6/16/2016 August Schiess, CSL
Written by August Schiess, CSL
With the advent of GPS on our smartphones, using GPS signals as a wayfinding tool has become part of our everyday lives. Many things can interrupt this signal path, though, including benign obstacles like tall buildings, or malicious attacks from those trying to purposely distort the signal to cause harm.
To mitigate these signal interruptions, aerospace engineering graduate student Yuting Ng, led by CSL Assistant Professor Grace Gao, developed a technique that combines separate satellite signals into a single signal that is strong enough to offset any disruptions.
The technique is detailed in the paper “Mitigating Jamming and Meaconing Attacks Using Direct GPS Positioning,” which won Best Paper Award at the 2016 IEEE/ION Position Location and Navigation Symposium.
“Instead of analyzing them separately, this technique takes the power from all the signals to make a really strong peak that will rise above the noise,” said Ng. “So even if one signal is unavailable, the peak might shift a little bit, but it still provides a sufficient combined signal.”
Employing this technique will not only help prevent faulty GPS signals, but it will also specifically indicate if the signal is being intentionally attacked, thanks to advanced positioning and timing.
After developing this technique, Ng is working on new applications for this work, including integrating real-time street-view video with GPS directions.
“We are very excited to work in the area of GPS resilience and robustness, and help by pushing the research frontier forward,” said Gao, an assistant professor of aerospace engineering.