The European Commission (EC) is seeking help to build a roadmap for high-accuracy Galileo and EGNOS services.
The EC Directorate-General for Defence Industry and Space (DG-DEFIS) has issued an Invitation to Tender for a service contract to address how the future evolution of European GNSS (EGNSS) could be beneficial for innovative demanding applications.
The new service contract will assess the feasibility of an integrity service complementing EGNSS high accuracy in the 2030+ timeframe.
The new service contract will feed into the evolving needs of demanding new applications without disrupting the current business models of established service providers, according to the European GNSS Agency. The tender will assess various steps needed for the Galileo and EGNOS services to evolve.
A webinar to explain the framework and objectives of the procurement and the different tasks in the procurement is planned on September 23 at 16:00 CEST.
Emerging and next-generation applications will require more demanding positioning solutions to be able to offer innovative services. The use of an integrity service complementing European GNSS (EGNSS) High Accuracy in the 2030 horizon could result in the provision of an accurate and reliable positioning solution that would translate into the overall improvement of future innovative and demanding services.
As part of the services provided by Galileo, the Galileo High-Accuracy Service (HAS) will provide high-accuracy positioning and synchronization information, the EC said.
EGNOS version 3 will extend the service area to the entire landmasses of EU Member States. New EGNOS services could be implemented in further releases of EGNOS as an option for the integrity service complementing EGNSS High Accuracy.
The European GNSS Agency (GSA) has launched the MyGalileoSolution competition. The contest is targeting European innovators and entrepreneurs ready to develop location-based solutions, such as mobile applications, wearable-based solutions, asset management and tracking solutions, or robotics, leveraging Galileo as a source of positioning, navigation and/or timing. A wide participation from all Member States is expected.
GSA has a successful track record in supporting and boosting GNSS-based innovative applications. For years, the agency has been leading several research and innovation initiatives such as the Galileo Masters, Horizon 2020 projects, and more recently European competitions like the 2019 MyGalileoApp and Hackathons across Europe and beyond.
Two tracks for 56 prizes
With a prize pool of almost € 1.5 million, MyGalileoSolution is the largest competition ever organized by the GSA. It consists of two independent and parallel tracks, each one with a list of goals and deliverables.
Track 1 , From Idea to Prototype, aims to develop a beta version of an application or a prototype of a solution implementing an idea, reaching a minimum of 50% of its functionality.
Track 2, From Prototype to Product, aims to develop a fully functional solution ready to be commercialised starting from a beta version of an application or a prototype.
Participants are expected to leverage Galileo’s robust positioning and accurate timing and synchronization capabilities, showing how it can enable the development of the next generation of applications and services across a wide range of areas. In this competition the GSA is challenging innovators in four different areas: Crisis & Emergency Response, Smart Transport for Green Deal, Solution for Digital Age, and Cybersecurity.
Galileo for location-based services
With more than 1.5 billion Galileo-enabled smartphones and more than 51 million GNSS-enabled wearable devices in the market, location-based services (LBS) are booming. Accurate positioning and timing are at the heart of the growth and evolution of LBS, in addition the access to Android GNSS raw measurements has allowed for the creation of advanced GNSS positioning algorithms that enable the development of more ambitious smartphone-based applications.
‘’Galileo has set the trend for dual-frequency chipsets, which provide better accuracy and are more resistant to multipath in urban environments,” said Pascal Claudel, GSA acting executive director. “We are looking forward to seeing innovators launching their disruptive GNSS solutions and turning them into real businesses, hence leading to European growth, competitiveness and sustainability. There is ‘space’ for all types of innovation and we expect the participation of all Member States.”
“Competitions like MyGalileoSolution are a great opportunity to quickly move from idea to market,” said Francesco Fiorito, leader of Argeo, the winning team of the 2019 MyGalileoApp competition. “It is a confidence boost for young entrepreneurs and their capacity to grow and generate new solutions and business,” Claudel concluded.
Deadlines and more information
The deadline for submission for both categories is Sept. 30. Projects will be evaluated in terms of their innovative nature, market potential, feasibility and Galileo relevance by a panel of GSA experts.
The European GNSS Agency (GSA), in collaboration with the Council of European Geodetic Surveyors (CLGE), has launched the Geomatics on the Move 2020 competition. The event aims to foster the use of European Union (EU) satellite programs Galileo, EGNOS and Copernicus among students, young professionals, entrepreneurs and small and mid-sized businesses to create innovative geomatics applications and solutions across all over Europe.
Building and expanding on the CLGE Student Contest, which has been held for the past nine years, the new Geomatics on the Move Prize Contest targets applications that integrate the use of additional technologies such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, augmented and virtual reality, as well as supplementary remote sensing data sources like drones, GSA said. Solutions animated through mobile phone applications or other easy-to-use platforms are also accepted.
“This is the ninth year of partnership between the Council of European Geodetic Surveyors and the GSA; over the years we have seen some exciting and innovative solutions emerge that leverage the EU Space Programme to deliver practical solutions for the mapping and surveying community,” said GSA Acting Executive Director Pascal Claudel. “This year, as we recover from this global setback, I look forward to seeing even more novel ideas — from all over the European Union — able to respond to current and future challenges.”
The competition will be organized in two stages. The first phase is an open call for ideas, during which applicants submit posters describing their ideas. The deadline for these submissions is Oct. 16.
The proposals then will be evaluated by the GSA and CLGE, and a maximum of 10 projects will be chosen to present their pitch during the finals. The selected applicants will refine their poster and prepare their pitch, for which technical support and training will be made available.
The official award of the Geomatics on the Move prize contest will take place virtually, during the European Space Week, taking place Dec. 7-11. During this event, finalists will present their solutions to the evaluation board, and winners will be announced on the official contest site.
With an overall prize of €30 000, a set of 10 prizes will be offered in two categories. The first of these categories targets EU space-based traditional geomatics solutions and the second targets integrated geomatics solutions. he first category is looking for solutions in which the main innovation is based on the use of EGNSS, employing traditional equipment such as surveying or GIS grade GNSS receivers for applications such as cadastral, marine and mining surveying or GIS mapping. The integrated geomatics category targets integrated surveying solutions that use Galileo or EGNOS and leverage cutting-edge tools and technologies such as drones, mobile mapping, laser scanners or augmented/,mixed reality, both within geomatics applications or beyond.
The contest targets the design and development of drone-based applications or services, using a Galileo-enabled receiver, to address the European Union’s (EU’s) key priorities such as the Green Deal, and support the EU Recovery Plan for Europe.
Initial ideas should be submitted by Aug. 31. Wide participation from all EU Member States is expected.
According to ESA, the MyGalileoDrone competition seeks to tap into the EU’s innovative spirit to deliver applications and services to boost Europe’s competitiveness, resilience and sustainability. Applications should leverage and demonstrate Galileo’s added value, such as increased accuracy, availability and robustness of position, as well as integrity for a solution based on drone operations.
The market related to drone applications and services is growing rapidly, and European drone service revenues are expected to reach EUR 250 million by 2025. The European demand is estimated to reach EUR 10 billion annually, in nominal terms, to 2035 and over EUR 15 billion annually to 2050, creating more than 100,000 jobs.
With GNSS receivers implemented on almost all new commercial drones, Galileo’s and EGNOS’ added value is pivotal for the development and growth of drone services and applications.
In addition to designing and developing the application, contestants should prepare their drone- based application or service for commercial launch.
The solution should leverage Galileo to provide a position fix. The use of EGNSS is understood in the broad sense, and Galileo can be integrated in the flying platform, the ground control station, or in other devices supporting the operation, such as a smartphone or even in the frame of U-Space services.
“GNSS is a key enabling technology in this segment, ensuring robust navigation and reliability for a wide range of applications. The MyGalileoDrone competition aims to bring oxygen to European SMEs and entrepreneurs driving innovation. It will create jobs and growth in this promising market,” said Pascal Claudel, acting executive director at the GSA.
Focus on EU priorities
In times of post-COVID recovery focus, submissions should target applications and services that support key EU priorities, but the sky’s the limit. The GSA is looking for trailblazing ideas in applications such as smart mobility, sustainable agriculture or environmental protection, or solutions that exploit synergies between 5G and space data, or support the internet of things, or whatever might be the next big thing.
Deadlines and Prizes
The first prize in the MyGalileoDrone competition amounts to EUR 100,000, with EUR 60,000 for second, EUR 40,000 for third, and a fourth prize of EUR 30,000.
After Aug. 31, projects selected to advance to the development phase of the contest will be announced on Sept. 15. Participants will have until Nov. 30 to develop a demo version of their proposed application or service.
In the finals, the selected teams will perform a live demonstration and pitch their ideas to investors. During the development process, the applicants will receive mentoring and coaching from recognized experts in the drone market. These experts will accompany them as they build their application, develop tests and get ready from the business perspective to attract investors and move to market.
To register or for more information, visit the competition page on the GSA website.
Photo: Philipp Berezhnoy/iStock / Getty Images Plus/Getty Images
Access to the Galileo signal in a multi-constellation environment is providing benefits and opportunities for businesses, thanks to the enhanced performance and increased accuracy on offer, said the European GNSS Agency (GSA).
Swedish geographical information technology company SCIOR Geomanagement AB uses a variety of technology in its equipment, including drone aerial photography, terrestrial laser scanning, GNSS or combinations of these.
SCIOR, a measurement technology producer, incorporates RTK processing techniques into its approach. The company also uses Galileo-enabled receivers to increase the positioning accuracy of its solutions.
According to the company’s findings, which it presented at the 2019 Intergeo conference in Stuttgart, it has been achieving significantly enhanced performance and other benefits in its day-to-day activities from the use of Galileo-enabled equipment, GSA said.
“Our experience with Galileo has shown an improvement in the density of the constellation of visible satellites, and thus an improvement in the time needed to obtain centimeter-level accuracy,” said Javier Corral, an engineer at SCIOR Geomanagement AB. “From my personal point of view, I would recommend using this constellation in combination with the other existing ones, since it provides you with a better and quicker performance.”
According to GSA, the most significant performance improvements are observed at high latitudes and within forest environments. Even taking into account that better results can be obtained in open spaces, using multi-constellation GNSS with Galileo in the woods is sometimes the only way to obtain a satisfactory performance if there is no reference station close enough. performance will be even better in coming years as the number of Galileo satellites increases to reach full operation capability, allowing users to obtain their desired position accuracy and availability in a shorter period of time, GSA added.
The European GNSS Agency (GSA) has collaborated with the European Commission to develop the Galileo Green Lane app, a mobile solution designed to facilitate the free movement of freight, reduce waiting times at European Union (EU) borders and prioritize essential goods during the COVID-19 pandemic response.
According to GSA, for border control authorities, the app provides a real-time visualization of the situation at border crossings, along with regular updates on the traffic flow situation.
For truck drivers, the app provides a real-time visualization of borders, through an EU-wide map indicating crossing times. This enables logistic companies and drivers to better prepare their routes, having advance knowledge of the waiting time at each border crossing, GSA said.
The app also offers a real-time overview of border traffic hold-ups, built on the foundation of Sixfold’s COVID-19 map. In mid-March, Sixfold began to provide supply chains, retailers and shippers with a free live border crossing map, which is updated in real-time.
“With the Galileo Green Lane app, the GSA is fulfilling its mission to address economic and societal challenges by leveraging the European GNSS capabilities,” said Pascal Claudel, acting executive director at the GSA.
The app has been tested at border crossings in Hungary and the Czech Republic, while other countries, including France, Greece, Italy, Romania and Spain, are about to start testing, GSA added.
The 2020 Galileo Masters are open for submissions. The competition is designed to award applications, services and new ideas that use Galileo and EGNOS, in synergy with other space programs, to respond to pressing needs facing business and society.
The 2020 competition has three European GNSS Agency (GSA) challenges, themed “Space for Future Generations.”
The first challenge, the “Space for our Planet Challenge,” aims to tackle climate change and environmental degradation. Services based on data from Galileo, EGNOS and Copernicus Earth observation can be used to mitigate this threat by supporting more environmentally-conscious life choices, resulting in a healthier planet, GSA said.
The second challenge, the “Space for Being Safe and Healthy Challenge,” seeks out solutions that use downstream space data provided by Galileo, EGNOS and/or Copernicus as key enablers of innovative applications to help stem the spread of COVID-19 pandemic.
The third challenge, the “Space for Fun Challenge,” targets solutions using data from Galileo and EGNOS in the gaming, sports, leisure and tourism markets, where GNSS enables the monitoring of user performance and helps make augmented reality games even more immersive.
For all three challenges, there is a cash price of 10,000€, with another 10,000€ awarded to the overall Galileo Masters 2020 winner.
Registration is free, and entries must be submitted by June 30.
The European GNSS Agency, based in Prague, is providing on its website a list of location-enabled applications that it considers potentially useful in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The applications range from those helping public authorities understand the dynamics of the outbreak to supporting citizens in their everyday lives by checking supermarket lines.
The apps are sorted into four categories:
Tracking the COVID-19 pandemic
Queue management
Response management
Information dissemination
If you are an application developer and you want to add your app to the list, contact [email protected].
The EGNOS payload aboard the Eutelsat 5 West B satellite has entered service, according to Eutelsat Communications. The satellite carries a payload for the European GNSS Agency (GSA) called GEO-3. GEO-3 is designed to be aboard a geostationary satellite to augment GNSS signals.
A solar-array problem affected the satellite shortly after its Oct. 9 launch.
Eutelsat 5 West B is hosting the EGNOS payload under a 15-year agreement signed in 2017 with the European GNSS Agency (GSA). The contract also includes technical services and a European ground infrastructure, including two gateways installed at Eutelsat’s Rambouillet and Cagliari teleports.
Image: GSA
“Eutelsat is proud of the collaboration with its customer GSA, its partners including the European Space Agency, and its suppliers, culminating in the entry into service of this next generation technology of EGNOS on Eutelsat 5 West B,” said Yohann Leroy, Eutelsat’s Deputy CEO and Chief Technical Officer. “We are delighted to host this payload, which will significantly enhance the performance of global navigation satellite systems across Europe, notably Galileo, in the coming years.”
“With this new payload in service, EGNOS is moving towards the transition to its new generation,” said Pascal Claudel, GSA acting executive director and CEO. “This has been done thanks to the constructive collaboration with Eutelsat. Delivery and continuity of satellite services are part of our mission as delegated by the European Commission. It is essential that we, at the GSA, ensure these services to support economic growth and that the European Union’s citizens and companies can benefit from the latest GNSS technology.”
Thales Alenia Space has been awarded a grant under the European GNSS Agency’s (GSA) Fundamental Elements funding mechanism for the development of the GIANO (Galileo-based TIming Receiver for CriticAl INfrastructure Robustness) receiver, which aims to make critical infrastructure more robust against interference, jamming and spoofing.
In an increasingly complex GNSS environment in which there is both unintentional and deliberate disruption of satellite signals, the GSA is funding the development of a timing receiver for professional applications to address the needs of the critical infrastructure user community, mainly energy generation and distribution, telecommunications and financial operators.
Improved resilience
The GIANO receiver will leverage Galileo and EGNOS-driven innovation to improve the resilience of the receiver against interference, jamming and spoofing and increase the accuracy and reliability of the time transfer service. The timing platform prototype to be developed and validated will integrate all the latest innovative technologies, including professional products from Thales Alenia Space, paving the way for future Galileo-based timing receivers that offer improved resilience and accuracy at a reasonable cost.
“Critical infrastructure operators use GNSS for timing and synchronisation and are an important target segment for GSA Market Development because Galileo can make a difference. By funding the development of the GIANO receiver, the GSA aims to provide technological solutions to this community for robust and reliable timing,” said GSA head of market development Fiammetta Diani.
Toward this goal, outreach activities have been conducted among potential final users in the main commercial target groups to collect and analyse their needs. Then, following the definition and consolidation of stakeholders’ needs and the platform specifications, the project conducted a preliminary design review at the end of November 2019.
Europe-wide cooperation
The two-year project, funded under a GSA grant related to the Development of a Galileo-based timing receiver for critical infrastructures (GSA/GRANT/05/2017), will be coordinated by Thales Alenia Space in Italy, in collaboration with four European partners: Business Integration Partners S.p.A (BIP, Italy), PIKTime Systems (Poland), Space Research Centre of the Polish Academy of Science (SRC PAS, Poland) and DEIMOS (Portugal).
The project will also benefit from the support of the European Commission’s in-house science service – the Joint Research Centre (JRC) and the Italian National Metrology Institute (INRIM), which will make available its test facilities for verification activities on the developed equipment.
A version of the NeQuick G algorithm using a new coding approach is now available for download on the GSC website. This version is the result of intensive recoding by engineers at the EU’s Joint Research Centre.
GNSS signals traveling through the ionosphere can be significantly delayed by the electrical charges in this atmospheric layer before reaching the users’ terminal. To compensate for this delay in the signal, Galileo receivers integrate a dynamic model of the ionosphere composition known as the NeQuick G model.
Receiver manufacturers will now be able to benefit from a version of the NeQuick G correction algorithm that implements a new coding approach.
Rigorous testing
The JRC concluded its work recently after successful rigorous testing in the framework of the gLAB tool (GNSS software suite from the Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya). This version of the code has been designed to be highly modular, rendering it more legible for a potential programmer with no specific knowledge about signal propagation in the ionosphere. A library has been also developed to enable its quick integration into existing applications.
This software will be released as free and open source software under the terms of the European Union Public Licence (EUPL), version 1.2.
The open-source code is now ready to be implemented on single-frequency platforms and can be used on a global scale without limitation under the EUPL. This freedom should contribute to a wider adoption of the NeQuick G model at user level.
By Javier Benedicto
Head, Galileo Programme department,
European Space Agency
Javier Benedicto, left, accept the 2018 GPS World Satellites Leadership Award on behalf of Giuliano Gatti of the European Space Agency, from Phil Froom of Rockwell Collins. (Photo: Melanie Beus)
Since the Galileo initial services declaration in December 2016, the Galileo Program has been providing global PNT and search-and-rescue services for users worldwide. The European GNSS Agency (GSA) just issued its GNSS 2019 Market Report in October, providing a complete overview of the current status and trends of the GNSS worldwide market with focus on European GNSS (Galileo and EGNOS) applications and services.
In parallel with service provision, the Galileo Program is undertaking extensive infrastructure development and deployment activities to reach Full Operational Capability (FOC), incorporating new service capabilities, but above all aiming at increasing the robustness and resilience of the system infrastructure, operations and service provision.
Galileo’s signal-in-space quality has steadily improved over the past few years, reaching in 2019 a best signal-in-space error (SISE) of about 0.25 meters (95%, global average; Figure 1). This has been achieved through a combination of several factors, including the increased number of operational satellites, enhanced versions of the Ground Mission Segment, and higher uplink rate of the navigation message (lower age of data). This performance is well within Galileo’s initial service accuracy commitments, as defined in the public Open Service – Service Definition Document (OS SDD).
Figure 1. Long-term historical SISE plot over a 30-day sliding window, constellation averaged. (Image: ESA)
Figures 2 and 3 (see page 40) show Galileo’s timing performance as broadcast UTC offset and GGTO accuracy. The evaluation was performed with calibrated GPS/Galileo timing receivers operated in UTC(k) laboratory (PTB, INRIM). Again, the initial timing service commitments have been fully met.
Probably the most significant discriminator of Galileo compared to other GNSS is its capability to broadcast multi-frequency (E1, E6, E5) signal components on all operational satellites. The position performance of a dual-frequency user receiver on-ground is shown in Figure 4. This measurement from June 2019 demonstrates a Galileo position accuracy well below 2 m (95%).
Figure 4. Galileo position accuracy performance, dual-frequency, June 2019. (Image: ESA)
With the aim of further improving the Open Service (OS) performance, three newly introduced I/NAV message improvements on Galileo E1-B are under implementation, namely FEC2 Reed-Solomon Clock and Ephemeris (CED), Reduced CED, and Secondary Synchronization Pattern (SSP). Galileo Open Service (OS) users will benefit from improved robustness in terms of navigation data retrieval in challenging environments, in addition to facilitating a reduced time to first fix. Those I/NAV improvements on Galileo E1-B are backwards compatible with previously released OS SIS ICDs.
In addition, Galileo infrastructure is currently being upgraded to provide means for OS authentication. The protocol proposed uses the E1B External Data Broadcast Service (EDBS) to provide authentication data to the user. The OS Navigation Message Authentication (NMA) is based on an adaptation of the Timed Efficient Stream Loss-tolerant Authentication (TESLA) protocol.
Beyond the OS, the Galileo system has been designed to allow for the dissemination of value-added data, such as high accuracy and authentication, in the E6B signal component. The component has been designed to broadcast the Galileo High Accuracy Service based on the provision of accurate satellite data (clocks, orbits and biases) and atmospheric data (mainly ionospheric corrections) to enable multi-frequency multi-constellation PPP with correction data transmitted through an open format in the Galileo E6B signal.
The introduction in early 2020 of the automatic acknowledgment of the SAR/Galileo Return Link Message (RLM) as part of the Cospas-Sarsat system will enable space assets to be used for search and rescue — persons in distress will get swift acknowledgement that their alert has been detected and located. The Return Link is the means to interact with a SAR beacon, improving the effectiveness of SAR operations. Extensive testing has demonstrated that the median latency for the reception of a return link message on the ground is 14.2 seconds, while 99% of messages are received within 57 seconds, after the request for the RLM transmission is delivered to Galileo (from Cospas-Sarsat to the RLSP). At the same time, the measured rate of reception was 100%, considering line-of-sight availability, thanks to the very robust Galileo navigation data link. This performance has been demonstrated to be uniform across the globe, as shown in Figure 5.
Figure 5. Beacon activation map and RLM delivery latency through the Galileo system. (Image: ESA)
Following the re-profiling of the Galileo Safety-of-Life (SoL) service, Galileo is meant to be exploited through dual-frequency multi-constellation (DFMC) SBAS and will support the provision of integrity through the concept of Horizontal Advanced Receiver Autonomous Integrity Monitoring (H-ARAIM). To allow the exploitation of Galileo for these SoL applications, a thorough analysis of the actual signal-in-space (SiS) performance and of potential feared events critical for SoL users is key. In this context, the Galileo Integrity Failure Mode and Effect Analysis (IFMEA) process is implemented through measurements and review of the system design, including feared-events characterization.
Ground Segment Brings Robustness
Galileo telemetry and telecommand ground station. (Photo: ESA)
Galileo’s Ground Segment is being upgraded to fully redundant control centers. These include processing and storage, monitoring and control facilities, and security monitoring centers. A worldwide network of Galileo Sensor Stations (GSS) allows monitoring and measuring of satellite signals; uplink stations allow dissemination of the navigation message to users through Galileo satellites; and telemetry, tracking and control (TTC) stations allow monitoring and control of the satellites.
Ground segment upgrades under production by Thales Alenia Space France (in charge of the ground mission segment and security monitoring) and GMV Spain (in charge of the ground control segment) are addressing increased service robustness, through the introduction of a more flexible infrastructure with a significant technology refresh, improved security, service continuity, enhanced service performances, and enhanced operability features.
One important objective of the ongoing upgrades is to implement a modern infrastructure, based on leading virtualization technologies. This modernized infrastructure will make it possible to easily accommodate hardware and software changes without requiring significant redesign or requalification, and will minimize the impact to Galileo service operations — under responsibility of Spaceopal GmbH — during future deployment activities.
Batch 3, Ariane 6 Under Production
Ariane 6 on the launchpad. (Artist’s concept: ESA)
The production of Batch 3 of 12 additional Galileo FOC satellites is proceeding, aiming at readiness for launch by the end of 2020 onward. The satellite design includes a selected number of improvements compared to the 22 FOC satellites launched previously and built by the same satellite manufacturer OHB Systems.
The different stages of assembly, integration and initial test phase in the OHB production plant in Bremen have already started, before shipment to ESA-ESTEC in the Netherlands for the environmental test campaign consisting of thermal vacuum, mechanical tests, interface verification with the launcher and system end-to-end performance tests with the elements of the Galileo ground segment.
Following the phasing out of the Ariane 5 SE launcher, the third batch of Galileo satellites will be progressively launched with the new Ariane 62 launcher vehicle, the two solid-booster variant of Ariane 6 now in the final stages of development.
Evolution to Meet User Needs
The Galileo Second Generation roadmap has achieved maturity in 2019 and is now entering the preliminary design and implementation phase. Based on the EU’s H2020 Galileo Second Generation activities managed by ESA, and the GSA prospective market analysis, the European Commission, in close consultation with EU member states, has agreed on an ambitious set of long-term PNT goals for the future European GNSS infrastructures.
Technology pre-developments, critical engineering activities and synergic design activities between space and ground infrastructure are being conducted. This will translate into the progressive deployment of a complete set of space/ground infrastructure that is tailored to satisfy the diversified user needs in four main dimensions:
Satellite and ground segment infrastructure with capabilities that can dynamically adapt to current and future user needs. Key drivers are flexibility and robustness, ensuring fast time to market to meet user needs.
Full synergy between GNSS and SBAS systems infrastructure, to complement and enhance the service portfolio. This will allow segmentation and complementarity of safety-critical services and extension to all new PNT services available today, including high-accuracy positioning integrity.
Enhanced integration with terrestrial systems — 5G/6G, signals of opportunity (SOOP), terrestrial beacon systems (TBS). ESA and GSA have been actively leading the 5G positioning standardization worldwide in collaboration with public and private institutions inside 3GPP and will soon move toward the start of standardization of 6G terrestrial positioning and GNSS interconnection technologies.
Full complementarity with external sensors (such as INS, barometer and lidar) and application environments (low-power devices and internet of things) so that the Galileo Second Generation Infrastructure enhances and complements the capabilities provided by these external means.
A key pillar for this long-term strategy is the Galileo transition satellites. The competitive procurement procedure for the first batch of transition satellites is coming in 2020. The flexibility and robustness of these satellites will allow the European PNT infrastructure to satisfy all the different user needs in the next decade. This procurement — together with others at system, ground segment and technology level — will enable the start of the in-orbit validation of second-generation capabilities from 2025 onward.
Additional ground and test infrastructure are in early engineering analysis, design and technology development, in order to proceed with additional procurements for experimental and operational usage, starting early in the 2020s.
