118 - On demand PNT services during crisis

The success of satellite-enabled PNT applications is accompanied by a growing dependency of our society and economy on the availability of GNSS, which has motivated R&D, demonstration as well as deployment of so-called Alternative PNT systems (APNT).

This dependency extends to GNSS augmentation systems and PNT capabilities relying on local terrestrial infrastructures which can be exposed to outages, for instance in situation of natural disaster or humanitarian crisis. Examples include sensors stations, emergency call location by terrestrial networks, AGNSS, RTK, PPP and differential augmentation systems, and timing terrestrial distribution (e.g. NTP and PTP).

Satellite systems such as satnav, satcom and earth observation have since long demonstrated their utility in supporting crisis management. As the feasibility of using satellite communications for PNT is being demonstrated, satcom capabilities could be activated for PNT on a temporary and/or regional basis, in support of crisis management and for recovering the terrestrial PNT capabilities, delivering capabilities, on-demand and as seamlessly as possible, to relevant stakeholders such as first responders and operators affected by the outages.

The objective of this activity is to investigate concepts to leverage satellite communications systems for on-demand PNT capabilities in support of crisis management, and encompass small-scale, laboratory level proof of concepts. For this, the study will contemplate advanced satellite communications systems for broadband internet (e.g. Ku/Ka-band links) as well as Direct-to-Handheld by satellite.

The foreseen tasks shall therefore include:

•  Survey of the relevant state-of-the-art (for example, PNT and APNT, satellite communications, lessons learned from past use of satellite communications in crisis management), and identification of candidate use cases and potential applications;
•  Definition of potential system concepts and requirements mapped to the identified use cases, contemplating in particular backward compatibility with nominal systems, the impact on the user equipment, and seamless handover to the ad-hoc capability;
•  Preliminary design and feasibility assessment of the candidate concepts, identification and demonstration of key components and functions with small scale proof of concepts in laboratory environments;
•  Derivation of a roadmap towards broader scale demonstration and potential pre-operational systems to be demonstrated in subsequent activities of ESA R&D Programmes.

The main outputs of the activity will consist of:

•  Mission study and roadmap report;
•  Verification report of the laboratory proof of concept.

It is noted that no Participating State expressed their opt-out for this activity (EL1-118).