Berchtesgaden, GermanyThe Galileo Test and Development Environment (GATE), located near Berchtesgaden in southern Bavaria, Germany, has been recertified for operation, extending the operational life of the facility through January 2016, according to its operator, IFEN GmbH
GATE enables companies and research organizations to use the testbed for various experiments, taking advantage of the eight ground transmitters emitting the Galileo signals towards the 25-square-kilometer core test area.
The Galileo Test and Development Environment (GATE), located near Berchtesgaden in southern Bavaria, Germany, has been recertified for operation, extending the operational life of the facility through January 2016, according to its operator, IFEN GmbH
GATE enables companies and research organizations to use the testbed for various experiments, taking advantage of the eight ground transmitters emitting the Galileo signals towards the 25-square-kilometer core test area.
NavCert GmbH, a branch of TÜV SÜD, an independent third-party certifier, reconfirmed the conformance of GATE to ISO 17025 as Galileo open‐air test laboratory for evaluating user equipment compliance with receiver autonomous integrity monitoring (RAIM) for safety‐of‐life (SoL) applications and GATE’s conformance with signal characteristics and signal quality specified in the Galileo signal-in-space interface control document (SIS ICD).
The re‐certification also includes an audit of the operation processes of the operating company, IFEN GmbH. This includes such questions as whether a sufficiently technical skilled team is available for operating GATE, if the performed application tests are documented in a reproducible way, and how well the GATE team handles non‐conformances to the specification and improvements to the system.
Compared to a full certification, which occurs every three years, a re‐certification only verifies compliance to specification based on random inspections of tests at the GATE.
