EADS — which
produced the platforms and has responsibility for the payloads, while Thales Alenia Space handled the assembly and testing tasks.
By Richard B. Langley, Simon Banville, and Peter Steigenberger.
For a brief period, and for a few hours on certain days, signals from the first four orbiting Galileo satellites could be received by state-of-the-art multi-frequency, multi-constellation GNSS receivers. Although not intended for actual positioning tests, the satellites did provide a first opportunity to assess the prototype Galileo signals in the positioning domain. The results obtained bode well for the future operational Galileo constellation.
The launch and successful operation of the two Galileo In-Orbit Validation Element (GIOVE) satellites — GIOVE-A and GIOVE-B — followed by the two Galileo In-Orbit Validation (IOV) satellites — ProtoFlight Model (PFM) and Flight Model 2 (FM2) — were important steps in the development of Europe’s Galileo satellite navigation system.
The GIOVE test-bed satellites were orbited to secure the use of the frequencies allocated by the International Telecommunication Union for the Galileo system; to verify the most critical technologies of the operational Galileo system, such as the on-board atomic clocks and the navigation signal generator; to characterize the novel features of the Galileo signal design, including the verification of user receivers and their resistance to interference and multipath; and to characterize the radiation environment of the medium Earth orbits planned for the operational Galileo constellation. The IOV satellites, of which there will be four with two more to be launched this fall, are prototype operational satellites designed to validate the Galileo concept in both space and on Earth. Once all four IOV satellites are in orbit, it should be feasible to carry out positioning exercises using just Galileo satellite signals. It was not intended for the GIOVE plus two initial IOV satellites to be used for positioning demonstrations. However, it turns out that (before GIOVE-A and GIOVE-B were recently decommissioned) for a few hours on certain days, signals from all four satellites could be received simultaneously by state-of-the-art multi-frequency, multi-constellation GNSS receivers.
Dual-frequency measurements from the GIOVE satellites and triple-frequency measurements from the IOV satellites have been archived by a number of continuously operating receivers including those in the COoperative Network for GIOVE Observation (CONGO) and those contributing to the International GNSS Service’s Multi-GNSS Experiment (M-GEX) observing campaign. Before joining the M-GEX campaign as the receiver at station UNB3 at the University of New Brunswick (UNB) in Fredericton, Canada, a Trimble Navigation NetR9 receiver fed by a Zephyr Geodetic II antenna was continuously tested at UNB for a couple of months and its 30-second-interval measurements were locally archived. These measurements included (in the terminology used by the Receiver Independent Exchange (RINEX) version 3 format): C1X, L1X, and S1X (pseudorange, carrier-phase, and carrier-to-noise-density-ratio measurements for combined data-plus-pilot tracking of the Open Service signal on the E1/L1 carrier frequency (1575.42 MHz)); C5X, L5X, and S5X (the corresponding in-phase and quadrature (I+Q) measurements on the E5a carrier frequency (1176.45 MHz)); C7X, L7X, and S7X (the corresponding I+Q measurements on the E5b carrier frequency (1207.140 MHz)); and C8X, L8X, and S8X (the corresponding I+Q measurements on the effective E5a+E5b carrier frequency (1191.795MHz)).
The first two of four Galileo IOV satellites were launched on October 21, 2011. Credit: ESA.
Although the IOV satellites are in synchronized orbits in the same plane with mean orbital periods of 1.70475 orbits per day, those orbits are not coordinated with those of the GIOVE-A and GIOVE-B satellites, which had mean orbital periods of 1.69434 and 1.70960 orbits per day, respectively. (The orbit of GIOVE-B was recently raised, following decommissioning.) This means that all four satellites will not generally be in view at a ground station at the same time. However, at a given location on certain days, four-satellite visibility did occur for periods up to a few hours. We identified several such days but were hampered in our efforts to obtain positioning solutions due to the testing programs of the satellites.
Our first constraint concerned GIOVE-A. The European Space Agency carried out tests with this satellite for more than six years and decided to decommission the satellite for its purposes on June 30, 2012, and switched off the navigation signals. This narrowed our window of possible four-satellite-visibility days. Secondly, the clocks on the IOV satellites were allowed to drift so that their offsets with respect to GPS System Time could be very large with offset values of tens to hundreds of milliseconds. Some GNSS receivers cannot make usable measurements when presented with such large clock offsets. This behavior further limited our windows of opportunity for four-satellite Galileo positioning. Nevertheless, we found that on May 17, 2012, the receiver at UNB successfully tracked the four satellites with a period of common visibility of two and a half hours. See Figure 1 for the time series of the occurrences of actual measurements made by the receiver. Common visibility extended from 03:04:30 to 05:34:30 GPS Time with the receiver tracking the satellites without any elevation-angle cutoff imposed.
In the remainder of this article, we describe the procedures used to obtain precise positions from the measurements, including the technique used to determine precise orbit and clock data for the Galileo satellites, and the results we obtained.
Figure 1. Visibility of Galileo satellites from UNB on May 17, 2012.
Generating the Orbits and Clocks
GIOVE and IOV satellite orbit and clock parameters are determined at Technische Universität München with a modified version of the Bernese GPS Software in a two-step procedure based on GPS and Galileo observations of 23 CONGO stations. After a common preprocessing step (detection of outliers and cycle slips), GPS and Galileo observations are treated separately. Station coordinates, tropospheric delay parameters and receiver clocks are obtained from GPS observations only. GPS satellite orbits and clocks as well as Earth rotation parameters from the Center for Orbit Determination in Europe (CODE) are kept fixed in this step. In the second step, the ionosphere-free linear combination of E1 and E5a observations is used to estimate the Galileo-related parameters, namely the satellite orbits and clocks. The station coordinates and the troposphere and receiver clock parameters are fixed to the GPS-derived results of the first step. To account for systematic differences between the GPS and Galileo code signals as well as biases between the different receivers, differential code biases (DCBs) are estimated for all stations but one. Separate biases are set up for the GIOVE and IOV satellites. To strengthen the stability of the orbital arc, five daily solutions are combined into a multi-day solution and consistent Galileo clock parameters are recomputed. Only the middle day of the5-day solution is used for the positioning discussed in this article. Based on internal consistency tests and satellite laser ranging residuals, the accuracy of these orbits is assumed to be on the one-to-two-decimeter level.
The Positioning Technique
A preliminary assessment of the quality of Galileo-only positioning could be achieved using the four satellites simultaneously in view at UNB. The second author’s GNSS positioning software was used to process the UNB data. Applying a 7.5-degree elevation cutoff angle to remove low-elevation-angle measurements resulted in an observation session of 1 hour and 48 minutes. The east or longitude dilution of precision (DOP) component starts out at 0.829 at the beginning of this session, gradually dropping to 0.688, and then rising to 1.285 at the end of the session; while the north or latitude DOP component starts out at 2.683 at the beginning of the session, rising to 4.233 at the end (see Figure 2).
Figure 2. North (N), east (E), vertical (V), and geometrical (G) dilution of precision (DOP) values.
Even though the receiver was tracking signals on E1, E5a, E5b, and E5a+b, carrier-phase and code observations on E1 and E5a were selected to match the satellite-clock datum. Ionosphere-free combinations were formed to eliminate first-order ionospheric effects, while the tropospheric delay was modeled using local measurements of temperature, pressure, and relative humidity provided by UNB’s meteorological station. No residual delay was estimated. Phase center offsets (PCO) and variations (PCV) for the Trimble Zephyr Geodetic II antenna were obtained through anechoic chamber calibrations (see Further Reading). The same satellite PCO as the ones used in the generation of the satellite orbits and clocks were applied, and no satellite PCV were considered. Other error sources required for precise positioning were also modeled such as solid Earth tides, ocean tide loading, and phase wind-up.
Since separate biases were set up in the estimation of the GIOVE and IOV satellite clock estimation, the same approach should be used on the user side. Unfortunately, solving for this additional parameter in the navigation filter is not possible when tracking only four satellites. To overcome this limitation, a GIOVE/IOV offset was estimated using 24 hours of combined GPS-plus-Galileo observations in static mode (one position solution for the whole observation period), and was introduced as an additional correction in the Galileo-only solution. The estimated coordinates from this combined solution were also used as a reference in computing the errors in latitude, longitude, and height presented next.
Results and Discussion
Three solutions were computed to demonstrate the quality of Galileo-only navigation. In the first scenario (see Figure 3), ionosphere-free code observations solely contributed to the epoch-by-epoch estimation of receiver position and clock offset. The estimated coordinates are largely contaminated by code noise, which is amplified by a factor of approximately three when forming the ionosphere-free combination. In the absence of redundancy, any errors in the observations (such as noise) propagate directly into the estimated quantities and, in this case, affected particularly the latitude component. An analysis of the noise and multipath characteristics of each signal revealed the presence of time-varying effects in the C5X observations. Further investigations are required to properly identify the cause of those effects. As a result, the root-mean-square (RMS) error of the latitude, longitude and height components were 3.084, 0.658 and 1.617 meters, respectively (see Table 1).
Figure 3. Code-based solution. Differences in latitude, longitude, and height with respect to reference coordinates.Table 1. Summary of the RMS errors for the three solutions computed.
As a second step, both code and carrier-phase observations were combined into a single adjustment (see Figure 4), yielding what is often referred to as precise point positioning (PPP). To accommodate the initial carrier-phase ambiguities, additional parameters were estimated in the filter. While adding carrier phases clearly reduces the noise in the solution, the estimated coordinates do not converge to cm-level accuracies, as typically expected in PPP. Despite weak geometry and range errors, the main reason for poor convergence is again the presence of biases in code observations. Without redundancy, carrier-phase observations only act as a filter for code observations, without reducing the contribution of biases. The RMS errors are 0.422 meters in latitude, 0.150 meters in longitude, and 0.389 meters in height.
Figure 4. Combined code and carrier-phase solution. Differences in latitude, longitude, and height with respect to reference coordinates.
To get an independent assessment of carrier-phase observations, a phase-only solution was computed (see Figure 5). For this test, a different methodology was adopted in which we simulated starting the positioning at a known precise location. At the first epoch, the receiver coordinates were constrained to the estimated values from the 24-hour GPS-plus-Galileo positioning solution, and the receiver clock offset was fixed to an arbitrary value (in this case zero). This initial epoch thus allowed estimation of the carrier-phase ambiguities, which remained constant for the rest of the session. For subsequent epochs, the receiver position and clock offset were estimated on an epoch-by-epoch basis. Even though the errors in the initial ambiguity estimates propagated into the following epochs, the estimated coordinates remained at the centimeter level throughout the nearly two-hour common observing period.
Figure 5. Phase-only solution, starting at a known location. Differences in latitude, longitude, and height with respect to reference coordinates.
Conclusion
We have obtained what we believe to be the first positioning results using observations from the four Galileo satellites launched to date. The results are very respectable given that the observing geometry was far from ideal and there was no redundancy for epoch-by-epoch solutions. Furthermore, the satellites were not operating at a performance level to be expected for the fully operational future constellation. Both GIOVE satellites have been retired and we must now wait for the second set of IOV satellites to be orbited before we can continue our investigations in Galileo-only positioning with live signals.
Acknowledgments
We thank the operators and station managers of the CONGO network for supplying the data used to model the orbits and clocks of the Galileo satellites.
Richard B. Langley is a professor in the Department of Geodesy and Geomatics Engineering at the University of New Brunswick (UNB) in Fredericton, Canada.
Simon Banville is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Geodesy and Geomatics Engineering at UNB. He is also working for Natural Resources Canada on real-time precise point positioning.
Peter Steigenberger is a staff member in the Institut für Astronomische und Physikalische Geodäsie of the Technische Universität München in Munich, Germany.
FURTHER READING
“Anechoic Chamber Calibrations of Phase Center Variations for New and Existing GNSS Signals and Potential Impacts in IGS Processing” by M. Becker, P. Zeimetz, and E. Schönemann, presented at the IGS Workshop, Newcastle upon Tyne, England, June 28–July 2, 2010. Available online: http://www.igs.org/event/newcastle2010/ (scroll to “0205” and click on “PDF.”)
“Precise Orbit Determination of GIOVE-B Based on the CONGO Network” by P. Steigenberger, U. Hugentobler, O. Montenbruck, and A. Hauschild in Journal of Geodesy, Vol. 85, No. 6, 2011, pp. 357–365, doi: 10.1007/s00190-011-0443-5.
