The European GNSS Agency (GSA) has started testing the Open Service Navigation Message Authentication (OSNMA) feature in the Galileo signals. There is no official communication but OSNMA is in the signal so it is de facto public, and some users are already trying it out.
The Galileo NMA signal will be disseminated over the E1B frequency and is to be available to single-frequency users, explained Reinhard Blasi, Market Development Officer at the GSA, in an Inside GNSS article on OSNMA published in February 2020. “We define NMA as giving us the ability to guarantee to users that they are utilising non-counterfeit navigation data that comes from the Galileo satellites and not from any other potentially malicious source. Galileo’s NMA is aimed at worldwide consumer users and is to be offered for free.”
The article cited above gives further technical background and perspectives from several experts.
[Photo: Galileo Control Center, Oberpfaffenhofen, courtesy GSA.]
