Aerospace and Electronic Systems Magazine November 2017 - 2

In This Issue - Technically
PROVISIONING FOR A DISTRIBUTED ATM SECURITY MANAGEMENT: THE GAMMA APPROACH
Future air traffic management (ATM) will become more complex by having a multitude of tightly interconnected systems requiring the exchange of a large amount of information for their secure and timely
operation. Interconnecting various ATM systems, could potentially open up the systems to more attacks,
thereby increasing vulnerabilities and the overall risk, unless adequate security measures are taken. The
Global ATM security management (GAMMA) project aims to provide a holistic vision for ATM security
management and maintain alignment with the Single European Sky ATM vision of providing safe integrated air transport. In this article, the authors describe the reference model conceptualizing the principles
for ATM security management from GAMMA's perspective.

DATALINK SECURITY IN THE L-BAND DIGITAL AERONAUTICAL COMMUNICATION SYSTEM LDACS
FOR AIR TRAFFIC MANAGEMENT
The Single European Sky Air Traffic Management Research (SESAR) program foresees digital datalink
technologies as an important building block supporting sustainable growth in European air traffic. The
L-band Digital Aeronautical Communications System (LDACS), currently in development in SESAR, is
a corner stone of this future communication infrastructure. LDACS is a cellular broadband system sharing
many technical features with 3G and 4G wireless communications systems. However, the specification of
LDACS does not cover cyber-security, yet. Datalink security would therefore rely solely on higher layer
mechanisms. In this article we present the major outcomes of a threat analysis of LDACS and argue that
datalink security in layer 1 and 2 of LDACS would significantly contribute to the overall security of the
aeronautical telecommunication network by introducing additional layers of security.

ADDRESSING VULNERABILITIES OF THE CNS INFRASTRUCTURE TO TARGETED RADIO
INTERFERENCE
The communication, navigation, and surveillance (CNS) infrastructure is vulnerable to radio-based disruptions. In this article, three different, commonly used CNS systems are analyzed to exemplify how
their vulnerabilities to tampering can be overcome with adequate processing methods and modifications to
hardware. The observations made on these three systems generalize to the broader family of CNS signals,
providing a set of considerations on how the safety of the airspace could be improved by adequately designing future CNS systems.

ADS-B JAMMING MITIGATION: A SOLUTION BASED ON A MULTICHANNEL RECEIVER
An automatic dependent surveillance-broadcast (ADS-B) system is one of the major surveillance systems
for air traffic management, providing identity, position and status information for all cooperating aircraft.
Its increasing use calls for greater and greater attention to the safety and security of its radiofrequency
channel. As a matter of fact, even a low-cost jammer may affect an ADS-B receiver, reducing its capabilities with potential impairments on overall air safety. This article proposes a possible solution: using a multichannel receiver and a Mode S sources separation method, is proposed to mitigate the jamming effects.

ADS-B VULNERABILITIES AND A SECURITY SOLUTION WITH A TIMESTAMP
ADS-B (automatic dependent surveillance - broadcast) is the foundation of NextGen air traffic control,
and all aircraft must be equipped with it by January 1, 2020. Despite the importance of ADS-B, it has been
developed without security considerations and is subject to various types of attacks. A trustworthy ADS-B
system will make the NextGen system more reliable and make air transportation safer. But current safety
measures are inadequate and many research proposals are not yet practical or cost-effective. In this article,
we discuss the security vulnerabilities of ADS-B, challenges of developing ADS-B security schemes, and
current approaches. We also describe our proposed practical method that can reject virtually all spoofed
ADS-B messages by monitoring the signal propagation time between senders and receivers.

IEEE A&E SYSTEMS MAGAZINE

NOVEMBER 2017

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Aerospace and Electronic Systems Magazine November 2017