GPS or other GNSS systems like Galileo, BeiDou, or GLONASS facilitate ship navigation to the final destination, and even it has made financial transactions easier. While using GPS, jamming and spoofing pose a great danger to security. Luckily, Spectrum monitoring enhances the security of the public and goods with anti-jamming and anti-spoofing technology as it can locate jammers in the surrounding area.

An overview of GPS Jamming

Are GPS systems jammed? Yes, and it is much easier to jam a GPS. To jam the GPS, an RF signal is produced. The signal should be stronger enough to disrupt the transmission from the GPS satellites. In case of jamming, the GPS user can instantly know the disruption in the system as the GPS stops the geolocation output. However, GPS jamming can occur in both ways accidentally or intentionally. Jamming GPS activity has been increasing day by day. Within a few weeks, London authorities observed increased activity of GPS jamming during an L1 and L2 GPS tracking campaign. Jamming activity may include both synthetic sources that target intentionally and unmodulated sources that interfere due to the imperfectly centered L1 or L2 band.

Commonly, taxi and HGV drivers in London use jammers when they are to avoid the rules of the maximum driving hours. The purpose is to prevent the authorities to track them. However, GPS jamming is used globally for more threatening purposes. In 2016, North Korea affected the GPS activity of South Korea at a massive level frequently. These attacks were made to affect the ship and aircraft routes. Now, 5G technology uses GPS to move into frequencies and its prevalence is expected to expand more frequently.

However, GPS jammers are unable to segregate the actual target and it commonly increases the collateral damage or security issues. GPS jamming activity can pose danger to the Air Traffic Control (ATC), search and rescue operations, mobile phone services, and electric grid stations. Repeated GPS failures at the London Stock Exchange have badly affected the timestamping of financial transactions. In 2007, a naval training at San Deigo Harbor lost the GPS communication as a result urban residents could not withdraw cash from ATMs, and doctors' emergency pagers were unable to process. Resultantly, the authorities located the military ships in 3 days. However, civilian users more frequently jam the GPS signals. That is why populated locations are more prone to high-security dangers and unintentional accidents like aircraft colliding.

Mobile directional locating systems can identify and locate GPS jammers thanks to spectrum monitoring, which was used in our London campaign. It is also possible to tell if interference is unintentional or intentional by analyzing frequency spectra to determine the interference's duration and signal type. The perpetrators of accidental jamming can then be cautioned, and criminal charges can be brought against malevolent criminals. Thus, it leads to the quick resolution of any disorder or threat as a result of GPS jamming.

 

Identification and locating of the larger areas are possible with the CRF’s RFeye Receivers. Its automated features can prevent subjective intervention and can quickly ring the alarm on identifying the GPS jamming system. On detecting jamming activity or GPS signal failure, our GPS holdover module features quick and precise synchronization between receivers.

For essential applications needing a proactive approach, high-performance receiver boards can also be integrated into 3rd party anti-jamming and anti-spoofing systems. GPS location and timing services can continue even while under assault thanks to anti-jamming and anti-spoofing devices that can differentiate the genuine GPS signals and jammers and spoofers.

To counter the prevalence of GPS jamming activity, CRFS advises law enforcement to adopt a broader strategy of spectrum surveillance. It is also recommended that any organization that relies heavily on GPS services, such as an air traffic control center or a stock exchange, run a separate counter-jamming system to maintain the security of the vital infrastructure. 

GPS Spoofing – Know the facts

Another cunning assault known as GPS spoofing includes intentionally replicating the format of transmission from GPS satellites. The purpose of spoofing is to deceive the receiver that it has received the correct information that was expected. Simple GPS spoofing, often known as denial of service spoofing, includes false location data. For instance, it may falsify the location of a ship in the sea while the ship is located on land.  Though the user can instantly know the false location, it prevents the users to follow the GPS for identification of location. Spoofing in these situations essentially serves as a more focused sort of jamming that just affects the GPS devices as opposed to saturating the entire RF environment with noise.

Deception spoofing is another complex form of GPS spoofing. The GPS systems are hijacked and initially, the receiver is sent the correct information. Later on, information is changed slowly. This type of spoofing is slower but deceives the receiver instantly. To disable a vessel on a sandbank, for example, or drag them off course into dangerous waters.

Well, how does it function? Receivers on the ground may determine the time the signal was sent from each GPS satellite from the pseudo-random code that the satellites transmit. This enables them to calculate the distance between themselves and each satellite and the time it takes for the signal to reach them. Finding out where the received signals are coming from is the obvious technique to tell if spoofing is occurring. We can be pretty sure the receiver is being faked if it comes out to be sent from close to the receiver rather than high in the atmosphere. At this point, CRFS's systems are used. A network of four RFeye nodes can calculate the time difference of arrival (TDOA) and locate from where the spoofing started. Thus, it can not only detect spoofing but also identify the location of spoofers. Thus, the spoofing subjects can take preventive measures to turn down the jamming activity.

Want to Know More?

If you have been the subject of GPS jamming or spoofing, contact us for consultation and preventive measures. Our technical experts can guide you on how our CRFS systems work efficiently.