Unified Navigation and Communication Hybrid Terminal

Abstract

Emerging Positioning, Navigation and Timing (PNT) sources such as 5G Terrestrial Networks (TN), Non-Terrestrial Networks (NTN) and LEO-PNT will soon be accessible to everyone. When combined with existing sources like GNSS and LEO signals of opportunity (SOP), they will boost navigation performance, robustness, and reliability, while also offering communication capabilities. This integration will ensure continuous, ubiquitous, and reliable navigation, paving the way for numerous innovative applications and services. To take full advantage of these new capabilities, a hybrid receiver, combining all these PNT sources to provide enhanced and reliable navigation, is under development. The purpose of this paper is to report the activities for the specification, design, development and test plan of a Unified Navigation and Communications Hybrid Terminal. This multi-source and powerful platform aim at implementing and demonstrating advanced navigation solutions that leverage a combination of satellite and terrestrial signal sources. By integrating GNSS (including Galileo E1 Quasi-Pilot), LEO-PNT signals, 5G TN and -NTN - signals, and LEO SOP from various satellite constellations, the Hybrid Terminal shall enable precise, reliable navigation in a variety of challenging and harsh environments and provide increased robustness.