ESA Open Invitation to Tender: 1-11037
Open Date: 11/04/2022 11:18 CEST
Closing Date: 23/05/2022 13:00 CEST

The number of miniaturized devices with satellite connectivity (e.g. asset trackers) is quickly growing, and with this, the need arises to provide reliable positioning information to those resource-limited devices. This is particularly relevant in growing asset tracking and user-charging use cases, in many sectors such as in railway (wagons and containers tracking), maritime (VMS, container tracking) and road (road-tolling). Because of the open and broadcasted nature of Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) signals and the physical and hardware constraints of these tracking devices (size, energy consumption, duty-cycled operations in un-trusted conditions), traditional Position, Velocity and Time (PVT) assurance solutions cannot be easily employed if solely based on GNSS. Satellite constellations may support device localization using the uplink signal. Even though sporadic and not very accurate, the determined location may be consideredtrustworthy, as it is performed by the system. It could therefore be used to bound the device’s position to a certain area, and this solution is especially advantageous for hardware platforms with limited energy resources and computing power. Uplink positioning shifts the processing burden from the user equipment to the infrastructure, where it can benefit from increased computational resources and advanced signal processing techniques. Moreover, PNT solutions computed by the infrastructure are less susceptible to threats such as spoofing and jamming.

Estabilishment: ESTEC
ECOS Required: No
Classified: No
Price Range: 200-500 KEURO
Authorised Contact Person: Maria Papaioannou
Initiating Service: NAV-PNI
IP Measure: N/A
Prog. Reference: E/0365-40 – NAVISP Phase 2 E1
Tender Type: Open Competition
Open To Tenderers From: AT+BE+CH+CZ+DE+DK+EL+FI+FR+GB+HU+IT+NL+NO+RO+SE
Technology Keywords: 6-B-I-Navigation System Tools / 6-B-II-Ground Receivers
Products Keywords: 2-A-3-b-Hybrid Navigation Units (IMU/GPS,…) / 2-L-3-b-Navigation Receivers *See AOCS & GNC – Single-frequency (Platform/Low-end missions)- Multiple-frequency (Science mission/hig-end missions) / 4-B-4-h-Test equipment / 4-B-4-i-GPS Receivers