III. Improving BDS Operation Management
As a major player in the aerospace industry that takes its responsibilities seriously, China continues to improve BDS operation management and the system's performance. It ensures continuous and stable operation, open and transparent information, and sustained, healthy and rapid development of the BDS system, so as to provide reliable, secure and high-quality spatiotemporal information services.
1. Ensuring Operational Reliability
Stable operation is vital to a navigation satellite system. Applying systems thinking, China has built a BDS operation management system with Chinese characteristics, organized on the basis of multi-party support, providing a joint inter-satellite and satellite-ground network control as its system feature, and hardware-software coordination and intelligent operation and maintenance as its technical feature. The system integrates regularized operation management support, smooth transition, comprehensive monitoring and assessment, and intelligent operation and maintenance, providing basic support for continuous and stable operation.
Strengthening regularized support. China is improving the mechanisms for multi-party joint support, consultation on operation status, and equipment inspection and maintenance, and building a smooth and coordinated workflow that shares information and facilitates efficient decision-making, to constantly improve regularized support for BDS operation management.
Ensuring smooth transition. In terms of the space segment, ground segment and user segment, China has realized smooth and orderly transition from BDS-2 to BDS-3 and ensured that users do not need to replace equipment and can enjoy upgraded services at minimal cost.
Reinforcing monitoring and assessment. China is improving resource allocation for continuous global monitoring and assessment of BDS. It carries out comprehensive and regularized monitoring and assessment of the configuration status, signal accuracy, signal quality and service performance of the system, to obtain timely and accurate information on its operation and service status.
Boosting operation and maintenance. China makes full use of big data, artificial intelligence, cloud computing and other new technologies to build a BDS data pool. It integrates data from multiple sources such as system operation, monitoring and assessment, and space environment, provides on-demand information sharing, and strengthens intelligent operation management of the system.
2. Improving BDS Service Performance
Higher accuracy and reliability are constant priorities. Always seeking progress while ensuring stability, China makes constant efforts to improve the BDS system status, provide a better spatiotemporal reference, and increase application scenarios. It will continue to raise the capability of the system, expanding its service domains and upgrading its service quality.
Upgrading the system. China will upgrade and transform ground-based facilities, renew the software of in-orbit satellites as needed, and refine satellite-ground processing models and algorithms. It will continue to strengthen the capacity of the integrated inter-satellite and satellite-ground network, and elevate the accuracy and quality of space signals, to ensure a steady improvement in BDS service performance.
A better spatiotemporal reference. China will establish and maintain a high-accuracy BDS time reference and carry out the monitoring of clock bias against other navigation satellite systems. Time biases will be broadcast in navigation messages. It will increase interoperability between the BDS time and the time of other navigation satellite systems. The BDS coordinate system will remain aligned with the International Terrestrial Reference Frame, and increase interoperability with other navigation satellite systems in this regard.
Expanding service domains. China will strengthen the multi-approach navigation capability of BDS and enable the system to provide flexible positioning, navigation and timing services. It will carry out exploration and tests of cislunar space service applications, and extend the BDS service capacity into deep space. It will work for breakthroughs in key technologies in integrating navigation and communication, and improve the system's capacity to provide services in complex environments and densely populated areas.
3. Releasing the Latest Information on BDS
Releasing system information is a basic means of strengthening users' understanding of the navigation satellite system and increasing their trust. With regard to BDS, China applies the principle of openness and transparency. It is building information dissemination platforms, improving dissemination mechanisms, and publishing timely, authoritative and accurate information on the system, so as to provide services to global users in a responsible manner.
Building multi-channel information releasing platforms. Through these platforms, China publishes information on BDS construction and operation, application and promotion, international cooperation, and relevant policies and regulations. These platforms include the official BDS website (www.beidou.gov.cn), monitoring and assessment websites (www.csno-tarc.cn; www.igmas.org) and the BDS WeChat official account (beidousystem).
Releasing BDS service documents. China regularly updates and releases interface control documentation on BDS open services, defines the interface specifications between BDS satellites and user terminals, and specifies the signal structure, basic characteristics, ranging codes, navigation messages and other content, so as to provide inputs for global BDS product development efforts. It updates and releases the open service performance standards, and specifies the coverage area and performance indexes of BDS open services.
Releasing information on system status. China releases timely system status information about satellite launches and commissioning, in-orbit tests, monitoring and assessment outcomes, and decommissioning. It also issues notifications to domestic and foreign users when appropriate before carrying out plans and operations that might affect user services.
