The GNSS Performance Monitoring Tool, that is comparing internationally available navigation satellite system is now online.
Try it out yourself here.
Signal and Performance Monitoring
The purpose of this project is to monitor the reliability and quality of navigation signals, to detect errors promptly and to disseminate this information to applications. A system will therefore be set up to monitor satellite signals, detect deviations from the nominal state of navigation systems, analyse those deviations and, if necessary, distribute warnings. This work will primarily focus on supporting the development and establishment of the European navigation system Galileo but will, in a second phase, also be capable of analysing the already established systems GPS, GLONASS and BeiDou/BDS.
The project Signal and Performance Monitoring thus deals mainly with two points:
Navigation Signal Monitoring at User Level
A dedicated GNSS receiver network with real-time data transfer and global coverage will be established and operated to support routine monitoring of satellite navigation signals for accuracy and integrity. The network will also support the generation of real-time corrective data for precise point positioning services. Observations and navigation data from the network will be stored in a long-term archive as a basis for in-depth performance monitoring of signal and service quality, to provide short- and long-term analyses as well as trends. This will be done not only for Galileo but also for all global navigation satellite systems, thus enabling a comparison of the quality of service for Galileo with respect to GPS, GLONASS and BDS.
Signal Analysis using High Gain Antennas
Using the data obtained with the GNSS receiver network, a tool will be developed to evaluate global data from all existing navigation systems, detect errors at signal level, and automatically schedule and control measurement equipment at high gain antennas (such as the 30m antenna in Weilheim) to enable more detailed analyses of nominal and abnormal signal states. Based on the combined evaluation of all data, possible errors can then be analysed extremely reliably and with high precision, resulting in consequent recommendations for the usability of applications. The new performance monitoring tool will not be limited to pure provision of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). It will also include newly developed algorithms for error detection and analysis using advanced methods for detection metrics, such as artificial intelligence (AI) for the automated detection of known and still unknown GNSS errors or anomalies. The development of these advanced methods will considerably benefit from the implementation of first approaches to KPI monitoring and the huge amount of available data stored in the database.
The information on possible errors, ageing effects and their effects, will also significantly contribute to the evolution of the European Galileo navigation system.
This project will be performed in cooperation with other DLR institutions: Institute of Communications and Navigation (KN), Facility Space Operations and Astronaut Training (RB), Institute for Software Technology (SC) and Institute for Solar Terrestrial Physics (SO).
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