ADS-B is a solid candidate to become one of the surveillance sources of the future CNS infrastructure, being part of composite systems with layers of independent cooperative (SSR, MLAT) and/or non-cooperative (PSR) systems. 

However, due to its cooperative and dependent nature, ADS-B is vulnerable to several types of threats such as spoofing, data modification or suppressed reports. This is one of the several reasons to introduce cybersecurity features in order to increase the reliability of the system and ensure its feasibility in the future.

This candidate solution targets the introduction of cryptographic algorithms with the objective to authenticate the ADS-B messages broadcasted by the aircraft. For this purpose, this solution will use the additional bits provided by Phase Overlay, a new ADS-B feature defined in EUROCAE ED-102B / RTCA DO-260C and ED-73F / DO-181F normative documents. This new phase modulation (8PSK), which does not interfere with the original pulse position modulation (PPM) and maintains the backwards compatibility, was validated in the SESAR 2020 PJ.14-W2-84d solution; therefore, this project continues with this work, providing an operational purpose for phase overlay.

The objective of this candidate solution is to select an authentication algorithm, adapt it to fit in the new Phase Overlay data capacity and test it under laboratory conditions, targeting a TRL4 maturity level.

The inclusion of authentication features for ADS-B will help to know if an aircraft is real or not, as messages broadcasted by an aircraft will be signed and checked. For example, for a controller, this will help to determine whether, in case two aircraft are transmitting the same ICAO address, which is the real one and which is the one spoofing.

BENEFITS

Enhanced security for ADS-B surveillance system.