During the Galileo Power Hour at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, the European GNSS Agency (GSA) highlighted the important role Galileo plays in enhancing location based service (LBS) applications.

According to a recent article in The Economist, smartphones have become theThe GSA highlighted the important role Galileo plays in enhancing location based services during a Galileo Power Hour at the Mobile World Congress. “fastest-selling gadgets in history”. In fact, today nearly half the adult population owns a smartphone. By 2020, the article predicts this number will reach 80%. Yet this is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of the potential that mobile technology has – a fact made clear at the recent Mobile World Congress (MWC) – the mobile industry’s annual tradeshow and convention. Highlighting the part that European GNSS plays in enhancing location based service (LBS) applications, GSA held a Galileo Power Hour.

Location matters!

Out of all the programmes and applications available on your smartphone, GNSS continues to be the main source of location information outdoors – and Galileo, Europe’s GNSS programme, will soon be available to provide you with enhanced location information. In fact, according to the GSA’s Market Report Issue 4, 70% of all mobile phones worldwide will have GNSS capability by 2020, with other consumer devices set to follow.

“Big data mining brings new intelligence to LBS, and the Internet of Things is continuing to increase the number of connected devices,” said GSA Market Development Officer Fiammetta Diani. “In fact, the number of connected devices has already surpassed the number of people on the planet.”

The proliferation of wearable devices – which created a lot of buzz during MWC 2015 – will further accelerate this trend. It is expected that over 14 million unit shipments of these devices will occur by 2023.

Yet even with all of these connected devices, challenges remain. For instance, securing reliable indoor positioning is still an issue. And new technologies such as augmented reality and driverless cars will create further demand for more reliable and accurate positioning information.

And here lies the Galileo advantage: Galileo adds a completely civil programme to the global multi-constellation system, and improved performance in terms of accuracy and robustness.

Furthermore, its data-less signal offers additional advantages. Using the data-less signal with a 100ms length for the secondary code, Galileo allows for an enhanced indoor penetration, improved performances in urban canyons, better performances in noise measurements and improved sensitivity in A-GNSS mode. More so, the strength of the Galileo signal, together with an advanced code modulations, makes Galileo better at mitigating multipath effects (especially in E5, but also E1).

Finally, Galileo is expected to provide an authentication feature, essentially a digital signature that ensures the signal is actually coming from the satellites and is not intentionally modified. This feature will become more and more important with the emergence of commercially sensitive LBS, such as where a payment or digital rights usage are based on location.  

“With all of these location focused advantages, it is clear that you can truly empower your app with Galileo,” concluded Diani.

To highlight this point, the programme featured several success stories from various chipset manufacturers and LBS projects.

Interchangeability accomplished

Broadcom, a Fortune 300 leader in semiconductors for wired and wireless communications, took the stage to showcase its new BCM4774 Location Hub chip, their first GNSS chip to support Galileo. The chip can be used across the mobile device spectrum – from smartphones to connected cars, wearables and the Internet of Things.

“The true differentiator here is its interchangeability,” said Broadcom Associate Director GPS Marketing Manuel del Castillo. “The BCM4774 treats all satellite signals from any constellation equally. To get a fix – even a first fix – any four satellites will do. With Galileo added to GPS, GLONASS, QXSS and BeiDou, the ability to get the needed four signals only increases.”

This feature is unique in the industry as most chips require an initial GPS fix in order to start.

Del Castillo adds that supporting Galileo gives the chip more accuracy, with the two larger sources of potential error – multipath and Iono error – being improved by Galileo.

A mobile market game changer

Another example of mobile technology powered by Galileo is Elecnor Deimos’ Galileo Module for ARA platform project – which also won the GSA Special Prize at the 2014 European Satellite Navigation Competition (ESNC). As explained by Deimos Space’s Giovanni Vecchione, the project’s innovative concept aims to develop Galileo modules for the Google ARA modular smartphone concept – a game changer for positioning in the mobile phone market.

“With a traditional chip structure, all of a smartphone’s functions are currently combined into a single component, which makes it difficult to add or change a function,” explained Vecchione. “With a modular structure, you have the option to simply switch out a component, meaning a smartphone’s capabilities can be easily enhanced without creating unneeded electronic waste.”

The project aims to develop a Galileo modular component with enhanced capabilities to be used within the framework of this module-based smartphone. The proposed solution is aimed at demanding smartphone users looking to use one of Galileo’s unique E5 broadband signal. The idea is to design an E5 Galileo receiver module for the ARA platform. While mass market smartphones will use the E1 signal, the availability of high end phones offering enhanced accuracy through the use of the E5 signal will be appealing to many users.

Giovanni explains that currently such special models are only available to the professional market: “Producing and using these types of phones today is too complex and expensive to be commercially viable to the consumer market,” he says. “But with a simpler and smaller, modular-based option, we will be able to open this market to the masses.”

Broadcom presenting their point of view at the Galileo Power Hour

European Location as a Service

To highlight the R&D funding opportunities available under the Horizon 2020 programme, the Galileo Power Hour concluded with a presentation by the Horizon 2020-funded ELAASTIC project. Standing for European Location as a Service Targeting International Commerce, ELAASTIC is addressing the need to create new and innovative technologies that use Galileo to provide the required enhanced performances.

The project is directed towards market opportunities in smartphones and applications, machine-to-machine connectivity and telematics services. As to the latter, Telespazio’s, one of the project partners, Yves Capelle says: "The entire range of telematics services such as eCall, stolen vehicle tracking, pay as you drive, vehicle insurance and remote vehicle diagnostics will enter the growth stage starting this year.”

With this in mind, expect to see the project’s first commercial offering ready by the fourth quarter of 2015.  Watch this space for more information.

For more information, consult the slides presented at the Galileo Power Hour:

 

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More information:

Galileo Applications
Location Based Services Brochure
Mobile World Congress 2015