GARMIS
GAlileo Reference Mission Support
Background & Objectives
To allow new receivers and novel applications to be developed by a broad spectrum of service providers, it is critical to have a precise and complete definition of what Galileo will provide to its end-users. Some areas of EGNOS/Galileo’s services, mission and signals still have open issues that need to be addressed in order to complete the reference mission definition of the systems. The GARMIS project lies within this framework. It continues some of the many activities that were begun for Galileo in earlier phases (e.g. GALILEI, GALA, GENESIS, SAGA) and extends those carried out more recently in the framework of GEM (first Galileo call in FP6).
GARMIS aims at providing the GJU/GSA with continued engineering support for completing the Reference Mission definition of the Galileo system. The project addresses the EGNOS/Galileo mission consolidation and evolutions, the development of EGNOS and Galileo signal and service interface control documents (ICDs), the EGNOS/Galileo international standardisation, the design and development of a Galileo prototype service centre (SC) and of an EGNOS data access system (EDAS).
Description
Despite an overall consistent objective to consolidate the Galileo Reference Mission, the project is composed of a series of activities that are very diverse from a technical point of view. The work is therefore structured in six Work Packages (WPs). WP1000 ensures the management of the entire GARMIS contract, its coordination and the deliverables’ progress management. WP2000 addresses the mission consolidation and evolutions.
The work is divided into four activities dealing with:
- the evolution of the EGNOS mission;
- the implementation of the Galileo global integrity operational concepts;
- the consolidation of the multi-constellation regional system (MRS) mission definition;
- the impact of particular ionospheric conditions on the design of Galileo and EGNOS mission evolutions.
WP3000 addresses the development of ICDs and the consultation of the international user communities. It covers signal in space (SIS) and service ICDs of Galileo and EGNOS, and dedicated studies on EGNOS and Galileo key performance indicators (KPIs). WP4000 addresses the standardisation issues facing EGNOS and Galileo. This area covers safety-of-life applications, including aviation and maritime domains and mass-market applications, where commercial interest dominates, covering the location-based services. GARMIS supports the standards development in particular through active participation in the related standardisation groups (EUROCAE, RTCA, ICAO, IMO, RTCM, IEC, ERMF, IALA, OMA, 3GPP).
WP5000 and WP6000 respectively cover the design and development of:
- a breadboard of the Galileo SC for the IOV phase;
- an EDAS.
Objectives
The main objectives of the project are to:
- support the EGNOS/Galileo mission consolidation and evolutions;
- support the timely production of EGNOS and Galileo SIS and service ICDs, and the consultation of international user communities on the public ICD releases;
- develop the work started in former projects on international standardisation of the Galileo signals and receivers in three important areas of application: those of civil aviation, maritime applications, and location based services (LBS);
- design and develop a prototype version of the Galileo SC in order to support the development of the SC concept during the IOV phase and in particular the validation of the external interface with the ground mission segment (GMS);
- design and develop an operational EDAS, which will constitute the main pillar of the EGNOS commercial service provision.
Work performed & results
The work performed or still ongoing has produced the following results: - evolution of the EGNOS MRD document; - consolidation of the Galileo baseline integrity concept thanks to: - analysis of the existing integrity concepts used by the main safety-of-life user communities; - critical analysis of the Galileo global integrity baseline and the elaboration of recommendations to secure its acceptance by safety-of-life users; - development of operational concepts for Galileo and combined Galileo/GPS/SBAS receivers combining GPS/SBAS and Galileo integrity data. - substantial progress in the characterisation of the ionosphere at high and low latitudes relevant to the investigation of its effects on the performance and availability of GNSS and EGNOS in particular services. - development of ICDs for Galileo OS and for EGNOS L1 services, some progress on the definition of Galileo KPIs and measurement methodology, and in the outline of a practicable KPI regime between the EGNOS SoL service provider and added-value service providers (AVSP) for the EGNOS SoL service in civil aviation. In addition, the standardisation work enabled the progress on introducing and using EGNOS and Galileo in the aviation, maritime domains and in location-based services through the development of standards and the active participation in the related standardisation groups. Last but not least, GARMIS developed a Galileo SC prototype for the IOV phase. The Galileo SC will act as the main link between the Galileo system and the outside world, in particular with the commercial service providers and the end-users of the Galileo services. - An operational EDAS, which constitutes a single interface point where multiple EGNOS multimodal service providers can obtain the EGNOS products in real-time and within guaranteed delay, security, safety and performance boundaries, for service provision through non-geo means.
