zprávy

A call for proposals has been opened under the Fundamental Elements funding mechanism, targeting the development of GNSS receiver technologies for premium and general mass markets. This and other FE projects will be presented at Info Day in Prague on March 14.

As the Galileo constellation expands, and following the launch of Initial Services, the adoption of the system in the mass market has taken off with most major smartphone manufacturers announcing a series of products in the last eighteen months that will use Galileo.

But the mass market is not limited to smartphones. Two streams have been identified where additional efforts are required for fostering adoption:

1. Premium Mass Market (PMM): the upper segment of mass market applications with respect to general purpose mass-market applications, requiring higher performances than those achievable by popular mass-market products such as trackers or step counters, but less stringent than the professional ones such as GIS receivers.
2. General Mass Market (GMM): the low end of mass market applications, which is mainly cost-driven and for which energy consumption and physical size are key drivers.

Read this: GSA to host Fundamental Elements Info Day in Prague: join us on 14th of March

Proposals in the new call shall address any (or both) streams by developing, integrating, testing and demonstrating hardware components, software or firmware filling technology gaps for Premium Mass Market GNSS devices, Internet of Things, or any other general mass market application. They should also assess or, even better, leverage the several Galileo differentiators such as:

• Multiple carrier frequency, wide bandwidth E-GNSS signals;
• Data-less (pilot) channels;
• The prospect of a Navigation Message Authentication service transmitted over Open Service E1;
• The use of carrier-phase based applications and satellite-based real-time Precise Point Positioning (PPP) products, such as the ones foreseen in the Galileo Commercial Service;
• Integration of miniaturised Galileo SAR beacons with mass market devices such as smartphones.

One of the main characteristics of this call is its openness and flexibility. It constitutes a good opportunity for already-established providers of mass market solutions to improve or expand their product portfolio and for newcomers to facilitate the development of their own solutions and their entry into the market.

At a glance:

Apply here

This call is part of the annual Grant Plan published by the GSA and it follows the recent publication of calls for an Advanced interference detection and mitigation techniques and a Commercial Service User terminal. The 2018 Grant Plan should be published soon.

Furthermore, the GSA plans to hold an Info Day at its headquarters in Prague on March 14 2018, focusing on upcoming opportunities under Fundamental Elements. The event will also provide an update on the status of the programme. Participants in the Info Day will have the opportunity to meet with representatives from the European Commission/GSA, ongoing Fundamental Elements projects and the GNSS industry.

You can register for the Info Day 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).

A call for proposals has been opened under the Fundamental Elements funding mechanism, targeting the development of GNSS receiver technologies for premium and general mass markets. 

As the Galileo constellation expands, and following the launch of Initial Services, the adoption of the system in the mass market has taken off with most major smartphone manufacturers announcing a series of products in the last eighteen months that will use Galileo.

But the mass market is not limited to smartphones. Two streams have been identified where additional efforts are required for fostering adoption:

1. Premium Mass Market (PMM): the upper segment of mass market applications with respect to general purpose mass-market applications, requiring higher performances than those achievable by popular mass-market products such as trackers or step counters, but less stringent than the professional ones such as GIS receivers.
2. General Mass Market (GMM): the low end of mass market applications, which is mainly cost-driven and for which energy consumption and physical size are key drivers.

Read this: GSA to host Fundamental Elements Info Day in Prague: join us on 14th of March

Proposals in the new call shall address any (or both) streams by developing, integrating, testing and demonstrating hardware components, software or firmware filling technology gaps for Premium Mass Market GNSS devices, Internet of Things, or any other general mass market application. They should also assess or, even better, leverage the several Galileo differentiators such as:

• Multiple carrier frequency, wide bandwidth E-GNSS signals;
• Data-less (pilot) channels;
• The prospect of a Navigation Message Authentication service transmitted over Open Service E1;
• The use of carrier-phase based applications and satellite-based real-time Precise Point Positioning (PPP) products, such as the ones foreseen in the Galileo Commercial Service;
• Integration of miniaturised Galileo SAR beacons with mass market devices such as smartphones.

One of the main characteristics of this call is its openness and flexibility. It constitutes a good opportunity for already-established providers of mass market solutions to improve or expand their product portfolio and for newcomers to facilitate the development of their own solutions and their entry into the market.

At a glance:

Apply here

This call is part of the annual Grant Plan published by the GSA and it follows the recent publication of calls for an Advanced interference detection and mitigation techniques and a Commercial Service User terminal. The 2018 Grant Plan should be published soon.

Furthermore, the GSA plans to hold an Info Day at its headquarters in Prague on March 14 2018, focusing on upcoming opportunities under Fundamental Elements. The event will also provide an update on the status of the programme. Participants in the Info Day will have the opportunity to meet with representatives from the European Commission/GSA, ongoing Fundamental Elements projects and the GNSS industry.

You can register for the Info Day 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).

The Munich Satellite Navigation Summit opened on March 5 with a discussion about who stands to win from competition and cooperation in satellite navigation. After a lively debate it was decided that, ultimately, the end user will be the winner in what one panellist described as ‘the Golden Age of GNSS.’

Matthias Petschke, Director of EU Satellite Navigation Programmes, European Commission, opened the discussion by stressing that a balanced mix between competition and cooperation is needed in the satellite navigation sector. He said that competition between providers of GNSS services and between industrial players would lead to better services, more innovation and reduced costs. “On the other hand, cooperation will ensure compatibility of signals in terms of radio frequency characteristics and interoperability of systems – allowing multi-constellation to provide better services,” he said.

European GNSS Agency (GSA) Executive Director Carlo des Dorides agreed. He said that cooperation is necessary – and frequency coordination is only one example of this. The GSA director noted that, from a user perspective, GNSS systems provide the best performance when they work together. “Today more than 60% of the chipsets available on the market are multi-system and more than 20% foresee four-satellite-system compatibility.  The market is requesting more reliable, more accurate positioning, and this is what multi-system provides,” he said, adding that within multi-constellation solutions Galileo has a special place thanks to its frequency compatibility with GPS.

Galileo outperforming expectations

Noting that navigation information had become an integral part of our daily lives, Simon Plum, Managing Director for the Galileo Programme at DLR GfR, said that priorities have started to shift from the deployment of infrastructure to service delivery on a global scale. “Europe has proven its capability over the past number of years, and now the system has to grow its reputation of precision and, more importantly, of reliability,” he said.

In this regard, Petschke stressed that Galileo is already delivering much better services than expected and, what’s more, it is transparent about its performance, with quarterly performance reports published on the GSC website. “The market uptake results are impressive, preliminary figures show that some 75 million Galileo-enabled smartphones were sold last year and 95% of the chipsets on the market are already Galileo-enabled. What’s more, as of April 1 this year, all new passenger cars in the EU will be equipped with the eCall rapid assistance systems, which are enhanced by Galileo,” he said.

Read this: GSA publishes eCall guidelines to facilitate GNSS compatibility tests

User-driven

Carlo des Dorides said that the GSA is focusing on ensuring that the current generation of Galileo services, as well as the second generation, are driven by user needs. He said that Galileo will soon offer two unique differentiators that other GNSS are not currently providing: the Open Service Navigation Message Authentication (OS NMA) and worldwide Precise Point Positioning (PPP). “The new services will meet emerging needs, especially in autonomous applications,” he said.

Go Takizawa, Executive Director of QZSS Strategy at the National Space Policy Secretariat in Japan noted that by 2020 there would be more than 100 positioning satellites available in the world and that cooperation, compatibility and interoperability are important to ensure the performance and accuracy of the overall satellite positioning system. “This should bring benefits to GNSS users.  To make sure that the users are the ultimate winners, we need to have friendly competition and ensure compatibility,” he 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).

The Munich Satellite Navigation Summit opened on March 5 with a discussion about who stands to win from competition and cooperation in satellite navigation. After a lively debate it was decided that, ultimately, the end user will be the winner in what one panellist described as ‘the Golden Age of GNSS.’

Matthias Petschke, Director of EU Satellite Navigation Programmes, European Commission, opened the discussion by stressing that a balanced mix between competition and cooperation is needed in the satellite navigation sector. He said that competition between providers of GNSS services and between industrial players would lead to better services, more innovation and reduced costs. “On the other hand, cooperation will ensure compatibility of signals in terms of radio frequency characteristics and interoperability of systems – allowing multi-constellation to provide better services,” he said.

European GNSS Agency (GSA) Executive Director Carlo des Dorides agreed. He said that cooperation is necessary – and frequency coordination is only one example of this. The GSA director noted that, from a user perspective, GNSS systems provide the best performance when they work together. “Today more than 60% of the chipsets available on the market are multi-system and more than 20% foresee four-satellite-system compatibility.  The market is requesting more reliable, more accurate positioning, and this is what multi-system provides,” he said, adding that within multi-constellation solutions Galileo has a special place thanks to its frequency compatibility with GPS.

Galileo outperforming expectations

Noting that navigation information had become an integral part of our daily lives, Simon Plum, Managing Director for the Galileo Programme at DLR GfR, said that said that priorities have started to shift from the deployment of infrastructure to service delivery on a global scale. “Europe has proven its capability over the past number of years, and now the system has to grow its reputation of precision and, more importantly, of reliability,” he said.

In this regard, Petschke stressed that Galileo is already delivering much better services than expected and, what’s more, it is transparent about its performance, with quarterly performance reports published on the GSC website. “The market uptake results are impressive, preliminary figures show that some 75 million Galileo-enabled smartphones were sold last year and 95% of the chipsets on the market are already Galileo-enabled. What’s more, as of April 1 this year, all new passenger cars in the EU will be equipped with the eCall rapid assistance systems, which are enhanced by Galileo,” he said.

Read this: GSA publishes eCall guidelines to facilitate GNSS compatibility tests

User-driven

Carlo des Dorides said that the GSA is focusing on ensuring that the current generation of Galileo services, as well as the second generation, are driven by user needs. He said that Galileo will soon offer two unique differentiators that other GNSS are not currently providing: the Open Service Navigation Message Authentication (OS NMA) and worldwide Precise Point Positioning (PPP). “The new services will meet emerging needs, especially in autonomous applications,” he said.

Go Takizawa, Executive Director of QZSS Strategy at the National Space Policy Secretariat in Japan noted that by 2020 there would be more than 100 positioning satellites available in the world and that cooperation, compatibility and interoperability are important to ensure the performance and accuracy of the overall satellite positioning system. “This should bring benefits to GNSS users.  To make sure that the users are the ultimate winners, we need to have friendly competition and ensure compatibility,” he 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).