Galileo Test Range Pseudolites:

a Performance Augmentation System

F.Gottifredi, Thales Alenia Space Italia S.p.A
M.Eleuteri, Thales Alenia Space Italia S.p.A
Q.Morante, Thales Alenia Space Italia S.p.A
V.Valle, Thales Alenia Space Italia S.p.A
E.Varriale, Thales Alenia Space Italia S.p.A
D. Cretoni Thales Alenia Space Italia S.p.A

ABSTRACT M.Eleuteri. received the MSc. degree in

Telecommunication Engineer from the University of Tor
Urban areas still pose a very challenging environment Vergata, Rome. In 2006, he received the ‘Scienze
for most GNSS receivers. In such areas, building and dell’aviazione – Sicurezza del volo’ Master Degree by
other obstacles generally introduce significant signal Bologna University: a course for managing and
attenuation, reduce signals availability and create a developing processes for the safety of the fly. Since
variety of multipath reflections. To address these 2005, he has been involved as Navigation System
limitations, it’s possible to use a local augmentation Engineer in the Department of Navigation and Integrated
system that improves the availability of GNSS signals Comms B.U. of Thales Alenia Space Italia. In the frame
using ground-based transmitters: the pseudolites. Use of of the Galileo Test Range activities he is part of the
pseudolite can also improve navigation performances in Assembly, Integration and Verification Team. In the
terms of accuracy. frame of the Galileo System Integration & Verification
This paper shows the navigation performances reached activities he is in charge, as role of Project Manager, of
by a GNSS augmentation system based on a synchronized GALSEE UMF (Galileo System Evaluation Equipment
pseudolite system deployed in a controlled area in the UERE Monitoring Facility).
frame of the GTR (Galileo Test Range) project. The
results obtained and showed in this article demonstrate Q.Morante received the MSc. degree in software
the effectiveness of the proposed system and the benefit engineering from the University of Sannio, Benevento, in
introduced in the test area. 2003. Assistant Researcher, up to 2005, at the Power
System Research Group of the University of Sannio. In
2005, he joined as System Engineer the Mediterranean
BIOGRAPHY Agency for Remote Sensing (MARS) in Benevento.
Since May 2005, he has been involved as System
F.Gottifredi. Graduated in Aeronautical Engineering, Engineer in the Engineering Department of the
with background on Space-Born GNSS receivers and Navigation and Integrated Comms B.U. of Thales Alenia
rendez-vous & docking systems, he worked for LABEN Space Italia in Rome. Currently, he is project manager
S.p.A. in Milano up to 2002. Joined Alenia Spazio, now deputy for the Galileo Test Range (GTR) project. He
formerly Thales Alenia Space, he was responsible for the performs referee activities for the IEEE Transaction on
overall Galileo System Integration & Verification Industrial Informatics and for several IEEE Conferences.
activities definition. He’s currently head of the
Navigation Systems, Augmentations & Interoperability V.Valle. received a degree in Telecommunication
Unit in Thales Alenia Space and he’s in charge of all the Engineering from the University of Rome “La Sapienza”
aspects relevant to GNSS Interoperability, (Italy). He has been working on Satellite Navigation
Augmentations and Navigation, such as: Orbitography, since he joined the Navigation and Integrated
Synchronization, Integrity, Signals, GNSS Receivers, Communications Business Unit at Thales Alenia Space
GBAS/SBAS, seamless navigation, etc… in Rome in the early 2007. He is currently involved in
R&D activities on Galileo/GPS signal study and
monitoring, focusing on acquisition and tracking Currently the Phase A is closed and the GTR system has
techniques of GNSS signals. He is also involved in future been tested. The test results have demonstrated that the
GNSS evolution (“The Use of C Band for Navigation”) realized system responds to the initial system
and in the “Galileo Test Range” project. requirements, both in terms of missions and reached
performances.
E.Varriale. received a degree in Computer Science from In the next sections it will be presented the pseudolite
University “La Sapienza” of Rome. (PSLs) architecture, how it works inside the GTR and the
In 2006 joined Thales Alenia Space working as System navigation performances reached in the test area for the
Simulation Engineer for the Navigation and Integrated phase A, more information can be discovered in [9].
Communication Business Unit. He was mainly involved In particular, in the test results section will be described
in the GALILEO Test Range project frame and the performances reached for the 2D solution, computed
participating to the Research and Development activities. using only PSLs signals, and the performances reached
His main research interests are: large scale for the 3D solution, computed using PSLs and GPS
synchronization systems for accurate atomic clocks, signals.
indoor navigation systems and distributed data
acquisition and exchange systems for critical PSEUDOLITE OVERVIEW
infrastructures.
Modern GPS receivers can be augmented in several
D. Cretoni. received the Laurea degree in ways, with external devices, extra signals or special
Telecommunication Engineer from the University of La computational techniques, in order to overcome
Sapienza, Rome. Since 2007, he has been involved as shortcomings in accuracy or availability. As far as
System Engineer in the Department of Navigation and availability is concerned, the major drawback is the weak
Integrated Comms B.U. of Thales Alenia Space Italia. He GPS signal strength. One solution to this problem would
is involved in the Galileo System Integration & be to transmit extra signals from other satellites (as in the
Verification project with responsibility on the timing Wide Area Augmentation System, WAAS) or ground-
activities. He is involved also in the R&D activities for based transmitters, so that a receiver can lock-on to at
the development of a Network Timing Synchronization least some of the extra (possibly stronger) signals.
System With reference to the latter solution, Pseudolites (or
‘pseudo-satellites’) are ground-based GPS-like signal
INTRODUCTION transmitters which can improve the signal in space
availability, or even replace the GPS satellites
The Galileo Test Range (GTR) project is an initiative of
constellation for certain indoor applications. Pseudolites
Regione Lazio in the frame of its support to Italian
typically transmitting signals at the GPS L1 frequency,
technical research and innovation in satellite navigation.
It is born as the Italian National permanent Laboratory emulating satellite broadcasted signals. Both pseudo-
for the experimentation and analysis of the Galileo range and carrier phase measurements can be made on
Signal, for testing and certification of user terminals and the PSL signals, in theory making possible the full range
support services for the development of application of GPS-like accuracy capability [1]. The additional
services. pseudolite signals can significantly enhance the
The development of the GTR takes place in two phases: performance of the total system in a number ways,
- Phase A - Definition and Start up: implementation of including reducing the dilution-of-precision and
the initial system, based on the generation on ground improving the accuracy, availability and reliability of the
of navigation signals (GPS-like), using pseudolite final solutions.
technology, and to receive real signals coming from With regard to radio-frequency signal generation, one
GIOVE-A Experimental Satellite. may think of a pseudolite as a ground-based GPS
- Phase B - Full deployment and initialization of the satellite. A pseudolite transmits a signal with code-phase,
GTR: implementation of the GTR final configuration, carrier-phase, and data components with the same timing
not only able to generate Galileo–like signals, but as the satellite signals and with quite the same format. A
also to receive and process real signals coming from GPS receiver acquires this signal and derives code-phase
Galileo IOV satellites. pseudo-ranges or carrier-phase measurements to be used
in a navigation algorithm. The major difference is that
the pseudolite's position must be described in the integration with GALILEO signals.
geographical terms rather than in orbital elements [5]. An other application of pseudolite technologies in GNSS
If the pseudolite transmitter clock is as stable as the system, with particular focus on GALILEO, can be found
satellite clocks, it may be used as a direct ranging source in [8].
just like the satellites.
In the frame of GTR Project Phase A, Pseudolites are PSEUDOLITES SYSTEM IN GTR PROJECT
used to obtain an augmentation for GPS receivers, as
well as to provide a test area in which certain To understand PSLs role in GTR Project, their
performances are assured. architecture and main functionalities are explained in the
follow.
PSEUDOLITES: AN AUGMENTATION SYSTEM
A. Pseudolite Architecture
The utilization of PSLs for GPS satellite constellation
augmentation had been exploited even at the GPS The GTR pseudolites are constituted basically by two
development phase. GPS-like signals can be transmitted blocks: a payload and an antenna system.
form airborne or space-borne platforms, such as airplanes The pseudolite payload is composed by the following
and spacecrafts [2]. During the last decade the most main elements:
notable pseudolite application has been used in aviation
L-Band Amplifier;
for precise approach and landing. In these application,
Power Meter;
pseudolite measurements can provide an extra-check on
GPS/EGNOS Receiver;
the integrity of navigation solution. Besides, if the
GSM Modem;
Pseudolite network can be synchronized (as it happens in
L1 C/A - Like Signal Generator;
GTR project), stand-alone positioning can be achieved.
High-Stability Frequency Reference (an atomic
The pseudolite ranging signals can contribute to the reference clock composed by an OCXO locked to
satellite positioning system by enhancing the geometric Rb oscillator, in order to obtain good short and
strength, improving the availability, integrity, and long term stability);

Industrial PC;
reliability, and increasing accuracy of the positioning

UPS.
solutions, especially in the height component. Besides,
All above mentioned instruments are integrated in a rack
has to be pointed out that Pseudolites can be combined
and are coordinated by an M&C software installed on the
with other sensor such as INS (Inertial Navigation industrial PC. The software is used also by the operator
Systems) or VOR (VHF Omnidirectional Range): to modify a lot of parameters during the experimentation
extensive simulation studies have demonstrated that an (i.e PRN number, transmitted power, navigation message
integrated PSL/INS system can provide a stable and high type, and so on) through a user friendly graphical
precision navigation solution, suitable, for example, for interface (MMI-Man Machine Interface).
indoor applications [5]. By means of a 10 MHz output signal, the Atomic
In the frame of GTR project, pseudolites are used as Reference Clock drives both GPS Receiver and GPS-
ground transmitters to improve navigation performances Like signal generator to provide an high frequency
for GPS only in Phase A and for GPS and GALILEO in stability enhancing signal acquisition and generation
Phase B, in terms of ranging, horizontal 2-D (with PSL performances. Transmitted signal power is adjusted,
only) and navigation 3-D (GPS + PSL) positioning. through the MMI, to guarantee a minimum C/N0 level in
In phase A, the main target is to obtain a high accuracy in the test area of 40 dBHz, in order to cope with
position determination of an User Receiver in the Test environmental disturbance and/or jamming.
Area. Several problems have been overcame: the choice The L1 signal generator is able to transmit, in phase A,
of optimal geometry (to obtain low values of GDOP and either in a continued way or pulsed way, to mitigate the
a good signals availability), ‘near-far’ problems in signal near-far problem. In phase B pseudolites will be able to
tracking, pseudolite synchronization, multipath and transmit also in a Satellite Emulation Mode (SEM).
tropospheric delay errors modeling [3], [4]. The power transmitted by the antenna is monitored by a
In phase B, with a higher number of fixed and mobile power sensor and displayed continuously inside the rack
pseudolites, different issues will be challenged, first of all
by a power meter.
GSM modem is used to establish the connection with the
Control Center. This link is used to transfer GPS
observables and telemetry from the pseudolite to the
Control Center and to transfer telecommands and clock
corrections from the Control Center to the pseudolite.
The antenna system is constituted by:

a GPS receiver antenna;

a GSM antenna;

a L1 Transmitting antenna.
The GPS Receiver antenna and the L1 transmitting
antenna are installed on a telescopic support (15 meters
of maximum extension) that is used to mitigate
multipath.
The overall high-level design of the Pseudolite structure
is depicted in the figure hereafter.

Antenna TX Antenna RX

Power
Sensor
Coupler Figure 2: A mobile Pseudolite

Power Mobile PSLs are one of the most important feature in the
Meter
GTR project, allowing to obtain a complete setting up an
L1 Amplifier
experimental area for a user receiver wherever it should
be requested. A user terminal will take advantage of a
Atomic GPS/EGNOS
better availability of GNSS-like signals in the Test Area,
Signal Reference
Generator Clock
Receiver improving his navigation performances. On the other
hand, a mobile transmitting system offers several
handling matters that have to be taken into account with
Industrial PC respect to a fixed one [6], [7].
The Test Area is covered, in phase A, by 4 PSLs: 2 fixed
Modem and 2 mobile.
GSM

C. Pseudolite Warm-Up
Antenna
GSM
The Pseudolite warm-up phase is used to initialize all the
instrumentation installed inside the rack. The warm-up is
Figure 1: GTR Pseudolite Architecture
articled in some phases briefly described in the
following.
B. Mobile and Fixed PSLs
1. Mechanical set-up (valid only for mobile PSL). In
the first step of the warm up the van is stabilized
PSLs offer great flexibility, especially because they can
by its two jacks, the antenna system is assembled
be easily installed wherever they are needed. The more
on the telescopic support and the power source is
displacement easiness is guaranteed, the more are
selected and switched on (mobile pseudolites can
advantages: this is the reason behind the choice of using,
be alimented by a 220 V external current source,
in the GTR project, mobile pseudolite in addition to fixed
an internal generator or an inverter);
ones.
2. Hardware set-up: once step 1 is closed, the
conditioner is switched on and the warm up phase
is suspended until the temperature inside the van is
 of 21°C. After this, the atomic clock, the signal Time Laboratory Facility (TLF) is one of the GTR main
generator and all the instruments installed inside elements, its output is a time scale used as a stable time
the rack (excluding GPS receiver) are switched on; and frequency reference. TLF is composed by 1 AH-
3. Software initialization: Once the atomic clock and Maser clock, 4 Cesium clocks and a GPS Timing
the signal generator are locked, the GPS receiver is Receiver, assuring a high short/medium term time
switched on and the Pseudolite Control Software stability and a precise lock to the GPS time (GST when
coming up. The software makes some check on all available).
the instruments and, if everything is good, it starts The GTR-TLF facility works together with the GTR
a georeferentiation process that finishes only when Orbitography Facility (GTR-OLF) which runs the
the user specified accuracy is reached or when a synchronization, between GTR-TLF and GTR-PSL
time interval, selected by the operator, is spent. (pseudolites), and orbit determination algorithms.
Once the hardware setup is completed, hence from the In the following picture a scheme of the functional
beginning of the software initialization phase, pseudolites architecture of the synchronization process is given.
are able to establish a connection with the GTR Control
Centre (GTR-CC) for monitoring and control purpose. Parse Ephem. Filter Ephem.
Recs Pool
At the end of the georeferentiation process (at least one
hour), form GTR-CC, for each pseudolites fixed and TLF NAV file
mobile, are set PRN, transmission power, message type
and Healty Flag status. The status of each pseudolite is
FileSystem PSL OBS file
known by the GTR-CC thanks to the telemetry sent by Polling

the PSL.
TLF OBS file Search Matching
At this point pseudolites are ready to start the OLF OBS
experimentation.
One of the most important aspects that impact on the Search Matching
OLF OBS
pseudolites performances is the synchronization with
Check Ephem
respect to the TLF. availability

D. Pseudolite Synchronization
Elaboration Thread
In Navigation Systems, transmitters’ clock errors are the
main error source affecting ranging, and hence
Figure 3: Synchronization process: Functional
positioning, performances for this reason, in order to be
Architecture
able to exploit high positioning performances the system
has to provide a mean of computing and distributing The synchronization process includes also a pre-
correction parameters for those errors. processing phase (done at file parsing time) and a post-
In particular, while the user terminals can retrieve such processing phase in order to detect, eliminate/compensate
clock correcting parameters by computing PVT outliers at the receiver and after the execution of the
solutions, a synchronization procedure has to be provided common-view algorithm. In particular a customized
in order to correct for transmitting elements. dynamic outlier rejection algorithm is implemented as a
Pseudolites transmit the synchronization parameters in post-processing function.
the same fashion used by GPS Space Vehicles, namely Updated clock models parameters are computed, for each
by including in the generated navigation message the pseudolite, every 8 minutes according to the data flow
four coefficients for the clock offset, clock drift, clock diagram represented hereafter.
drift-rate and time of clock characterizing a polynomial
clock model.
The synchronization algorithm, which implements the
Common-View technique, uses as reference station the
GTR Time Laboratory Facility (GTR-TLF) running the
GTR System Time.
 A. TEST CONFIGURATION

Pseudolites and Sensor Station positions are depicted in

the figure below.

Figure 4: Synchronization process: Data Flow

The continuous, accurate, synchronization of the PSL

with respect to the GTR System Time allows the use of
the GTR as a stand-alone navigation system.

GTR-PSL PERFORMANCE EVALUATION

In order to verify GTR performances and to define

Figure 4: Facilities Deployment in the Experimental Area
achieved advantages respect to GPS only positioning, a
test campaign has been performed on 2007, July 12th. The
After 2 hours of georeferentiation, GTR-CC has obtained
test configuration comprises the following remote
precise position of all PSLs and SS. In this phase, GTR-
elements:
CC has a complete remote-control of all PSLs, and can

4 Pseudolites;
establish a communication with them by sending and

1 Sensor Station (SS).
receiving TT&C.
The remote elements, deployed in the Experimental Area,
Before starting transmission of GPS-like signal from
are connected directly with the GTR-CC that is in charge
PSLs, a perfect synchronization of entire system is
to guarantee the data exchange between the remote
required, so a remote command is sent by GTR-CC to
facilities and the internal facilities (i.e.: TLF, OLF and
start acquisition of GPS observables from visible satellite
ILF) so to synchronize and control the PSL.
constellation. Acquired observable (OBS) data are used
The remote facilities positions are precisely known,
to compute, by the mean of Common View algorithm, a
thanks to a georeferentiation process. The availability of
synchronization of PSLs clocks to GPS time scale.
the precise coordinates of all involved facility allows to
calculate the ranging between the on-ground transmitters
B. TEST RESULTS
(PSLs) and the receiver (i.e. SS), the 2D position errors
(using only the PSLs signals) and the 3D position errors
In the following figures are shown the Test Campaign
(using the PSLs signals and the GPS signals) for the SS,
results; the test campaign was carried out on July, 12th
which plays the role of generic user receiver.
2007. In particular, the figure show the 2D position
Reached performances for GTR phase A will be
(Figure 5) carried out at the GTR using the PSL signals
calculated and analyzed by the mean of a dedicated
only and the 3D position (Figure 6) carried out using the
software, that can extract pseuranges and navigation data
PSL as augmentation for the GPS.
form files collected by GTR-CC to calculate ranging
How it’s possible to note, in the Figure 5 and Figure 6
error and horizontal positioning error. Moreover, by
the estimated mean position is near to the geo-referred
above mentioned software, a data fusion between
one and the distribution of all the estimated position is
satellites signals and PSL signals can be realized to
very closed to the real one:
compute a better 3D User position. Has to be pointed

Horizontal Errors Standard Deviation = 0,8 m;
that, anyway, using only Pseudolites signals, users can

Navigation Errors Standard Deviation = 2,5 m.
compute a 2D position (horizontal position).
Moreover, in the figures are also shown the GTR system
requirement in terms of maximum horizontal error (the PSLs and GPS vs a commercial receiver that utilizes only
red circle in Figure 5) and maximum navigation error the GPS L1 signals to compute its position.
(the black sphere in Figure 6); as it can be noted the GTR In Figure 7, it’s possible to note the improvement coming
navigation performances respond to the system out by the pseudolite augmentation system in terms of
requirements. GDOP (Geometric Dilution of Precision). This
True 2-D Position vs Estimated 2-D Positions improvement is reflected directly in the 3D position
42.0028 computation.
Estimated Positions
True Position How it is possible to note (Figure 8) the medium
Estimated Mean Position

42.0027
Limit Navigation Errors, utilizing the augmentation furnished
by the PSLs, is about 6 m respect to about 16 m with the
42.0026
GPS signals only.

42.0025
Latitude [°]

42.0024

42.0023

42.0022

42.0021
12.7448 12.7449 12.745 12.7451 12.7452 12.7453 12.7454 12.7455
Longitude [°]
Figure 7: GDOP PSL+GPS vs GPS only
Figure 5: 2D position PSL only

Figure 8: PSL+GPS vs GPS only

CONCLUSIONS

To deal with the navigation signal availability, this paper

discusses the reachable performances utilizing an
augmentation system based on synchronized pseudolite
Figure 6: 3D position PSL+GPS systems. Thanks to the adoption of this kind of system,
the signal availability could be guaranteed and/or
Starting from this data, in Figure 7 and Figure 8 is shown augmented also in such environments that have a low
the behavior of an off-line receiver that computes the satellite visibility (like: urban canyon, tunnel, and so on).
position using a combination of signals coming from This system guarantees better performances, both for
horizontal and navigation errors, than the GPS system
only. In addition, the employment of pseudolites [7] J.M. Stone, E.A. LeMaster, J.D. Powell, S. Rock,
technology in the GTR system enables to support, in the “GPS Pseudolite Transceivers and their
frame of navigation satellite system, the applications Applications”, ION National Technical Meeting
development, the user terminal testing and certification 99, San Diego, California, January 25-27, 1999
and so on.
In this paper the application of this kind of technology [8] R. Wolf, M. Thalhammer, G. W. Hein, “GATE –
was tested in the frame of the GTR (Galileo Test Range) The German Galielo Test Environment”, ION GPS
project and the effectiveness of the proposed system was 2003, September 2003
demonstrated.
Further works will address the possibility to employ this [9] F. Martinino, et alii “GTR – Performances Test
system to support applications in the frame of Results”, ION NTM 2008, January 2008.
autonomous vehicles navigation, infrastructures
monitoring, and so on. To this end, a real time user
terminal able to compute the position utilizing all the
information coming from the GTR system is under
development by Thales Alenia Space Italia S.p.A..

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[6] T. Holden et al., “Development and Testing of a

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