ADS-B Crowd-Sensor Network and Two-Step Kalman Filter for GNSS and ADS-B Cyber-Attack Detection

Abstract

Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast is an Air Traffic Control system in which aircraft transmit their own information (identity, position, velocity, etc.) to ground sensors for surveillance purposes. This system has many advantages compared to the classical surveillance radars: easy and low-cost implementation, high accuracy of data, and low renewal time, but also limitations: dependency on the Global Navigation Satellite System, a simple unencrypted and unauthenticated protocol. For these reasons, the system is exposed to attacks like jamming/spoofing of the on-board GNSS receiver or false ADS-B messages’ injection. After a mathematical model derivation of different types of attacks, we propose the use of a crowd sensor network capable of estimating the Time Difference Of Arrival of the ADS-B messages together with a two-step Kalman filter to detect these attacks (on-board GNSS/ADS-B tampering, false ADS-B message injection, GNSS Spoofing/Jamming). Tests with real data and simulations showed that the algorithm can detect all these attacks with a very high probability of detection and low probability of false alarm.