Proof of Concept of User Segments Technologies For Complementary Low Earth Orbit System

This paper addresses the benefits of a new Low Earth Orbit (LEO) constellation that complement the GNSS ones for Positioning, Navigation and Timing (PNT). It presents results obtained with an end-to-end simulator, Simuleo, developed by Thales Alenia Space France. Simuleo allows to consider several GNSS constellations and a new configurable LEO PNT constellation, propagate satellites positions and compute raw measurements with representative errors for a predefined user position. It integrates PNT algorithms as well to assess an end-to-end performance. Several scenarios and use cases have been considered in order to evaluate the added value of a new potential LEO PNT constellation. Simulation results show that LEO satellites could play key roles to reduce PPP convergence time, to improve accuracy and availability of navigation solution in urban environment and in case of temporary GNSS outages (when hybridized with inertial measurements).