The first argos 4 referenced beacons for CNES

Argos is a global satellite tracking and data collection system dedicated to studying and protecting the planet’s environment. The Argos system is operated, managed and marketed by the company CLS, the operator of Argos system.

With several thousand active transmitters around the world, Argos has become the reference system for environmental studies and protection on a global scale. Syrlinks’ knowledge in distress beacons and in spread-spectrum signal receivers has allowed it to position itself on the development of the new Argos beacons (compatible with the Argos-4 system). The Argos system is operated, managed and marketed by CLS, that operates the Argos system.

Syrlinks also brought its experience in RF and signal processing to the table, to develop a set of master beacons used for the calibration of the Argos 4 system in partnership with CLS and CNES. These products are certified and currently being installed.

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The Argos-4 system developed by Syrlinks increases the capacity of the downlink (400 bps output for ARGOS-3 and 977.52 output for ARGOS-4).

CNES has thus entrusted Syrlinks with the development of Argos-4 new generation reference beacons or master beacons. These beacons have been deployed worldwide since the beginning of 2016. The purpose of this evolution is to increase the overall performance of the ARGOS system by significantly improving service quality and the capacity of the Argos system operated by CLS.

The Argos-4 waveform is a continuation of the previous versions - Argos-2 and Argos-3. It offers, just like Argos-3, a bi-directional link allowing not only better management of the beacons on the whole coverage but also improve reception performance in difficult transmission conditions.

The downlink Argos-4 signal represents a major technological breakthrough compared to previous versions since it is based on a spread-spectrum phase modulation (CDMA type) providing better reception quality. The Argos-4 receiver is 100 times more complex than the previous version, in terms of signal acquisition and demodulation.

Syrlinks has also developed a comprehensive test bench for Argos beacons, to generate all the Argos waveform emitted by the different beacons and to process the downlink in Argos 3 and 4 formats.