Support Platform for EGNOS Evolution and Demonstration (SPEED): Operational SBAS test bed as real as EGNOS

EGNOS is the European SBAS currently providing GPS Safety of Life augmentation over Europe. In parallel with on-going EGNOS operations, GNSS constellations and signals are evolving (GLONASS, GPS, GALILEO, COMPASS, ...). This evolving context has led ESA to launch the so-called “European GNSS Evolution Program” (EGEP) in order to explore more in depth the various evolution perspectives and evaluate possible opportunities. This program has notably led to the development of a complete Test Bed environment called SPEED - Support Platform for EGNOS Evolutions & Demonstrations. SPEED has been developed as the natural successor of ESTB (EGNOS System Test Bed) both for rationalizing EGNOS releases qualification and for performing innovative SBAS experimentations and demonstrations. SPEED is fully representative of EGNOS when fitted with EGNOS operational algorithms. It is also designed for SBAS experimentations thanks to its flexibility, allowing adjusting the platform to the users' needs. It allows easy algorithms update and tuning during experimentations phases. SPEED has a “Fast Replay” capability allowing processing a one-week data scenario in a single day. The first SPEED practical use case is the High Integrity Test Bed (HISTB) experimentations. The main objective of these experimentations is to provide technical elements allowing to determine if the EGNOS V3 foreseen new features targeted for aeronautical users are feasible and of interest. Experiments are thus performed on the following areas, which are currently considered in EGNOS V3 definition: · Multi Frequency evolution, to offer not only legacy aeronautical service (to mono-frequency SBAS L1 user) but also a dual-frequency L1/L5 augmentation service. · Multi Constellation evolution, to provide augmentation data not only with respect to GPS constellation but also to Galileo. · Extension of the service area, in particular to cover Africa. · Areas of improvement on top of EGNOS V2 system, (functional allocation between ground monitoring stations and central processing facility, MT28 versus MT27 ...).