Testing MAGNET Receiver Under Operational Conditions

Jean Pierre Vincent, Frédéric Brunel, Olivier Silvy, Alan Schuster Bruce, Xiaogang Gu, Heinz-Georg Wippich, Alain Caignault, Jean-Louis Lavroff

Abstract:	The objectives of the MAGNET initiative (Multimodal Approach for Global Navigation Satellite 1 st Generation -GNSS1 - in European Transport) are to develop a new generation of GNSS1 aviation, maritime and land/railways user segment receivers (using GPS, GLONASS and WAAS/EGNOS signals) based on the development of a common Core Module, and to assess system performance through simulation and field experiments. The MAGNET initiative is supported by the MAGNET A and MAGNET B research projects of the Telematics Ap-plications Programme of the 4 th Research Framework of the European Community. These 2 projects represent a 16 MECU effort of Europe equally shared between the par-ticipants and the European Commission Directorate Gen-eral XIII (Information Society: Telecommunications, Markets, Technologies, Innovation and Exploitation of Research). In this respect, MAGNET A and MAGNET B bring to-gether a consortium of partners composed of Alcatel, Ra-cal, Daimler-Benz Aerospace Navigations und Flug-fürungs Systeme (DASA-NFS), ADTRANZ, and Thomson-CSF Detexis (the former Dassault Electronique) acting as the co-ordinator. Major Transport Operators (Aviation – Lufthansa, Railways - SNCF and Ferries -COLOR LINE) are also participating in the work guaran-teeing user-in-loop developments. Technically, MAGNET A addresses medium performance (say up-to CAT1) per-259 formance, while MAGNET B concentrates on high per-formance (sub meter level of accuracy). MAGNET A consequently considers Wide Area Differ-ential (WAD) techniques while MAGNET B relies on Lo-cal Area Differential (LAD), hybridization and data links to achieve sub-meter accuracy and higher integrity re-quirements. Both projects started in January 1996 and satisfactorily completed the technical work in June 1999. Focusing on the simulation and field experiments which took place during the last year of activity of both projects (from mid 1998 to mid 1999), this paper introduces the methodology, results, lessons learned from the testing of the various MAGNET user segment prototype receivers under simulated and quasi operational conditions includ-ing the demonstration of aircraft approaches, railways traf-fic management, vessel harbour approaches and docking. The consolidated results from the simulations and field trials show in particular that a 2,5 m (1)) overall position accuracy can be obtained from a MAGNET A prototype receiver using the EGNOS like Signal In Space provided by Racal and overlayed through INMARSAT AOR-E. GNSS1 receiver using the EGNOS Signal in Space will then bring the same level of accuracy as the one provided today by DGPS equipment with the benefit of a larger coverage (thousand of kms versus a few hundred kms) and without the burden of accommodating dedicated data links. For MAGNET B, a real time accuracy of 5 cms was achieved for maritime applications (docking operations) and air transport (ADS-B and SMGCS). In consideration of the difficulties still facing the valida-tion and certification of the performance of GNSS receiv-ers in terms of integrity and availability for safety critical applications, the possibility to establish the overall navi-gation / positioning system performance required by the end-users from a relevantly tuned filter input by a set of independent sources (including satellite navigation) may also proved fruitful. This could be usefully investigated the context of the European GALILEO initiative leading to GNSS-2 by 2005-2008. Building on the European wide involvement of manufac-turers, end users, Transport Operators, Space industrialists and various European Institutions, the MAGNET techni-cal developments and experimentation contributed strengthen the competitive position of the European in-dustry in manufacturing satellite navigation receivers and test bed, also setting the scene for the stimulation of new markets and applications in the context of GALILEO.
Published in:	Proceedings of the 12th International Technical Meeting of the Satellite Division of The Institute of Navigation (ION GPS 1999) September 14 - 17, 1999 Nashville, TN
Pages:	259 - 268
Cite this article:	Vincent, Jean Pierre, Brunel, Frédéric, Silvy, Olivier, Bruce, Alan Schuster, Gu, Xiaogang, Wippich, Heinz-Georg, Caignault, Alain, Lavroff, Jean-Louis, "Testing MAGNET Receiver Under Operational Conditions," Proceedings of the 12th International Technical Meeting of the Satellite Division of The Institute of Navigation (ION GPS 1999), Nashville, TN, September 1999, pp. 259-268.
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