Pre- and Post-Correlation GNSS Interference Detection within Software Defined Radio

Kevin Sheridan, Yeqiu Ying, Timothy Whitworth

Abstract:	In recent years, GNSS has been included in a rapidly increasing number of applications in various sectors, including those regarded to be critical as they concern safety and financial transactions. A major threat to the widespread adoption and use of GNSS is its vulnerability to signal interference and jamming, which can severely degrade the GNSS service and impact performance. Effects range from a loss of accuracy to complete denial of GNSS services. Mechanisms to counter this threat include stricter regulation on the sale, possession and operation of jamming devices; better enforcement of existing legislation; raising public awareness that RF jammers marketed as privacy protection devices can degrade GNSS over much wider areas than advertised and are in most cases illegal, and better robustness within GNSS-based equipment. Interference detection and characterisation can be a tool to enforce regulations and to better understand the threat in order to produce more effective counter-measures. Nottingham Scientific Limited (NSL) is leading a European Commission-funded project named DETECTOR which will design, develop and validate a low-cost device for detecting GNSS interference and jamming within road transport applications. The device will be capable of operating in a stand-alone mode or as part of a networked solution depending on the needs. Its purpose is to detect and characterise radio frequency interference which can disrupt GNSS-based services. The intention is that the device will be used by police forces, highways authorities, toll operators, ports authorities and governmental organisations to help combat low-cost and do-it-yourself GNSS jamming technologies. The design of the detection device is based on software defined radio (SDR) technology. A real-time software GNSS receiver enables the continuous monitoring of various metrics of the receiver processing and therefore robust detection of the appearance of interference.
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:	3542 - 3548
Cite this article:	Sheridan, Kevin, Ying, Yeqiu, Whitworth, Timothy, "Pre- and Post-Correlation GNSS Interference Detection within Software Defined Radio," Proceedings of the 25th International Technical Meeting of the Satellite Division of The Institute of Navigation (ION GNSS 2012), Nashville, TN, September 2012, pp. 3542-3548.
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