Galileo Timing Applications

Marco Blanchi, Renzo Zanello, Claudio Cantelmo, and Stefano Scarda

Abstract:	The Harrison Project is a project dealing with Time and Synchronization Applications started in the framework of the GSA (GNSS Supervisor Authority), a European Union body. The aim of the project is to study the advantages in time and synchronization applications offered by the Galileo System. The project is basically arranged in three major phases: the user community analysis, the development of a solution demonstrator, and the field trials of the demonstrator. The user community consists of partners belonging to several application domains such as: scientific applications on timing and astronomy and quantum cryptography, banking, railways, energy and power, mobile communications, network security, and satellite service providers. The user community is represented by both industrial partners and/or public bodies like university and research institutes. The user community analysis also includes a market analysis performed by a specialized company to identify business opportunities in timing applications for the forthcoming Galileo constellation. The purpose of the project phase is to analyze the time and synchronization applications for each domain and study the advantages offered by the availability of a common precise time reference recovered by the Galileo SIS (Signal in Space). Moreover, this activity is also a stimulus for the development of new ideas. The proposed demonstrator is called the Authenticated and Certified Time Solution (ACTS) and aims to study the feasibility of using the time distributed by the Galileo System authenticated and certified through the Galileo System and added value services. The legal aspects are also considered and a dedicated analysis is performed considering the European Community laws and the acts in the major EU countries. The time distributed through the Galileo Satellite System (and GNSS in general) is very attractive for all those applications that need a high level of synchronization over a wide geographical area; the benefit is that a synchronization network with nodes and a subnetwork is no longer necessary, since all the nodes can directly access the main synchronization SIS.
Published in:	Proceedings of the 39th Annual Precise Time and Time Interval Meeting November 27 - 29, 2007 Hyatt Regency Long Beach Long Beach, California
Pages:	489 - 510
Cite this article:	Blanchi, Marco, Zanello, Renzo, Cantelmo, Claudio, Scarda, Stefano, "Galileo Timing Applications," Proceedings of the 39th Annual Precise Time and Time Interval Meeting, Long Beach, California, November 2007, pp. 489-510.
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