Data verification for GNSS systems and protection of GNSS services
Time: Tue 2025-04-15 14.00
Location: Sal C, Kistagången 16
Video link: https://kth-se.zoom.us/j/62121217840
Language: English
Subject area: Information and Communication Technology
Doctoral student: Marco Spanghero , Programvaruteknik och datorsystem, SCS, Networked Systems Security (NSS) Group
Opponent: Professor Dennis Akos, University of Colorado Boulder
Supervisor: Professor Panos Papadimitratos, Programvaruteknik och datorsystem, SCS; Professor Gerald Q. Maguire Jr., Programvaruteknik och datorsystem, SCS
QC 20250317
Abstract
Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) provide ubiquitous precise localization and synchronization for a wide gamut of applications, spanning from location-based service to core industrial functionalities in communications and large infrastructure. Civilian use of GNSS relies on publicly available signals and infrastructure designed to operate at a high level of interoperability. Nevertheless, such systems proved to be vulnerable to voluntary and involuntary interference aiming to deny, modify, and falsify the GNSS-provided solution. This poses a significant threat to the robustness of satellite-based timing and localization. A decreasing entry threshold from the knowledge and tools accessibility perspective makes mounting such attacks feasible and effective even against low-value targets. In this work, this issue is targeted, with a practical approach, from three directions, by cross-checking the navigation solution with alternative providers of time, by localizing the interference source and characterizing it, and by relying on specific receiver dynamics to eliminate falsified signals. We discuss protection mechanisms targeting the consumer market based on available infrastructure or on sensing supported by sensors embedded in the GNSS-enabled platform itself. These efforts collectively aim to improve the robustness of consumer GNSS solutions, without modifying the GNSS receiver or the signal structure, to provide secure and reliable navigation and timing in an increasingly adversarial environment.