On the Operations User Support Website and EGNOS Helpdesk Services

摘要

In the frame of EGNOS IOP (Initial Operation Phase) contract with the European Space Agency (ESA), an Operations User Support website has been developed to establish a point of contact with the EGNOS community of users. This service is being operated and maintained by the ASQF (Application Specific Qualification Facility), a support facility of EGNOS oriented, amongst other missions, to give support to the EGNOS users about system operations and service provision aspects. The Operations User Support website provides different contents oriented to provide the users with general and specific information related to the EGNOS system, including up-to-date performances and operational information which can be needed by users of this navigation system. In particular, the website offers the following services: EGNOS Community Information (General Information on EGNOS Operations, articles, news, links, receivers, EGNOS documentation, ...), EGNOS System Information (General information on EGNOS GEOs including footprint maps, daily System Status maps,...), EGNOS performances (performance forecast based on system scheduled activities, historical data or past performances, ...), Helpdesk service (FAQs, Contact Form to submit questions, ...) and Signal in Space (SIS) alerts information (SIS unplanned outages notified by e-mail, SIS scheduled outages,... ). Specifically, the Helpdesk Service, which is managed by the ESSP (European Satellite Service Provider) in collaboration with the ASQF, represents the interface point with the users to answer all the questions, doubts or requests related with the EGNOS system from the operations point of view. At this initial stage of the system, several trials and testing activities are being carried out by different organizations or private companies for aeronautical or multimodal applications. The support provided from the Helpdesk Service is essential for these users, as it supplies all the information needed to ensure the correct execution of these activities, and represents a key element for EGNOS operations that allows the coordination of the user needs with the routine maintenance activities of the system. This paper provides a complete overview of the services provided by this Operations User Support website and Helpdesk Services including the preliminary results and conclusions acquired from the experience obtained during these first months of exploitation, together with an analysis of the different evolutions which will be necessary to adapt these services to the medium and long term needs of the EGNOS users community. The paper is structured as follows: Section 1 is an introduction to the paper. Section 2 contains a complete description of the contents of the website. Section 3 present the Operations User Support Helpdesk. A brief summary of some main concepts related to the operation of the website is given in Section 4. Section 5 contains a brief description of some evolutions which are being considered to improve the website, and finally, Section 6 provides some conclusions about the importance of the website and helpdesk for the EGNOS user community.