Galileo signal component tested for Internet of Things use

One of Europe’s Galileo satellites has been reconfigured to emit a new signal component optimised to serve low-end receiver devices and Internet of Things applications.

The metre-level accuracy provided by Galileo’s Open Service makes it the world’s most accurate generally-available service, out-performing other global navigation systems such as GPS and providing not only positioning, navigation and timing services to users worldwide, but also aiding rescue missions. Yet individual satellites within the constellation can also be used to trial new signals and services as the system continues to progress.

Embedded sensors placed in everything from home appliances to farm equipment to smart city infrastructure are on the way, allowing such items to report and exchange their location information so they can work together. At the same time, these stand-alone sensors are constrained by strict limits on available battery power and computational resources.

To serve this emerging market of IoT and snapshot devices, and to respond to the needs of chipset manufacturers, Galileo engineers looked into requiring a positioning signal that can be acquired with lower computational complexity.

www.esa.int