Development of Resilient Time and Frequency Distribution from Low Earth Orbit using Nanosatellites

This project will assess the feasibility of an alternative Positioning, Navigation and Timing (aPNT) service with 27/4 global coverage, provided by a large constellation of dedicated Low Earth Orbit (LEO) nanosatellites. Compared to well-established Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) with satellites in Medium Earth Orbits (MEOs), the distribution of ranging signals from a constellation of nanosatellites in LEO offers a few potential advantages for PNT.
It enables the aPNT system to:

-- Improve resilience to on-ground intentional and unintentional interference;

-- Deliver a redundant PVT solution that can be used to validate and enhance the PVT solution based on GNSSs against spoofing attempts and harsh electromagnetic propagation conditions;

-- Provide a back-up PVT solution in case of any global outage due to any system failure (e.g., GPS in January 2016 or Galileo in July 2019, see: https://insidegnss.com/lessons-to-be-learned-from-galileo-signal-outage/);

-- Give access to a GNSS-like service in a cost-effective manner by leveraging the ability of nanosatellites to be deployed in a constellation at relatively low cost as well as their capability to exploit already existing GNSS satellites flying at higher-altitude orbits.

To assess the feasibility of such aPNT service, the project will study the current state of the art, elaborate the preliminary design and constraints of a cost-effective system, and deploy a laboratory concept demonstration to assess the quality of the aPNT service to the end user receiver on ground..