Location Based Services and Satellite Applications

  • Status
    Ongoing
  • Status date
    2006-12-21
Objectives

This ARTES 1 project is an ESA initiative to support the satellite telecommunication industry. The objective of this study is to assess the competitive situation between satellite and terrestrial communications networks in the Location Based Services (LBS) market in the medium term (2005-2010).

This has been based on an analysis of the evolution of services, underlying technologies and associated business context. The study therefore seeks to identify classes of application where satellite communication may have an advantage compared to terrestrial communication networks and what steps are necessary to fulfil the potential satellite communications in this context.

Challenges

This study has successfully demonstrated a clear role for satellite communications amongst a range of emerging LBS.
It has further demonstrated how this could be met with a modified system architecture based upon today's Mobile Satellite Services (MSS) and a new design of user terminal (UT).
The study has demonstrated the potential commercial feasibility of each of our chosen service concepts and the necessary steps to be taken by ESA.

Benefits

This study has successfully demonstrated a clear role for satellite communications amongst a range of emerging LBS.
It has further demonstrated how this could be met with a modified system architecture based upon today's Mobile Satellite Services (MSS) and a new design of user terminal (UT). The study has demonstrated the potential commercial feasibility of each of our chosen service concepts and the necessary steps to be taken by ESA.

Features

The study has been constructed within the following boundaries:



  • This study has forecast the LBS market over the period 2005 - 2010. Therefore highly regulated applications, such as those pertaining to safety of life, will not receive authorisation within the next five years unless the approvals process is already underway.

  • The study concentrated on the extended European region of Portugal to the Urals and from Scandinavia to the southern Mediterranean coast, including Cyprus, Malta and Turkey, but excluding North Africa and the Middle East.

  • The focus of the study was largely on the land segment. Maritime and aeronautical applications were also considered where they do not require long term regulatory approval.

The specific outcomes from this study are:



  • An appreciation of which services and user groups offer the most promise for satellite communications;

  • A high level system architecture definition to support each service in the short term based upon today's satcomms services;

  • An outline user terminal specification to support the chosen services;

  • An understanding of the necessary business and financial conditions under which each service concept appears commercially feasible.
Plan

The study was divided into six tasks, with a Technical Note being produced for each task as follows:


Task 1: Market survey and service profile.
Task 2: Mid term services evolution.
Task 3: Satellite positioning assessment.
Task 4: Satellite location based services platform.
Task 5: Business scenario.
Task 6: Final Report and Presentation.


The study is now complete and the project plan fully executed.

Current status

The work on this study is now complete and a full set of deliverables has been delivered and accepted by ESA.