China Releases Public Service Performance Standard for BeiDou
On December 27, 2013, the first anniversary of BeiDou Navigation Satellite System providing full operational regional service was held in Beijing. At the meeting, China Satellite Navigation System Management Office Director Ran Chengqi announced the BeiDou Navigation Satellite System Public Service Performance Standard.
The document details the public service performance parameters of BeiDou system, including service area, accuracy, integrity, continuity, and availability. It is a basic commitment to customers from BeiDou system providers, but also an important basis for customers to choose, use and evaluate the system performance.
Also released is Version 2 of the BeiDou Navigation Satellite System Interface Control Document (ICD) for the Open Service Signal. Among other changes, the new version now includes a description of the B2I signal on 1207.140 MHz.
The publishing of the Public Service Performance Standard is a common practice in the world satellite navigation system suppliers, and also a prerequisite for BeiDou system involvement in international civil aviation, international maritime, 3GPP and other international standard-setting organization activities. Further, it is meaningful for the promotion of international cooperation and application of the BeiDou system in the aviation, maritime and mobile communication areas, according to the China Satellite Navigation System Management Office.
This document has both Chinese and English versions, with the specific content available on BeiDou system government website. Chinese and English versions are available to download from BeiDou navigation satellite system government website and BeiDou English website respectively.
Because it can be difficult to complete the download of the documents, Richard Langley has made them available at the University of New Brunswick website:
http://www2.unb.ca/gge/Resources/beidou_open_service_performance_standard_ver1.0.pdf
http://www2.unb.ca/gge/Resources/beidou_icd_english_ver2.0.pdf
Subscribe to GPS World
If you enjoyed this article, subscribe to GPS World to receive more articles just like it.
I took a quick look at comparing the BeiDou Open Service Performance Standard with the GPS Standard Positioning Service Performance Standard and obtained mixed results. In some cases the commitments from BeiDou were stronger (URE accuracy, vertical position), and in other cases the commitments from GPS were stronger (continuity of service, advance notice of outages). The good news is that GNSS systems are documenting the service levels that users can expect. What we will need next is monitoring to verify these service levels are being met.
Here is link to my quick look: http://oregonarc.com/2014/01/beidou-performance-standard-how-good-is-it/