Concept and Performance Evaluation of a Galileo-Based Emergency Short Message Service

The European satellite navigation system Galileo is ready for service in the year 2013. New services are needed to be investigated to enlarge the capabilities of the system. In this paper we propose a Galileo Search and Rescue Short Message Service (Galileo SAR-SMS) to enable sparse text communication between endangered persons and rescue forces to optimize the process of retrieval. Galileo SAR is an addition to the well established humanitarian satellite-based SAR System Cospas-Sarsat (CS) and will be fully compliant. In succession we developed a concept for a Short Message Service which is adaptable to the existing system by exploiting the improved channel characteristics of the Galileo system. Primary, the integrated feedback channel of Galileo enables a two way communication. This paper presents a description of the service flow, message design and channel properties of Galileo SAR-SMS. The performance of the developed protocol architecture is shown to demonstrate the feasibility of the new service.