The programme

|User needs and service definition

|GALILEO services

|System architecture

|Programme phases

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Safety of Life Service (SoL)

Purpose

The target markets of the Safety of Life service are safety critical users, for example maritime, aviation and trains, whose applications or operations require stringent performance levels.

This service will provide high-level performance globally to satisfy the user community needs and to increase safety especially in areas where services provided by traditional ground infrastructure are not available. A worldwide seamless service will increase the efficiency of companies operating in a global basis, e.g. airlines, transoceanic maritime companies.

Performance and features

With regard to Safety of Life Services, there are certain levels of service that are stipulated by law in various international transportation fields, for example Standards and Recommended Practices (SARPS) by ICAO. A very specific level of service from GALILEO will be needed to comply with legislation applicable for all considered domains of transport and existing standards. It is intended to provide a guarantee for this service.

This service will be offered openly and the system will have the capability to authenticate the signal (e.g. by a digital signature) to assure the users that the received signal is the actual GALILEO signal. This system feature, which will be activated if required by users, must be transparent and non-discriminatory to users and shall not introduce any degradation in performances.

The provision of integrity information at global level is the main characteristic of this service. Non-European regions could also support the provision of this service on a regional basis by delivering regional integrity information through the Galileo satellites.

The Safety of Life service will be provided globally. Its specification include two levels to cover two conditions of risk exposure and are applicable to many applications in different transport domains, for example air, land, maritime, rail:

• The Critical level covers time critical operations for example, in the aviation domain approach operations with vertical guidance.

• The Non-Critical level covers extended operations that are less time critical, such as open sea navigation in the maritime domain.

The SoL Service signals are in the E5a+E5b and L1 bands. GALILEO will offer a robust service to the Safety of Life community providing also alternative levels of service for degraded modes of operation (e.g. where one or two frequency would not be available due to interference).

Implementation

The Safety of Life Service signals are separated in frequency to permit correction of errors induced by ionospheric effects by differentiation of the ranging measurements made at each frequency. Each navigation frequency will include two ranging code signals (in-phase and quadrature). Data are added to one of the ranging codes while the other "pilot" ranging code is data-less for more precise and robust navigation measurements. The integrity data will be broadcast in the L1 and E5b bands.