Personal Privacy Device Interference in the WAAS

B.J. Potter, Karl Shallberg, Joe Grabowski

Abstract:	The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS) Monitoring Team has investigated increases in Radio Frequency Interference (RFI) events observed since 2009. The Oklahoma City-based WAAS Monitoring Team initially observed in-creased RFI events at certain WAAS Reference Stations (WRSs). The major source for this increase in RFI events has been attributed to Global Positioning System (GPS) maskers used in motor vehicles for personal privacy. The use of these Personal Privacy Devices (PPDs) is observed in WRS operation via a response in the Automatic Gain Control (AGC) and the signal to noise ratio (C/N0) report-ed by the reference receivers. More importantly, the PPDs can occasionally cause the WAAS receivers to lose track-ing on some GPS or WAAS Geostationary Earth Orbit (GEO) satellites. To date, there have been no WAAS ser-vice degradations attributed to these PPD events. This paper will analyze what the WAAS Monitoring Team has observed from these PPD events and will review the in-vestigation activities that took place at the WRSs near Chicago, Houston, Boston and Washington, DC. The pa-per will present the results of a spatial analysis study to assess the risk to WRSs posed by PPDs based on their location relative to nearby roads. It will also review a simulation of the effect of increased PPD usage on WAAS service. Lastly, it will discuss the next steps for how WAAS will respond to the inevitable presence and operation of PPDs around reference stations.
Published in:	Proceedings of the 25th International Technical Meeting of the Satellite Division of The Institute of Navigation (ION GNSS 2012) September 17 - 21, 2012 Nashville Convention Center, Nashville, Tennessee Nashville, TN
Pages:	2868 - 2874
Cite this article:	Potter, B.J., Shallberg, Karl, Grabowski, Joe, "Personal Privacy Device Interference in the WAAS," Proceedings of the 25th International Technical Meeting of the Satellite Division of The Institute of Navigation (ION GNSS 2012), Nashville, TN, September 2012, pp. 2868-2874.
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