What is NavIC ?

To meet the positioning, navigation and timing requirements of the nation, ISRO has
established a regional navigation satellite system called Navigation with Indian
Constellation (NavIC). NavIC was erstwhile known as Indian Regional Navigation
Satellite System (IRNSS).

NavIC is designed with a constellation of 7 satellites and a network of ground stations

operating 24 x 7. Three satellites of the constellation are placed in geostationary orbit,
at 32.5°E, 83°E and 129.5°E respectively, and four satellites are placed in inclined
geosynchronous orbit with equatorial crossing of 55°E and 111.75°E respectively, with
inclination of 29° (two satellites in each plane). The ground network consists of control
centre, precise timing facility, range and integrity monitoring stations, two-way ranging
stations, etc.

o NavIC or the Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System

(IRNSS) is designed with a constellation of 7 satellites and a
network of ground stations operating 24×7.
 There are a total of eight satellites however only seven
remain active.
 Three satellites in geostationary orbit and four satellites in
geosynchronous orbit.
o The constellations' first satellite (IRNSS-1A) was launched
on 1st July 2013 and the eighth satellite IRNSS-1I was
launched in April 2018.
 With the seventh launch of the constellation's satellite
(IRNSS-1G), IRNSS was renamed NavIC by India’s Prime
Minister in 2016.
o It was recognised by the International Maritime
Organization (IMO) as a part of the World-Wide Radio
Navigation System (WWRNS) for operation in the Indian Ocean
Region in 2020.
 Potential Uses:
o Terrestrial, aerial and marine navigation;
 o Disaster management;
o Vehicle tracking and fleet management (especially for mining
and transportation sector);
o Integration with mobile phones;
o Precise timing (as for ATMs and power grids);
o Mapping and geodetic data capture.

What is the Significance?

 It gives real time information for 2 services i.e standard
positioning service open for civilian use and Restricted
service which may be encrypted for authorized users like for
military.
 India became one of the 5 countries having their own navigation
system. So, India's dependence on other countries for navigation
purposes reduces.
 It will help scientific & technological advancement in India. It is
important for the country’s sovereignty and strategic requirements.
 In April 2019, the government made NavIC-based vehicle trackers
mandatory for all commercial vehicles in the country in
accordance with the Nirbhaya case verdict.
 Also, Qualcomm Technologies has unveiled mobile
chipsets supporting NavIC
 Further with extensive coverage, one of the stated future uses of the
project includes sharing of the project with the SAARC nations. This
will help in integrating the regional navigation system further and a
diplomatic goodwill gesture from India towards countries of the
region.
What are the Issues and Intended Improvements?
 L Band:
 o ISRO plans to replace at least five satellites with the
improved L-Band, which would enable it to offer better global
positioning services to the public as several satellites of the
constellation have outlived their lives.
 Five more satellites will be launched periodically to replace
the defunct satellites.
 The new satellites will have L-1, L-5 and S Band.
 L1, L2 and L5 are GPS frequencies, where L1
frequency is used to track GPS satellite location, L2
frequency is used to track the health of the GPS
satellites and the L5 frequency is used to improve
accuracy for civilian use such as aircraft precision.
 S band operate on a wavelength of 8-15 cm and a
frequency of 2-4 GHz. Because of the wavelength and
frequency, S band radars are not easily attenuated. This
makes them useful for near and far range weather
observation.
 Long Code for Strategic Sector:
o Currently ISRO is providing only short code. Now, the short
code has to become long code for strategic sector use so that
the signal cannot be breached or spoofed or made non-
available.
o It will be done so that the user base can be widened and to
make it user friendly.
 Mobile Compatibility:
o Currently, the mobile phones in India haven’t been
made compatible to process its signals.
o The Indian government has been pressing manufacturers to add
compatibility and has set a deadline of January 2023 but media
reports suggest this is unlikely before 2025.
Which are the other Navigation Systems operational in the
world?
 Four global systems:
o GPS from the U.S.
o GLONASS from Russia.
o Galileo from European Union
o BeiDou from China.
 Two regional systems:
o NavIC from India
o QZSS from Japan.
What is the need for NavIC when already others are Operating?
 GPS and GLONASS are operated by defence agencies of the
respective nations.
 It is possible that the civilian service can be degraded or denied.
 NavIC is an independent regional system over the Indian
region and does not depend on other systems for providing position
service within the service region.
 It is fully under the control of the Government of India.
Way Forward
 To make NavIC truly global like GPS, more satellites would need to
be placed in an orbit closer to earth than the current
constellation.
 Right now, NavIC’s reach is only 1,500 km beyond Indian territory.
But for our ships and airplanes travelling beyond that we’d need
satellites in Medium Earth Orbit. To make this global at some
point, we can keep adding MEO satellites.

History Of NavIC
The system was developed partly because access to foreign government-
controlled global navigation satellite systems is not guaranteed in hostile situations, as
happened to the Indian military in 1999 when the United States denied an Indian
request for Global Positioning System (GPS) data for the Kargil region, which would
have provided vital information. The Indian government approved the project in May
2006.

As part of the project, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) opened a new
satellite navigation center within the campus of ISRO Deep Space Network (DSN)
at Byalalu, in Karnataka on 28 May 2013. A network of 21 ranging stations located
across the country will provide data for the orbital determination of the satellites and
monitoring of the navigation signal.

A goal of complete Indian control has been stated, with the space segment, ground
segment and user receivers all being built in India. Its location in low latitudes facilitates
coverage with low-inclination satellites. Three satellites will be in geostationary
orbit over the Indian Ocean. Missile targeting could be an important military application
for the constellation.[25]

The total cost of the project was expected to be ₹14.2 billion (US$170 million), with the
cost of the ground segment being ₹3 billion (US$36 million), each satellite costing ₹1.5
billion (US$18 million) and the PSLV-XL version rocket costing around ₹1.3
billion (US$16 million). The planned seven rockets would have involved an outlay of
around ₹9.1 billion (US$109 million).

The necessity for two replacement satellites, and PSLV-XL launches, has altered the
original budget, with the Comptroller and Auditor General of India reporting costs (as of
March 2017) of ₹22.46 billion (US$269 million).

The NavIC Signal in Space ICD was released for evaluation in September 2014.]

From 1 April 2019, use of AIS 140 compliant NavIC-based vehicle tracking systems
were made compulsory for all commercial vehicles in India.

As per National Defense Authorization Act 2020, United States Secretary of Defense in
consultation with Director of National Intelligence designated
NavIC, Galileo and QZSS as allied navigational satellite systems.]

In accordance with the range requirements for NavIC for both military and commercial
applications, Defence Research and Development Organisation, through the
Technology Development Fund scheme, has commissioned Accord Software and
Systems, to build a tailored and flexible IRNSS Network Timing system domestically.
Using NavIC data, the receiver chip will obtain and distribute Indian time for navigation.
India currently depends on the US for this service.]

In 2020, Qualcomm launched four Snapdragon 4G chipsets and one 5G chipset with
support for NavIC. NavIC is planned to be available for civilian use in mobile devices,
after Qualcomm and ISRO signed an agreement. To increase compatibility with existing
hardware, ISRO will add L1 band support. For strategic application, Long Code support
is also coming.
On December 7, 2023, Qualcomm revealed that select chipset platforms will enable
NavIC L1 signals. The Qualcomm location suite, supports up to seven satellite
constellations simultaneously and allows for faster Time to first fix (TTFF) position
acquisition for enhanced location-based services. It also makes use of all of NavIC's L1
and L5 signals for precise positioning. In the second half of 2024, Qualcomm chipset
platforms will add further support for the NavIC L1 signals, and in the first half of 2025,
commercial products that support the NavIC L1 signals should be available for sale

In April 2010, it was reported that India plans to start launching satellites by the end of
2011, at a rate of one satellite every six months. This would have made NavIC
functional by 2015. But the program was delayed, and India also launched 3 new
satellites to supplement this.]

Seven satellites with the prefix "IRNSS-1" will constitute the space segment of the
IRNSS. IRNSS-1A, the first of the seven satellites, was launched on 1 July
2013 IRNSS-1B was launched on 4 April 2014 on-board PSLV-C24 rocket. The satellite
has been placed in geosynchronous orbit. IRNSS-1C was launched on 16 October
2014,] IRNSS-1D on 28 March 2015, IRNSS-1E on 20 January 2016, IRNSS-1F on 10
March 2016 and IRNSS-1G was launched on 28 April 2016.]

The eighth satellite, IRNSS-1H, which was meant to replace IRNSS-1A, failed to deploy
on 31 August 2017 as the heat shields failed to separate from the 4th stage of the
rocket. IRNSS-1I was launched on 12 April 2018 to replace it.

The Standard Positioning Service system is intended to provide an absolute position

accuracy of about 5 to 10 metres throughout the Indian landmass and an accuracy of
about 20 metres (66 ft) in the Indian Ocean as well as a region extending approximately
1,500 km (930 mi) around India. GPS, for comparison, has a position accuracy of 5 m
under ideal conditions. However, unlike GPS, which is dependent only on L-band,
NavIC has dual frequencies (S and L bands). When a low-frequency signal travels
through atmosphere, its velocity changes due to atmospheric disturbances. GPS
depends on an atmospheric model to assess frequency error, and it has to update this
model from time to time to assess the exact error. In NavIC, the actual delay is
assessed by measuring the difference in delay of the two frequencies (S and L bands).
Therefore, NavIC is not dependent on any model to find the frequency error and can be
more accurate than GPS.

Clock failure

In 2017, it was announced that all three SpectraTime supplied rubidium atomic
clocks on board IRNSS-1A had failed, mirroring similar failures in the European Union's
Galileo constellation. The first failure occurred in July 2016, followed soon after by the
two other clocks on IRNSS-1A. This rendered the satellite non-functional and required
replacement. ISRO reported it had replaced the atomic clocks in the two standby
satellites, IRNSS-1H and IRNSS-1I in June 2017. The subsequent launch of IRNSS-1H,
as a replacement for IRNSS-1A, was unsuccessful when PSLV-C39 mission failed on
31 August 2017. The second standby satellite, IRNSS-1I, was successfully placed into
orbit on 12 April 2018.

In July 2017, it was reported that two more clocks in the navigational system had also
started showing signs of abnormality, thereby taking the total number of failed clocks to
five,] in May 2018 a failure of a further 4 clocks was reported, taking the count to 9 of the
24 in orbit.]

As a precaution to extend the operational life of navigation satellite, ISRO is running

only one rubidium atomic clock instead of two in the remaining satellites.]

As of May 2023 only four satellites are capable of providing navigation services which is
the minimum number required for service to remain operational.

In order to reduce the dependency on imported frequency standards ISRO's Space

Applications Centre (SAC), Ahmedabad had been working on domestically designed
and developed Rubidium based atomic clocks. To overcome the clock failures on first
generation navigation satellites and its subsequent impact on NavIC's position,
navigation, and timing services, these new clocks would supplement the imported
atomic clocks in next generation of navigation satellites.

On 5 July 2017, ISRO and Israel Space Agency (ISA) signed an Memorandum of
Understanding to collaborate on space qualifying a Rubidium Standard based on
AccuBeat model AR133A and to test it on an ISRO satellite.

India's Department of Space in their 12th Five Year Plan (FYP) (2012–17) stated
increasing the number of satellites in the constellation from 7 to 11 to extend
coverage. These additional four satellites will be made during 12th FYP and will be
launched in the beginning of 13th FYP in geosynchronous orbit of 42° inclination. Also,
the development of space-qualified Indian made atomic clocks was initiated along with
a study and development initiative for an all optical atomic clock (ultra stable for IRNSS
and deep space communication).

ISRO will be launching five next generation satellite featuring new payloads and
extended lifespan of 12 years. Five new satellites viz. NVS-01, NVS-02, NVS-03, NVS-
04 and NVS-05 will supplement and augment the current constellation of satellites. The
new satellites will feature the L5 and S band and introduces a new interoperable civil
signal in the L1 band in the navigation payload and will use Indian Rubidium Atomic
Frequency Standard (iRAFS.) This introduction of the new L1 band will help facilitate
NavIC proliferation in wearable smart and IoT devices featuring a low power navigation
system. NVS-01 is a replacement for IRNSS-1G satellite and was launched on GSLV in
2023.