Tag: GPS jamming

  • Defense, academia test systems for GPS denial at NAVFEST

    Defense, academia test systems for GPS denial at NAVFEST

    By Christopher Ball, 412th Test Wing Public Affairs

    What happens when GPS isn’t available?

    A collection of U.S. Department of Defense units and universities found out when they gathered at Edwards Air Force Base, California, to evaluate various aerial platforms in a degraded GPS environment this summer.

    The week-long test event called DT NAVFEST — short for Developmental Test Navigation Festival — was the first large-scale program of its kind, according to James Cook, KC-46A project manager with the 418th Flight Test Squadron.

    “DT NAVFEST was established to provide a locally more realistic GPS jamming environment in which aircraft platforms and unmanned aerial vehicles could evaluate their performance under a degraded GPS signal,” Cook said. “Other locations around the U.S. provide such environments, but having it locally allowed for direct program input and cost savings to customers by not having to deal with the logistics costs of deploying to those locations.”

    Cole Johnson, technical lead for NAVFEST, explained how they create a degraded GPS environment.

    “GPS signals are super faint,” he said. “Imagine a 30-watt lightbulb 12,000 miles in space. So it doesn’t take much interference for your smartphone’s GPS to lose lock on such a low power signal. Interference could occur from walking in a dense forest, through a canyon, inside a building, driving among skyscrapers, or from GPS jammers. The end effects of GPS jammers aren’t much different than the other causes of interference, they all make it harder for your GPS receiver to pick out faint GPS signals from the air, except jammers do it by adding noise to the environment.”

    Teams from the University of Illinois Champagne Urbana and Stanford University were invited to the first-ever DT NAVFEST at Edwards Air Force Base to test their projects in a GPS degraded environment. (Photo: U.S. Air Force/Wei Lee)

    Units that tested assets at Edwards included the Emerging Technologies Combined Test Force, the 411th 416th, 419th and 461st Flight Test Squadrons. Two universities — Stanford University and the University of Illinois — and the U.S. Army’s Special Operations Command also participated.

    The GPS jammers and support came from the 746th Test Squadron at Holloman Air Force Base, New Mexico.

    According to Wei Lee, test safety engineer with the 412th Test Wing, the universities were invited to participate in DT NAVFEST on a trial basis with the hope of expanding to other institutions in the future.

    “Live GPS jamming data is extremely difficult for academic labs to obtain due to the complexity of working with the Federal Aviation Administration and regional first responders,” Lee said. “It is crucial that the Department of Defense support basic research and development that is ongoing in our nation’s top academic institutions. Many of the low technology readiness level projects will eventually migrate from academic labs to defense industry and military applications. Allowing the labs to participate on a non-interference basis is a win-win situation.”

    To minimize the effect on the local community and air traffic, planning of the GPS jamming was initiated months in advance. According to Johnson, the GPS jammers had a vertical reach of upwards of 30,000 feet, so the first step was contacting the FAA, which provided a list of “green” times when commercial air traffic was at its lowest. This led to the testing being performed between 1 and 6 a.m. on test days.

    Johnson said the team performed extensive modeling and simulation to identify how far the GPS interference would reach. “Not just at 30,000 feet, but ground level as well.”

    The models suggested a small part of the Antelope Valley — a couple of small towns around Edwards — could be affected. “We wanted to err on the side of caution, so we constructed a huge list of emergency services from the Antelope Valley to contact.”

    The team also set up phone lines the FAA and any emergency service could call up during testing and request the jammers to be turned off.

    The 746th Test Squadron from Holloman Air Force Base, New Mexico, provided an array of GPS jamming equipment and support for DT NAVFEST at Edwards Air Force Base. The jammers provided a degraded GPS environment for testing multiple aerial platforms throughout the week. Testing was done from 1 to 6 a.m. each day to minimize impact on the community and civilian air traffic. (Photo: U.S. Air Force/Cole Johnson)

    Cook said the event was extremely successful, judging by the feedback from the customers.

    “For a first-of-its-kind event, it executed fairly smoothly, thanks to the test team and customers’ direct involvement,” he said. “The technical knowledge and support from the 746th TS was awesome. And the support given to this program from 412th Test Wing all the way down to the Airman on the ground providing direct support.”

  • System of Systems: OCX passes first qualification

    System of Systems: OCX passes first qualification

    OCX Passes First Qualification

    Raytheon, US Air Force Complete Test Milestone

    On March 4, Raytheon successfully passed the first formal qualification test milestone for the U.S. Air Force’s GPS Next Generation Operational Control System (GPS OCX). The new system offers significant improvements to the GPS on which the U.S. military and millions of civilians rely, including enhanced availability, accuracy and security.

    The event was the Configuration Item Qualification Test (CIQT) milestone for the Launch and Checkout System (LCS). The system provides launch and early orbit checkout capabilities for the modernized GPS III satellites and implements 77 percent of the cybersecurity capabilities for the overall OCX program. The testing was successfully conducted in a representative operational environment with a government-provided GPS III satellite simulator.

    The LCS CIQT Run-for-Record was completed more than one month ahead of the plan established in mid-2015, clearing the way for LCS to proceed toward the Factory Qualification Test, the next major qualification event. The FQT test will be at the integrated system level and will take place this summer.

    GPS OCX is being developed by Raytheon under contract to the U.S. Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center, which is replacing the current GPS operational control system. The OCX Launch and Checkout System provides an early delivery of a large subset of the overall OCX capability, and will support the GPS III satellite launches.


    Congressmen Seek Delay to NDGPS Closings

    Four U.S. congressman sent a letter to the Department of Transportation, asking the DoT to delay shutting down Nationwide Differential GPS (NDGPS) sites, a proposal that was posted in the Federal Register.

    The congressmen are asking for a delay until the “administration has decided upon and implemented a resilient national positioning, navigation and timing (PNT) architecture.”

    “We do not dispute,” they wrote, “the administration’s determination that NDGPS is sufficiently like the Wide Area Augmentation system (WAAS) in its phenomenology and services such that it provides only an incremental benefit to the nation’s PNT architecture. However, some or all of the 62 NDGPS sites (and associated equipment) proposed for elimination could play an important role in achieving the PNT architecture America needs.

    “Ceasing transmissions, decommissioning, and disposing of them before we are assured they are not useful to future systems is against our national interest and would not be the best use of government assets and funds.”

    Signers were John Garamendi of California, Peter DeFazio of Oregon, Frank Lobiondo of New Jersey, and Walter B. Jones of North Carolina. Read the full text of the letter.


    IRNSS Completing

    At press time, India was expected to put into orbit its seventh and final navigation satellite on April 28, thus completing the Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS).

    IRNSS-1G is expected to launch aboard a Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) rocket from India’s spaceport at Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh.

    IRNSS is designed to provide accurate position information service to users across the country and region, up to an area of 1,500 kilometers.


    Jamming on the Borderline

    South Korea issued a warning in late March after detecting satellite signal disruptions that appeared to be coming from North Korea. The capital city of Seoul appeared to be the target.

    Officials said North Korea discharged a large amount of radio waves to jam GPS signals in the region.

    “We’ve detected signs that North Korea has been sending radio waves to the capital area since a month ago to disrupt GPS signals,” a senior government official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. “North Korea had been sending test waves since last month, but today, they discharged the largest amount.”

    The disruptions could cause mobile phones to malfunction and affect planes and ships that rely on GPS for navigation. No damage has so far been reported in the military or among civilians, officials said.

    Since 2010, GPS disruptions have occurred three times in South Korea, and all have been blamed on the North.

    Southern Counter. On April 7, the U.S. State Department confirmed the jamming in a public communique, stating the the jamming was causing signal disruptions to airplanes, ships, and buoys in the area “surrounding Gyeonggi and Gangwon provinces out to about 100 nautical miles.” On April 8, the South Korean government said it would “beef up its system to protect GPS signals” but did not explain how.

    South Korea is developing an eLoran system, which would be far more difficult to jam than GPS.


    A Long March-3A carrier rocket carrying the 22nd BeiDou satellite lifts off March 30.
    A Long March-3A carrier rocket carrying the 22nd BeiDou satellite lifts off March 30.

    22 BeiDou

    China launched the 22nd BeiDou satellite into orbit on March 29. BeiDou-22 (or BeiDou-2 I6) was launched at 20:11 UTC (4:11 local time) by a Long March-3A rocket from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center.

    China launched the 21st BeiDou satellite on Feb. 1, the second in a series of BeiDou launches scheduled for 2016. The BeiDou constellation is planned to be completed in 2020.

    The new satellite, the sixth BeiDou-2 IGSO, will be used to replenish the current operating regional system.

    The satellite, after entering its designed work orbit and finishing in-orbit testing, will join others already in orbit and improve the stability of the system, preparing for BDS to offer global coverage.


    After landing in French Guiana, the 13th and 14th Galileo satellites, still within their canisters, were unloaded to be taken by road to the Guiana Space Centre. (Photo: ESA)
    After landing in French Guiana, the 13th and 14th Galileo satellites, still within their canisters, were unloaded to be taken by road to the Guiana Space Centre. (Photo: ESA)

    Next Pair Prepped for Galileo

    The latest pair of navigation satellites has reached Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana, according to the European Space Agency (ESA). This starts a new Galileo launch campaign that will culminate in a May 24 launch of the 13th and 14th satellites in the constellation.

    A second launch is planned for this fall, with four satellites carried aloft on a customized Ariane 5 for the first time, bringing the count to 18 Galileo satellites in orbit by the end of the year.

    The pair of satellites left ESA’s technical centre in Noordwijk, the Netherlands, on April 4, cocooned within protective air-conditioned containers. They were then driven to Luxembourg Airport, where they were loaded aboard a Boeing 747 cargo jet for a dawn takeoff the following morning.

    The satellites touched down at Cayenne — Félix Eboué Airport in French Guiana at 11:15 a.m. local time on Tuesday. Still within their canisters, they were driven to the Guiana Space Centre and unboxed that evening within the cleanroom environment of the centre’s S1A payload preparation building. A fit check is scheduled next, to ensure the satellites can be attached to the dispenser.


    esnc16ESNC 2016

    The largest international competition for the commercial use of satellite navigation once again seeks outstanding ideas and business models, with prizes worth a total of €1 million in more than 25 categories.

    The deadline for submissions to the European Satellite Navigation Competition (ESNC) is June 30. The official website provides all relevant information on prizes, partners, and terms of participation. The ESNC is geared toward individuals and teams from companies, research facilities and universities around the world.

  • South Korea issues warning over suspected North Korean GPS disruption

    South Korea issues warning over suspected North Korean GPS disruption

    South Korea issued a warning Thursday after detecting satellite signal disruptions that appeared to be coming from North Korea, according to the Korea Herald. The capital city of Seoul appeared to be the target.

    Officials said North Korea discharged a large amount of radio waves to jam GPS signals in the region.

    “We’ve detected signs that North Korea has been sending radio waves to the capital area since a month ago to disrupt GPS signals,” a senior government official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. “North Korea had been sending test waves since last month, but today, they discharged the largest amount.”

    The warning was issued at 7:30 p.m. in Seoul, the adjacent city of Incheon and the surrounding Gyeonggi and Gangwon provinces.

    The disruptions could cause mobile phones to malfunction and affect planes and ships that rely on GPS for navigation. No damage has so far been reported in the military or among civilians, officials said.

    Since 2010, GPS disruptions have occurred three times in South Korea, and all have been blamed on the North.

  • You be the judge: To eLoran or not?

    eloran-survey
    eLoran Antenna Park of 13, 200-meter masts at Anthorn, UK.

    Readers of GPS World, its e-newsletters, website — and all interested PNT parties — are invited to register their opinion in the current poll at gpsworld.com/janpoll.

    Should the U.S. government install a full eLoran network of broadcast stations to back up GPS in case of jamming, interference or other emergencies?

    • Yes.
    • No.
    • More study is needed before answering this question.
    • Don’t know.

    Voters may enter their name in a drawing to receive a $50 gift card. Vote by Jan. 11, 2016.

    Results will be published in the February issue of GPS World magazine.

  • Sentry Stands on Jammer Alert

    Sentry Stands on Jammer Alert

    By Jeffrey Coffed and Joseph Rolli, Harris

    The first and best step to combat the growing worldwide problem of GPS jamming is to pursue technologies that can detect and locate the jammers. Signal Sentry 1000 uses arrayed sensors to do just that: look out for jamming and track down its source once sensed.

    An array of sensors can be deployed for sensitive and high value entities such as infrastructure installations, including airports, railroads, chemical plants, electric power plants and grids, cargo ports, wireless communication systems and financial transfer centers. The sensors will connect to servers that assimilate the sensor data and provide operator interfaces.

    Signal Sentry 1000 is based on a server/client model. The user accesses Signal Sentry using a URL and secure log-in specific to the user’s system. The user’s particular home screen displays a map with each installed sensor displayed with an icon reflecting status. Interferers are displayed as red stars or as error ellipses.

    The Signal Sentry web page lists all the interferers stored in the database with their start and end times. The user can manipulate the list by changing the minimum duration of the event to be displayed as well as if the interferer had been geolocated or not, or both. If an interference event was less than a minute long, it may not have a geolocation entry.

    Geolocation Methodology. Geolocation of jammers is accomplished through proprietary algorithms running at the network server that utilize digitized, timestamped I and Q samples of received interference waveforms, GPS observables, and other parameters captured by each sensor. This data is processed in a Kalman-filter based location algorithm to determine an initial jammer position and track the position of the jammer throughout the jamming event. This improves performance with moving jammers (that is, vehicle-based) and enables continued jammer location with a limited sensor set (potentially due to signal blockage, erroneous data due to multipath, or out-of-range conditions). Upon detection of an interference event by any sensor, the server polls the entire sensor network for data and determines if the information is sufficient to perform geolocation.

    The user receives near-real-time status of event detections and geo-location of the interferer (if possible). Sensor data polling, geolocation processing and GUI updates continue until the interference stops or the emitter goes out of sensor range. Sensor data from each event is stored for later replay and processing using Signal Sentry event analysis tools.

    An interference event frequency chart (Figure 1) provides a tool for forensically evaluating the occurrence of interferers. It displays interference events as circles; the size of the circle represents the number of events that occurred at that day of the week and time. When dots are selected on the chart, a map below the chart shows the location of the interference events. More than one dot can be selected at a time. This allows a user to find correlations in time and space, to determine if events occur at specific locations at certain times of the day and/or days of the week.

    FIGURE 1. Interference event frequency chart.
    FIGURE 1. Interference event frequency chart.

    Selecting the interferer on the map and then the details button on the popup brings up the interferer details page (Figure 2). Users can sign up for interferer alerts to be sent to their email or phone by text.

    FIGURE 2. Interferer details.
    FIGURE 2. Interferer details.

    Testing

    Signal Sentry 1000 was deployed and tested in GPS jamming trials at Sennybridge, United Kingdom, in August 2014. Testing included stationary jammers and mobile jammers moving at up to 50 mph, in open fields and built-up areas.

    Sentry Arrayed. The sensors used in these trials were custom units designed and built to Harris specifications by Chronos Technology Ltd. Each consisted of an embedded GPS receiver, an interference signal receiver and a local processor with a network communications interface.

    An array of eight sensors was geographically distributed around the test facility. Each sensor and a centralized Signal Sentry processing server were equipped with a mesh data networking capable radio for wireless data communications of commands, status and event data. In other Signal Sentry deployments, the server software is typically hosted on a cloud server, and sensors communicate with the server either via hard-wired internet connections or wirelessly through cellphone network-compatible data adapters.

    Jammer Profile. Two jammers performed during the trials, a 150mW and a .5W jammer, used to disrupt the GPS L1 C/A code at 1575.42 MHz.

    Open Field. Atest in an area with no obstructions included static jammers and dynamic jammers. Five waypoints along the road, in an area measuring 320 by 444 meters, were surveyed prior to the test using a handheld GPS receiver, to evaluate location accuracy.

    Table 1 shows static test results. The accuracy error is the average delta between the Signal Sentry-reported jammer positions versus the actual surveyed jammer positions. The number of points column contains the number of measurements reported by Signal Sentry during the test scenario for each waypoint. The overall average accuracy error for the static jammer test was 17.25 meters.

    TABLE 1. Open field static accuracy.
    TABLE 1. Open field static accuracy.

    Open Field, Mobile Jammer. In these tests, the jammer was driven in a car on the road through the sensor field. The car was driven at 25 mph north to south, then 50 mph south to north (Figure 3). Cars in the north parking lot caused multipath errors when the jammer came in contact with that area.The overall average accuracy error for the dynamic tracking was 10 meters.

    FIGURE 3. Jammer locations detected by Signal Sentry, when jammer was driven at 50 miles per hour, north to south. Green triangles denote sensor locations.
    FIGURE 3. Jammer locations detected by
    Signal Sentry, when jammer was driven at
    50 miles per hour, north to south. Green
    triangles denote sensor locations.

    Obstructed Area Test. This test evaluated performance in an urban environment called a FIBUA (Fighting in Built-up Areas), using stationary and dynamic jammers. Seven waypoints in an area 176m x 253m were surveyed for the purpose of evaluating location accuracy. Table 2 shows the results with the 150mW jammer held stationary at the waypoints. Figure 4 provides a graphical view of the jammer position in relation to the waypoints. The overall average accuracy error is 21.40 meters.

    TABLE 2. Urban static accuracy.
    TABLE 2. Urban static accuracy.

    Obstructed Area, Mobile Jammer. In these tests, the jammer was driven in a car at approximately 20 mph on the road through the sensor field, using a .5W jammer. The overall average accuracy error for this dynamic tracking was 50 meters.

    FIGURE 4. Urban area test; jammer locations in yellow, locations delivered by Signal Sentry in red, sensor locations in green.
    FIGURE 4. Urban area test; jammer locations
    in yellow, locations delivered by Signal
    Sentry in red, sensor locations in green.

     

    All figures provided by  Jeffrey Coffed and Joseph Rolli.

  • Protecting Position in Critical Operations

    Jamming Signals Criminal Activity in Intermodal Ports

    By Logan Scott

    More than 25 million containers pass through U.S. intermodal ports every year, with port operations valued at more than $1 billion per day. Measured in 20-foot equivalent units (TEU), the World Bank reports that worldwide, more than 600 million TEU passed through intermodal ports in 2012: 155 million through Chinese ports, 95 million through the EU ports and 43 million through U.S. ports.

    The Port of Long Beach alone handled 6,820,806 TEU in 2014. GPS is a central component of automated port operations, but because GPS is widely used in asset tracking and monitoring, it has also become a target for denial-of-service attacks. If we look to the history of computer security, the initial attacks were mostly nuisances, but as criminals figured out how to monetize attacks, the attacks became more damaging, more sophisticated and more profitable.

    In January, the U.S. Coast Guard held a public meeting on Maritime Cybersecurity Standards at Department of Transportation headquarters in Washington, D.C. Brett Rouzer, chief of Maritime Critical Infrastructure and Key Resources Protection, Coast Guard Cyber Command, described how a major East Coast intermodal shipping facility was degraded by a GPS disruption for more than seven hours. Two ship-to-shore cranes ceased operation due to loss of position, and two others were degraded. Ports are highly automated; ship-to-shore cranes are just one of the container-handling systems critically reliant on GPS. Fully automated ports providing services for unmanned container ships, trucks and trains lie within the realm of feasibility in the near future.

    Rouzer did not specify the motivates for the disruption, how the attack was mounted, or if the shipping facility was even the intended target of the attack (I suspect it was not). Jamming is not a highly selective process, and it can affect numerous unintended targets.

    In June 2014, I reported to the PNT Advisory Board on how every third or fourth truck on Highway 30B near Portland (Oregon) International Airport was radiating at or near the GPS L1 frequency. This highway leads to several nearby Port of Portland intermodal terminals west of the airport. The Federal Bureau of Investigation recently reported that “In 46 reported incidents, the thieves placed one or more GPS jammers in cargo containers with stolen automobiles” (italics mine). High-end automobiles command premium prices in foreign markets and are stolen and shipped out of the country within hours, usually via intermodal container. Active jammers can affect not only the automobile’s GPS tracker, but also trackers on other containers, ship’s navigation systems, straddle carriers and ship-to-shore cranes. Again, jamming is not selective.

    Of particular note as cited above, criminals are beginning to use multiple jammers. Car theft rings are not unique in this. According to the Pharmaceutical Cargo Security Coalition in July 2014, “a tractor and trailer hauling $2 million worth of pharmaceutical products was stolen from a truck stop in Cartersville, Georgia, with the thieves deploying two separate GSM jammers.” The criminal’s motivation is that tracking devices can be hard to find and disable; just because you found one doesn’t mean that there isn’t another. The use of multiple jammers in criminal enterprise is indicative of a threat escalation where bad actors are seeking higher effect. This could lead to higher jamming powers and so on; and also more collateral damage.

    Response

    What is a correct and measured response to threats against navigation and timing? The key is to be on the lookout for emerging threats and to have a flexible response. Early detection usually yields a more effective and lower cost response; witness Ebola and ISIS. Following a public health model would seem to offer better prospects for protecting access to PNT. To this end, I would argue that situational awareness is the first important step.

    One of the most striking comments that Sarah Mahmood (DHS) made at last June’s PNT Advisory Board meeting was about how backup systems are often not activated or used because the GPS receiver fails to recognize that there is a problem. As we move towards resilient PNT architectures, one of the most critical needs is to be able to distinguish good signals from bad signals and act accordingly.

    Most GNSS receivers already have fairly advanced jamming detection capabilities by virtue of having an automatic gain control. Sudden changes in precorrelation input power levels are not normal and can indicate jamming or RF spoofing. Many GNSS receivers, particularly those that go into embedded mobile applications, also have sophisticated spectrum- and temporal-analysis capabilities, used mainly for diagnostic purposes in looking for interference sources from other components of the device. This same capability can be used in detecting and fingerprinting jammers. We already have the smoke alarms; we must amplify their use and visibility to the wider community of GNSS users and beyond.

    Detection

    One notable aspect of the port incident was the duration: more than seven hours. Rapidly finding and disabling the jammer was clearly a problem in this case. The old adage is that to find a stationary source (jammer) you need to be moving, and to find a moving source, you need to be stationary. Trucks and trains entering or leaving a port all pass through gates that can act as a simple chokepoint for detecting and finding active jammers. Properly hardened ship-to-shore cranes and straddle carriers can also act as a chokepoint. Straddle carriers used in moving containers around the yard and between modes could be very good at finding stationary jammers.

    There are numerous relatively low-cost approaches for finding jammers in support of enforcement actions. One additional point: law enforcement officials need to be better educated as to why they should be interested in jammers; jammers point towards a crime much like smoke points to a fire.

    Given the economic criticality of port operations and the concentration of assets (and asset trackers), we may see increased incidence of GPS disruptions. The situation is not critical yet, but it does bear watching. If jamming events increase or it takes too long to find and disable jammers, improved operational resilience will be needed.

    Inertial measurement units are already used in many critical applications, but they don’t offer long-duration capability. They drift. Using adaptive arrays in critical equipments is another possibility, but they are not a panacea. Adaptive arrays are physically large, and standard null-steering approaches are not compatible with RTK processing. Precise positioning systems based on GNSS require specialized antenna-receiver designs to achieve a high level of jam resistance.

    While I strongly believe eLoran is an urgently needed augmentation for resilient wide area navigation, it is not capable of the centimeter-level precision required for machine control, for example ship-to-shore cranes and straddle carriers.

    High-precision local-area positioning systems based on optical systems, RFID and/or Locata-style systems may be the best approach for creating a defense in depth.

    And then there is the cybersecurity question, which I will leave for another day.


    Note: A video of the Coast Guard meeting is on YouTube. Rouzer’s talk starts at 36:30, with the port jamming incident mentioned at 48:51.


    Logan Scott has 35 years of military and civil GPS systems engineering experience. He is a consultant specializing in radio frequency signal processing and waveform design. At Texas Instruments, he pioneered approaches for building high-performance, jamming-resistant digital receivers. He is a co-founder of Lonestar Aerospace, an advanced decision analytics company in Texas. Logan is a Fellow of the Institute of Navigation and holds 37 U.S. patents.

  • Loctronix Advances GNSS Integrity Monitoring with HGX Interference Detection System

    Loctronix Corporation, a provider of positioning, navigation, and timing (PNT) solutions for GNSS-challenged environments, has unveiled the HGX Interference Detection System (IDS) for identifying and monitoring intentional and unintentional interference sources. The IDS is being demonstrated September 10-11 at ION GNSS+ 2014, in Tampa, Florida.

    “The IDS can detect sources of interference ranging between 5 dB and 60 dB GNSS jamming to signal (J/S) ratio. Featuring a novel profiling function, the IDS not only detects, but can identify the type of interference given a database of known/previously recorded profiles,” stated Michael Mathews, Loctronix’ CEO and founder.

    According to Mathews, “The greater dependence of GNSS within critical infrastructure — including, transportation, communications, finance and the growing availability of jammers — requires new tools to respond to potential threats. The IDS is the first tool to combine the powerful capabilities of Loctronix Spectral Compression Positioning (SCP) technology for identification and characterization of signals with traditional GNSS signal processing to provide full situational awareness of GPS/GNSS operations. The IDS system will benefit government, military, and commercial/industrial applications wherever there is a critical dependence upon quality GNSS data.”

    The IDS was developed using the Loctronix HGX hybrid sensor toolkit along with the company’s ASR-2300 ASR Workbench software defined radio platform. The standard implementation supports L1 GNSS bands and measurement rates of 10 measurements per second. Partner-licensed custom/solutions can support multiple bands (such as L2, L5) with greater bandwidths and measurement rates. Multiple sensitivity modes enable monitoring of sub-thermal and high-power interference.

    The HGX toolkit API will be available for specialization of the system for custom/embedded applications and adaptation to other hardware platforms. Visit Loctronix in Booth 422.

  • Assured PNT for Our Future: PTA

    Assured PNT for Our Future: PTA

    Actions Necessary to Reduce Vulnerability and Ensure Availability

    By Brad Parkinson
    (From the 25th Anniversary GNSS History Special Supplement)

    Introduction

    Brad Parkinson
    Brad Parkinson

    About 40 years ago, we had a vision for positioning, navigation, and timing (PNT). That vision was more than successful, and became known as GPS. In some respects we have been almost too successful: PNT is frequently taken for granted. PNT, in the form of GPS, has become a powerful worldwide enabler for productivity and for safety. Estimated yearly value runs to many tens of billions of dollars. 

    For several years, I have been concerned about comments that denigrate GPS because the signal strength is relatively weak. The speakers have gone on to say it can be completely replaced with inertial or other techniques. Recently, comments by government officials further energized me to look at the full picture.

    What can we do to reduce the vulnerability and ensure that the expectations of the users are going to be met? I summarize my solution as the PTA program and will elaborate in this article. At a top level, the term PTA means: Protect, Toughen, and Augment GPS to assure PNT. Note I say PNT, not GPS. The central issue is assuring access of PNT to the user, not the source of the information. I strongly believe that PTA is both achievable and absolutely necessary. Protecting PNT is particularly important to Europeans as they are just about to launch their fledgling Galileo system.

    Speeches and travel only reach a limited number. When GPS World invited me to write a piece for the magazine’s 25th anniversary issue, it seemed an ideal opportunity to expand knowledge of the PTA program. The following is an edited form of a talk I have given a number of times, most recently at the European Navigation Conference in Rotterdam in April 2014.


    GNSS initiatives and the GNSS community are growing rapidly, and certainly we are very enthusiastic about the progress of Galileo. But some places in the U.S. community are saying, “Well, this GPS band is underutilized; devoting all that bandwidth to a single system is not prudent.”

    I beg to differ with that view. If you look at the separate signals in the L1 band around the world, by the year 2023 they will grow to be well more than 400 individual signals. Those signals service over 2 billion users, from emergency service providers to precision agriculture to crustal monitoring and many, many more. I have an entirely separate talk on “GPS for Humanity,” but that is not our subject today. 

    Calling the GPS frequency band “underutilized” simply points out ignorance, even among our supporters. For example, we say PNT to emphasize that GNSS provides four dimensions. Certainly, timing is the forgotten fourth dimension of GPS, and even our politician friends rarely understand the importance of this aspect. Yet we know that highly accurate timing, supplied by GPS, is absolutely critical for power distribution, for telecommunications, and for the financial sector. 

    It is instructive to summarize the penetration of the PNT “Stealth Utility” into the fabric of our society.

    Market Size. Overall, GPS has more than 2 billion users worldwide. This represents a very diverse user group; we providers are continually seeing new and innovative ways to use GPS. 

    Figure 1, for which I am indebted to Frank van Diggelen, gives an estimate of the number of receivers currently fielded. Notice the number of military receivers: less than half a million. The gray bar depicts the industrial uses such as survey and machine control, which come in at about 4.5 million; these tend to be extremely high enhancers of industrial productivity. 

    Figure 1. GNSS market size, 2012.
    Figure 1. GNSS market size, 2012.

    We have to change the chart scale to depict bigger market segments. For example, recreation, automotive, and computing are shown on the lower half of the chart. In fact, mobile phones will still not fit on the chart. Attesting to the size of the estimated mobile phone base: one company alone will produce more than 900 million GPS-equipped smartphones this year. The pie diagram shows the dominance of mobile devices, but much higher productivity gains come from high-precision devices whose impact is very disproportionate to numbers of receivers. 

     We asked some economists, just what is all this worth? They looked at a subset of all the industries and concluded that GPS has a positive net effect to the tune of at least $32 billion annually. They had an expanded study that suggested about $90 billion annually. So, for those who question the value of GPS, the answer is that the net yearly returns to our national investment are more than 1000 percent. (Note: National investment is about $3 billion annually.)

    To ensure these enormous economic benefits of PNT, there are two fundamental needs, and we providers must assure that they are met. The first and most important need is availability. 

    Availability. When we say availability, it is defined in a certain way; it means that PNT is available at the application-specified accuracy. We usually measure that accuracy at the 90th percentile: only 10 percent of the time can that error be exceeded. 

    Integrity. The second user need is the required integrity. That means that when the user expects a specific accuracy, the system is not lying to him. Integrity assurance is very much a focus of both the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and, in the United States, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). In many cases they require that PNT errors not exceed specified bounds more than once in 10 billion measurements (1 x 10-7). This integrity level requires so many samples, it is virtually impossible to verify experimentally; we have not had that many airplane landings, but it can be calculated. The metric we use is how many minutes GPS is not available — unavailability — at the specified accuracy and integrity. That is more easily understood than availability that aproaches 99.9XXX percent. The usual goal is that unavailability be zero. 

    We have an independent assessment of how well we are doing: FAA’s Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS). They put out a report card with a lot of numbers. GPS clearly deserves a grade of A+. 

    And it will get better. The U.S. government’s PNT Advisory Board, which I co-chair, recently advocated that the full navigation message be added at the new civil frequencies, the L2C and L5C signals. The Air Force has now complied, thanks to strong support from General Willie Shelton. This makes two more civil signals fully available. They currently expect 2.9 meter ranging accuracy, but by the end of the year the Air Force operators expect the same full accuracy as the rest of the signals, on the order of 0.5 meter of ranging error. 

    This is an outstanding picture.

    So What’s the Problem? A statement made by a high-level U.S. government official in my presence exemplifies the problem: “GPS is much too vulnerable. We must replace it with new inertials and chip-scale atomic clocks.” 

    I found this statement appalling. Unfortunately, it was a meeting where you don’t normally speak up, and I didn’t. Nonetheless, to me, that was totally wrong. 

    GPS indeed has a very weak signal, and it depends on having clear line-of-sight to four satellites. But in my opinion, a much better statement is what I call the PTA solution. Our goal should be to:

    • Protect the system and the signal. 
    • Toughen the receiver and the system. 
    • Augment GPS as needed to ensure users’ PNT requirements are met. 

    The focus is ensuring positioning, navigation, and timing (PNT), not merely ensuring GPS.

    Fundamental Prerequisites for PNT 

    The first prerequisite for GPS-based PNT is a receivable, clear, and truthful (truthful implies full integrity) ranging signal. There are five main challenges to this.

    Too-powerful authorized signalsnearby. This aspect snuck up on our community. The FCC authorizers were about to license a powerful signal in the frequency band adjacent to GPS, drowning out any hope of receiving the GPS signal. This can be called the authorized jammer. All PNT providers must be very vigilant about this; we have seen ignorant elements of the government poised to do great harm with well-intended but destructive actions, without knowledge of the unintended consequences. 

    Natural Interference. This interference, the cause of delays and attenuation, is reasonably well understood, and the subject of much research, dating back to when we first defined GPS. Random events such as solar flares can potentially cause great harm. 

    Inadvertent Natural or Manmade Jamming. A nearby device that creates spurious, destructive emissions can be a serious problem for GPS receivers. This class tends to be manageable by well-designed receivers.

     Collateral Interference. An example is a person who wants to evade tracking but is inadvertently jamming nearby GNSS receivers in addition to his own local receiver. 

    Deliberate Jamming or Spoofing. This is perhaps the major concern for developers and users. I will discuss this further later.

    There is a second major prerequisite: satellite geometry. The user who cannot see enough of the sky is called “sky-impaired.” There are two possible underlying problems: 

    • The satellite constellation has “brown-out” because of failures or inadequate numbers; or
    • The user is operating in a mountainous or urban area with high, local shading angles.

    Overcoming sky-impairment requires a denser constellation, or use of multiple GNSS. 

    Protect, Toughen, Augment 

    What can we — as developers, operators, and manufacturers — do to overcome the PNT availability challenges for our users? My solution is PTA. The good news is that quite a few of the actions I recommend are underway — in fact, many of GPS World’s readers are active participants. 

    I am going to examine these three PTA principles, expand on them a bit, and hopefully explain a few things that help focus on a broad solution. 

    Protect the System and the Signal

    This can be organized into seven actions: three PreActions and four ReActions. PreActions are before there is serious interference, and ReActions obviously come after interference is occurring.

    First, the PreActions.

    Protect the Spectrum. The chart in Figure 2 represents the frequency plan for the L1 band, and displays some of the sources of the 400 signals I referenced earlier. The blue star, GPS L1 C/ A, is the only fully operational and reliable signal in the world right now. The red star is the U.S. GPS military signal. You can see it has important power lobes close to the band edge. The black star is M-code, the new military signal of the United States. 

    Figure 2. Frequency plan for the L1 band.
    Figure 2. Frequency plan for the L1 band.

    The Galileo power curve, which is pale green, has very significant nodes close to the band edge. Of course, the Galileo PRS (the magenta star) is right on the band edge. The imperative for these wider bandwidths is that they produce sharper correlation edges and consequently produce greater measurement precision. This leads to greater accuracy, and greater usefulness and utility for many PNT users.

    Reallocation of radio bands adjacent to GNSS poses a significant threat. The band edge of the proposed high-power communication signal (sometimes called broadband) appears as the black vertical line. It is obviously very close to the edges of many of the colored PNT signals. Tests conclusively demonstrated unacceptable levels of interference with L1 C/A.

    Consider the proposed, high-powered terrestrial signal one quarter-mile from a GPS receiver. This produces a power ratio of 5 billion (broadband) to one (GPS). To visualize that power ratio, consider Niagara Falls, which produces about a billion watts. Compared to that, GPS power is a tablespoon of water dropped from five feet, once per second (about 0.2 watts). This is the power ratio that was almost authorized with 40,000 ground-based transmitters in the U.S. At a city block away, the effect is 10 times worse.

    To quantify interference effects, some initial tests were run and measured broadband effects used for analysis. Cell-tower locations near Las Vegas, Nevada, approximated the broadband transmitter locations. The nearby airport, McCarran Field, has three RNAV (GPS) approaches. As expected, GPS users on the ground would be significantly jammed, but the effect on aircraft would be nine times worse than the impact on ground receivers. This is due to altitude (line of sight), geometry, and the sensitivity of aircraft receivers. 

    The 12 broadband transmitters around McCarran Field would jam all of the RNAV GPS approaches to all three runways. Signals of this type would effectively shut down or severely limit operations at the airport. 

    Signals in the GPS band will increase in the next decade as the newer GNSS become operational. The proposed, adjacent broadband is even more incompatible with these newer signals since they will be closer in frequency. Note that the whole approach was rejected, solely on the basis of L1/CA. It was not even tested against the other, more susceptible, modern signals. The worst would have been yet to come, had they been authorized to broadcast in the adjacent band. 

    Adjacent bands can continue to broadcast non-GNSS signals originating in space because the power levels will be comparable with the PNT spectrum. But we must be very vigilant to stop any high-power terrestrial signals from being allowed. They would become, effectively, authorized jammers. There should be no spectrum reallocation to ground transmitters until technology has been thoroughly demonstrated to solve any problems, (particularly for the high-precision users) and there is enough time to re-equip the users. 

    Europeans should have two other important frequency authorization concerns. First, there is a legal barrier within the United States to using Galileo signals. They have not been formally authorized. I think it is a bureaucratic glitch, but it is something we in the United States have to solve; we do want to use all GNSS signals. Stay tuned!

    There is another concern. A group at the Electronic Communications Committee, European Commission, recommends allowing pseudolites in the L1 GNSS band. As an experienced user of pseudolites for aircraft landing and some other applications, I believe this is a very risky idea; pseudolites can be very useful, but frequencies should be found elsewhere to avoid unexpected interference. 

    Stiff Legal Penalties for Interference. The second PreAction is to enact stiff legal penalties for GPS jamming, both in terms of jail time and fines. The goal is to deter the ubiquitous $33 GPS jammer that one can buy on the Internet. 

    On the U.S. FCC website, the agency lists the penalties for having a GPS jammer. Forfeitures range up to $16,000, and they might even put you in jail. The Australians take a much stronger view: up to five years imprisonment or $850,000 in some cases. Some people are alarmed by these heavy penalties and call them brutal. However, they are not always imposed, and if jamming and spoofing is intentional, especially where the landing of airplanes is concerned and lives are at stake, I think a strong deterrent is warranted. 

    Stop Jammer Manufacturing, Sales. The third pre-action is to prevent proliferation by shutting down manufacturing and web sales of jammers. What is the status?

    The FCC website states that manufacturers should comply with the law: stop marketing these devices in the United States and stop selling and shipping to addresses in the United States. The loophole is you apparently can manufacture these devices if you sell them outside the U.S. Now, I have a little difficulty with this. I have pointed this out to the DHS and others; hopefully, stronger action will be taken.

    The FCC told me in an open meeting a few months ago that they were shutting down the websites where these devices are sold. But about three weeks ago, I went online and immediately found a website that sells nine different devices to jam GPS and cellphone devices. Indeed, there were jammers, all very affordable, for jamming just about everything. More recently, the FCC assessed a multi-million dollar penalty against such a jammer manufacturer. We will see if this actually happens. I hope they accelerate these efforts.

    Now for the ReActions.

    Detect Jamming. To stop jamming, the first step is to know when it is occurring. There are a variety of ways to do this. Some devices or concepts are already on the table: for example, a Chronos CTL3510 GPS Jammer Detector, an Exelis Signal Sentry Jammer Detector, and the J911 cell phone detection and reporting of jamming, an example from NavSys.

    The idea behind the NavSys J911 is that all GPS-equipped smartphones have the capability to detect jamming. This does not pinpoint jammer location, but alerts authorities to the problem. Phone location can be reported to a central database for the next two actions.

    Pinpoint Jammer Location. Techniques range from directional antennas to time-difference-of-arrival using Fast Fourier Transforms. The latter was demonstrated for the FAA at Stanford more than 10 years ago: location pinpointed within five meters. Cell towers could implement such techniques, since they have accurate time and could run correlations. There are already commercial GPS jamming locators: something called a JLOC (NaySys Jammer Locator). The British are using similar techniques for jammer detection on some of their freeways. 

    Eliminate Jammer. Having pinpointed the jammer, the next step is to physically eliminate it. What is the status? At Newark Airport there is an FAA, ground-based GPS augmentation system antenna right next to the turnpike. They are part of a blind landing system. In early 2010, there was an infamous jammer interfering with the FAA GPS receiver. It took three months to locate the offending truck driver and shut down the jammer. The good news is that, more recently, in the same general location, they located a similar moving jammer within 24 hours after the interference started. However, these are very special locations. Recent studies have suggested that interference sources are much more widespread. Note: Only certain enforcement personnel are authorized to seize the jammer and arrest its operator. 

    Prosecute. Having located the offender, the law should then be applied to prosecute. Leeway should be applied, commensurate with the circumstances. In this New Jersey case, the authorities say the perpetrator is liable for a forfeiture of $31,875.

    Toughen Receivers

    There are at least five well-known ways to toughen receivers, thereby increasing jam resistance: 

    • Increased satellite signal spreading (such as L1C, L5) allowing greater processing gain;
    • Integration with inertial navigation components;
    • Digital beam-steering or null-steering antennas;
    • Increased satellite power such as L5 (a difficult and fairly expensive technique);
    • Local antenna shading, for example, the top of an airplane, which is shaded from the jammer.

    These improvements cascade and are cumulative, but a remaining issue is to make such techniques more affordable.

    To illustrate these anti-jamming techniques, consider the effective area of a 1-kW jammer located on the Capitol building in Washington, D.C. A basic high-quality GPS receiver, within a line-of-sight range of 20 miles, will stop providing PNT. Simply using the newest L1C spread-spectrum GPS signal reduces the jamming area by about two thirds, allowing operation to about 10 miles from the Capitol. Adding inertial aiding allows PNT to within three miles, and adding digital beam-forming antennas and using aircraft natural shading brings the effective radius to about 0.1 mile, about the size of the capital building.

    The point is toughening the PNT receiver with the technologies mentioned is an extremely effective strategy.  It would require over 60,000 jammers to cover the same area as the original non-toughened GNSS receiver.

    Some techniques are very affordable today, while others, such as digital beam-forming antennas, remain too expensive for the ordinary user. In addition, there is a potential U.S. problem of export restrictions. Unfortunately, many of these existing restrictions have simply incentivized non-U.S. development of equivalent capabilities.

    Augment

    The last element of the PTA construct is to augment or substitute PNT sources. We are all aware of the coming revolution in multiple PNT sources from new GNSS. An all-GNSS receiver diversifies the frequencies and the signals, thereby reducing vulnerability to interference. It also improves availability for the sky-impaired user because of densification of satellites sources. Using satellites from multiple constellations can significantly improve availability, provided integrity requirements are met.

    With these additional GNSS constellations, there are three major levels of cooperation:

    • Compatible: no mutal interference;
    • Interoperable: working to allow common time and geodesy system;
    • Interchangeable: using accurately calibrated biases and offset. Any four SVs will suffice.

    The major issue again is probably integrity, because to ensure economic value, availability requires known integrity. As far as the U.S. FAA and ICAO are concerned, for precision aircraft operations the integrity value should be that the system be “out of spec” less than once in 1 billion times. To be productive they also would like zero minutes of unavailability. That may seem extreme, but commercial aviation and public safety demand it. Regarding integrity, some new GNSS are clearly making faster progress than others.

    It is useful to further examine the densifying opportunity of additional GNSS. The chart in Figure 3 shows how densification can impact the user. The number of satellites (SVs) available in the sky (assumed optimal distribution) is shown. The colors refer to whether 0, 1, or 2 SVs are out of commission for maintenance or repositioning (typical maximum is 1 for GPS). The measure of effectiveness is minutes of outage per day. Consider a shading angle of 60 degrees, representing a user near a rugged mountain slope area or a city. With the nominal 24 SV GPS constellation (the GPS specification is 24 despite the U.S. having 31 active SVs), the outages, due to geometry alone, are six to ten hours. Improvement with additional satellites is dramatic and quite non-linear. With 33 satellites (about a 37% increase in density) outages are zero minutes per day to 33 minutes if one satellite is out for maintenance (reduction by a factor of over 10!). Of course, SVs could be from different GNSS constellations if they are truly interchangeable and have the required integrity. The clear message is that about 33 SVs are needed to cover reasonably high elevation angles.

    Figure 3. How densification of additional GNSS can affect the user.
    Figure 3. How densification of additional GNSS can affect the user.

    Integrity Monitoring. Currently, the U.S. GPS control segment continuously monitors GPS satellites. If a fault is found, they set the satellite inoperative until the problem is resolved, which may take many minutes. This alarm time is not fast enough for precision aircraft landing and approach (the requirement is six seconds to alarm). For these rapid integrity alarms, the United States relies on the FAA’s WAAS, and Europe uses EGNOS to monitor the basic GPS L1 C/A signal. Soon, the EGNOS message will include Galileo integrity alerts. Unfortunately, the United States does not yet have a plan for reciprocal WAAS monitoring of Galileo signals. In fact, formal approval to even use these signals has not yet been granted by the U.S. FCC. 

    Self Integrity (RAIM). If an all-GNSS receiver has more than six satellites in view, the user can use the Receiver Autonomous Integrity Monitoring (RAIM) technique. This allows the user to cross-check each measurement against others to find erroneous satellites and guard against spoofing. Take the recent GLONASS situation. With a good RAIM PNT receiver, the user could quickly isolate the large errors from the combined set of GPS/GLONASS measurements. In fact, some deployed receivers did just that. If all GNSS are totally interchangeable, it will be enormously helpful to implement RAIM. 

    The recent, prolonged GLONASS outage saddened us all because it reduced the credibility of all GNSSs. We hope the Russians will be forthcoming in announcing what happened and the corrections that are being made; hopefully, it won’t happen again.

    Fortunately, there is a third independent, real-time tracking network of 200+ sites, known as the Global Differential System (GDGPS). Although NASA administers GDGPS, local-country scientists maintain and operate individual sites in near real time. GPS is monitored down to centimeter precision. 

    A central issue for GDGPS is whether the integrity monitor capability itself has integrity. Because of redundancy and independence, a form of inverse RAIM, hereby named System Autonomous Integrity Monitoring (SAIM), can be used. Figure 4 depicts the number of independent looks or ranging measurements to a single satellite over various points on the Earth. You can see in the dark areas the value is 60, and even in the relatively unmonitored areas around South America, the redundancy is 20. At a typical spot, perhaps off Spain, it depicts 50-fold redundancy. By cross-checking the dozens of GDGPS measurements for each satellite, a strong integrity cross-check can be created. The GDGPS plan is to also monitor Galileo as it becomes operational. Thus, GDGPS has excellent prospects to provide real-time integrity assessments for all users and all operational constellations. We need plans to connect all users to these potential integrity alarms.

    Figure 4. The number of independent looks or ranging measurements to a single satellite over various points on the Earth.
    Figure 4. The number of independent looks or ranging measurements to a single satellite over various points on the Earth.

    There are three classes of ground-based augmentations:

    Pseudolites. Ground augmentations could also include pseudolites broadcasting GPS-like signals for additional ranging. While somewhat helpful, this technique cannot cover large areas and can act as a strong interference source if the signal is in any GNSS frequency band. For this reason, in my opinion, pseudolites should never be authorized in GNSS frequencies.

    Distance-Measuring Equipment. Modernized DME, planned as a GPS supplement by the U.S. FAA, is very valuable for the airborne users. Most ground users derive no benefit from DME because they do not have line of sight to the widely scattered transmitters. Ohio University’s Frank van Gras is working for the FAA on a DME plan should GPS not be available. It involves moving from the so-called legacy DME to the enhanced DME to ensure continuous aviation operations. 

    eLoran. eLoran, covering expandable local regions, uses a powerful signal at an entirely different frequency. It is two-dimensional, but in calibrated areas differential (eDLoran) is perhaps as accurate as 10 meters for harbor areas and similar purposes. 

    I chaired a study of eLoran for the FAA in 2006. Initially skeptical, the study members finally concluded (unanimously) that eLoran: 

    • meets the needs of all identified critical applications: 10–20 meter navigation accuracy for harbor entrance; 0.3 mile required navigation performance (RNP 0.3); stratum 1 frequency precision and 50-ns time accuracy.
    • is a modern system: new infrastructure, solid state transmitters, state-of-the-art time and frequency equipment, uninterruptible power supplies; new operating concepts, time of transmission, all-in-view signals, message channel with differential corrections, integrity; new digital user equipment, processes eLoran and GPS signals interchangeably, compact H-field antennas eliminate p-static.
    • is affordable: Less than $143M to fully complete eLoran, avoid costs of decommissioning existing Loran-C infrastructure; operations and maintenance currently $37M/year, reduced with eLoran-enabled automation.

    And our group concluded it was the most prudent and cost-effective general augmentation or backup to GPS.

    The National PNT Advisory Board also unanimously recommended that we deploy eLoran. The departments of Transportation and Homeland Security supported it; then, after a change of administrations, in a budget crunch, it was defunded, and the dismantling of existing Loran C stations began. Congress now may be taking action, and the recent GLONASS outages should give an impetus to that. 

    Who Will Implement PTA?

    To my knowledge, many elements are currently being pursued, some by GPS World readers. But I can identify no entity that has the authority, the knowledge, the breadth, and the resources to create a single, well-focused program. This reminds me of a fable from Aesop regarding ants. When no leadership emerges, the ants have to band together to solve the problem. Yes, I am suggesting that we are the ants and we all must contribute to the solution, as well as seeking governmental agencies to step up to the responsibility. 

    In that regard I have a “to do” list. We must:

    • Protect PNT.
      • Vigorously defend the spectrum.
      • Work with lawmakers to increase legal penalties for PNT interference.
      • Work with manufacturers and law enforcement to improve timeliness and accuracy of interference identification (crowd-sourcing, every cell phone a detector).
      • Field jammer location equipment.
    • Toughen PNT.
      • Develop industry (ICAO/RTCA/RTCM) standards for deep inertial integration and directional antennas.
      • Develop vector receivers (all GNSS).
      • Continue to implement ARAIM and inertial for integrity (+WAAS/EGNOS).
      • Encourage users to move to rugged receivers.
    • Augment PNT.
      • Expand integrity notifications to include GDGPS.
      • Develop RTCA standards for seamless DME and GPS/GNSS.
      • Implement eLoran and develop RTCM standards for seamless use.
      • Develop an international process for integrity certification of all GNSS (GLONASS, Galileo, and BeiDou).

    In conclusion, the rumors of the death of GPS, in my opinion, are greatly exaggerated. Let’s not throw out the baby with the bath water. Instead let’s accelerate and expand PTA to Protect our band, and Toughen our receivers, and Augment GPS to ensure that PNT is available for all users now and in the future. 

    In the words of American poet Robert Frost,

    The woods are lovely, dark and deep, 

    But we have promises to keep, 

    And miles to go before we sleep, 

    And miles to go before we sleep.

    Thank you.


    BRAD PARKINSON has been the Edward C. Wells Endowed Chair (emeritus) at Stanford University, where he is a recalled professor of aeronautics and astronautics.

    He co-founded the well-known Stanford GPS Laboratory and led the development of many innovative uses of GPS, including blind aircraft landing, precision farm tractors, and the prototype of the FAA’s WAAS. He also directed development and was a co-PI for the successful test of Einstein known as Gravity Probe-B sponsored by NASA. He worked in various executive or board capacities at Trimble Navigation, Intermetrics, Rockwell International, and The Aerospace Corporation.

    As an Air Force colonel, from 1972 to 1978, he was the chief architect and first director of the NAVSTAR GPS development program, retiring from the service after orbiting the first GPS satellites and proving GPS capabilities. He is a fellow of five professional societies and recipient of dozens of awards, including:sharing the 2003 Draper Prize with Ivan A. Getting for leading the development of the Global Positioning System.

  • Chemring Develops Miniaturized GPS/Galileo Anti-Jamming Technology

    2014-gincan

    Chemring Technology Solutions has developed miniaturized GPS anti-jamming technology it has dubbed GINCANGINCAN is designed to combat illegal GPS jammers and is based on the adaptive antenna concept used by military systems. GINCAN has a chip footprint of six millimeters squared.

    GINCAN’s reduced size and weight will significantly cut power usage and cost, the company said, making it ideal for combatting the widespread problem of low-powered GPS jamming. GINCAN can be integrated into a range of applications, including in-vehicle satellite navigation systems and cellular technology, and can be used for the protection of the critical infrastructures which rely on GPS to provide positioning and timing.

    GPS jammers have already been developed to interfere with the European Union’s Galileo system, which will provide European satellite navigation independently from the Russian, USA and Chinese systems by 2019. Chemring Technology Solutions, based in Romsey, England, has anticipated this problem and its GPS anti-jamming technology will also support systems using Galileo.

    Once the preserve of the military, there is now an increasing demand for GPS protection in the civilian market as illegal GPS jamming equipment becomes widely available on the Internet. The £1.5 million government-funded Sentinel project, designed to measure GPS jamming on UK roads, recorded more than 60 individual jamming incidents across six months at a single location. Such attacks could seriously impact industries, including maritime, aerospace, the emergency services and even stock market trading.

    “Many years of developing GPS protection technology for the military has enabled our research and development team to miniaturize anti-jamming technology,” said Martin Ward, product manager, Chemring Technology Solutions. “GINCAN can now be easily integrated in to a range of applications to provide effective protection against jamming devices.

    “As we become increasingly reliant on GPS technology, and low-cost jammers are proliferating, so a potential time bomb is being created. Chemring Technology Solutions is now able to offer the answer to this problem with jammer protection at a reduced size, weight, power and cost footprint.”

    GINCAN is an export controlled product and subject to UK export restrictions.

  • Detect and Locate GPS Jamming: Provide Actionable Intelligence

    Detect and Locate GPS Jamming: Provide Actionable Intelligence

    Sponsored by: Exelis
    Original Broadcast Date: Thursday, December 5, 2013
    Moderator: Don Jewell, Editor, Defense PNT Newsletter
    Speakers: Jeff Coffed, Product Marketing Manager, Exelis Inc.; Carl Slutsky, Product Manager for Signal Sentry 1000, Exelis
    Panelists: Joseph Rolli, Signal Sentry Business Manager, Exelis; Jon Schnabel, Chief Scientist, Geospatial Systems, Exelis
    Summary: The Global Positioning System—GPS—is an essential element of the global information infrastructure and supports nearly every facet of modern life. However, the availability and usage of low-cost GPS jamming devices has resulted in the increased threat of intentional and unintentional disruption to commercial and industrial systems that rely on precise GPS data. That is why Exelis developed Signal Sentry 1000, a solution that enables authorities to locate with pin-point accuracy the sources of interference thereby assuring safety, efficiency, and revenue. This webinar will discuss the threat and Signal Sentry. This webcast will be of interest to anyone whose organization relies on GPS for information or commerce.

  • Raytheon UK Receives Order for GPS Anti-Jam Prototype

    Raytheon UK has taken its first order for a pre-production MiniGAS, the latest in GPS Anti-Jam technology, designed and manufactured by the company in the U.K. This contract, awarded by an undisclosed customer, requires Raytheon UK to produce demonstrator units for customer evaluation.

    MiniGAS is the latest in Raytheon’s GPS anti-jam family of products, and it aims to be the lightest and smallest GPS anti-jamming system produced by Raytheon UK. It will have flexible form factors, suited to land, unmanned aerial vehicles and missile platforms. Raytheon is also producing demonstration units of its Landshield high performance digital anti-jam product for customer evaluation.

    As well as developing new products, Raytheon has also received an order for a further 100 of its Advanced Digital Antenna Production (ADAP) systems with the U.S. government. To date, more than 500 ADAP systems and more than 6,600 GAS-1 systems have been delivered to the U.S. government and other international customers over the course of 15 years.

    “Raytheon UK is a world leader in the production and supply of GPS anti-jamming systems to the majority of the world’s military forces,” said Richard Daniel, defence director for Raytheon UK. “These contracts and milestones demonstrate that we continue to make advancements in new systems, ensuring that Raytheon’s systems continue to meet the latest platform requirements.”

    Raytheon continues to deliver GPS anti-jam systems to Northrop Grumman Italia to be used in the Eurofighter Typhoon aircraft, and the company has also delivered a significant number of systems for the Airbus Military A400M aircraft. The company also completed the delivery of its first order for its latest GPS Anti-Jam Land product to the UK Ministry of Defence within six months of contract award.

  • North Korea Jamming Incident; LightSquared Issue

    My mailbox is currently overflowing with comments and questions concerning rampant rumors that in the March 2011 time frame a U.S. military reconnaissance aircraft was forced to land during an annual major east Asian military exercise, known as Key Resolve, due to GPS jamming. The jamming reportedly took place along the northern portion of the 684-mile long Korean peninsula, with the jamming supposedly originating with the North Koreans. The jamming scenario should come as no surprise, but it is the emergency or forced landing due to loss of a GPS signal among other supposed “facts” with which I take issue.

    The Rest of the Story

    As a former USAF (United States Air Force) aviator, who spent literally thousands of hours in the cockpits and mission compartments of various and highly sophisticated reconnaissance aircraft, allow me to set the record straight on several important issues. First the reports that the plane was forced down or made an emergency landing due to loss of GPS are certainly inaccurate, an exaggeration, and a devious way to generate headlines. The journalist who initially reported the incident was simply seeking media attention and was unfortunately successful. The reconnaissance aircraft was not forced down by jamming or enemy interference but rather the aircraft commander took the most prudent action, both from a military and political vantage point, and it may well have saved lives.

    Sordid Aviation and Military History

    Lest we forget, historically civilian airliners have been harassed, intercepted and even shot down in this area of the world. Consider North Korea’s extreme and high-profile actions of late concerning the U.S and South Korean military as well as the civilian populace of South Korea are solely for the purpose of provoking a military response. Both the U.S. and South Korean military have shown remarkable restraint. This latest jamming incident is merely another in a long series of provocations by North Korea. Remember the North Koreans reportedly sank a South Korean military vessel recently, with all lives lost, because it was supposedly in North Korean waters. Authorities do not know, or have not said, for certain if the South Korean vessel experienced GPS jamming, but GPS readouts and coordinates have now become the defacto standard for proving or disproving the legitimacy of reported border incursions, whether by land, sea, or air.

    To reiterate, the U.S. reconnaissance pilot took the prudent action once the GPS signal was reportedly jammed even though I can assure you the pilot (and crew if there were any) had numerous other means of navigation at their disposal. None of our reconnaissance aircraft depend solely on GPS for PNT information.

    Unlike so many of the critical, uninformed responses I have read concerning this incident, I applaud the reconnaissance pilot for making the right decision. And since this was a reconnaissance aircraft, it is very possible the military gained all the necessary data before deciding to terminate the mission. Suffice it to say our SIGINT (SIGnals INTelligence) tools are extremely sophisticated.

    Are We Too Dependent on GPS?

    This incident reminds me that the 19th USAF Chief of Staff, General Norton A. Schwartz, provoked quite a furor just 20 months ago when he spoke of a troubling operational dependency on GPS that must be tempered by other technologies and capabilites lest we become too dependent on one technology that could be denied our warfighters at critical times. It was reported at the time, by yours truly in GPS World and others, that General Schwartz’s call for alternative or augmenting technologies was “driven by serious threats to GPS… Officials familiar with the issue would not discuss current threats; however, they confirmed the GPS has been jammed or interfered with recently.”

    Course of Action

    The correct course of action is not to limit GPS — just the opposite. Refine GPS; increase the overall signal strength and accuracy for all users by integrating GPS with other embedded PNT (Position, Navigation and Timing) and communications systems through the use of intelligent software-defined receivers capable of utilizing all PNT signals available.

    The dynamic Perfect Handheld or embedded GPS Transceiver (PHGPST) that I originally wrote about in March 2007 has evolved. The PHGPST must now be capable of receiving PNT signals from GPS, GLONASS, Galileo, Compass, among others. It must be capable of receiving all the wide area and local area augmentation systems available globally, such as DGPS (Differential GPS), WAAS (Wide Area Augmentation System), and EGNOS (European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service), just to name a few. Such a system would also utilize a chip-scale atomic clock (CSAC) and ingenious commercial systems such as Skyhook Wireless, which uses Wi-Fi and GPS carrier signals for immediate (under four seconds) PNT results, even indoors.

    Of course, to provide any future PNT capabilities GPS and all other satellite-borne PNT systems must exist within the protected satellite navigation spectrum currently threatened by LightSquared and an apparently clueless FCC (Federal Communications Commission).

    eLORAN

    The current LightSquared debacle and the North Korean jamming incident certainly underscore the reasons for General Schwartz’s concerns. The fact that the U.S. military has recently decommissioned one of the primary and historically viable backups and augmentations for GPS, that was essentially too powerful to be easily jammed — and I am speaking of course of eLORAN — is another matter for another column. In my opinion, and it is an opinion shared by many in the know, decommissioning eLORAN was a major operational blunder induced by minor budget concerns that both the current administration and the Coast Guard need to remedy. I would very much appreciate your comments, pro and con, on the eLORAN debate. This is far from a dead issue. Drop me a line at [email protected]. I digress.

    Historical Viewpoint: Lessons Learned

    The entire incident with the North Korean’s supposedly jamming GPS and General Schwartz’s comments regarding our dependency on GPS brings to light navigation concerns, actions, and lessons we should have learned from another well-known general officer who served as the fifth chief of staff of the USAF and as the commander of Strategic Air Command (SAC). I am speaking of the famous General Curtis “Bombs Away” LeMay who had a well-known aberration for navigation devices that were not passive in nature or integral to the aircraft being navigated. And even though he was primarily a command pilot, General LeMay understood navigation; in 1940 he served as the navigator on the prototype Boeing XB-15 heavy bomber that when it first flew, in 1938, was the most massive and most voluminous aircraft ever built in the United States. Late
    r in his career as USAF CSAF (Chief of Staff) General LeMay strongly advocated the introduction of satellite technology for navigation and pushed for the development of the latest electronic warfare techniques. However, for General “Iron Pants” (the XB-15 could fly unrefueled for over 20 hours) LeMay new technology was never allowed to overshadow or jeopardize the primary mission.

    General LeMay was a big believer in the basics, especially celestial navigation, and I can testify from personal experience that just a few years past, long after the advent of GPS and LORAN (LOng RAnge Navigation), SAC navigators and crews routinely flew vast distances across oceans and continents with nothing but a sextant and a very busy and nervous navigator. General LeMay was also concerned about SIGINT and required SAC aircraft to routinely practice radio and signals silence, no signal emissions. Entire missions were frequently flown from takeoff to landing without a single radio call or signal being transmitted. There were totally radio silent air refuelings by SAC tankers and bombers. Consider that celestial, inertial, eLORAN, and GPS fall into the silent and SIGINT free category. The inveterate cigar chomping and garrulous General LeMay would undoubtedly have approved and championed these new technologies. But he would never have allowed the loss of one capability to compromise the overall mission, and thankfully that same attitude is still prevalent in our Air Force today. Hence the timely comments by General Schwartz.

    Today SAC’s assets (SAC was disestablished as a USAF Major Command — MAJCOM — in June 1992 after the end of the Cold War) are divided among Air Combat Command (ACC), Air Mobility Command (AMC), and Air Force Global Strike Command (AFGSC). To my knowledge none of these MAJCOMs today require crews to carry sextants onboard their aircraft, and indeed many of the newer aircraft do not have sextant ports. Apparently manual aviation celestial navigation skills are no longer taught at the joint military navigation courses except to Navy and Coast Guard shipboard navigators/personnel. Perhaps a back-to-basics approach is needed in training as well as in operations.

    LightSquared Debacle

    While we should not be surprised that GPS jamming takes place, we should be surprised and indignant that the current FCC commissioner has initially authorized legal GPS jamming by LightSquared. I originally penned three articles about the FCC and the ridiculous chain of events that led to the LightSquared debacle, and then circumstances precluded me writing any further articles on the topic. What I can say now is the LightSquared terrestrial transmitters and receivers, if approved by the FCC, amount to FCC-sanctioned jamming that will cause mayhem among GPS users worldwide. This is no longer an issue confined to the CONUS (Continental United States). There are billions of dollars in economic and containment costs at stake as well as lost income and revenue, not to mention the potential loss of life, detailed in a recent FAA report. Approval of the LightSquared terrestrial plan would be a global catastrophe and I am incredulous that the administration and the FCC are still unsure of what action to take.

    Way Ahead

    It is really rather simple: LightSquared originally signed on to provide broadband communication capabilities via satellite to everyone in the U.S. They propose broadcasting in the spectrum allocated to satellite transmissions, and as long as they fulfill that mission at the nominal satellite power levels from orbit there is not an issue. In this originally approved LightSquared scenario, all users would have the capability to receive broadband signals everywhere they can now receive a GPS signal. As we all know, with ever more sensitive receivers you can now routinely receive GPS signals almost everywhere, even indoors. The proposed broadband satellite coverage area provides a huge customer base for LightSquared but apparently it is not enough. It becomes a matter of market dominance versus market share. The FCC needs to wake up and take immediate actions to curtail plans for all high-powered terrestrial transmissions in the protected satellite spectrum or face the disastrous consequences. The North Korean jamming headlines are bad enough; none of us want to read a headline that says “FCC GPS Actions Cause Huge Loss of Life as Airliners Collide.” This is far from over; write your Congressman.

    Until next time, happy navigating.