| Sol No.: |
Navy SBIR FY2012.1 |
| Topic No.: |
N121-089 |
| Topic Title: |
UAT Signal Transmission Authenticity Reckoner (USTAR) |
| Proposal No.: |
N121-089-1024 |
| Firm: |
Scientific Systems Company, Inc
500 West Cummings Park - Ste 3000
Woburn, Massachusetts 01801 |
| Contact: |
Jayesh Amin |
| Phone: |
(781) 933-5355 |
| Web Site: |
www.ssci.com |
| Abstract: |
Automatic Dependent Surveillance Broadcast (ADS-B) system provides increased situational awareness and is being considered as the cooperative tracking element of any Sense and Avoid (SAA) system. ADS-B has been designed with open standards and protocols which preclude typical authentication mechanisms involving encryption keys and digital signatures that can be deployed to prevent unauthorized and malicious usage. ADS-B can thus be anonymously spoofed/jammed to deny airspace to other aircraft including those on DoD missions or may experience interference from unintended interrogation responses. Under this effort, we propose to develop a novel approach that exploits the characteristics of ADS-B transmission signal in the 978 MHz band (Universal Access Transceiver - UAT) to determine its authenticity. We will leverage our proven RF signal processing algorithms along with multi-target tracking filters to develop a message authentication system that is optimized for the UAT infrastructure. Phase I effort will evaluate and compare the various feasible approaches using metrics such as latencies and false positive and negative alarm rates. Phase II effort will implement a retrofit prototype system in collaboration with BAE and Raytheon that will demonstrate performance of the proposed algorithms using above defined metrics under actual air-traffic conditions and injected spoofed/jammed ADS-B messages. |
| Benefits: |
The proposed ADS-B authentication system has both military as well as commercial applications. DoD will certainly benefit by having a robust countermeasure against potential malicious denial of airspace or more benign bad transmissions. Besides being able to flag the spoofed ADS-B messages, under certain conditions, the proposed system may be able to provide a localization solution that could be used to suppress the spoof attack source from generating further attacks. Commercial applications may involve working with the standards groups and avionics manufacturers to incorporate the proposed authentication system either within the Minimum Operations Performance Standards (MOPS) for ADS-B or be offered as a standard or add-on capability of the transponder equipment and will provide an independent check for bad data that may be generated due to system malfunctions on the transmitting or receiving system (which may be an airborne or a ground receiver). |