Galileo update

Galileo E6-B/C codes now available

With Galileo services such as highaccuracy service (HAS) and commercial authentication service on E6-B/C signal coming around the corner, the European GNSS Service Centre (GSC) has made available the main specifications of the Galileo E6-B and E6-C codes to the User Community.

The GSC just published “Galileo E6-B/C Codes Technical Note” on the GSC web portal.These codes can be used for accessing the future Galileo HAS and Galileo Commercial Authentication Service (CAS) and can be downloaded from the GSC website.

The description of the primary E6-B/C and secondary E6-C codes and their assignment to specific satellites will provide receiver manufacturers the information they need to develop Galileo E6-B/C enabled receivers. The Technical Note also provides a hexadecimal representation of the E6-B/C primary and secondary codes.

The Galileo User Community will be able to benefit from the added value services, offered through the E6 signal, namely the Galileo High Accuracy Service and the Galileo Commercial Authentication Service:

▪ The Galileo HAS will allow users to obtain a positioning error below two decimeters in nominal conditions of use. The Galileo HAS will be based on the free transmission of Precise Point Positioning (PPP) corrections through the Galileo E6 signal data component (E6- B) by the Galileo satellites.

▪ The Galileo CAS will make it possible to authenticate signals, by giving access to the E6 signal pilot component (E6-C) codes, which will be encrypted.

▪ The Galileo high accuracy and authentication services will provide cost-effective solutions with very good performance and much needed redundancy that are essential for safety-critical applications, such as autonomous driving, for example, according to the European GNSS Agency.

Thales Alenia Space, ESA sign new Galileo contract

Thales Alenia Space and the European Space Agency have signed a new tranche of the contract for the operational phase of the Galileo ground mission segment and security facility.

The new tranche of this contract, worth about €130m through June 2021, will concern the following:

▪ completion of PRS (Public Regulated Service),

▪ adapting the ground segment to provide an interface, via computerised POCPs (Point of Contact Platforms), between the Galileo Security Monitoring Center (GSMC), which manages PRS access to the new system, and government entities which control access on their own receiving stations.

Thales Alenia Space will direct a consortium including companies in France, Spain, Italy and Germany. It will call on the Thales group for both prime contractor support and for the architecture and integration of security components and the POCPs, and on Leonardo for the Galileo Security Facility (GSF), which manages PRS service and the POCPs.