ADvantis
ADvantis: A centralised guaranteed integrity localisation service - a key for the EGNOS and Galileo business model (ADvantis)

Some GNSS-based applications are not feasible with the GPS system due to the lack of guarantee on service availability and service integrity, which wipe out confidence in the results and jeopardise the business case. ADvantis' applicability extends to areas of safety non-critical application in which service integrity is essential, for example authorities responsible for the mobility of individuals and goods, road transport (interoperability among tolling systems, traffic management systems, traffic information), car insurance companies, transport regulators, justice/police.

The candidate applications have a weakness in the liability regime and integrity offers a means for resolving conflicts between the involved parties in these so-called ‘liability-critical’ applications, which are classified in two categories as a function of the nature of the liability regime:

• commercial, where integrity could be used to solve a conflict between two contractual parties;
• legal, where the two parties involved are a legal body and individuals/organisations subject to existing legislation.

The ADvantis concept is an efficient answer to the needs posed by the liability-critical applications to put the individuals using some non-navigation services in contact with the providers of the services. It ‘links’ individuals using a single terminal with different companies/organisations that can exploit localisation, and adds value to both sides by guaranteeing that the user localisation at a certain time is known to be correct up to a certain predefined level.

The advent of satellite navigation technology offers new possibilities which could result in a significant spread of potential commercial applications. The GJU commissioned a project to find out how Galileo could be used to advance non-safety critical applications by exploring the use of guaranteed integrity. ADvantis focused on the possibility of establishing an ‘integrity service provider’ to demonstrate the feasibility of key GNSS-based liability-critical applications.

Description

The concept was proved by the implementation of an ADvantis prototype and the execution of a relevant set of trials. The provision of ADvantis services requires a minimum infrastructure:

• a global centre of localisation services with an integrity guarantee (GCLSI) where localisation data from all the different units is centralised and where the integrity and privacy of this data is ensured.
• standard onboard units (OBU), which will implement Galileo receivers together with specific data processing and communications with GLCSI.

The business model looked at two types of customers:

• individuals, car owners or fleet managers who want access to the services provided by a third company/organisation;
• clients, companies/organisations, which use the localisation data of the aforementioned car owners or individuals. They will pay for the data as an efficient way (i.e. not requiring a dedicated infrastructure) of either charging for the use of the provided service or for monitoring and control purposes.

The project combined a multi-disciplinary approach to establish the basis for the implementation of an operational system and associated services in two phases:

Phase A covered the detailed analysis of the user needs, service and system definition focusing on:

• the legal and regulatory aspects for the future implementation of a European seamless system;
• clear specification of a single contractual framework;
• commercial feasibility of the project;
• maintaining data privacy;
• elaboration and refinement of centralised GCLSI.

Phase B covered the design and development of an operational prototype together with the execution of trials and analysis and the dissemination of results.

Objectives

The objective of the ADvantis project was to define a centralised system, and associated business model, to provide multiple end users with a liability-critical, integrity-guaranteed position service using single mobile equipment.