NavIC - India's Regional Satellite Navigational System Updated to v2.0 with L1 Band Support

Desi GPS or NavIC goes v2.0 as the second generation of satellites (NSV) is being placed in orbit. With the latest technology, NavIC is designed to provide user position accurate to better than 20 metres and timing accuracy better than 50 nanoseconds over L1, L5 & S band signals. There will be another 4 NSV satellites for NavIC 2.0 in the coming future. Most important thing about NavIC v2.0 satellites they support the L1 band which makes it truly compatible with most existing navigation systems.

For the first time, an indigenously developed rubidium atomic clock was flown in NVS-01. The space-qualified rubidium atomic clock, indigenously developed by Space Applications Centre, Ahmedabad is an important technology which only a handful of countries possess.

The satellite is powered by two solar arrays, capable of generating power up to 2.4kW and a lithium-ion battery supporting payload and bus load during eclipse. The mission life of NVS-01 is expected to be better than 12 years. 

The launch event, dated on 29th May of 2023 was from Satish Dhawan Space Centre - SDSC (formerly Sriharikota Range - SHAR), Andra Pradesh. Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV-F12) has placed 2,232 kg satellite into the intended GTO (Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit) at an altitude of about 251 km in about 19 minutes. Subsequent orbit-raising manoeuvres would take NVS-01 into the intended Geosynchronous orbit.

The key applications of NavIC include terrestrial, aerial and maritime navigation, precision agriculture, geodetic surveying, emergency services, fleet management, location-based services in mobile devices, orbit determination for satellites, marine fisheries, timing services for financial institutions, power grids, and other government agencies, internet-of-things (IoT) based applications and strategic applications.

Talking about ISRO, this GSLV-F12 is the 15th flight of India’s GSLV and the 9th flight with indigenous cyro stage. This is the 6th operational flight of GSLV with indigenous cryogenic stage.

Which mobile chipsets support NavIC: (previous post)

I am not going to list all chipsets, but if that supports dual band GNSS - it would support NavIC's present L5 band - alongwith GPS L1/L5, GLONASS L1/L5, BeiDou B1/B1C/B2a/B2b, GALILEO's E1/E5a/E5b. 

Other signals: GPS has L1C for civilian use, L1M for military use, L2P for military use, L2M for authorized use. Galileo also has E6, similar to QZSS E6.

With NSV-01 functional, all existing GNSS device support NavIC as older devices support only L1/E1/B1 band. I will update when the L1 signal of NavIC goes live.*

how to check your smartphone supports NavIC v1 or not - link

Unlike USA's GPS, China's Baidou, EU's GALILEO, NavIC is not global system. It is regional satellite navigation system - extending 1500-2000km around Indian land mass.  But in my experience NavIC gives more coverage than ISRO/Govt. of India states.

Official NavIC coverage: 

But during my Europe trip extending from Switzerland, Germany, Belgium and France NavIC followed me with multiple sat signals - 2, 3, 6, 9. (all not four at the same time)

Standing at Kerala during August of 2023, I found NavIC signals from multiple sats - 2,3,6,10 at a time. 

*Though L1 band is yet to be operational, I found something interesting. The SBAS (satellite based augmentation system) of India - GAGAN (GPS-Aided GEO Augmented Navigation) was found on my phone and that's on L1 band. 

GNSS gets feeds from SPP (standard point positioning) but SBAS is an extension to SSP. It is a primary air navigation system that provides augmented accuracy and integrity to a GNSS. Like GAGAN, US has WAAS & WAGE, Europe has EGNOS, MSAS by Japan, SDCM by Russia etc. It is more than simple A-GNSS (assisted or augmented GNSS, eg: A-GPS). 

More data of NavIC L1 band:

1. NavIC L1 is similar to GPS L1C and designed to be interoperable with other L1C services (1547.42 MHz)

2. NVS-01 is placed at 129.6° eastern longitude and will finally replace IRNSS-1G launched in April 2016.

3. Via GPSWorld.com, NVS-01 started signal transmission on June 17, 2023, with the pseudo-random noise (PRN) code I10. The satellite’s L1 and L5 signals were tracked by a Septentrio PolaRx5 receiver located in Tokyo, Japan, with a prototype firmware that is capable of tracking the L1 pilot signal.