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ELPROMA, a Polish manufacturer of NTP/PTP time servers, has won a seven-figure US$ contract to supply Rubidium IEEE1588 NTS-5000 servers to support a country-scale modern smart grid system in Asia. The servers, which are custom built (designated “Safe Time”), incorporate a modified version of the cyber-security TSI#2 solution developed as part of the Horizon 2020 ‘DEMonstrator of EGNSS services based on Time Reference Architecture’ (Demetra) project, in which ELPROMA participated in 2015-2016.

While it is not yet possible, for reasons of commercial secrecy, to name the client country, we can reveal that the contract is for a total of over 350 mostly advanced Rubidium-class PTP IEEE1588 time servers. These servers will ensure the cyber security and robust nanosecond synchronisation of the country-scale electricity grid, which is in the process of transition from a classical grid to a state-of-the-art IEC61850 system capable of safely distributing power throughout the country.

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“This is the biggest one-off deal of its kind so far,” Tomasz Widomski, a member of the ELPROMA Supervisory Board, said. “For comparison, a stock exchange or a new 5G telecom network requires approximately 10-15 grandmaster PTP IEEE1588 servers to operate efficiently, so 350 is a really huge number of servers,” he said. Due to the server volume, the system requires a special management and monitoring facility to ensure the accuracy and time domain operation of the IEC61850 smart grid.

Nanosecond accuracy

The PTP servers will be customised according to the specific needs of the client to ensure reliable, country-scale synchronisation and time domain operation. The Demetra TSI#2 solution is a core element of the new smart grid, with a modified version of the solution implemented inside the NTS-5000 dual oscillator servers (Rubidium and OCXO), helping to ensure the delivery of nanosecond accuracy and top-level cyber security. The key is real-time auditing, which ensures that everything stays stable during power distribution management.

“ELPROMA is the first supplier in the world of this level of synchronisation and this size of system, which will be more and more popular once Industry 4.0 technology becomes a reality,” Widomski said, adding that Galileo accuracy is a key element for improving security. “The ELPROMA servers are multi-constellation and are able to select the GNSS system that they operate with, however Galileo is the preferred one, with GPS, BaiDou and Glonass as a backup,” he said.

Watch this: Demetra – Time as a Service

ELPROMA is currently in the process of delivering the servers to the client and these will be gradually deployed over the next two to three months. “It is expected that the system will be fully operational at the end of 2019,” Widomski said.

Demetra solution

ELPROMA was member of Demetra Horizon 2020 project (2015-2016), which developed a prototype of an EGNSS-based time disseminator that provides time certification, redundancy, resilience, integrity and improved accuracy, while validating the concept of ‘time as a service’.

The Demetra developers engaged with the main timing and synchronisation users, including energy companies, to ensure that their needs were incorporated into the project design. The demonstrator was built around the concept of a common core infrastructure hosting advanced time services. It was deployed as an open and scalable architecture with common interfaces, making it easier to integrate new services and enabling service developers to focus on performance at user level.

The ELPROMA contract is a good example of how EGNSS-based innovations, such as the solutions created by Demetra, are driving economic growth and job creation in Europe. “The servers are 100% manufactured in the EU, in Poland,” Widomski said.

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).

With an increasing number of people moving to big cities, clean and efficient urban mobility is more important than ever. New urban mobility schemes are rapidly evolving due to social, economic and technological changes. Against this backdrop, Galileo can deliver new accuracy and reliability for location-dependant services that get people where they need to go.

The omnipresence of smart mobile devices is allowing new business models to emerge based on the sharing of goods and services, the so-called sharing economy. The growth of the sharing economy in recent years involves a shift from the owning of goods towards accessing them when you need them. Particularly in urban settings, we now see the appearance of 'Mobility as a Service' (MaaS), enabling people to make the mobility choices that best suit their needs.

"Here's the way to think about MaaS," said Josep Maria Salanova, Senior Researcher at the Hellenic Institute of Transport. "It's like today you have your data agreement for your mobile phone; you pay a certain amount for a certain amount of data and then you can use it. With MaaS, you could have the same thing on your mobile phone, but it's a mobility credit. You will pay an amount per month and you will have access to a variety of mobility options, busses, taxis, car sharing and so on."

Galileo 4 mobility

Salanova's Hellenic Institute of Transport (HIT) is part of the Centre for Research and Technology Hellas (CERTH). "Under the EU-funded 'GALILEO 4 MOBILITY' project, HIT/CERTH is coordinating a pilot study in Thessaloniki," he said. "This is aimed at testing a mobile-based MaaS platform with a fleet of taxis."

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Salanova explained how it works: "In Thessaloniki we have a ride sharing service. So, we are asking people who use their cars to go to work if they would like to share a taxi instead." Customers need to have a mobile phone with the ride-sharing app. They can request a one-off trip, or they can request regular transport on a scheduled basis.

Users can access all kinds of information on previous and pending trips, real-time location of their taxi, and so forth. The trip starts when they are in the taxi and they are automatically debited for the amount of mobility received.

Galileo connection

"So what does this have to do with Galileo?" asked Salanova. "Well, when you do this it's important to know the location of the customer, because this is really a location-based service. You don't have to give an address but the taxi has to find you. They have to know where you are standing, for example maybe on what side of the road, on what corner. So we want to demonstrate that Galileo will make this system work better. In Thessaloniki we have already had cases where drivers are complaining that they can't find the customer."

There is already ample evidence to show that Galileo, especially in conjunction with other GNSS constellations, improves accuracy and location fixes in difficult real-world environments, such as in cities where urban canyons create multipath effects and obstruct views of satellites.

The Thessaloniki pilot is currently running and will run through July 2019. "We will analyse the data and then perhaps have a second round from September 2019," said Salanova.

More than a trial

The GALILEO 4 MOBILITY project encompasses a number of MaaS-oriented pilots, one of which is the Thessaloniki taxi-sharing scheme. "Overall I would say the idea of GALILEO 4 MOBILITY is to support the introduction of GALILEO technology within the Mobility as a Service context," said Martí Jofre, coordinator of the project from Pildo Labs. "We want to see if this works or not. Does Galileo bring added value? We expect yes, but we want to test this, to show this. So we have pilots in other locations and with different kinds of schemes."

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"In Paris we have a bicycle-sharing and a car-sharing scheme, and then we also have a number of pilots in Barcelona. With one of them we have buses and the customer can declare whether or not he is at the bus stop, and if not the bus can change its route to skip the stop. And also in Barcelona there is an autonomous shuttle at a local university using Galileo to do routes and pick-ups on the university campus. This one is not yet mature, but it is coming."

On top of actually running the pilots, Jofre said, the GALILEO 4 MOBILITY team is concerned with developing new tools for data analysis, reviewing the newest and most convincing business models, and, crucially, considering ways to accelerate the acceptance of new mobility schemes among local authorities and their use by the general public.

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).