Quasar has submitted a proposal to an ESA Invitation To Tender with title, GNSS Big Data Processing for Monitoring, Assessment of Innovative Techniques and Science.
The project deals with the recording, digitization and signal processing of GNSS data. The project objectives, as stated in the ESA Statement of Work, include;
1. Demonstrate the potential of continuous or adaptive recording of digitized intermediate frequency data at reference and potentially mobile stations using a distributed or centralised IT facility approach.
2. Identify relevant application/study cases during the pilot operation period which demonstrate and promote the benefits of a systematic long term digitized intermediate frequency data storage.
3. Achieve a cost-effective station system trade-off between RF front-end, pre-processing equipment, recording configuration (signal frequencies, bandwidth, number of bits and sampling, effective
methods for storing/reducing/processing the large amount of data), storage infrastructure (central versus distributed, HDD and/or tape libraries….), scalability and operation cost.
4. Develop, install and operate for 8 months or more at least three prototype stations.
5. Promote within the target user and scientific community the expansion of stations with the goal to establish a permanent global digitized intermediate frequency data recording user network.
6. Analyse the technical feasibility to generate a centralised processing of remotely collected IF Samplers of GNSS signals. Identify the necessary remote and centralised infrastructure including the communication.
7. Demonstrate through the testbed/station, its use in relevant applications such as for example:
- Scientific long-term archiving
- Identification of environmental (multipath, ionosphere, troposphere) effects
- Interference and other natural or man-made vulnerabilities
- Liability aspects (road-tolling, smart-cities, time users, …)
- GNSS system feared-events assessment
- Evaluation of common innovative processing techniques
To accomplish this project, Quasar has established a first-class Consortium that incorporates unique experience in Spain and the Czech Republic, with special attention to the following points:
- Unique satellite operational, data management and software development experience of Quasar Science Resource, with a team of experts behind that includes Computer System Analysts, Software and Data Archive Engineers and Scientists, covering a wide range of expertise, Spain
- Excellent knowledge managing and running projects related with data mining and edge computing from Nfq Advisory Services (NFQ) (Spain)
- Knowledge in GNSS radio signal treatment and hardware skills from the Department of Radio Engineering from the Czech Technical University Prague, Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Czech Republic
- Knowledge in GNSS data treatment and analysis for scientific applications from the Geodetic Observatory Pecný of the Research Institute of Geodesy Topography and Cartography, Czech Republic
The Consortium is formed by a small dynamic team under the leadership of Quasar Science Resources and will profit from the excellent hardware capabilities of the Czech Technical University Prague and its recent work done for an awarded ESA contract related to GNSS data signal processing.