INES: An Innovative European Navigation System Relying on a Low Earth Orbit Constellation

J. Chenebault, J.P. Provenzano, F. Richard, V. Thiebold, B. Belon, J.L. Lavroff

Abstract:	The GNSS initiative was set up to create a global navigation system meeting all the needs of the civil aviation community. GNSS2 according to the ICAO definition, shall provide the states with the control of a navigation component providing the required level of service and with the capability of being certified as a sole means system, leading to the withdrawal of VOR, DME, ILSs. This paper describes the architecture and performance of a new navigation satellite concept INES, based on the utliization of a low earth orbit constellation, completed by the geostationary component of GNSSl (WAAS, EGNOS, MSAS), dense enough to provide each user in the coverage ares with 4 satellites with good geometry. The other cornerstone of INES is a localization ground network, enabling on-board real-time orbit-determination and synchronization. This approach leads to a global coverage navigation system cost effective and allows a smooth transition between GNSSl and GNSS2. The overall objective of INES is to achieve the civil aviation requirements, by a progressive implementation: non precision approach will be guaranteed with the INES space segment, and then CAT 1/2/3 with implementation of additional signal processing techniques and/or ground augmentations. Of course, other applications (multimodal) will be enabled with INES. An innovative aspect of INES is to propose a low cost, low mass and low consumption payload (20 kg, 5OW). This will be possible by the use of a ground beacon network. The latter consists of a network of ground beacons, some including an atomic clock, spread all over the earth providing to the satellites omnidirectional ranging and timing signal. This allows the on board payload to compute, in real time and on board the satellite ephemeris and time with a great accuracy (lm at 1sigma, few ns at lsigma). The position and timing data, elaborated on board the satellite are broadcast to the users via the Navigation signal, like a classical navigation satellite system. This approach authorizes the implementation of the INES payload on any type of satellites in particular on dedicated micro-satellites. The INES ground segment includes the dedicated ground beacons, the integrity monitoring network and the INES Mission Center with its means of communication. Following topics will be further discussed: mission requirements, system architecture, space and ground segment description, signal definition, user segment description, performance, DOP statistics, UERE, overall accuracy, availability, implementation plan. The complementary of INES with GPS (or GLONASS) for multimodal applications will be addressed.
Published in:	Proceedings of the 1998 National Technical Meeting of The Institute of Navigation January 21 - 23, 1998 Westin Long Beach Hotel Long Beach, CA
Pages:	225 - 238
Cite this article:	Chenebault, J., Provenzano, J.P., Richard, F., Thiebold, V., Belon, B., Lavroff, J.L., "INES: An Innovative European Navigation System Relying on a Low Earth Orbit Constellation," Proceedings of the 1998 National Technical Meeting of The Institute of Navigation, Long Beach, CA, January 1998, pp. 225-238.
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