IDEEAS
IDEEAS - Innovative Dissemination means as Enablers for EGNSS Augmentation Service
Background & Objectives
Transport applications (civil aviation, maritime, rail, road, drones) needs are evolving from extended coverage (i.e. over high latitudes) to more autonomy in adverse environments (including urban and mountainous canyons), and from higher accuracy to more robustness (at both cyber security and Signal in Space (SiS) levels), integrity and safety.
As per EUSPA Market report 2022, the European GNSS (EGNSS) connectivity for these use cases necessarily “relies on the integration with both satellite and terrestrial networks, such as 5G, LEO satellites, HAPS […]”, complementing existing MEO/GEO satellites and terrestrial distribution.
In this context and as part of its roadmap for long-term evolution of the EGNSS programme targeting new services and applications, the European Commission (EC) is assessing the feasibility and the added-value of introducing additional dissemination means for EGNSS augmentation services.
By augmentations services, it is referred to services complementing existing GNSS services, to enhance the Positioning Navigation and Timing (PNT) performances (e.g. accuracy), and/or to provide integrity data for a reliable position targeting Safety of Life critical applications. Examples of such services are the Galileo High Accuracy Service – HAS (for further information, please refer to Galileo High Accuracy Service - Service Definition Document), and the EGNOS SoL services for civil aviation (for further information, please refer to EGNOS - Safety of Life - Service Definition Document). As baseline, these augmentation services are provided using Geostationary Earth Orbit (GEO) satellites for EGNOS, Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) satellites for Galileo HAS, and through the internet (respectively through EDAS and HAS IDD).
Accordingly, by additional means it is referred to other dissemination channels than EGNOS GEO and Galileo MEO satellites. These current dissemination means raise several gaps (e.g. operational availability of the signals) when it comes to fulfil the user needs under certain environments (e.g. in high latitudes, urban canyons).
Further, obviously, the data to be broadcast will be originated by the EGNOS/Galileo infrastructure (which needs some adaptations to reach the target performance). The technological gaps that apply to these interfaces and the way-forward to enhance them shall be analysed.
The IDEEAS project focuses on the identification, trade-off and definition of most optimised and cost-effective EGNSS additional dissemination solutions, that enable a new class of transport applications (civil aviation, maritime, road, drones, rail) to adopt and benefit from the EGNSS augmentation services (namely Galileo HAS and EGNOS SoL Services). The assessment on complementary and / or backup dissemination means for EGNSS augmentation services will include at least Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites, High-Altitude Pseudo-Satellites (HAPS), and terrestrial means.
A special attention will be paid to avoid any major impact on existing EGNSS infrastructure, and ensure the absence of any interference or performance degradation of existing services. The solution proposed as part of the project will be validated by stakeholders and through a proof-of-concept.