Vice President Matt Higgins attends the Munich Navigation
Summit 2007
Munich, Germany, 6-8 March 2007
|
Multi-National Group on the GATE Tour. |
Summit Presentations
In the Munich Navigation Summit 2007 program, there were many excellent
presentations on latest status and policy developments relating to all the
major providers of GNSS, including the EU, USA, Russia, India, Japan and
China. The 2007 Summit had approximately 440 registrants from 28 countries.
The event really is a “Summit”, rather than a Technical Conference. It deals
with the latest developments but does so with a focus on the policy aspects.
As such the Summit is a quite unique format. It also has the advantage of
attracting senior decision makers, making it an ideal event for high level
networking.
Sessions in the Summit are structured as "Panels" where speakers give
short explanations of the status
of their topic and then form a panel that is questioned by the Session
Chair. This format works well as a way of drawing out issues that need to be
explained and which may need some attention in terms of policy and planning.
The Summit program was as follows:
- Tuesday 6th March:
- Wednesday 7th March:
- News from satellite Navigation Systems
- Munich Flashlights – News from Bavaria
- Debate Between the Galileo Responsibilities
- Starting, Waiting or No Interest in Galileo/GNSS Applications
- Do We Know More About the Galileo Public Regulated Service (PRS)
Now?
- Thursday 8th March:
- The U.S. Scene of Satellite Navigation
- Why Galileo for Australian Industry?
- Views and Perspectives of Worldwide GNSS Industry
- Is (or Will Be) the Russian GLONASS System Interoperable with
the Other GNSS?
- The International Space Station: a Talk by Astronaut
Thomas
Reiter
- Galileo Masters Competition 2007
All presentations from the Summit will eventually be made available on
the web site (www.munichsatellite-navigation-summit.org).
Galileo Public Private Partnership
The dominant issue at this year's Summit was the problem with the Public
Private Partnership for Galileo, which is Europe's Global Navigation
Satellite Systems (GNSS). There are delays in reaching an agreement between
the European GNSS Supervisory Authority (representing the European Union)
and the consortium of companies known as the Concessionaire, which is
supposed to take on the contract to operate the Galileo system for the next
20 years. Most of the private sector companies in the Consortium are trying
to take a "European view". However, there have been suggestions in the press
that one of the companies is acting more in their national interest. My
opinion based on private discussions at the Summit is that that there is
already too much time and money invested for the PPP to fail. For example,
there are two contracts, one to operate the system (the Concession) and one
to build the system. Many of the players in the Concession part are also
heavily involved in the consortium that is contracted to build the system
(itself a 2 billion Euro contract). Also, neither the EC Higgins Report on
Munich Satellite Navigation Summit, March 2007 2 (public servants) nor the
private sector wants the issue to go back to the European Parliament and all
the uncertainty that would be attached to that. Therefore, overall I am
confident a compromise will be found in coming months. Unfortunately, this
all means that there will be delays in the full deployment of the system.
Session on 'Why Galileo for Australian Industry?'
This year was the first time that Australia had its own session at the
Munich Summit. That grew out of discussions with the Summit organiser, Prof.
Günter Hein, when he attended the IGNSS conference in Australia in
2006. Günter has agreed that at future IGNSS conferences he will coordinate
a session on GNSS in Europe and in return the IGNSS Society will coordinate
a session on Australia at all future Munich Summits. The Session in Munich
on 'Why Galileo for Australian Industry?' was presented by Rob
Lorimer (Position One Consulting) speaking on industry matters, Andrew Dempster (School of Surveying & Spatial Information Systems,
UNSW) speaking on GNSS research activities in Australia, and Chris Rizos
(SSIS, UNSW) speaking on high-accuracy user requirements. I also spoke on
Queensland Government activities and more generally on governmental GNSS
issues in Australia. The session was Co-Chaired by John Dawson
(Queensland Agent-General and Trade Commissioner from London) and by Prof.
Hein.
UN Mandated International Committee on GNSS (ICG)
I also met out of session with John Dow (Head of the International
GNSS Service - IGS - he is based at ESA in Germany), Ruth Neilan
(Director of IGS - based at NASA in California) and Dave Turner (a
consultant to the US State Department through the Directorate for Position,
Navigation and Timing). The meeting was also observed by Chris Rizos
representing the International Association of Geodesy and Gerry Mader
from the US National Geodetic Survey (NGS). The meeting in Munich was to
discuss the sub group of the UN mandated International Committee on GNSS
(ICG). That sub-group is Co-Chaired by me for FIG and by Ruth for IGS. The
sub-group is charged with tasks such as developing standards for GNSS
Reference stations, investigating mitigation of radio interference and
multi-path at such stations and fostering the rejuvenation of geodetic
reference frames in developing countries (like the AFREF project in Africa).
It was agreed that in coming months Ruth will develop a report on progress
with AFREF. I will also develop a report on the status of work on a regional
reference frame by the Permanent Committee on GIS Infrastructure in the Asia
Pacific. Geoscience Australia is heavily involved in that work in the Asia
Pacific. We agreed that Ruth and I would meet again at the FIG Working Week
in Hong Kong in May and then take those reports and any follow up
recommended actions to the next meeting of the full ICG in Bangalore, India
in September.
German Galileo Test Bed – GATE
On the Friday following the Summit I participated in a technical tour to
the German Galileo Test Bed -GATE (Galileo Test- und Entwicklungsumgebung)
which is located in the Berchtesgaden area at the foot of the Alps. The GATE
involves 6 transmitters broadcasting Galileo specification signals from
mountain tops down into the valley around the town of Berchtesgaden. The
system can broadcast signals to multiple receivers in the test area allowing
receiver manufacturers and applications developers to test their products
before the Galileo satellites are in place. In its simplest mode of
operation the system broadcasts the signals as though the "satellites" are
at the fixed locations of the transmission towers. In a more sophisticated
mode the system can fully simulate signals as though they are coming from
satellites in motion across the sky in orbits like will be seen for the real
Galileo satellites. To accurately simulate the signals for a moving receiver
the position of the receiver (derived from GPS measurements) need to be fed
back to the GATE control centre. Therefore, in this mode only one receiver
can be tested at a time. As well as the advantages for receiver and
application development, the GATE system can be a very useful tool for
testing possible improvements to signal design for future satellites. It
will also allow data to be gathered to better research and understand signal
propagation issues such as radio interference and multi-path. More
information on GATE is available at the web site (www.gate-testbed.com).
More information:
Matt Higgins
Vice President FIG
and Principal Survey Advisor, Queensland Department of Natural Resources and
Water |
