GMV developments key for Galileo’s new authentication service

The European Union Agency for the Space Programme (EUSPA) has announced the launch of Galileo’s new open authentication service, OSNMA (Open Service Navigation Message Authentication).

The European GNSS Service Centre (GSC) at INTA’s facilities in Torrejón de Ardoz will generate and send the authentication messages to the Galileo ground mission segment. Alongside the High Accuracy Service (HAS), OSNMA is a key value-added feature of the Galileo constellation, providing a significant edge over other satellite navigation systems like the American GPS and Russian GLONASS.

GMV and INDRA have been working with EUSPA for the provision of the GSC infrastructure for several years in which the OSNMA development has been performed. GMV was also responsible for developing the infrastructure necessary for Galileo’s High Accuracy Service (HAS), which has been operational since January 2023.

Positioning signals transmitted in the clear often lack mechanisms to verify their authenticity, making it relatively easy to produce fraudulent replicas intended to deceive applications such as GNSS-based timestamping of financial transactions or calculating and recording position and time in digital tachographs.

The new OSNMA service enables signals transmitted by the system to be digitally signed, ensuring that Galileo is secure for applications like these. This service allows users to verify that the navigation data they receive is genuinely from the Galileo system and has not been spoofed or tampered with, thereby enhancing the system’s value for its users.

GMV has played a key role in defining and developing this service, positioning Galileo at the cutting edge of global satellite navigation systems.