A Survey on Coping With Intentional Interference in Satellite Navigation for Manned and Unmanned Aircraft

Abstract

Intentional interference in satellite navigation is becoming an increasing threat for modern systems relying on Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS). In particular, critical applications such as aviation can be severely affected by undetected and un-mitigated interference and therefore interference management solutions are crucial to be employed. Methods to cope with such intentional interference enclose interference detection, interference mitigation, interference classification, and interference localization. This paper offers a comprehensive survey of interference management methods developed in the last four decades by the research community. After reviewing the main concepts of GNSS-based navigation, the interference and interference management solutions are classified, with a particular focus on the two major threats in GNSS navigation, namely jamming and spoofing. Mathematical models, comparative tables for various interference management solutions, such as detection, localization, mitigation, and classification, as well as comparative numerical results based on several selected algorithms are also presented. We especially focus on algorithms relying on omnidirectional antennas, which do not require additional specific antennas to be installed on the aircraft and thus reduce the costs of retrofit and installation.

Collaborative Solutions for Interference Management in GNSS-Based Aircraft Navigation

“…It shows the jamming detection results for test scenario OF-JAM.Z2D-Test 11, described in Section 5 using all the detectors described in Section 3 . All the considered detectors with the current recorded tests show that they work perfectly well under realistic scenarios and they confirm the previous findings of the authors based on simulations and lab-tests as reported in [ 1 , 19 , 37 ]. In particular, the estimated Probability of Detection ( ) is 100%, and the Probability of False Alarm ( ) is 0.…”

“…Civil aviation and Air Traffic Control (ATC) are deeply tied to localization and navigation systems. Such systems are based on several technologies installed either on board or on the ground, including radio-beacons, RADAR, magnetic compasses, inertial navigation systems, and satellite positioning systems [ 1 ]. Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSSs) are complemented by their Wide-Area or Satellite-Based Augmentation Systems (WAAS, SBAS) to offer improved localization accuracy and an integrity framework to cope with flight-mode-dependent safety requirements [ 2 ].…”

“…Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSSs) are complemented by their Wide-Area or Satellite-Based Augmentation Systems (WAAS, SBAS) to offer improved localization accuracy and an integrity framework to cope with flight-mode-dependent safety requirements [ 2 ]. Although the GNSS technology is not the primary means of navigation today for civil aviation and ATC, its role is increasing, starting from the General Aviation and Unmanned Aircraft; furthermore, several evolutions are expected in the next decade [ 1 , 3 , 4 , 5 ]. Indeed, new navigation and ATC concepts will be necessary in the perspective of a crowded sky in the near future, where millions of drones will share the airspace with manned aircraft; the Free Route Airspace (FRA) concept is an example of such new perspective [ 6 ].…”

“…On the other hand, the well-known vulnerabilities of GNSSs to Radio Frequency Interference (RFI) raise concerns and special attention also in the aviation field [ 1 ]. Facts witness an increasing number of reports of incidents of GPS outage on board of civil aircraft, especially in areas with political tensions (e.g., Southeast Mediterranean, Black Sea–Caspian Sea axes and Mideast-Canada and the USA via North Pole through Russian airspace) or nearby certain airports, according to the latest safety bulletin issued by Eurocontrol [ 12 ].…”

“…Indeed, the context of active GNSS interference management from on-board aircraft reusing omnidirectional navigation antennas is new by itself in the civil aviation field. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, no literature exists that addresses in an integrated way the various interference types encountered in GNSS and that explicitly deals with the stages to counteract this interference (for example, [ 1 ] presents a comprehensive review of the literature about intentional interferences). It must be added that, in such conditions, a fair comparison with algorithms existing in literature is not possible due to the novelty of the strategy, i.e., interference detection and localization with systems on-board the aircraft instead of existing systems deployed on-ground.…”