European GNSS Agency Service Provision Plan for Galileo services

摘要

Galileo is Europe's Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS), providing improved positioning and timing information with significant positive implications for many European services and end-users. The Galileo system, once fully operational, will offer four high-performance services worldwide: the Open Service (OS), a free of charge service with no access restrictions to its positioning and timing services; the Commercial Service (CS), a controlled access service complementing the Open Service by providing an additional navigation signal and added-value services in a different frequency band, in particular authentication capabilities and high accuracy positioning; the Public Regulated Service (PRS), a service restricted to government-authorized users, for sensitive applications that require a high level of service continuity; the Search and Rescue Service (SAR), Europe's contribution to COSPAS-SARSAT, an international satellite-based search and rescue distress alert detection system. The Galileo system is currently being deployed by the European Commission (EC) - leading the program for the European Union (EU), the European Space Agency (ESA) - the System Design Authority, and the European GNSS Agency (GSA) - the Exploitation Entity. Galileo started offering Early Operational Capability (EOC) on 15 December 2016 and is expected to reach Full Operational Capability (FOC) in 2020.The European GNSS Agency (GSA) is responsible of the exploitation phase of the Galileo program, in particular to ensure that European GNSS services and operations are thoroughly secure, safe and accessible. In January 2017 the GSA concluded a framework contract with the Galileo Service Operator (GSOp) having the scope of operating and maintaining the Galileo System and providing the Signal in Space to the user community with a committed quality. Though contracting the Galileo operations activities, the GSA retain the role of Service Provider. This required the introduction of new processes at GSA to ensure a consistent and reliable delivery of services.The GSA organization has been structured to manage the Galileo Service Provision based on two main pillars (or high level functions) that are the "Service Operations" and the "Service Evolution". The high level function "Service Operations" covers all the activities necessary to ensure the actual provision of the services on a continuous basis and captures the full lifecycle of activities (and lower level functions) needed to provide the service. The high level function "Service Evolution" covers all the activities necessary to ensure the orderly evolution of the services and captures the full lifecycle of activities (and lower level functions) needed to evolve the services and the system, and to transfer both into routine operations.For each of the functions, the GSA has developed a set of Service Operational Procedures and Interfaces (SOPI) that rule the operational organization between the involved entities.These procedures define the content of the operational exchanges, the timing of the exchanges and the roles involved.This paper details the elaboration of GSA functions related to Service Operations and Service Evolution and its implementation through the Service Operational Procedures and Interfaces (SOPI). It will also describe the approach taken to defining an operational concept that covers both operational activities and service provision activities, taking into account the specific issues linked to the complexity of the Program (e.g. the different actors, the various dependencies between the stakeholders, and system evolution versus exploitation phase); Finally it will explain how the GSA has addressed these challenges and how they have driven innovation at engineering and at management level, with the ultimate objective to ensure high quality services to the citizen.