The Galileo Public Regulated Service (PRS) offers the opportunity to integrate highly secure Global Satellite Navigation System (GNSS) signals within the mission-critical communication systems of civil authorities throughout Europe and beyond. How this can be achieved and the opportunities this provides for users and manufacturers were outlined at a workshop at the Critical Communications World 2103 conference in Paris.
Galileo PRS was the official Public Security Partner for the recent Critical Communications World 2013 (CCW2013) conference that took place in Paris from 21 to 24 May.
In addition to taking a stand in the exhibition area, Galileo PRS held an invitation-only workshop and reception on the evening of 22 May on the topic of Galileo PRS for Professional Mobile Radio (PMR) Users. Typical PMR users include civil authorities such as the police, coast guard, ambulance and other emergency services.
The workshop was held after the end of the first full day of the conference in the event’s Media Centre and gave delegates the opportunity to investigate further the convergence of secure positioning data with PMR networks and the new service to be offered by Galileo PRS from 2014.
Key messages
The key messages conveyed to the PMR community were that a clear market for PRS-enabled applications and devices exists and is growing and that this opportunity needs to be prepared by the industry.
“The GSA is working hard to make PRS a success that is easy to use, affordable and secure,” said Marco Detratti, PRS Officer, GSA. “Indeed we believe that the use of PRS will be essential in many critical applications for civil authorities. PRS is truly becoming a reality.”
However, many tasks remained to be done including demonstration of robust and affordable PRS systems. A key element for future exploitation of PRS was to ensure that secure positioning data was taken into account in future PMR standardisation documents.
Marco Detratti had opened the workshop with an update on the Galileo Programme and introduced Galileo PRS concepts. The Galileo programme was on track for the delivery of early services, which include PRS, in 2014. The first ‘Galileo-only’ positioning data had been obtained on 12 March with promising performances, taking into account the limited infrastructure deployed so far, with positioning accuracy between 10 and 15 metres.
“Galileo early services will be declared in Q4 of 2014,” he stated. “PRS preparation activities in some Member States will start by testing PRS signals from 2013 and initial Galileo PRS capabilities will be available from 2014 and demonstrated through the PRS Pilot Projects.
PRS is an encrypted, robust service for authorised users that can deliver very high levels of continuity of positioning. This is increasingly important to civil authorities stated Julio Murcia, PRS Pilot Project Officer, GSA, especially with the increasing threats to open GNSS signals through jamming or spoofing.
“The growing dependence on GNSS is a reality. Continuous interactions with Member States Authorities, EU Institutions and end-users communities have provided the GSA with a solid background on the users’ needs in law enforcement, border protection, critical infrastructures, emergencies and crisis management. The impact of loosing GPS signal could be catastrophic to the operation of homeland security or safety critical missions,” he claimed. “PRS will offer a defence in-depth, secure service through the use of multi-layer security and a system and signal design that guarantees better continuity, robustness and cryptographic protection.”
PMR Integration
Xavier Bertinchamps, PRS Service Support Officer, GSA, outlined the why and how for integration of PRS in PMR devices.
“Automatic location services are increasingly important and will become critical for future PMR missions,” he claimed. “Knowing where your assets are allows more precise real-time situation awareness and enables authorities to be more efficient and conduct safer operations.” However in crisis situations unsecured GPS signals may not be available.
The market for PMR is huge: by 2020 more than two million PMR devices equipped with GNSS receivers will be deployed in public safety applications. “For PMR users GNSS is becoming mission critical which means additional security is required,” said Mr Bertinchamps. “Currently there is an asymmetric situation between PMR communications and provision of a secure positioning service.”
PRS can provide the solution but this requires work to reduce the price and ensure that integration does not result in bulky devices or disrupt PMR technologies.
However, the opportunities for PRS in PMR are excellent and from a long term perspective it is an opportunity to think wider and smarter. “It is now time to think and to be ready for full deployment of Galileo in 2020,” he concluded. “Our objective should be to enlarge the added-value of future PMR systems with a fully integrated secure positioning service.”
PRS projects
The GSA has already funded two FP7 projects on PRS and their presentations completed the workshop. Andrés Cruz of GMV described the recently launched PRS4PMR project. This is a demonstrator for PRS integration into PMR radios. He stated that due to its secure nature PRS needs active management in terms of cryptographic key supply and control access. However this should be transparent to PMR users and can be achieved by use of secondary channels on PMR.
The project will use a simulated Galileo signal to demonstrate PRS integration on a standard TETRA / TERAPOL PMR device. The project will identify what PRS receiver functionality needs to be onboard the device and what can be processed remotely. This will help to reduce cost, size and increase battery life. It will also eliminate the need to store most of the sensitive assets on the PMR device
“The project will put forward proposals to PRS and PMR standards to support integration and the architecture and security design studies will be complemented by a proof of concept demonstrator,” explained Mr. Cruz. One of the final outcomes of the project will be a cost benefit analysis of PRS-PMR integration.
“Low-end applications constitute 80% of the potential PRS market,” stated Olivier Desenfans. “Therefore the focus of the ULTRA project is to design, develop and demonstrate an ultra low-cost PRS receiver for these applications.” ULTRA is looking to simplify processes whilst retaining security. This will be achieved by moving PRS elements off the PMR device and into secure back-office environments.
The PMR device itself will be developed using commercial off the shelf technology to ensure low cost but still deliver a secure, distributed and flexible process capable of adapting to a wide range of operating environments and infrastructures.
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