Telecommun Syst (2013) 52:121137

DOI 10.1007/s11235-011-9464-x

Development and characteristics of African Satellite

Augmentation System (ASAS) network
D.S. Ilcev

Published online: 15 June 2011

Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2011

Abstract This paper reports on an African Satellite Augmentation System (ASAS) Space and Ground Segments as
an integration part of Global Satellite Augmentation System (GSAS) for enhanced Traffic Control and Management
(TCM) globally at sea, on the ground (road and railway vehicles) and in the air. The ASAS network can be used as
solely systems for covering and providing TCM and Safety
and Security service for entire African Continent and Middle East region, according to the International Maritime Organization (IMO), its Global Maritime Distress and Safety
System (GMDSS) and International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) recommendations and requirements. Since
1995 few commercial Regional Satellite Augmentation System (RSAS) networks have been projected and developed to
utilize Communication, Navigation and Surveillance (CNS)
service for Maritime Traffic Control (MTC), Land Traffic
Control (LTC) and Air Traffic Control (ATC), including for
improved Safety and Security in all transportation systems.
The proposed Space Segment of Geostationary Earth Orbit
(GEO) constellation and Ground Segment of ASAS network
are discussed, and areas examined where further investigations are needed. Specific issues related to these challenges
are concluded and a set of solutions is proposed to maximize the availability of ASAS network capacity to the user
applications.
Keywords ASAS GSAS CNS RSAS GEO GNSS
GPS GLONASS WAAS EGNOS MSAS CNSO
SDCM SNAS GAGAN TAB GMS GCS GES
LSAS CMGC SMGC
D.S. Ilcev ()
Mangosuthu University of Technology (MUT), 133 Bencorrum,
183 Prince Street, Durban 4001, South Africa
e-mail: ilcev@mut.ac.za

Acronyms
ADSS
ASS
ASTB
ATC
AVAS
CES
CMGC
CNS
CNSO
CRS
DC
DC
DGPS
DME
DOP
DSC
DST
DST
EGNOS
FAA
GAGAN
GAS
GBAS
GCS
GEO
GES
GIC
GMDSS
GMS
GNSS
GRS
GRS

Automatic Dependent Surveillance System

Augmentation Standards Service
African Satellite Test Bed
Air Traffic Control
African VHF Augmentation System
Coast Earth Station
Coastal Movement Guidance and Control
Communication, Navigation and Surveillance
Civil Navigation Satellite Overlay
Coast Radio Station
Differential Corrections
Differential Corrections
Differential GPS
Distance Measuring Equipment
Dilution of Precision
Digital Selective Call
Department of Science and Technology
Department of Science and Technology
European Geostationary Navigation Overlay
System
Federal Aviation Administration
GPS/GLONASS and GEOS Augmented
Navigation
Ground Augmentation System
Ground-based Augmentation System
Ground Control Stations
Geostationary Earth Orbit
Ground Earth Station
GNSS Integrity Channel
Global Maritime Distress and Safety System
Ground Monitoring Station
Global Navigation Satellite System
Geostationary Ranging Station
Ground Radio Station

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GSAS
ICAA

Global Satellite Augmentation System

Integrity, Continuity, Accuracy and
Availability
ICAO
International Civil Aviation Organization
IGP
Ionospheric Grid Points
ILS
Instrument Landing System
IMO
International Maritime Organization
LAA
Local Augmentation Area
LAS
Local Augmentation System
LGS
Light Guidance System
LSAS
Local Satellite Augmentation System
LTC
Land Traffic Control
LVAS
Local VHF Augmentation System
MSAS
MTSAT Satellite-based Augmentation System
MTC
Maritime Traffic Control
NDB
Non-Directional Beacons
NMS
Navigation Management System
NPA
Non-Precision Approach
NSI
National Space Institute
PA
Precision Approach
PVT
Position, Velocity and Time
RAIM
Receiver Autonomous Integrity Monitoring
RCS
Radar Control Station
RDDI
Radio Direction Distance Information
RDI
Radio Direction Information
RFP
Request for Proposal
RGIC
Ranging GIC
RR
Reference Receiver
RSAS
Regional Satellite Augmentation System
Rx
Receivers
SBAS
Satellite-based Augmentation System (ICAO
nomenclature)
SDCM
System of Differential Correction and
Monitoring
SMGC
Surface Movement Guidance and Control
SNAS
Satellite Navigation Augmentation System
TAB
Transport Augmentation Board
TCC
Traffic Control Centers
TCM
Traffic Control and Management
TCS
Terrestrial Communication Subsystem
TTN
Terrestrial Telecommunication Networks
VHF
Very High Frequency
VOR
VHF Omnidirectional Ranging
VPR
Voice Position Reports
WAA
Wide Augmentation Area
WAAS
Wide Area Augmentation System
WADGNSS Wide Area Differential GNSS
WMS
Wide Master Station
WRS
Wide Reference Station

D.S. Ilcev

1 Introduction
The first generation of the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) infrastructure are represented by old fundamental solutions for Position, Velocity and Time (PVT) of
the satellite navigation and determination systems such as
GPS and GLONASS for the US or Russian (former-Soviet
Union) military requirements, respectively. The GPS and
GLONASS are first generation of GNSS-1 infrastructures
giving positions to about 30 metres, using simple GPS receivers onboard chips or aircraft, and they therefore suffer
from certain weaknesses, which make them impossible to be
used as the sole means of navigation for ships, particularly
for land (road and railway vehicles) and aviation applications. In this sense, technically GPS or GLONASS GNSS-1
systems used autonomously are incapable of meeting civil
maritime, land and especially aeronautical mobile very high
requirements for integrity, position availability and determination precision in particular and are insufficient for certain
very critical navigation and flight stages [7, 9].
Because these two systems are developed to provide
navigation particulars of position and speed on the ships
bridges or in the airplane cockpits, only captains of the ships
or airplanes know very well their position and speed, but
people in Traffic Control Centers (TCC) cannot get in all
circumstances their navigation or flight data without service of new CNS facilities. Besides of accuracy of GPS
or GLONASS, without new CNS is not possible to provide full TCM in every critical or unusual situation. Also
these two GNSS systems are initially developed for military
utilization only, and now are also serving for all transport
civilian applications worldwide, so many countries and international organizations would never be dependent on or
even entrust peoples safety to GNSS systems controlled
by one or two countries. However, augmented GNSS-1 solutions of GSAS were recently developed to improve the
mentioned deficiencies of current military systems and to
meet the present transportation civilian requirements for
high-operating Integrity, Continuity, Accuracy and Availability (ICAA). These new operational CNS solutions are
the US Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS), the European Geostationary Navigation Overlay System (EGNOS)
and Japanese MTSAT Satellite-based Augmentation System
(MSAS), and there are able to provide CNS data from mobiles to the TCC.
These three RSAS are integration segments of the GSAS
network and parts of the interoperable GNSS-1 architecture of GPS and GLONASS and new GNSS-2 of the European Galileo and Chinese Compass, including Inmarsat
CNSO (Civil Navigation Satellite Overlay) and new project
of ASAS infrastructure. The additional three GNSS-1 networks in development phase are the Russian System of Differential Correction and Monitoring (SDCM), the Chinese

Development and characteristics of African Satellite Augmentation System (ASAS) network

123

Fig. 1 GSAS network

configuration. Courtesy of
manuscript for book:
Aeronautical CNS by Ilcev [9]

Satellite Navigation Augmentation System (SNAS) and Indian GPS/GLONASS and GEOS Augmented Navigation
(GAGAN). Only remain something to be done in South
America and Australia for establishment of the GSAS infrastructure globally, illustrated in Fig. 1.
The RSAS networks are based on the GNSS-1 signals for
augmentation, which evolution is known as the GSAS network and which service provides an overlay function and
supplementary services. The future ASAS Space Segment
will be consisted by existing GEO birds, such as Inmarsat4 and Artemis or it will implement own satellite constellation, to transmit overlay signals almost identical to those of
GPS and GLONASS and provide CNS service. The South
African firm IS Marine Radio, as designer of the Project will
have overall responsibility for the design and development
of the ASAS network with all governments in the region.

2 GNSS applications
The RSAS infrastructures are available globally to enhance
current standalone GPS and GLONASS system PVT performances for maritime, land (road and railway) and aeronautical transport applications. User devices can be configured
to make use of internal sensors for added robustness in the
presence of jamming, or to aid in vehicle navigation when
the satellite signals are blocked in the urban canyons of
tall city buildings or mountainous environment. In the similar sense, some special transport solutions, such as maritime
and especially aeronautical, require far more CNS accuracy
and reliability than it can be provided by current military
GPS and GLONASS GNSS-1 space infrastructures [9, 10].
Moreover, positioning accuracy can be improved by removing the correlated errors between two or more satellites

GPS and/or GLONASS Receivers (Rx) performing range

measurements to the same satellites. This type of Rx is in
fact Reference Receiver (RR) surveyed in, because its geographical location is precisely well known. In such a manner, one method of achieving common error removal is to
take the difference between the RR terminals surveyed position and its electronically derived position at a discrete time
point. These positions differences represent the error at the
measurement time and are denoted as the differential correction, which information may be broadcast via data link
to the user receiving equipment. In this case the user GPS
or GLONASS augmented Rx can remove the error from its
received data.
Alternatively, in non-real-time technique GNSS solutions, the differential corrections can be stored along with
the users positional data and will be applied after the data
collection period, which is typically used in surveying applications [8].
If the RR or Ground Monitoring Station (GMS) of the
future ASAS service coverage is within of the mobile users,
the mode is usually referred to as local area differential, similar to the US Differential GPS (DGPS) for Maritime applications. In this way, as the distance increases between the
users and the GMS, some ranging errors become decorrelated. This problem can be overcome by installing a network consisting a number of GMS reference sites throughout a large geographic area, such as a region or continent
and broadcasting the Differential Corrections (DC) via GEO
satellites. In such a way, ASAS network has to cover entire
African Continent and the Middle East region.
Therefore, all GMS sites connected by Terrestrial Telecommunication Networks (TTN) relay collected data to one
or more Ground Control Stations (GCS), where DC is performed and satellite signal integrity is checked. Then, the

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GCS sends the corrections and integrity data to a major

Ground Earth Station (GES) for uplink to the GEO satellite.
This differential technique is referred to as the wide area
differential system, which is implemented by GNSS system
known as Wide Augmentation Area (WAA), while another
system known as Local Augmentation Area (LAA) is an implementation of a local area differential, The LAA solution
is an implementation for seaports and airport including for
approaching utilizations. The WAA is an implementation of
a wide area differential system for wide area CNS maritime,
land and aeronautical applications, such as Inmarsat CNSO
and the newly developed Satellite Augmentation WAAS in
the USA, the European EGNOS and Japanese MSAS [10].
These three operational systems are part of the worldwide GSAS network and integration segments of the future
interoperable GNSS-1 architecture of GPS and GLONASS
and GNSS-2 of Galileo and Compass, including CNSO as
a part of GNSS offering this service via Inmarsat-3/4 and
Artemis spacecraft. The author of this paper for the first time
is using more adequate nomenclature GSAS than Satellitebased Augmentation System (SBAS) of ICAO, which has to
be adopted as the more common designation in the field of
CNS [6].
As discussed earlier, the current three RSAS networks in
development phase are the Russian SDCM, Chinese SNAS
and Indian GAGAN, while African Continent and Middle
East have to start at the beginning of 2011 with development ASAS project. In this sense, development of forthcoming RSAS projects in Australia and South America will
complete Augmented CNS system worldwide, known as an
GSAS Network [8].
Three operational RSAS together with Inmarsat CNSO
are interoperable, compatible and each constituted of a network of GPS or GLONASS observation stations and own
and/or leased GEO communication satellites. Namely, the
Inmarsat CNSO system offers on leasing GNSS payload,
while the European system EGNOS, which will provide precision to within about 5 metres is operational from 2009.
In fact, it also constitutes the first steps towards forthcoming Galileo, the future European system for civilian global
navigation by satellite. The EGNOS system uses leased Inmarsat AOR-E and IOR satellites and ESA ARTEMIS satellite. Thus, the US-based WAAS is using Inmarsat satellites
and Japanese MSAS is using its own multipurpose MTSAT
spacecraft, both are operational from 2007 and 2008, respectively. Although the global positioning accuracy system associated with the overlay is a function of numerous technical
factors, including the ground network architecture, the expected accuracy for the US Federal Aviation Administration
(FAA) WAAS will be in the order of 7.6 m (2 drms, 95%)
in the horizontal plane and 7.6 m (95%) in the vertical plane
[4, 8].

D.S. Ilcev

3 Status and weaknesses of the current CNS system

Business or corporate shipping and airways companies have
used for several decades HF communication for long-range
voice and telex communications during intercontinental sailing and flights. Meanwhile, for short distances mobiles have
used the well-known VHF onboard ships and VHF//UHF
radio on aircraft. In the similar way, data communications
are since recently also in use, primarily for travel plan and
worldwide weather (WX) and navigation (NX) warning reporting. Apart from data service for cabin crew, cabin voice
solutions and passenger telephony have also been developed. Thus, all mobiles today are using traditional electronic
and instrument navigations systems and for surveillance facilities they are employing radars.
The current communication facilities between ships and
MTC are executed by Radio MF/HF voice and telex and
VHF voice system; see Previous Communication Subsystem in Fig. 2. The VHF link between ships on one the hand
and Coast Radio Station (CRS) and TCC on the other, may
have the possibility to be interfered with high mountainous
terrain and to provide problems for MTC. The HF link may
not be established due to lack of available frequencies, high
frequency jamming, bad propagation, intermediation, unstable wave conditions and to very bad weather, heavy rain or
thunderstorms.
The current navigation possibilities for recording and
processing Radio Direction Information (RDI) and Radio
Direction Distance Information (RDDI) between vessels and
TCC or MTC centre are performed by ground navigation
equipment, such as the shore Radar, Racons (Radar Beacon)
and Passive Radar Reflectors, integrated with VHF CRS facilities, shown by Previous Navigation Subsystem in Fig. 2.
This subsystem needs more time for ranging and secure navigation at the deep seas, within the channels and approaching to the anchorages and ports, using few onboard type of
radars and other visual and electronic navigation aids.
The current surveillance utilities for receiving Radar
and VHF Voice Position Reports (VPR) and HF Radio
Data/VPR between ships and TCC can be detected by Radar
and MF/HF/VHF CRS. This subsystem may have similar
propagation problems and limited range or when ships are
sailing inside of fiords and behind high mountains Coastal
Radar cannot detect them; see the Surveillance Subsystem
in Fig. 2. The very bad weather conditions, deep clouds
and heavy rain could block radar signals totally and on the
screen will be blanc picture without any reflected signals, so
in this case cannot be visible surrounded obstacles or traffic of ships in the vicinity, and the navigation situation is
becoming very critical and dangerous causing collisions.
On the contrary, the new Communication CNS/MTM
System utilizes the communications satellite and it will
eliminate the possibility of interference by very high mountains, see all three CNS Subsystems in Fig. 2. At this point,

Development and characteristics of African Satellite Augmentation System (ASAS) network

125

Fig. 2 Current and new

CNS/MTM system. Courtesy of
manuscript, Maritime CNS by
Ilcev [7]

satellite voice communications, including a data link, augments a range and improves both the quality and capacity of communications. The WX and NX warnings, sailing planning and NAVAREA information may also be directly input to the Navigation Management System (NMS).
The new Navigation CNS/MTM System is providing improved GPS/GLONASS navigation data, while Surveillance
CNS/MTM System is utilizing augmented facilities of GPS
or GLONASS signals. Thus, if the navigation course is free
of islands or shallow waters, the GPS Navigation Subsystem data provides a direct approaching line and the surveillance information cannot be interfered by mountainous terrain or bad weather conditions. The display on the screen
will eliminate misunderstandings between controllers and
ships Masters or Pilots [7].

The current communication facilities between aircraft

and ATC can be executed by traditional VHF/UHF and HF
voice (radiotelephone system), see the Present Communication Subsystem in Fig. 3. The VHF voice link between aircraft on one the hand and Ground Radio Station (GRS) and
TCC on the other, may have the possibility to be interfered
with high mountainous terrain. Moreover, the HF link may
not be established due to lack of available frequencies, because many users are working on the same frequency band,
intermediation, unstable wave conditions and to very heavy
rain or thunderstorms.
The current navigation possibilities for recording and
processing RDI and RDDI between aircraft and ATC are
performed by ground landing navigation equipment, such
as the Instrument Landing System (ILS), VHF Omnidirec-

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D.S. Ilcev

Fig. 3 Current and new

CNS/ATM system. Courtesy of
book: Global Mobile Satellite
Communications by Ilcev [9]

tional Ranging (VOR) and Distance Measuring Equipment

(DME), illustrated by the Present Navigation Subsystem in
Fig. 3. This subsystem needs more time for ranging and secure landing, using an indirect way of flying in a semicircle.
The current surveillance utilities for receiving Radar and
HF Voice signals between aircraft and TCC are detected by
Surveillance Radar and Ground HF Stations, respectively.
This subsystem may have similar HF voice communications problems or when airplanes are flying behind high
mountains they cannot be detected by Radar, see the Present
Surveillance Subsystem in Fig. 3.
The issues of new CNS/ATM systems shown in Fig. 3 for
Communication, Navigation and Surveillance have the similar improved impacts introduced in the previous Maritime
CNS/MTM system [9].

4 Development of ASAS network

As stated earlier, the basic GPS and GLONASS service
fails to meet the high-operating ICAA requirements that are
needed by many civilian mobile users. In order to meet the
requirements for better ICAA of GPS or GLONASS over
African Continent and Middle East is necessary to design
the ASAS network. The ASAS service will improve the
ICAA requirements of the basic GPS or GLONASS signals
and allows them to be used as a primary means of ships
navigation at coastal waters and precision approach to the
anchorages and for en-route flight of airplanes, Precision
Approach (PA) and Non-Precision Approach (NPA) in the
African and Middle East coverage area [9].
To start with realization of the project it will be necessary to form Augmentation Standards Service (ASS) and to

Development and characteristics of African Satellite Augmentation System (ASAS) network

establish Transport Augmentation Board (TAB). The TAB

team together with IS Marine Radio, as a designer of ASAS
project, will be responsible for providing the leadership role
in engineering, realization and coordination the operational
implementation of existing and emerging modern satellite
CNS technologies into the African Continent and the Middle East region. The TAB team has to be instrumental in the
project and development of the criteria, standards and procedures for the use of unaugmented and as well an augmented
GNSS signals by the ASAS and Local Satellite Augmentation System (LSAS). If there is not developed yet some
RSAS network, it can be also used Local VHF Augmentation System (LVAS) for seaports and airports also known as
a current DGPS developed in US for Coast Guard MTC.
4.1 Overview of ASAS Project
Among the GNSS-1 elements and characteristics standardized by the ICAO board the complements to GPS or
GLONASS augmented solutions are as follows:
(a) Regional RSAS ProjectIn this paper, the use of the
ICAO nomination Satellite-based Augmentation System (SBAS), which appear in the classification of the
acronyms, will be replaced by Regional Satellite Augmentation System (RSAS) as better convenient nomenclature. The RSAS complementary information is diffused by GEO satellite by means of a pseudo-GPS or
GLONASS signals and covers a wide geographical area
of GSAS systems, such as ASAS project for entire
African Continent and Middle East region.
(b) Local LSAS ProjectThe Local Satellite Augmentation System (LSAS) nomenclature also convenient
much better than Ground-based Augmentation System
(GBAS) nomination of ICAO. The complementary information is valid over a limited area, such as seaport or
airport and can use satellite diffusion to provide connection between mobiles and TCC. In similar instances, the
local scenario can employ LVAS diffused by using VHF
Radio system, similar to the US DGPS.
On this basis, the TAB team has to launch the development
of regional ASAS, whose objective has ultimately to provide one single navigation system over the whole Africa and
Middle East. The ASAS program has to be a combination of
ground and space equipment to augment the standard positioning service of the GPS or GLONASS. It has to be designed as a milestone of the next generation civil maritime,
land and aviation CNS service. However, the fundamental
mission of ASAS is to provide a primary means of improved
navigation for maritime and also for land and aeronautical
applications.
The functions have to be provided by RSAS missions are:
DGPS corrections (to improve accuracy), integrity monitoring (to ensure that errors are within tolerable limits with

127

a very high probability and thus ensure safety) and ranging (to improve availability). Therefore, separate differential corrections are broadcasting by RSAS to correct GPS or
GLONASS satellite clock errors, ephemeris and ionospheric
errors. At this point, Ionospheric corrections are broadcasting for selected Ionospheric Grid Points (IGP), which are
lattice points of a virtual grid of lines of constant latitude
and longitude at the height of the ionosphere.
The ASAS network will integrate the Space Segment
of own constellation developed by South African Government or leased Inmarsat-3 and Artemis GNSS satellite payloads, and the Ground Segment, which consists in a primary
and secondary GMS, GCS, GES and Traffic Control Centre
(TCC) to attain improved availability, accuracy and integrity
beyond the standard GPS or GLONASS GNSS constellations [8].
The TAB team, IS Marine Radio with partners from Russia and Ukraine, NovAtel, Leica and research institutions
such as National Space Institute (NSI) together with South
African Department of Science and Technology (DST), has
to perform all feasibility studies and research for development of regional ASAS prototype including participating in
the early tests of an experimental ASAS. This team with
TAB has to analyze the accuracy of the experimental system
when it will be used to provide guidance to ships and aircraft
performing approaches on the four coasts of the African
continent. Feasibility studies will include a few performance
tests of alternative ionospheric correction and integrity algorithms (error boundings).
On the other hand, TAB will assist to establish performance demands for the ASAS and provide technical data
to other teams that will evaluate contractor responses to the
ASAS Request for Proposal (RFP). After the contract award,
TAB will assist in the transfer of technology project to the
prime contractors. The TAB team has also to provide technical advice to the contractors on the ASAS design in the areas
of performance and safety since the contract award, and has
also to be involved in the design, modeling prototype and
simulation of ASAS availability performance. The all institution parties of ASAS will be used in sensitivity analyses
to help determination of optimal mix and location of land
resources, such as GMS and GES, and to determine the impacts of design changes that alter equipment performance
or location. It will be also used as a tool to demonstrate to
air traffic planners the behavior of a space navigation system (i.e., orbiting sensors) and to help also to determine
operational strategies for dealing with low performance areas [10].
At first has to be established the African Satellite Test
Bed (ASTB) that includes the all above mentioned parties,
then minimum 55 ATSB GMS over African continent and
both existing Inmarsat GES in a ground uplink centre Maadi
in Egypt and Jeddah in Saudi Arabia. In addition, it is necessary to establish one GES in Senegal, one in Kenya and one

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in South Africa or to utilize service of the existing CSIR

Satellite Centre [8].
The TAB can initiate a 3-phase developmental approach
to complete the ASAS network:
1. Phase 1 (20112012)Will start with initial ASAS commissioned with 44 GMS, 5 GCS uplinks, 5 GES and 3
leased GEO satellites. In the next stage will be upgraded
GMS infrastructures to maximum 55 and perhaps can be
provided own GEO satellites. The ASAS ground network
will enable wide civilian Maritime deep sea and coastal
navigation including approaching to anchorages and seaports, while for Land application will enable precise navigation facilities for road and rail vehicles and for Aeronautical solutions will provide en-route navigation, mobile terminal navigation and NPA. In addition, this system will support Category I PA within a limited coverage
area as well.
2. Phase 2 (20122015)Will initiate with full ASAS infrastructures and with additional GMS up to 55. Redundant coverage of the entire initial ASAS operational restrictions will be removed. The ALAS ground structures
will be deployed at major African seaports and airports.
Precisely surveyed ground stations with multiple GPS receivers and processors will be established, including one
or more pseudolites and VHF data link-supports Category II/III PA locally at all runway ends of an airport.
An additional approach lighting system will be deployed,
the Cat I precision approach and where higher availability is required than ASAS network can provide. In the
proper manner, the reduction of ground-based NAVAIDS
infrastructure, such as VOR and Non-Directional Beacons (NDB) will be initiated, and the added 2nd and 3rd
civil radio frequencies will improve GPS robustness and
ICAA.
3. Phase 3 (20152018)To continue reducing groundbased NAVAIDS, when VOR and DME will support only
operations along principal air routes and NPA at many
airports. Furthermore, the ILS will support PA at highactivity airports for ATC and Management. Full constellations of GPS/GLONASS with 2nd and 3rd civil frequency band available for ASAS/ALAS have to be modified accordingly to: Dual-frequency avionics to mitigate
unintentional jamming and complete phase-out of all onairport NAVAIDS (VOR, NDB).
4.2 ASAS system configuration
The ASAS will be designed and implemented as the primary means of satellite CNS for aviation routes in corridors
over African Continent and Middle East region, control of
airports approachings and managing all aircraft and vehicles movements on airports surface. In this sense, it will
also serve for maritime course operations such as ocean

D.S. Ilcev

crossings, navigation at open and close seas, coastal navigation, channels and passages, approachings to anchorages
and ports, and inside of ports, and for land (road and railways) solutions. It was intended to provide the following
services [10]:
(1) The transmission of integrity and health information on
each GPS or GLONASS satellite in real time to ensure all users do not use faulty satellites for navigation,
known as the GNSS Integrity Channel (GIC).
(2) The continuous transmission of ranging signals in addition to the GIC service, to supplement GPS, thereby increasing GPS/GLONASS signal availability. Increased
signal availability also translates into an increase in Receiver Autonomous Integrity Monitoring (RAIM) availability, which is known as Ranging GIC (RGIC).
(3) The transmission of GPS or GLONASS wide area differential corrections has, in addition to the GIC and
RGIC services, to increase the accuracy of civil GPS
and GLONASS signals. Namely, this feature has been
called the Wide Area Differential GNSS (WADGNSS).
The combination of the Inmarsat overlay services and
Artemis spacecraft will be referred to as the ASAS network
illustrated in Fig. 4. As observed previous figure, all mobile users (3) receive navigation signals (1) from GNSS-1 of
GPS or GLONASS satellites. In the near future can be used
GNSS-2 signals of Galileo and Compass satellites (2). These
signals are also received by all reference GMS terminals of
integrity monitoring networks (4) operated by governmental agencies in many countries within Africa and Middle
East. The monitored data are sent to a regional Integrity and
Processing Facility of GCS (5), where the data is processed
to form the integrity and WADGNSS correction messages,
which are then forwarded to the Primary GNSS GES (6). At
the GES, the navigation signals are precisely synchronized
to a reference time and modulated with the GIC message
data and WADGNSS corrections. The signals are sent to
a satellite on the C-band uplink (7) via GNSS payload located in GEO Inmarsat and Artemis spacecraft (8), the augmented signals are frequency-translated to the mobile user
on L1 and new L5-band (9) and to the C-band (10) used for
maintaining the navigation signal timing loop. The timing
of the signal is done in a very precise manner in order that
the signal will appear as though it was generated on board
the satellite as a GPS ranging signal. The Secondary GNSS
GES can be installed in Communication CNS GES (11), as
a hot standby in the event of failure at the Primary GNSS
GES. The TCC ground terminals (12) could send request
to all particular mobiles for providing CNS information by
Voice or Data, including new Voice, Data and Video over
IP (VDVoIP) on C-band uplink (13) via Communication
payload located in Inmarsat or Artemis spacecraft and on
C-band downlink (14) to mobile users (3). The mobile users

Development and characteristics of African Satellite Augmentation System (ASAS) network

129

Fig. 4 ASAS network

configuration. Courtesy of book:
Understanding
GPSPrinciples and
Applications by Kaplan
(modified by authors) [10]

Fig. 5 ASAS space segment.

Courtesy of book: Global
Mobile Satellite
Communications by Ilcev [9]

are able to send augmented CNS data on L-band uplink (15)

via the same spacecraft and L-band downlink (16). The TCC
sites are processing CNS data received from mobile users by
Host and displaying on the surveillance screen their current
positions very accurate and in the real time (13). Therefore,
the ASAS will be used as a primary means of navigation
during all phases of traveling for all mobile applications [6].
The ASAS space constellation could be formally consisted in the 24 operational GPS and 24 GLONASS satellites
and of 2 Inmarsat and 1 Artemis GEO satellites. The GEO
satellites downlink the data to the users on the GPS L1 RF
with a modulation similar to that used by GPS. Information
in the navigational message, when processed by an ASAS
Rx, allows the GEO satellites to be used as additional GPSlike satellites, thus increasing the availability of the satellite
constellation. At this point, the ASAS signal resembles a
GPS signal origination from the Gold Code family of 1023
possible codes (19 signals from PRN 120-138).
An ASAS ground segment consists of a network of certain GMS cites that monitor the satellite signals and send

their observations to one or more GCS, which generate the

augmentation message. This is in turn sent to uplink GES,
which transmit it to the navigation transponders on board the
GEO spacecraft payload.
Finally, these satellites broadcast the ASAS message to
the mobile users at the L1 or 1575.42 MHz GPS frequency.
The ASAS signal is modulated on a GPS look-alike signal using a spread-spectrum code thus providing an ASAS
pseudo range measurement. This means that, with slightly
modified equipment, GPS or GLONASS users can receive
integrity and more accurate position information. In such
a way, the ranging signals improve Dilution of Precision
(DOP) and RAIM.
In fact, the ASAS signal will be modulated with a 250 b/s
data message containing GPS health information, vector position corrections and ionospheric mapping terms. This data
message separates ASAS from normal GPS or GLONASS
by increasing integrity (satellite health), improving the accuracy (vector corrections) and also enhancing the availability
(additional pseudo range) of the System. The ASAS network

130

D.S. Ilcev

Fig. 6 ASAS space and ground

segments. Courtesy of
manuscript for book:
Aeronautical CNS by Ilcev [9]

improves accuracy in two ways by reducing the range measurement error by sending differential corrections for each
satellite and by adding new ranging signals thereby improving the geometry [9, 10].
The vector corrections include fast corrections containing the satellite clock error; long-term corrections containing more slowly varying errors of satellite location and ionospheric corrections (Van Dierendonck). The fast corrections
are sent every 10 to 12 seconds and only one correction
per satellite is sufficient for the entire ASAS coverage area.
Long-term and ionospheric corrections are sent much less
frequently (about every 2 minutes) as they do not vary much
over the entire ASAS network. The GEO satellites reduce
the need to update these corrections as rapidly as a normal
GPS or GLONASS satellite.

4.3 ASAS space segment

The ASAS Space Segment can be designed by using own
project of GEO satellite constellation, what is more expensive solution, or by leasing existing GEO Inmarsat-3 and
Artemis spacecraft. The operational system can use 3 GEO
satellites: Inmarsat-3 AORE at 15.5W; Inmarsat-3 IOR at
position 64E, and ESA Artemis at 21.5E over equator, illustrated in Fig. 5. The navigation payloads on these GEO
spacecraft are essentially bent-pipe transponders, so that a
data message uploaded to a satellite is broadcast to all users
in the GEO broadcast area of the satellite over entire African
Continent and the Middle East region, see Fig. 6. The ASAS
system can use service of existing Geostationary Ranging
Station (GRS) infrastructures and to implement a wide trian-

Development and characteristics of African Satellite Augmentation System (ASAS) network

131

gular observation base for ranging purposes with the stations

located in Aussaguel (France), Kourou (French Guiana) and
Hartebeeshoeck (South Africa) [4, 8].
In general, navigation payloads of GEO spacecraft for
augmentation systems must fulfill 2 key roles:
(1) Transmission of a spread-spectrum timing and ranging
signal on 1 or 2 navigation L-band RF;
(2) Relay in near-real-time of data originated on the ground
and for use in user Rx to improve performance (reliability, accuracy) with GPS and GLONASS signals.
As mentioned earlier, GEO is able to augment the performances of GPS and GLONASS by providing a separate
ranging channel to transmit integrity and correction data.
This concept dates back to the late eighties and has evolved
to its current form known as RSAS. In this sense, RSAS data
will allow GNSS to meet the stringent reliability, availability
and integrity requirements set by MTC and ATC. Land users
will also be able to improve in positioning accuracy by Land
Traffic Control (LTC) for road and railway applications [1].
In response to improve this need, Inmarsat decided to embark a new navigation transponder to support RSAS functions on its last generation of GEO Inmarsat-4 at the beginning of 2005, which it is now developing to provide new
broadband services and which can be used for ASAS space
segment as well. Throughout the evolution of the RSAS concept, Inmarsat played an active role in GNSS. In November
1990, it decided to include navigation transponders on its
third generation of GEO satellites, Inmarsat-3, developed to
provide the space capacity needed by WAAS and EGNOS.
Inmarsat-3 satellites alone, however, do not give sufficiently
redundant coverage for EGNOS and WAAS systems to offer
operational services throughout their respective service areas. In fact, more GEO will be necessary to assure a proper
replenishment policy when the Inmarsat-3 birds terminate
their operational life [2].
In the meantime, the US made a commitment to support
civil applications of GPS including the modification of future generations of spacecraft to meet civil requirements.
The GPS modernization initiatives will make two new civil
signals available: a second signal at 1227.60 MHz (L2) and
a third civil signal at 1176.45 MHz (L5) RF. Moreover,
in 2004 FAA expressed its intention to have the L5 signal
also available on GPS augmentation satellites planed to be
launched in 2005 for civil aviation safety-of-life and security services and other precision positioning and navigation
applications [6].
The Inmarsat-4 satellite navigation payload is a dualchannel bent-pipe transponder that converts two C-band (C1
and C5) uplink signals from one GES to two downlink signals in two separate bands. In such a way, Inmarsat designed
its Inmarsat-4 navigation transponder to be, as far as possible, backward compatible with the existing RSAS and suitable for the future RSAS projects. It also recognized that

Fig. 7 EGNOS professional ESA 1 and Personal-Nav 400 Rx.

Courtesy of WebPages: EGNOS Test Bed User Equipment from
Internet [4]

dual user downlink RF are an important advance over the

current Inmarsat-3 satellite augmentation capabilities.
However, the satellite communication design had to respect the technical constraints imposed by the Inmarsat4 space segment primary communications mission. In the
proper manner, the Inmarsat-4 navigation payload will transmit satellite navigation signals at the GPS L1 and L5 frequencies and allow the real-time relay from a single groundmonitoring network of integrity and accuracy augmentation
data for orbiting GNSS constellation [8].
The L1 and L5 downlink signals can be received in integrated L1/L5 GPS/RSAS receiver (Rx), see two Rx prototypes. The ASAS users will have at their disposal a few
models of multimodal prototype Rx units. The multimodal
prototypes will enable users to carry out few tests on the
ASAS system: static and/or dynamic platform testing; user
ASAS Rx validation and system performance demonstration
comparison with reference position: geodetic marks (static),
trajectography data (dynamic), such as the model of EGNOS
Rx ESA 1 prototype shown in Fig. 7(A).
The ASAS Standard Rx will be also developed to verify
the Signal-In-Space (SIS) performance. In the meantime a
set of prototype user equipment has been manufactured for
civil maritime, land and aeronautical applications. That prototype equipment will be used to validate and eventually certify ASAS for the different applications being considered. In
such a way, a handheld personal receiver (like a cell phone)
would use satellite navigation to avoid traffic jams in city
centres, find the nearest free parking space, or even the nearest pizza restaurant in an unfamiliar city, as shown in the
Personal-Nav 400 in Fig. 7(B).
Precise position via the Internet and ASAS system will be
possible anytime after completing and testing the ASAS network, thanks to the SIS technology developed by the ESA.
This technology combines the powerful capabilities of satel-

132

D.S. Ilcev

Fig. 8 ASAS ground segments.

Courtesy of manuscript for
book: Aeronautical CNS by
Ilcev [9]

lite navigation and the Internet. As a result, the highly accurate navigation information that comes from the ASAS
SIS will be available on the Web in real time over the Internet [2].

5 ASAS ground segment

The ASAS service will correct GNSS-1 signals from the
24 GPS and 24 GLONASS orbiting satellites, respectively,
which can be in error because of satellite orbit and clock
drift or signal delays caused by the atmosphere and ionosphere, or can also be disrupted by jamming.
The ASAS network, shown in Fig. 8, can be based on
55 GMS spread over entire Africa and Middle East (see red
cubes), 5 GCS (see red circles) and 5 GES (see red triangles), covering large area and monitors GPS data. The GCS
and GES sites will be located in South Africa, Saudi Arabia,
Kenya, Egypt and Senegal, see prototype of WAAS ground

monitoring station in Fig. 9(A). In such a manner, signals

from GPS are received and processed at 55 GMS, which
are distributed throughout the African territory and linked to
form the ASAS network. In this instance, each of this precisely surveyed monitoring reference station receives GPS
signals and determines if any errors exist, while 5 GCS collect data from these GMS reference terminals, assess signal
validity, compute all corrections and create the ASAS correction message [6].
Furthermore, data from the GMS are forwarded to the
GCS, which process the data to determine the differential
corrections and bounds on the residual errors for each monitored satellite and for each IGP. The bounds on the residual errors are used to establish the integrity of the ranging signals. Hence, the corrections and integrity information
from the GCS are then sent to each GES and unlinked along
with the GPS navigation message to the GEO communication satellite. The GEO downlinks this data to the users via

Development and characteristics of African Satellite Augmentation System (ASAS) network

133

Fig. 9 RSAS ground stations.

Courtesy of WebPages:
WAAS from Internet [4]

the current GPS L1 frequency with GPS type modulation

[9, 10].
Therefore, the message is broadcasting on the same frequency as GPS to receivers that are within the broadcast
coverage area of the entire ASAS network. In fact, these
three GEO communications satellites also act as an additional navigation constellation providing supplemental signals for position determination. Each satellite covers a part
of the hemisphere, except for both Polar Regions. The user
receiver, installed aboard a boat, ships, land vehicles or aircraft, combines the GPS signals with the ASAS message to
arrive at a more accurate position. Otherwise, each ASAS
ground-based station or subsystem configuration communicates with TCC infrastructure via terrestrial landline [6].
The GMS is a special ground reference station with antenna and adequate equipment located at a precisely surveyed position, as shown in Fig. 9(A). The ASAS network
will use 55 GMS, while the current WAAS configuration
uses only 25 Wide Reference Stations (WRS) spread over
the entire territory of the Continental US, covering as well
as eastern Canada [3]. The WRS infrastructure continuously
receives and collects GPS data for various satellites and then
sends the data to their Wide Master Station (WMS), which
interpret the data from each WRS and calculate the errors
and health of each satellite [4]. The ASAS network will
use 5 GCS, while WAAS uses only two WMS calculate
observed satellite errors for the entire WAAS network and
then forward these corrections to a primary GES. The GES
receives GPS corrections and transmits them to GEO satellites using a ground uplink system on the GPS L1 frequency,
while the next generation of GPS will provide L5 as well [5].
The GEO satellite receives corrections and forwards
them to users, who are equipped with special Rx equipment,
as shown in the Raytheon GPS/WAAS Rx 2 in Fig. 9(B).
The WAAS satellite signal type is compatible with GPS or
GLONASS systems, so new RSAS-enhanced GPS receivers
will not be much more expensive than unaugmented GPS receivers (possibly 50 US$ or more). Thus, some type of GPS
receivers or chart plotters can be upgraded with RSAS special hardware modem or software without additional cost,

by contacting the manufacturer to be converted for RSAS

signal utilization [11]. The GPS signal can be received
by integrated GPS/RSAS Rx for processing pseudorange,
pseudorange-rate and accumulated Doppler measurements.
These measurements control the phase and frequency (code
and carrier) of the corresponding signal generator, SG-L1
and SG-L5, to generate two individually controlled uplink
signals. Inmarsat plans to develop prototype equipment for
proper navigation signal generation and control that will be
used for the ground and in-orbit test campaign in order to
conduct end-to-end system tests [2].

6 LSAS System configuration

The LSAS is intended to complement the ASAS service using a single differential correction that accounts for all expected common errors between a local reference and mobile
users. The LSAS will broadcast navigation information in
a localized volume area of seaport or airport using satellite
service of ASAS network or any of mentioned RSAS networks developed in Northern Hemisphere.
As stated earlier, the ASAS network will consist 55 GMS
(Reference Stations), 5 GCS (Master Stations) and 5 GES
(Gateways), which service has to cover entire African Continent and Middle East region. Inside of this coverage the
ASAS network will also serve to any other customers at sea,
on the ground and in the air users who need very precise
determinations and positioning, such as:
1. Maritime (Shipborne Navigation and Surveillance, Seafloor Mapping and Seismic Surveying);
2. Land (Vehicleborne Navigation, Transit, Tracking and
Surveillance, Transportation Steering and Cranes);
3. Aeronautical (Airborne Navigation and Surveillance and
Mapping);
4. Agricultural (Forestry, Farming and Machine Control
and Monitoring);
5. Industrial, Mining and Civil Engineering;
6. Structural Deformations Monitoring;

134

D.S. Ilcev

Fig. 10 CMGC subsystem.

Courtesy of paper, Satellite
CNS for Maritime
Transportation Augmentation
System (MTAS), by Ilcev [7]

7. Meteorological, Cadastral and Seismic Surveying; and

8. Government/Military Determination and Surveillance
(Police, Intelligent services, Firefighting); etc.
However, all above fixed or mobile applications will be able
to use ASAS or any RSAS service directly by installing new
equipment known as augmented GPS receivers (Rx), and so
to use more accurate positioning and determination data. In
Fig. 4 is illustrated scenario that all mobiles and GMS directly are using not augmented signals of GPS or GLONASS
satellites. To provide augmentation will be necessary to process not augmented signals in GCS, to eliminate all errors
and produce augmented signals. In this stage any RSAS or
ASAS network standalone will be not able to produce augmented service for seaports, airports or any ground infrastructures. Meanwhile, it will be necessary to be established
some new infrastructure known as an LSAS, which can provide service for collecting augmented data from ships, land
vehicles, airplanes or any ground user. The navigation data
of mobiles can be processed in the TCC cites and shown
on the surveillance screen similar to the radar display and
can used for traffic control system at the see, on the ground
and in the air. This scenario will be more important for establishment MTC or ATC service using augmented GNSS-1
signals from the ships or aircraft, respectively. In this sense,
the LSAS network can be utilized for seaport known as a
Coastal Movement Guidance and Control (CMGC) and airport known as a Surface Movement Guidance and Control
(SMGC) [8, 11].
6.1 Coastal Movement Guidance and Control (CMGC)
The new LSAS network can be implemented as a Coastal
Movement Guidance and Control (CMGC) system integrated in the ASAS or any RSAS infrastructure. It is a

special maritime security and control system that enables

a port controller from Control Tower at shore to collect all
navigation and determination data from all ships and vehicles, to process these signals and display on the surveillance
screens. On the surveillance screen can be visible positions
and courses of all ships in vicinity sailing areas, so they can
be controlled, informed and managed by traffic controllers
in any real time and space.
In this case, the LSAS traffic controller provide essential
control, traffic management, guide and monitor all vessels
movements in coastal navigation, in the cramped channel
strips and fiords, approaching areas to the anchorage and
harbours, ship movement in the harbours, including land
vehicles in port and around the ports coastal environment,
even in poor visibility conditions at an approaching to the
port. The controller issues instructions to the ship Masters
and Pilots with reference to a command surveillance display
in a Control Tower that gives all vessels position information in the vicinity detected via satellites and by sensors on
the ground, shown in Fig. 10.
The command monitor also displays reported position
data of coming or departing vessels and all auxiliary land
vehicles (road and railways) moving into the ports surface. This position is measured by GNSS, using data from
GPS/GLONASS and GEO satellite constellation. A controller is also able to show the correct ship course to Masters and sea Pilots under bad weather conditions and poor
visibility or to give information on routes and separation to
other vessels in progress. The following segments of CMGC
infrastructure are illustrated in Fig. 10:
(1) GPS or GLONASS GNSS Satellite measures the vessel
or port vehicles exact position.
(2) GEO MSC Satellite is integrated with the GPS positioning data network caring both communication and navi-

Development and characteristics of African Satellite Augmentation System (ASAS) network

135

Fig. 11 SMGC subsystem.

Courtesy of book: Global
Mobile Satellite
Communications by Ilcev
[6, 9]

(3)

(4)

(5)

(6)

(7)

(8)

(9)

gation payloads, In addition to complementing the GPS

satellite, it also has the feature of communicating data
between the ships or vehicles and the ground facilities,
pinpointing the mobiles exact position.
Control Tower is the centre for monitoring the traffic
situation on the channel strips, approaching areas, in the
port and around the ports coastal surface. The location
of each vessel and ground vehicle is displayed on the
command monitor of the port control tower. The controller performs sea-controlled distance guidance and
movements for the vessels and ground-controlled distance vehicles and directions based on this data.
Light Guidance System (LGS) is managed by the controller who gives green light or red light guidance
whether the ship should proceed or not by pilot in port,
respectively.
Radar Control Station (RCS) is a part of previous system for MTC of ship movement in the channels, approaching areas, in port and around the ports coastal
environment.
Very High Frequency (VHF) is Coast Radio Station
(CRS) is a part of RCS and VHF or Digital Selective
Call (DSC) VHF Radio communications system.
Coast Earth Station (CES) is a main part of satellite
communications system between CES terminals and
shore telecommunication facilities via GEO satellite
constellation.
Pilot is small boat or helicopter carrying the special
trained man known as a Pilot, who has to proceed the
vessel to the anchorage, in port, out of port or through
the channels and rivers.
Bridge Instrument of each vessel displays the ship position and course [7].

6.2 Surface Movement Guidance and Control (SMGC)

The new LSAS network can be also implemented as a Surface Movement Guidance and Control (SMGC) system integrated in the ASAS or any RSAS infrastructure. It is a special aeronautical security and control system that enables
an airports controller from Control Tower on the ground
to collect all navigation and determination data from all aircraft, to process these signals and display on the surveillance
screens. On the surveillance screen can be visible positions
and courses of all aircraft in vicinity flight areas, so they can
be controlled, informed and managed by traffic controllers
in any real time and space. In such a way, the LSAS traffic controller provide essential control, traffic management,
guide and monitor all aircraft movements in the vicinity of
the aircraft, approaching areas to the airport, aircraft movement in airport, including land vehicles in airport and around
the airport, even in very poor visibility conditions at an approaching to the airport. Thus, the controller issues instructions to the aircrafts Pilots with the reference to a command
surveillance display in a Control Tower that gives all aircraft position information in the vicinity detected via satellites and by sensors on the ground, shown in Fig. 11.
The command monitor also displays reported position information of landing or departing aircraft and all auxiliary
vehicles moving onto the airports surface. This position is
measured by GNSS, using data from GPS and GEO ASAS
or RSAS satellites. An airport controller is able to show the
correct taxiway to pilots under poor visibility, by switching
the taxiway centreline light and the stop bar light on or off.
Otherwise, the development of head-down display and headup display in the cockpit that gives information on routes
and separation to other aircraft is in progress. The following
segments of SMGC are shown in Fig. 11:

136

D.S. Ilcev

(1) GPS or GLONASS Satellite measures the aircraft or airport vehicles exact position.
(2) RSAS is integrated with the GPS satellite positioning
data network. In addition to complementing the GPS
satellite, it also has the feature of communicating data
between the aircraft and the ground facilities, pinpointing the aircrafts exact position.
(3) Control Tower is the centre for monitoring the traffic situation on the landing strip around the airports environment. The location of aircraft and vehicles is displayed
on the command monitor of the control tower. The controller performs ground-controlled distance guidance
for the aircraft and vehicles based on this data.
(4) Stop Line Light System is managed by the controller,
who gives guidance on whether the aircraft should proceed to the runway by turning on and off the central
guidance line lights and stop line lights as a signal, indicating whether the aircraft should proceed or not.
(5) Ground Surveillance Radar (GSR) is a part of previous
system for ATC of aircraft approaching areas, in airport
and around the airport air environment.
(6) Very High Frequency (VHF) is Ground Radio Station
(GRS) is a part of ARC via VHF or UHF Radio communications system.
(7) Ground Earth Station (GES) is a main part of satellite communications system between GES terminals and
ground telecommunication facilities via GEO satellite
constellation.
(8) Aircraft Cockpit displays the aircraft position and routes
on the headwind protective glass (head-up displays) and
instrument panel display (head-down display) [6, 9].

and airports. This is the Automatic Dependent Surveillance

System (ADSS), currently being evaluated and which is taking advantage of this improved accuracy of traffic control
for all mobile applications. By the way, South Africa (SA)
is building fast Gauteng train and new Dube airport in
Durban not implementing CNS technology.
Using this enhanced chain, the new ASAS system of
GSAS with navigational message will improve the GPS or
GLONASS signal accuracy from about 30 metres to approximately 3 metres. For example, the current US WAAS system provides 12 metres horizontal accuracy and 23 metres vertical accuracy throughout the contiguous US. Unfortunately, to receive an ASAS signal, an ordinary GPS or
GLONASS receiver must be upgraded by hardware module
or software and be capable of receiving and decoding ASAS
signals.
In the future will be possible to integrate new satellite systems in ASAS network such as already mentioned
Inmarsat-4 space configuration or new SA Space Constellation and forthcoming GNSS-2 systems.
Although the global positioning accuracy system associated with the overlay is a function of numerous technical
factors and ground network architecture, the expected accuracy for the ASAS will be in the order of 12 metres horizontal accuracy and 23 metres vertical accuracy throughout
the contiguous Africa and Middle East region.

7 Conclusion

1. El-Rabbany, A. (2002). Introduction to GPS. Boston: Artech

House.
2. Grewal, M. S. et al. (2008). Global positioning systems, inertial
navigation, and integration. London: Wiley.
3. Group of Authors (2008). Website of Leica (www.leicageosystems.com) & NovAtel (www.novatel.com).
4. Group of Authors (2008). Website of EGNOS (www.esa.int),
WAAS (www.gps.faa.gov) GSAS.
5. Group of Authors (2009). MTSAT Update, NextSAT/10 CG, Japan
Civil Aviation Bureau. Tokyo: MSAS.
6. Ilcev, D. St. (2005). Global mobile satellite communications for
maritime, land and aeronautical applications. Boston: Springer.
7. Ilcev, D. St. (2009). Satellite CNS for Maritime Transportation
Augmentation System (MTAS). In CriMiCo conference, IEEE
catalog numbers CFP09788, Sevastopol, Ukraine.
8. Ilcev, D. St. (2010). Maritime communications, navigation and
surveillance (CNS). Durban: DUT.
9. Ilcev, D. St. (2010). Aeronautical communications, navigation
and surveillance (CNS). Chichester: Wiley (manuscript).
10. Kaplan, E. D. (1996). Understanding GPS principles and applications. Boston: Artech House.
11. Prasad, R., & Ruggieri, M. (2005). Applied satellite navigation
using GPS, GALILEO, and augmentation systems. Boston: Artech
House.

The current radios and traffic control are based on 1960s

technology. In fact, there is no radar coverage over the
ocean areas, so ship captains and aircraft pilots must report their positions verbally by voice or have them automatically sent through a relay station. For the controller, surveillance equipment, primarily radar, detects the position of the
many moving ships, vehicles and aircraft in the traffic coverage area. Otherwise, the radar monitoring the movement
of ships, aircraft and other vehicles spins much faster than
those radars covering.
New tools, like satellite surveillance, have been developed as part of GSAS combined with surface radars, to help
the controllers to move increased number of vessels, aircraft and land vehicles more safely through the transportation augmentation system environment. In the proper manner, this additional navigational accuracy now available on
the ships bridge and aircraft cockpit will be used for other
system enhancements and for surface control in area of ports

References

Development and characteristics of African Satellite Augmentation System (ASAS) network

D.S. Ilcev received two B.Eng. degrees in Mobile Radio Engineering
and in Maritime Navigation from
the Faculty of Maritime Studies
at Kotor of Podgorica University,
Montenegro; received BSc. Eng.
(Hons) degree in Maritime Communications from the Maritime Faculty of University at Rijeka, Croatia;
and received M.Sc. degree in Electrical Engineering from the Faculty
of Electrical Engineering, Telecommunication department of University at Skopie, Macedonia, in 1971,
1986 and 1994, respectively. His
Doctoral dissertation in Satellite Communications, Navigation and
Surveillance (CNS) was positive evaluated in 2000 by Telecommuni-

137

cation department of Faculty of Electrical Engineering Nikola Tesla

of Belgrade University, Serbia.
He also passed in Spring 1995 an on-site GMDSS training course on
Poseidon simulator at Military Maritime Training Centre in Varna, Bulgaria. He holds the certificates for Radio operator 1st class (Morse); for
GMDSS 1st class Radio Electronic Operator and Maintainer; for Master Mariner, and he was Reserve Staff in CNS of Former Yugoslav
Army.
Prof. Ilcev is currently working as a Research Professor in Space
Science at Mangosuthu University of Technology (MUT) in Durban,
South Africa, and as Director for establishment of National Space Institute (NSI). His research concentrated over 45 years on all aspects of
Radio and Satellite CNS systems, networks, technology transfer, navigation and logistics, including safety and security in all transportation
systems.

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