GALILEO Public Regulated Service

GALILEO
Title	GALILEO Public Regulated Service
Author(s)	GMV
Level	Basic
Year of Publication	2011

The GALILEO System will be an independent, global, European-controlled, satellite-based navigation system and will provide a number of guaranteed services to users equipped with Galileo-compatible receivers. The GALILEO Public Regulated Service (PRS) provides position and timing restricted to government-authorised users, for sensitive applications which require a high level of service continuity. It will be encrypted and designed to be more robust, with anti-jamming mechanisms and reliable problem detection. This service is intended for security and strategic infrastructure (e.g. energy, telecommunications and finance).

PRS is one of the important features of Galileo that adds value compared to other satellite navigation systems. The access to PRS will be limited to authorised governmental bodies.

Purpose

Galileo Open Service

Galileo is a civil system that also includes a robust and access-controlled service for government-authorised applications. The Public Regulated Service (PRS) will be used by groups such as police, coast-guards and customs. Civil institutions will control the access to the encrypted PRS. Access by region or user group will follow the security policy rules applicable in Europe.

The PRS is operational at all times and in all circumstances, including during periods of crisis. A major PRS driver is the robustness of its signal, which protects it against jamming and spoofing.

Galileo Signal Frequencies

Performance and features

The Galileo Public Regulated Service is realized by two signals, one in the 1575.42 MHz band and the other in the 1278.75 MHz band. These signals are encrypted, allowing the implementation of an access control scheme..

The Public Regulated Service access will be controlled by the authorities to be defined at European level, through the encryption of the signals and the appropriate key distribution. The performance objectives in terms of position accuracy and availability are described in next table:

Service Performances for Galileo Open Service

	Galileo Open Service (positioning & timing)
	Single Frequency (SF)	Dual Frequency (DF)
Coverage	Global
Accuracy (95%)	Horizontal: 15 m	Horizontal: 4m
	Vertical: 35 m	Vertical: 8m
Availability	99.8 %
Timing Accuracy wrt UTC/TAI	30 ns
Ionospheric Correction	Based on SF Model	Based on DF Measurements
Integrity	No

To know more information about Performances of each Galileo Service see the article Galileo Performances.

Implementation and PRS Aplications

The Open Service signals are separated in frequency to permit the correction of errors induced by ionospheric effects by differentiation of the ranging measurements made at each frequency. Each navigation frequency will include two ranging code signals (in-phase and quadrature). Data are added to one of the ranging codes while the other “pilot” ranging code is data-less for more precise and robust navigation measurements.

During the Initial Operational Capability (IOC) phase, the GALILEO open service, the search and rescue service and the PRS will be provided. At this stage, however, accuracy and availability will not yet have reached their optimum levels.

PRS applications will be used by emergency services, critical transportation, energy or telecom and defence purposes: even if Galileo is the first civilian GNSS in the world, nothing prevents the Member States to use it for military purposes. In this context, the PRS can have important impacts on the Europe's Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) and on the European Security and Defence Policy (ESDP).