Coherent Global Positioning System Signal Interference Detection and Mitigation
Abstract
The civil, commercial, and scientific communities rely upon uninterrupted access to the free-to-air civil Global Positioning System (GPS) signal. Hostile actors seek to exploit the unencrypted nature of the civil GPS frequencies to induce false position and time on a target receiver. Coherent interference attacks include meaconing and spoofing of the GPS signals. Uninterrupted access requires the detection and subsequent mitigation of this coherent interference. This thesis studied the effectiveness of a variety of detection and mitigation techniques against three coherent interference scenarios. The study combined a modeled radio frequency environment with a simulation of radio frequency interactions on a digital spectrum analyzer to quantify the limits of detection and mitigation techniques. While none of the analyzed techniques perfectly detected and mitigated all attack configurations, some techniques proved more effective against certain scenarios. This thesis provides civil GPS users with the generalized detection and mitigation limits of analyzed techniques, allowing for informed selection of coherent interference mitigation strategies.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jun 01, 2023
- Accession Number
- AD1213632
Entities
People
- Kyle P. Santarelli
Organizations
- Naval Postgraduate School