GPS Signal Validation via Broadcast Checksums Against Spoofing
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing GPS receivers are vulnerable to reception of corrupted or spoofed satellite positioning data, which can lead to undesirable outcomes such as incorrect navigation and potential malicious control of vehicles or ships.
Innovation Solution
Utilizing a secondary communication channel, such as a digital television broadcast satellite, to provide validation data through encrypted entitlement messages, allowing receivers to verify the authenticity of GPS signals using checksums or hashes, leveraging existing conditional access systems for security.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If GPS signals are transmitted unencrypted for commercial use, then ease of operation is improved, but reliability deteriorates due to vulnerability to spoofing and corruption
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces an intermediary validation mechanism where a secondary communication channel (such as a digital television broadcast satellite) transmits validation data that mediates between the GPS signal source and the receiver. This intermediary provides authentication information without requiring encryption of the original GPS signals, thus maintaining ease of operation while improving reliability through spoofing detection.
2Reliability
If validation data is transmitted through a separate encrypted channel, then reliability is improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies universality by utilizing an existing digital television broadcast satellite infrastructure to carry validation data, rather than creating a dedicated separate communication system. This multi-functional approach allows the same satellite infrastructure to serve both entertainment broadcasting and GPS validation purposes, thereby improving reliability without proportionally increasing device complexity.
Data Source
AI summary
A pay television satellite broadcast includes validation data that can be used to validate authenticity of live global positioning system (GPS) data. The validation data may be included within entitlement messages and encrypted for security and selective reception by authorized receivers. A navigation system may compute checksums of received live GPS data and compare with the validation data for a match. A decision about whether or not to use the live GPS data may be taken based on whether or not the computed checksums match the validation data received via the pay television satellite broadcast signals.