GALILEO - Understanding GPS: Principles and Applications - page 559

CHAPTER 10
GALILEO

Marco Falcone and Philippe Erhard
European Space Agency, ESA/ESTEC
Noordwijk, the Netherlands
Guenter W. Hein
Institute of Geodesy and Navigation
University FAF Munich, Germany

10.1 GALILEO Program Objectives

Satellite navigation, positioning, and timing have already found widespread appli-
cations in a large variety of fields. Recognizing the strategic importance of its appli-
cations, a European approach was developed in the early 1990s. It started with the
European contribution to the first generation of Global Navigation Satellite Sys-
tems (GNSS-1), the EGNOS program, and continues with the future generation of
Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS-2), the GALILEO program.
GNSS-1 provides Europe with early benefits but does not offer a sufficient level
of control over GNSS; nor does it offer signals with guaranteed availability and per-
formance, as it depends upon the GPS or GLONASS. This has led to the definition
of GALILEO, a satellite constellation providing worldwide coverage, which is pro-
posed as the European contribution to GNSS-2.
The combined use of GALILEO, EGNOS, and GPS/GLONASS will increase the
overall performance, robustness, and the inherent safety of the services achieved
from GNSS, and it will allow for worldwide acceptability of the exploitation and
use of satellite navigation for the benefit of all potential users.

10.2 GALILEO Services and Performance

The GALILEO system is being designed to meet a variety of user needs, out of which
a number of representative services has been identified to form the basis of the
design and to allow the definition of the main features of GALILEO. However, the
capabilities of the system will allow the realization of a larger number of services,
well beyond the scope of the ones defined here. In addition, the system architecture
is flexible and scalable so that evolution of user needs can be accommodated.

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