The European GNSS Agency (GSA) announced today (July 29, 2014) that a recent 10-day test has successfully tracked and demodulated data from encrypted signals of the Commercial Service (CS) from available Galileo satellites.
Using receivers located in Tres Cantos, Spain, and Poing, Germany, the Early Proof of Concept (EPOC) team tracked encrypted Galileo E6-B and E6-C signals. Non-encrypted E6-B and E6-C signals have previously been tracked.
The European GNSS Agency (GSA) announced today (July 29, 2014) that a recent 10-day test has successfully tracked and demodulated data from encrypted signals of the Commercial Service (CS) from available Galileo satellites.
Using receivers located in Tres Cantos, Spain, and Poing, Germany, the Early Proof of Concept (EPOC) team tracked encrypted Galileo E6-B and E6-C signals. Non-encrypted E6-B and E6-C signals have previously been tracked.
The tests verified the CS encryption functionalities, with the data received containing authentication and high-accuracy information previously generated outside the Galileo system.
The proposed Galileo Commercial Service, with early service expected to start in 2016, would deliver a range of added-value features, including positioning accurate to decimeter-level and an authentication element, which could support professional or commercial applications.
Once operational, the CS would provide access to two additional encrypted signals on the E6 band, delivering a higher data throughput rate and increased accuracy. “
The Commercial Service has the potential to improve the performance of existing location services for all user communities and therefore will be a key element of Galileo’s service provision,” said Carlo des Dorides, Executive Director of the GSA. “It will also help further enhance the Galileo’s economic added-value in the downstream markets.”
“Although there are still many steps before the delivery of an operational CS, these first tests prove what Galileo can do in the near future,” said Ignacio Fernández Hernández, European Commission officer in charge of the Galileo Commercial Service design and management.
The tests are the result of a collective effort involving teams and projects of ‘AALECS’ (Authentication and Accurate Location Experimentation with the Commercial Service), supported by the European Commission, the GSA, the European Space Agency (ESA), and the Galileo operator, Spaceopal.
The AALECS project is building a platform to connect to the European GNSS Service Center (GSC) in Spain and transmit real time CS data through the Galileo satellites. According to the GSA, this platform will be operational by 2015 and will demonstrate the real performance of future high accuracy and authentication services of Galileo prior to early service availability.
The European Commission launched AALECS in January 2014 and awarded a contract to a consortium led by GMV including CGI, Qascom, IFEN, Veripos, and KU Leuven. As part of the AALECS project, GMV and IFEN developed an early proof-of-concept platform aimed at testing external data transmission through offline means. The project will last for approximately two and a half years.
