Sapcorda Services GmbH will launch its GNSS augmentation services for L-band signals on December 1, the company announced at InterGeo earlier this month. The service, delivered from two geostationary satellites above North America and Europe, is designed to assist in providing safety-critical navigation at centimeter-level accuracy for autonomous vehicles and machinery.
Available in areas without GSM coverage or mobile Internet signal, the new Sapcorda L-band beam solutions from two geostationary satellites. It provides PPP-RTK data-feed redundancy in real-time by swapping to a second data feed when Internet connectivity is not available. The automated swapping will improve reliability for applications such as autonomous cars, according to the company.
“By expanding our Safe And Precise Augmentation (SAPA) services with L-band transmission,” said Botho zu Eulenburg, Sapcorda CEO, “we enable a high-power correction data stream for homogeneous performance and end-to-end data security with continental coverage in the United States and Europe — thus improving accuracy, reducing convergence time, and enabling the use of lower-cost receivers and antennae.”
The Sapcorda L-band signal will be transmitted in the open SPARTN format, that has been specifically developed for IP-based and geostationary satellite distributions. It will be invaluable for safety-critical applications in automotive (such as V2X and autonomous driving, AD/ADAS) and maritime, as well as a wide variety of uses across sectors such as industrial, robotics and drones.
The L-band Satellite beam coverage will be available on December 1, 2020. Sapcorda’s safe and precise augmentation (SAPA) service will broadcast SAPA Basic and SAPA Premium correction data streams.
These data streams feature:
· 99.9% service availability with fast convergence and an accuracy less than 10 cm, delivering the precision required for safety- and life-critical applications
· Redundancy through dual data streams when internet connectivity isn’t available, ensuring uninterrupted broadcast streaming
· Demodulation by any L-band demodulator on the market today, simplifying hardware design and reducing bill of materials
· Availability of service coverage areas in North America and Europe, allowing manufacturers to use a single GNSS augmentation services’ solution for major global regions
· Distributed in the same open format as IP-delivery channels (SPARTN)
The augmentation service is currently completing its final phase of testing in North America and Europe.
The SPARTN open-communication protocol enables the wide use of GNSS high accuracy positioning worldwide. SPARTN (Safe Position Augmentation for Real-Time Navigation) is a high-accuracy, open- and free-to-use GNSS format tailored for broadcast distribution in mass-market applications. SPARTN is a highly compressed format with extensive robustness for internet and L-band satellite communication in challenging environments. The format supports the use of modern end-to-end encryption, integrity, and message authentication capabilities.
The format supports a broadcast distribution model eliminating communication bottlenecks and enabling continental-level positioning services with unlimited number of subscribers. The SPARTN format enables high-accuracy GNSS positioning in any application, according to the company, including automotive / new mobility, autonomous airborne systems, logistic, mobile / IoT and more.
Sapcorda Services GmbH is a GNSS service provider focusing on emerging high-precision GNSS mass markets. Sapcorda was founded as a joint venture in 2017 by Bosch, Geo++, Mitsubishi Electric and u-blox. It operates in Europe and in USA with offices in Berlin, Hanover and Scottsdale, AZ. The name signifies Safe And Precise CORrection DAta.
