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The U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC), at a meeting on November 15, granted in part a request from the European Commission for a waiver of the FCC rules so that devices in the United States may access specific signals transmitted from the Galileo Global Navigation Satellite System.

Following this decision, consumers and industry in the U.S. will be permitted to access certain satellite signals from the Galileo system to be used in combination with the U.S. Global Positioning System (GPS), allowing them to benefit from improved availability, reliability, and resiliency of these position, navigation, and timing services, the FCC said in a statement.

Breakthrough

“This breakthrough serves the public interest across many areas of our economy, including the automotive, aviation, rail, maritime, and agriculture industries. It will also produce public safety benefits by reducing risks of accidents and disaster, aiding emergency response, and synchronising power grids and critical infrastructure,” FCC Chairman Ajit Pai said.

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The FCC noted that Galileo is uniquely situated as a foreign GNSS system with respect to GPS, since the two systems are interoperable and radiofrequency compatible following the 2004 European Union/United States Galileo-GPS Agreement.

“This is an important milestone for Galileo. This ruling means that individual users and industry in the U.S. are now able to benefit from the high accuracy that Galileo brings, it also means that Galileo’s position as a truly global navigation system has been strengthened,” European GNSS Agency (GSA) Executive Director Carlo des Dorides said.

Improved U.S. consumer experience

Specifically, the FCC ruling permits access to two Galileo signals – the E1 signal that is transmitted in the 1559-1591 MHz portion of the 1559-1610 MHz Radio-navigation-Satellite Service (RNSS) frequency band and the E5 signal that is transmitted in the 1164-1219 MHz portion of the 1164-1215 MHz and 1215-1240 MHz RNSS bands.  These are the same RNSS bands in which GPS satellite signals operate. 

“Adding these new signal streams should only improve the U.S. consumer experience without causing any downsides,” FCC Commissioner Michael O’Reilly said.

And this: Register now to the EU Space Week in Marseilles

The Order does not grant access to the Galileo E6 signal, which is transmitted over the 1260-1300 MHz frequency band, since this band is not allocated for RNSS in the United States or used by the U.S. GPS to provide PNT services.  The FCC noted that granting access to the Galileo E6 signal could constrain U.S. spectrum management in the future in spectrum above 1300 MHz, where potential allocation changes are under consideration.

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).

A Report on Rail User Needs and Requirements, recently published by the European GNSS Agency (GSA), examines user needs and requirements for position, navigation and timing (PNT) solutions in the rail sector. These reports, which are an outcome of the first European GNSS User Consultation Platform (UCP), will help shape the discussion at the next UCP, to be held as part of European Space Week in Marseille on 3-4 December 2018.

GNSS is already widely used for non-safety and non-liability relevant rail applications, such as passenger information systems. However, as GNSS can support solutions for safety relevant applications that have emerged in recent years, rail stakeholders around the world are also investigating the possibilities for GNSS introduction to cover such advanced and technically complex use-cases.

Rail, however, is a highly regulated domain and the introduction of new technologies is a time-consuming process. Understanding rail user requirements as well as their specifications in terms of GNSS is crucial to foster GNSS penetration in this market. Rail and GNSS communities have been working together for many years to increase this understanding.

Watch this: EGNOS and Galileo for Rail

Limitations and development axes

The main limitations for GNSS penetration in rail PNT applications concern Signal-in-Space obscuration, for example at stations, deep cuttings or in tunnels; the very high availability and integrity requirements for train position determination; excessive positioning errors due to local effects such as multipath; and also high accuracy requirements for some specific functions, like train positioning on parallel tracks.

Given these limitations, the main axes of development for GNSS applications in rail are safety relevant and liability relevant applications where EGNSS differentiators can play a key role. Within the context of the European Railway Traffic Management System (ERTMS), GNSS could be used as way of reducing the need for physical balises in the European Train Control System (ETCS). Outside of the ERTMS, GNSS is already being deployed for train control, particularly in Positive Train Control applications in the USA.

Read this: European GNSS contributes to the evolution of ERTMS

In recent years, the rail and GNSS communities have conducted a lot of work to try and understand their respective safety philosophies. However, work is still needed to define user requirements applicable to GNSS and, in particular, to establish quantified requirements. The EGNSS User Consultation Platform is a key tool in this process.

The EGNSS User Consultation Platform

The UCP is a periodic forum organised by the European Commission and the GSA involving end users, user associations and representatives of the value chain, such as receiver and chipset manufacturers, application developers and the organisations and institutions dealing, directly and indirectly, with Galileo and EGNOS. The Platform is a part of the process developed at the GSA to collect user needs and requirements and take them as inputs for the provision of user-driven Galileo and EGNOS services.

The next User Consultation Platform will be held on 3-4 December, during European Space Week in Marseille. The main work of the UCP will be carried out in eight parallel panel sessions grouping users by market segment, with a dedicated session on the rail sector.

This year, European Space Week also has a special session on Infrastructure Management, which will highlight how the Galileo and Copernicus programmes contribute to the operation and monitoring of complex infrastructure networks, including rail networks. Infrastructures around the world also face challenges relating to climate change. Here too, European GNSS offers a solution. This session will showcase potential solutions and best-practices for using Copernicus and Galileo to manage infrastructures, both in Europe and worldwide.

To join the ongoing discussion and to ensure that future European space programme evolutions meet your needs and requirements, you can take part by registering to attend European Space Week here.

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).