GALILEO UPDATE

Galileo and Japan’s QZSS constellation to be integrated

Talks are starting on integrating the GPS satellite constellations of the EU and Japan. It is hoped that an integrated constellation will help the development of autonomous vehicles, farm machinery and construction equipment by allowing those made in Japan and the EU to use GPS signals from either constellation.

Japan’s Quasi-Zenith Satellite System (QZSS) and the EU’s Galileo constellation could be linked in two to three years if all goes to plan. Mitsubishi Electric, Hitachi Zosen and NTT Data and Thales are involved in the talks. The objective is to have an integration plan in place by the end of this year.

Galileo is intended to be a 20 satellite constellation. So far it has launched 14 satellites. Japan’s QZSS constellation is a three satellite constellation which is planned to be increased to four by 2018. It is geosynchronous rather the geostationary so that one of the satellites is always over Japan. www.electronicsweekly.com

Jackson Labs delivers Galileo-Enabled GNSDO™

Jackson Labs Technologies, Inc (JLT) has announced several new products with full support for Galileo, as well as a free software retrofit to existing products adding Galileo functionality.

JLT has upgraded the popular Mini-JLT GPSDO with an 8th generation GNSS NEO-M8T Timing receiver from u-blox that allows receiving Galileo signals as well as concurrent GPS, Glonass, BeiDou, and QZSS signals. Users can choose to operate a single GNSS system, or multiple concurrent GNSS systems for redundancy.

The Galileo GNSS promises significant improvements in timing and frequency performance due to improved on-board Hydrogen Maser Atomic references (Cesium and Rubidium references are used in GPS and Glonass satellites) and other system improvements. In stationary timing mode, the new Galileo-capable GNSDO products will operate with as little as one single satellite in-view, and can use additional satellites to improve timing stability and accuracy via an over-determined timing solution for oscillator disciplining. Indoor tracking is possible with an unmatched GNSS performance of down to -167dBm. www.jackson-labs.com

BQ Aquaris X5 Plus Flagship Smartphone launched Galileo

BQ, a Spanish Smartphone manufacturer has launched a new Flagship smartphone – the Aquaris X5 Plus. It is the first handset to come with the satellite navigation system Galileo. It will be available in Two RAM and Storage options – 2GB of RAM and 16GB of internal storage and 3GB of RAM and 32GB of Internal Storage. It also sports host of other smart phone features. Coming to the connectivity options, the Smartphone offers 4G LTE with VoLTE, 2G/3G, Bluetooth 4.1, Wi- fi802.11 a/b/g/n/ac (2.4 / 5GHz), GPS + GLONASS, 3.5mm audio jack and Micro-USB port. http://fitnhit.com/