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The 2018 European Space Week special session on Smart Cities saw professionals and decision makers showcasing how space applications are fostering urban innovation. Presentations highlighted current projects and cutting-edge technologies set to emerge in the coming years.

Smart cities use information and communication technologies to increase operational efficiency, share information with the public and improve citizens' welfare and the quality of key services such as public transport. Advances in satellite-based technologies, the likes of EU flagship Galileo, are giving rise to more competitive transport services, while minimising environmental and social impacts.

Evi Papantoniou, European Commission Head of Unit for Galileo and EGNOS legal and institutional aspects, introduced the European Space Week Smart Cities session: "By 2050, we expect two-thirds of the world's population to be living in urban areas, including mega-cities. With these rapid changes, many challenges are being faced by urban planners. We need efficient data flow and state-of-the-art infrastructure."

Smart Mobility is a basic requisite for Smart Cities. In the case of passenger transportation, the arrival of services like on-demand riding, vehicle sharing, multi-modal transportation, and autonomous vehicles are all changing how people get around.

"And at the same time we have the Internet of Things, with connected physical objects being able to locate themselves and communicate with other devices," said Papantoniou. "The question for all of us is how we fit this all together, to securely and affordably accommodate these services within currently available infrastructures and communication technologies."

Thought-provoking presentations

Thomas Bekker, Open and Smart Data Manager at Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur said: "Being smart is really a question of opening networks. We want open hardware, open data, open services, open knowledge, open innovation and Open Space! With technological barriers falling, we need to accelerate the deployment of user-centric approaches, making spatial digital data more accessible. Exploiting the new services of European space programmes is surely a means to addressing those issues."

Josep Maria Salanova Grau, Research Associate at the Hellenic Institute of Transport discussed a range of new emerging applications being enabled by Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS). "In conjunction with Galileo, new developments in ITS include the ability to provide information on fuelling and charging stations, protection for vulnerable road users like pedestrians and cyclists, on-street and off-street parking information, park and ride information, connected and cooperative navigation, and many other kinds of traffic and routing information."

Grau outlined work under the EU-funded Galileo4Mobility project, now under way in his home region of Thessaloniki. The project is carrying out a number of pilot studies on the topic of 'Mobility as a Service' (MaaS). "Shared mobility services have grown exponentially during the last years," Grau said. "While car sharing is still the most widespread form, other services such as bike sharing, ride hailing and flexible forms of public transport are also growing rapidly." Geolocation of people, things and vehicles by means of satellite navigation technologies is now a prime enabler for most shared mobility services, and its use is expanding. Galileo4Mobility is also undertaking work in the field of autonomous driving, another application with GNSS technologies at its core.

Autonomous driving, and more

The Bosch company was present at the Smart Cities session in the form of a video about its latest autonomous driving technologies. Combining advanced on-board sensors, satellite navigation, correction services and highly advanced software for position calculation, Bosch is keeping Europe at the front of the pack in this rapidly evolving field.

"Indeed," said GSA Officer Alberto Fernandez-Wyttenbach, "Bosch recently became the first automotive supplier to confirm the commercialisation of a Galileo dual-frequency on-board localisation unit, a must-have feature in high autonomous driving This means added precision to mitigate the multipath effect when you talk about city driving. This is a major step towards the industry´s innovation, and we expect other European manufacturers to follow very quickly."

Presenting another exciting research initiative was Martin Skjold-Grontved, Head of Section at the Danish Agency for Data Supply and Efficiency. The TAPAS project ('Testbed in Aarhus for precision positioning and autonomous systems') is aimed at using improved infrastructure to exploit the full technical advantages of modern GNSS.

"Geodetic reference systems are the fundamental infrastructure that provides the basis for precision positioning and navigation using GNSS," Grontved explained. "Until now this has been primarily based on GPS measurements, supplemented by local Real Time Kinematic (RTK) systems. But now we have the new GNSS systems being implemented, such as BeiDou and not least Galileo. These systems are now forming the basis for new terrestrial networks and the basis for both faster and better position determination.">

TAPAS is establishing a sound, ground-based network test bed to support and test new advanced technological developments that require fast, efficient and flexible precision positioning. "This is a geodetic innovation platform," said Grontved, "in the form of physical and virtual networks. The ambition is to exploit the full potential of Galileo and evaluate this system's quality in relation to GPS. Further, and in particular, it is the goal to achieve unprecedented precision positioning in real-time."

Roland Trauter, Manager of Software Integration at Daimler Trucks presented the EU-funded TransSec, aimed at preventing terrorist attacks, in particular the recent rise in vehicle-based terror attacks across Europe. In a number of such incidents, perpetrators used heavy trucks to assault pedestrians.

Trauter said: "The TransSec project is developing and evaluating autonomous systems to detect and prevent trucks from being misused, to prevent these attacks from occurring. With the advances we have achieved in GNSS positioning, map data and map matching, we can assemble on-board environment sensors and V2X communication to create a local dynamic map. This can then be used to monitor movement, critical area alarm, pre-crash object detection and for implementing emergency manoeuvres."

The TransSec project team is also interested in developing new and more effective methods to detect GNSS jamming and spoofing, which represent further threats to security in the context of automated driving technologies. Here, Galileo's unique authentication feature can play an important role.

Pedro Jorge Caridade is Associate Professor at the University of Coimbra and also co-founder of SpaceLayer Technologies. The company is carrying out the SOUL project ('Sensor observation of urban life'), installing small, reliable, inexpensive and georeferenced air quality sensors in moving vehicles.

"Air pollution is the top environmental cause of premature death, and it has a huge impact on productivity and health," said Caridade. "The exposure to risk may be minimised by issuing alerts. Our vehicle-mounted sensors map dynamically the city, with an additional layer of data coming from earth observation satellite images, such as from Copernicus, and other sources of information,” he said. “We can then determine air-quality pollutant-correlating indexes. The users receive real-time alerts on mobile and web platforms. Knowing the air quality in various parts of the city, citizens can act in a proactive way, plan a less polluted route to work, reschedule meetings or take preventive pharmaceutical drugs."

Freight matters

Improving the flow of goods while reducing congestion, accidents and pollution is one of the most important challenges for Smart Cities. Here, new business models inspired by the sharing economy and disruptive technologies have recently emerged and are quickly being adopted.

Mourad El Bidaoui, CEO of MAGMA Technology explained how his company is using a small, battery-powered autonomous geolocation module to enable precise location of logistics assets, using Galileo and other precise positioning technologies. "Today there are ten million maritime containers, two billion trolleys and five billion pallets being used in the transport of goods." El Bidaoui said. "These are all logistics assets and we are making it possible for shippers around the world to have a full visibility of their logistics thanks to the MAGMA web platform."

Finally, Frederic Dagnet, Director of Strategy at the Port Authority of Marseille, and Frederic Rychen, Professor at Aix-Marseille University, gave a joint presentation on exciting new measures and initiatives around the Port of Marseille, France's 'Smart Port'.

Geo-referencing remains a key capability being delivered by space-based technologies such as Galileo. When used in concert with the latest data technologies, EU space flagships Galileo and Copernicus are enabling Smart Cities to streamline and speed up information flows and thus drive and optimise more efficient physical and economic flows.

Media note: This feature can be republished without charge provided the European GNSS Agency (GSA) is acknowledged as the source at the top or the bottom of the story. You must request permission before you use any of the photographs on the site. If you republish, we would be grateful if you could link back to the GSA website (http://www.gsa.europa.eu).

OS and SAR Service Performance Reports of the third quarter of 2018 (covering July, August and September) have been published under the European GNSS Service Centre web portal, under Performance Reports section.

The third Galileo Open Service (OS) and SAR Service Quarterly Performance Reports of 2018 are available on the Electronic Library, under the Performance Reports section, providing the status of the Galileo constellation and the achieved performance over the reported period (July, August and September 2018).

These quarterly reports provide the public with the latest information on the Galileo OS and SAR/Galileo Initial Services measured performance statistics with respect to their Minimum Performance Levels (MPLs), as declared in their respective Galileo Service Definition Documents (OS - SDD and SAR - SDD), in particular on parameters such as:

• For Open Service: Initial ranging performance, Galileo to GPS Time Offset (GGTO) determination performance, Galileo positioning performance and the Timely publication of NAGUs.
• For SAR Service: detection and location performance, and infrastructure availability performance.

Highlights from Q3 2018 on Galileo OS and SAR Service:

As in previous periods, measured Galileo OS and SAR Service performance figures comfortably exceed their MPL thresholds.

Some highlights from the Q3 2018 performance reports:

Open Service

• The Availability of both the Galileo Ranging Service at the Worst User Location (WUL) and the Healthy Signal have been significantly better than the MPLs (all above the threshold of 87%), reaching the first figure on the reported quarter a monthly value of 100%.
• The Galileo UTC Determination Service Availability has reached a constant monthly value of 100%. Moreover, the GGTO Determination Availability comfortably exceeds the MPL target of 87% over the reported month: 98.58% in July and August and 98.84% in September.
• The target MPLs for Publishing NAGUs were met for both Planned and Unplanned events. A total number of 9 NAGUs have been published on the GSC web portal in the reported period, neither of them announcing unplanned events.

SAR Service

• Detection Service Probability for each of the Reference Beacons (REFBE) every month was above the MPL (which is 99%).
• Both the single and multi-burst Location Probabilities for each REFBE were, in all cases, well above the MPLs (which are 75% and 98%, respectively).
• SAR/Galileo Service Infrastructure Performance is measured by the availability of the Ground Segment, Space Segment and SAR Server. As a particular case of the Ground Segment availability, the MEOLUTs have reached better values than the MPL target (95%) in "Nominal" mode during the whole period: average availability of 96.9% for Larnaca and Spitsbergen and 98.1% for Maspalomas.

For the most up-to-date information on the Galileo system and constellation, visit the European GNSS Service Centre (GSC) website, in particular, the Galileo constellation status section. For an exhaustive description of the Minimum Performance Levels (MPLs), refer to the Galileo OS SDD.

For more details on Galileo performance and its Services, do not hesitate to contact the Galileo Help Desk.

Help us on shaping the future of Galileo! Just a few minutes of your time are needed to complete the Galileo User Satisfaction Survey 2018.

Media note: This feature can be republished without charge provided the European GNSS Agency (GSA) is acknowledged as the source at the top or the bottom of the story. You must request permission before you use any of the photographs on the site. If you republish, we would be grateful if you could link back to the GSA website (http://www.gsa.europa.eu).

The productivity and sustainability of land is determined by interactions between land resources, climate and human activities. Selecting the optimal, sustainable use of land is essential to minimise degradation, rehabilitate degraded land, ensure the sustainable use of natural resources and mitigate the impact of climate change. So it was appropriate that on World Soil Day, an EU Space Week session showcased how the EU space programmes Galileo and Copernicus are supporting sustainable land use and management.

Taking place, most appropriately, on World Soil Day, the EU Space Week session on 5 December focused on how sustainable land management impacts the resilience and vulnerability of land resources, particularly within the context of mitigating climate change, and was organised around three relevant United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Keynote speaker Markus Erhard from the European Environment Agency (EEA) gave a user perspective of how satellite data impacts on policy in this area, in particular in terms of the EU’s Seventh Environmental Action Programme. “Copernicus is a true game changer in terms of environmental monitoring and assessment,” he stated. “With outstanding availability, accessibility, and at zero cost.”

Elisabeth Hamdouch from the Commission’s DG GROW agreed that EU space instruments were very important and the synergies between Copernicus and Galileo could make a big difference in this area. “These space-based programmes produce huge flows of new data,” she said. The key question was how to make best use of this quantity and quality data.

Read this: European GNSS and Earth Observation: A promising convergence for sustainable development

SDG 2: Zero Hunger

How resource efficiency in agriculture could be improved by early detection of diseases and pests using Copernicus was outlined by João Araújo of Spin.Works. Remote sensing is a key enabling technology to ensure we can feed a burgeoning world population. The company has developed the MAPPING online application that integrates Copernicus data and drone imaging to create insights that help farmers make the right choices and increase yield while reducing inputs such as pesticides and fertilizer.

The GSA-funded Horizon 2020 project Green Patrol showed how Galileo-enabled autonomous robots can detect and control pests in greenhouses thereby boosting yield. Maria Campo-Cossio from Fundación Centro Tecnológico de Componentes in Spain noted that 20 centimetre positioning accuracy was required but they could “count on Galileo for a solution, thanks to its greater resilience to multipath interference” – a major issue when working in large glasshouses.

The role of Galileo and EGNOS to enable precision agriculture and increase both the efficiency and sustainability of agriculture is well documented but has been often seen as a niche application for very big farms. However, now it is becoming mainstream as cheaper entry level applications become available. Stephan Vormbrock of CLAAS E-systems said: “Agricultural vehicles must be smarter, they cannot get bigger!” He presented a range of intelligent solutions that enable farmers to integrate and use all available space-based data to sustainably increase crop yields.

Bernard Richter of HEXAGON Leica Geosystems described their GNSS based solution for land registry applications in particular to enable farmers to comply with the EU’s Common Agriculture Policy (CAP). The system’s network of 4,500 base stations used to correct positioning data is being upgraded to use Galileo data that will enable the centimetre level precision that applications such as accurate seeding require.

And this: Agriculture and Space: The journey from field to fork

SDG 6: Clean water

Irrigation is becoming an increasing issue for farmers across EU-27 countries. The GSA-funded Horizon 2020 project Mistrale uses reflected GNSS signals (GNSS-R) for a number of applications including water management. Tamme van deer Wal from Aerovision showed how the technique can be used as a remote sensing alternative or compliment to Copernicus data. The main advantage for GNSS-R is that it can provide data 24/7 as the signal receiver is mounted on a drone. Practical applications include measurements of field water content, water management in flood areas and monitoring of mine waste seepage.

The use of Copernicus Land Service data to monitor lakes and rivers in near real time was described by Lionel Zawadzki from Collecte Localisation Satellites. The water component is an emerging Copernicus service with various products available including information on snow cover, lake ice extent, lake surface temperatures, and the area of bodies of water.

An enhanced flood mapping service was outlined by Federica Maserati of Telespazio. “Flood risks are rising due to global warming,” she said. However, the Copernicus rapid mapping service is now fully operational with global coverage and enables authorities anywhere in the world to react fast. A new vision for the service is that service users become distributed service providers by supplying additional crowdsourced data input. “We are looking for users to act as in-situ sensors generating local data,” he said. Collection of GNSS geolocation with this social data would help with data integration and increase accuracy.

SDG 15: Life on Land

SDG 15 aims to protect, restore and promote the sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems explained Hans Dufourmont of the European Environment Agency (EEA), who outlined how the Copernicus Land Monitoring Service (LMS) supported these objectives. Service support includes high level imperviousness data, high resolution data on forest cover, grassland cover and even extent of ploughing indicators. It is possible to monitor CO2 emissions by mapping probable sources and sinks. “Agricultural production is responsible for around a quarter of greenhouse gas emissions,” stated Dufourmont.

The Farm Sustainability Tool for Nutrients (FaST) was described by Isidro Campos Rodriguez from DG-AGRI. This tool also looks to support farmers under the CAP. The tool is under development and could be a key to boosting digitalisation in agriculture. The tool takes relevant farm information and enables fine tuning of nutrient management on the farm including outputs such as personalised advice on irrigation requirements. The app is currently working with Copernicus data but there is interest in the added value that Galileo can bring.

The final presentation of the session was from Antoine Lefebvre, founder of start-up Kermap that uses Copernicus data with artificial intelligence to analyse and predict urban heat island effects and local climate zones. The work visualises temperature distributions within city areas and enables modelling of climate change impacts on living conditions for citizens.

Media note: This feature can be republished without charge provided the European GNSS Agency (GSA) is acknowledged as the source at the top or the bottom of the story. You must request permission before you use any of the photographs on the site. If you republish, we would be grateful if you could link back to the GSA website (http://www.gsa.europa.eu).

The productivity and sustainability of land is determined by interactions between land resources, climate and human activities. Selecting the optimal, sustainable use of land is essential to minimise degradation, rehabilitate degraded land, ensure the sustainable use of natural resources and mitigate the impact of climate change. So it was appropriate that on World Soil Day, an EU Space Week session showcased how the EU space programmes Galileo and Copernicus are supporting sustainable land use and management.

Taking place, most appropriately, on World Soil Day, the EU Space Week session on 5 December focused on how sustainable land management impacts the resilience and vulnerability of land resources, particularly within the context of mitigating climate change, and was organised around three relevant United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Keynote speaker Markus Erhard from the European Environment Agency (EEA) gave a user perspective of how satellite data impacts on policy in this area, in particular in terms of the EU’s Seventh Environmental Action Programme. “Copernicus is a true game changer in terms of environmental monitoring and assessment,” he stated. “With outstanding availability, accessibility, and at zero cost.”

Elisabeth Hamdouch from the Commission’s DG GROW agreed that EU space instruments were very important and the synergies between Copernicus and Galileo could make a big difference in this area. “These space-based programmes produce huge flows of new data,” she said. The key question was how to make best use of this quantity and quality data.

Read this: European GNSS and Earth Observation: A promising convergence for sustainable development

SDG 2: Zero Hunger

How resource efficiency in agriculture could be improved by early detection of diseases and pests using Copernicus was outlined by João Araújo of Spin.Works. Remote sensing is a key enabling technology to ensure we can feed a burgeoning world population. The company has developed the MAPPING online application that integrates Copernicus data and drone imaging to create insights that help farmers make the right choices and increase yield while reducing inputs such as pesticides and fertilizer.

The GSA-funded Horizon 2020 project Green Patrol showed how Galileo-enabled autonomous robots can detect and control pests in greenhouses thereby boosting yield. Maria Campo-Cossio from Fundación Centro Tecnológico de Componentes in Spain noted that 20 centimetre positioning accuracy was required but they could “count on Galileo for a solution, thanks to its greater resilience to multipath interference” – a major issue when working in large glasshouses.

The role of Galileo and EGNOS to enable precision agriculture and increase both the efficiency and sustainability of agriculture is well documented but has been often seen as a niche application for very big farms. However, now it is becoming mainstream as cheaper entry level applications become available. Stephan Vormbrock of CLAAS E-systems said: “Agricultural vehicles must be smarter, they cannot get bigger!” He presented a range of intelligent solutions that enable farmers to integrate and use all available space-based data to sustainably increase crop yields.

Bernard Richter of HEXAGON Leica Geosystems described their GNSS based solution for land registry applications in particular to enable farmers to comply with the EU’s Common Agriculture Policy (CAP). The system’s network of 4,500 base stations used to correct positioning data is being upgraded to use Galileo data that will enable the centimetre level precision that applications such as accurate seeding require.

And this: Agriculture and Space: The journey from field to fork

SDG 6: Clean water

Irrigation is becoming an increasing issue for farmers across EU-27 countries. The GSA-funded Horizon 2020 project Mistrale uses reflected GNSS signals (GNSS-R) for a number of applications including water management. Tamme van deer Wal from Aerovision showed how the technique can be used as a remote sensing alternative or compliment to Copernicus data. The main advantage for GNSS-R is that it can provide data 24/7 as the signal receiver is mounted on a drone. Practical applications include measurements of field water content, water management in flood areas and monitoring of mine waste seepage.

The use of Copernicus Land Service data to monitor lakes and rivers in near real time was described by Lionel Zawadzki from Collecte Localisation Satellites. The water component is an emerging Copernicus service with various products available including information on snow cover, lake ice extent, lake surface temperatures, and the area of bodies of water.

An enhanced flood mapping service was outlined by Federica Maserati of Telespazio. “Flood risks are rising due to global warming,” she said. However, the Copernicus rapid mapping service is now fully operational with global coverage and enables authorities anywhere in the world to react fast. A new vision for the service is that service users become distributed service providers by supplying additional crowdsourced data input. “We are looking for users to act as in-situ sensors generating local data,” he said. Collection of GNSS geolocation with this social data would help with data integration and increase accuracy.

SDG 15: Life on Land

SDG 15 aims to protect, restore and promote the sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems explained Hans Dufourmont of the European Environment Agency (EEA), who outlined how the Copernicus Land Monitoring Service (LMS) supported these objectives. Service support includes high level imperviousness data, high resolution data on forest cover, grassland cover and even extent of ploughing indicators. It is possible to monitor CO2 emissions by mapping probable sources and sinks. “Agricultural production is responsible for around a quarter of greenhouse gas emissions,” stated Dufourmont.

The Farm Sustainability Tool for Nutrients (FaST) was described by Isidro Campos Rodriguez from DG-AGRI. This tool also looks to support farmers under the CAP. The tool is under development and could be a key to boosting digitalisation in agriculture. The tool takes relevant farm information and enables fine tuning of nutrient management on the farm including outputs such as personalised advice on irrigation requirements. The app is currently working with Copernicus data but there is interest in the added value that Galileo can bring.

The final presentation of the session was from Antoine Lefebvre, founder of start-up Kermap that uses Copernicus data with artificial intelligence to analyse and predict urban heat island effects and local climate zones. The work visualises temperature distributions within city areas and enables modelling of climate change impacts on living conditions for citizens.

Media note: This feature can be republished without charge provided the European GNSS Agency (GSA) is acknowledged as the source at the top or the bottom of the story. You must request permission before you use any of the photographs on the site. If you republish, we would be grateful if you could link back to the GSA website (http://www.gsa.europa.eu).

At the annual Snapdragon Technology Summit, which took place on December 4-6 in Hawaii, global chipset manufacturer Qualcomm Technologies Inc., a subsidiary of Qualcomm Incorporated, unveiled the newest generation in the 8 Mobile Platform Series, the dual frequency Qualcomm® Snapdragon™ 855 Mobile Platform.

The latest offering from Qualcomm Technologies is the world’s first commercial mobile platform supporting multi-gigabit 5G, industry-leading AI and immersive extended reality (XR) collectively, ushering in a new decade of revolutionary mobile devices.

The Snapdragon 855 Mobile Platform supports dual-frequency GNSS, leveraging the Galileo E1/E5a signals as well as the GPS and QZSS L1/L5 signals to produce a more accurate and robust location in dense urban canyons where GNSS signals tend to be blocked or reflected.

Using new chip architectures built on leading 7nm process technology, the Snapdragon 855 Mobile Platform will also offer users long-lasting battery life and superior experiences in areas such as imaging, audio, gaming and XR.

Major milestone

“This announcement follows the trend of implementing dual frequency in consumer platforms to achieve new levels of location performance,” said European GNSS Agency (GSA) Executive Director Carlo des Dorides. “Combining high accuracy of location with 5G connectivity is a major milestone and we are proud that Galileo and its E1/E5 signals are part of this revolution.”

“Accurate and reliable position location is of utmost importance to the mobile experience,” said Alex Katouzian, Senior Vice President, General Manager, Mobile, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. “Qualcomm Technologies continues to help improve consumers’ experiences with location-based services by adding dual-frequency GNSS support to the Snapdragon 855 Mobile Platform.”

Galileo use

Working closely with the GSA for what concerns the Galileo use in the chipsets, Qualcomm Technologies is active in Location Based Services for smartphones, wearables, computing, IoT and the automotive market segments. In 2016, the company made headlines when it launched the Galileo-enabled Snapdragon smartphone chipset, which was used in the BQ Aquaris X5 – the market’s first Galileo smartphone.

Earlier this year, Qualcomm Technologies also introduced a number of European GNSS (Galileo and EGNOS) capable automotive chipsets for Europe’s eCall system, the emergency response location initiative now mandatory in all new vehicle types sold in Europe. With most of its chipsets capable of receiving and using Galileo signals, Qualcomm is the world’s largest chipset manufacturer of Galileo-enabled receivers.

Qualcomm and Snapdragon are trademarks of Qualcomm Incorporated, registered in the United States and other countries. Qualcomm Snapdragon is a product of Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. and/or its subsidiaries.

Media note: This feature can be republished without charge provided the European GNSS Agency (GSA) is acknowledged as the source at the top or the bottom of the story. You must request permission before you use any of the photographs on the site. If you republish, we would be grateful if you could link back to the GSA website (http://www.gsa.europa.eu).

At the annual Snapdragon Technology Summit, which took place on December 4-6 in Hawaii, global chipset manufacturer Qualcomm Technologies Inc., a subsidiary of Qualcomm Incorporated, unveiled the newest generation in the 8 Mobile Platform Series, the dual frequency Qualcomm® Snapdragon™ 855 Mobile Platform.

The latest offering from Qualcomm Technologies is the world’s first commercial mobile platform supporting multi-gigabit 5G, industry-leading AI and immersive extended reality (XR) collectively, ushering in a new decade of revolutionary mobile devices.

The Snapdragon 855 Mobile Platform supports dual-frequency GNSS, leveraging the Galileo E1/E5a signals as well as the GPS and QZSS L1/L5 signals to produce a more accurate and robust location in dense urban canyons where GNSS signals tend to be blocked or reflected.

Using new chip architectures built on leading 7nm process technology, the Snapdragon 855 Mobile Platform will also offer users long-lasting battery life and superior experiences in areas such as imaging, audio, gaming and XR.

Major milestone

“This announcement follows the trend of implementing dual frequency in consumer platforms to achieve new levels of location performance,” said European GNSS Agency (GSA) Executive Director Carlo des Dorides. “Combining high accuracy of location with 5G connectivity is a major milestone and we are proud that Galileo and its E1/E5 signals are part of this revolution.”

“Accurate and reliable position location is of utmost importance to the mobile experience,” said Alex Katouzian, Senior Vice President, General Manager, Mobile, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. “Qualcomm Technologies continues to help improve consumers’ experiences with location-based services by adding dual-frequency GNSS support to the Snapdragon 855 Mobile Platform.”

Galileo use

Working closely with the GSA for what concerns the Galileo use in the chipsets, Qualcomm Technologies is active in Location Based Services for smartphones, wearables, computing, IoT and the automotive market segments. In 2016, the company made headlines when it launched the Galileo-enabled Snapdragon smartphone chipset, which was used in the BQ Aquaris X5 – the market’s first Galileo smartphone.

Earlier this year, Qualcomm Technologies also introduced a number of European GNSS (Galileo and EGNOS) capable automotive chipsets for Europe’s eCall system, the emergency response location initiative now mandatory in all new vehicle types sold in Europe. With most of its chipsets capable of receiving and using Galileo signals, Qualcomm is the world’s largest chipset manufacturer of Galileo-enabled receivers.

Media note: This feature can be republished without charge provided the European GNSS Agency (GSA) is acknowledged as the source at the top or the bottom of the story. You must request permission before you use any of the photographs on the site. If you republish, we would be grateful if you could link back to the GSA website (http://www.gsa.europa.eu).