Overview
GALILEO will offer one dedicated signal which is superior to all other signals that are or will be available in space, namely the broadband signal E5. This signal as well as its sub-carriers E5a and E5b will feature an ultimately low range noise in the centimetre range as well as the lowest multipath error impact ever observed in the history of satellite navigation which can be in the range of a couple of centimetres in benign environments and is by far smaller than the multipath errors on all other signals in all other environments as well.
Up to now, much development efforts are put into dual- and multi-frequency GNSS receivers. The scientific community actually focuses on this type of device, because it is commonly believed that more than one frequency is needed to get rid of the ionospheric delay error. This, however, it not true. An E5 single-frequency system can also be used for precise positioning in the future leading the way to new and innovative processing strategies based up receiver which can be cheaper than multi-frequency systems.
The main motivation for the SX5 project proposal is:
- The best-possible use of the E5 broadband signal for scientific applications.
- The provision of full configuration flexibility of a receiver to scientists.
- The implementation and validation of an application prototype and its demonstration to the scientific user community.