India to set up satellite based navigation system, IRNS

Bangalore: A Rs1,600 crore, seven satellite constellation, Indian Regional Navigation System (IRNS) is to be built in the next five to six years, which will enable New Delhi to provide positioning, navigation and timing (PNT) services across the country and neighbouring areas, ISRO officials said here on Tuesday.

Addressing an industry meet on satellite navigation and talking to reporters later, G Madhavan Nair, secretary in the Department of Space, said the IRNS will consist of a constellation of satellites and a large ground network.

"The system is a totally independent navigational system based on a constellation of eight satellites," said Nair, who is also chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). Nair said the system would be under Indian control, and the space and ground segments as well as receivers will be built in the country.

The meet, which was inaugurated by G Madhavan Nair, chairman, ISRO, covered topics on Indian Satellite Navigation programme, applications and opportunities, research, manufacturing and software development.

Position, Navigation and Timing (PNT) is an important service available through the navigation satellites today. Small hand-held receivers are used to determine the user position anywhere in the world. Location based service is likely to become as ubiquitous as mobile phones very soon.

Satellite based PNT service is emerging as an important space application area not only for civil aviation but in many other areas such as mobile telephones, surface transport, intelligent highway system, maritime transport, rail, oil and gas, precision agriculture, fisheries, survey and marine engineering, science, electricity networks and leisure.

PNT is one of the main components of satellite based Communication, Navigation and Surveillance (CNS)/Air Traffic Management (ATM) system adopted by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) for world-wide implementation. It will facilitate seamless navigation across geographical boundaries and would eventually replace different types of ground-based navigation systems providing services over different air spaces.

ISRO has identified satellite navigation as an important thrust area and a large investment in this programme will be made during the 11th Five Year Plan.

ISRO and AAI are already implementing a satellite based navigation system over the Indian air-space for civil aviation called GAGAN, which consists of a space-segment and a ground segment. The space segment is a dual frequency (L1 & L5) GPS compatible payload on GSAT-4 under the Technology Demonstration System (TDS) phase.

The ground segment consisting of eight Indian Reference Stations (INRESs), one Indian Master Control Centre (INMCC), one Indian Land Uplink Station (INLUS) and associated navigation software and communication links has been installed and a Preliminary System Acceptance Test (PSAT) has been just concluded. The position accuracies available are good.
The entire IRNSS system will be under Indian control, with the space and ground segments and user receivers being built in India.

Through the meet, the Department of Space sought to expose opportunities available in the programme to the industry and find business opportunities. Representatives from 50 companies attended the event, where the Indian satellite navigation programme was presented in detail by senior ISRO engineers.