Stress-Testing Flagship Smartphone Models With Real-World GNSS RFI to Determine Real-Time Emitter Localization Capabilities

Benon Gattis, Ethan Pyke, Dennis Akos, Mark Crews, and Stephen Robertson

Peer Reviewed

Abstract:	In 2022, Denver International Airport experienced GPS RFI that disrupted flights for 33 hours before the source was found and shut off. Also in 2022, Dallas Fort Worth International Airport experienced 44 hours of GPS RFI that closed a runway, and in this case the source was never found. Due to the rise of GNSS RFI, much research is being done to explore alternative positioning methods to complement or replace GNSS. These methods require expensive new equipment to be installed for both the providers and clients of the service. Alternatively, this paper demonstrates that a “J911” system that uses crowdsourced mobile phone data to localize an emitter is now feasible, as first described by Scott in 2011. This paper analyzes current flagships smartphone’s and their GNSS chipset to determine RFI localization capabilities, and deploys 15 of the best performing phones to locate a real-world emitter in real-time at Jammertest 2024. GNSS, GPS, jamming, spoofing, localization, RFI, mobile, phone, Jammertest.
Published in:	2025 IEEE/ION Position, Location and Navigation Symposium (PLANS) April 28 - 1, 2025 Salt Lake Marriott Downtown at City Creek Salt Lake City, UT
Pages:	1566 - 1574
Cite this article:	Gattis, Benon, Pyke, Ethan, Akos, Dennis, Crews, Mark, Robertson, Stephen, "Stress-Testing Flagship Smartphone Models With Real-World GNSS RFI to Determine Real-Time Emitter Localization Capabilities," 2025 IEEE/ION Position, Location and Navigation Symposium (PLANS), Salt Lake City, UT, April 2025, pp. 1566-1574.
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