Galileo Integrity Processing Facility: Preliminary Design

E. Sardón, E. Mora, C. Hernández, J.R. Martín

Abstract:	Galileo is the European Global Navigation Satellite System, under civilian control, and consists on a constellation of medium Earth orbit satellites and its associated ground infrastructure. Galileo will provide to their users highly accurate global positioning services and their associated integrity information. The elements in charge of the computation of Galileo navigation and integrity information are the OSPF (Orbit Synchronization Processing Facility) and IPF (Integrity Processing Facility), within the Galileo Ground Mission Segment. This paper focuses on the IPF, which essential function is to provide timely information to the Galileo users about the quality of the signals from each individual satellite. In order to do this, the IPF checks the integrity of navigation data and generates a set of integrity flags for each Galileo satellite. The main output of the IPF is twofold: - A set of Integrity Flags - The so-called Signal In Space Monitoring Accuracy (SISMA). Galileo is currently in its design and development phase. The design and development phase for the IPF started on May 2005 and the first main milestone, the Preliminary Design Review, took place on February 2006. This main objective of this paper is to present the current stage of the IPF design. Being the IPF a key facility, it has strong restrictions on its design, development and validation life cycle, including aspects such as: - The implementation of a strict Dependability and Safety Assurance program within the IPF development, aimed to ensure the suitability of the IPF design and development with the dependabilityand safety requirements. - The application of Safety-critical SW developmentpractices (IPF is categorised as level B SW). - The application of a strict IPF system engineering process, including the algorithm prototyping, the hardware selection, the interface management, performance budget management, etc. - The design of IPF to operate autonomously with high reliability in terms of continuous and unmanned operations. - The implementation of a comprehensive Verification process, comprising the formal verification of product according to the applicable standards and also the validation of key mission performances. Those particular aspects are treated with more detail and the paper presents the main conclusions that are derived so far from the design work and engineering analysis (reliability analysis, safety conclusions, etc.). This is the first paper with detailed information on the Galileo Integrity Processing Facility, its design activities, the preliminary design, the different design constraints, limitations, etc.
Published in:	Proceedings of the 19th International Technical Meeting of the Satellite Division of The Institute of Navigation (ION GNSS 2006) September 26 - 29, 2006 Fort Worth Convention Center Fort Worth, TX
Pages:	531 - 539
Cite this article:	Sardón, E., Mora, E., Hernández, C., Martín, J.R., "Galileo Integrity Processing Facility: Preliminary Design," Proceedings of the 19th International Technical Meeting of the Satellite Division of The Institute of Navigation (ION GNSS 2006), Fort Worth, TX, September 2006, pp. 531-539.
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