LOCO GPSI: Detection and Location of GPS Interference/Jamming

Ken Simonsen, Mark Suycott, Robert Crumplar and Shon Sloat

Abstract:	The Global Positioning System (GPS) has clearly emerged as a fundamental utility with widespread private and commercial civilian applications. Many of these are directly related to safety-of-life uses such as all-weather aircraft precision approach and landing, ship navigation in restricted waters, and emergency response vehicle tracking and management. There is a similar dependency within the military not only for vehicle navigation but also in precision weapons employment and command and control of forces and equipment over widely dispersed areas of operation. However, the widespread and ever-increasing dependency on GPS highlights the potential vulnerability of this low power signal to various levels of interference and disruption. Threat systems to GPS exist, are commercially available and have been employed against US Forces in recent operations. The technology is not complex, and even simple, low cost systems could cause significant GPS denial. Unintentional interference is likewise a reality, potentially caused by such innocuous sources as a television reception antenna or a microwave relay tower. In response, mitigations to GPS jamming and interference are in various stages of development and fielding. Near term solutions include adaptive GPS antennas that can “null” toward jammers/interference or alternatively form beams toward desired GPS/GNSS satellites. Advanced signal processing, digital antenna controls, more sophisticated receivers, new GPS signal architecture, and multiple GNSS are other mitigating techniques against jammers/interference. Detecting, identifying, and locating sources of intentional and unintentional interference and efficiently communicating this information to civil/military authorities is another method of responding to the challenge of GPS interference (GPSI) and jamming. It is in this area that the Location of GPS Interferers (LOCO GPSI) technology can play a significant and near term role as part of a comprehensive counter GPSI strategy for the Department of Defense as well as other governmental agencies and organizations. LOCO GPSI is a congressionally directed project, developed to detect and locate sources of unintentional and intentional jamming/interference against GPS, and to assess the effectiveness and utility of such a system. The Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center (SSC) San Diego has successfully developed and demonstrated a prototype system as well as a UAV-compatible miniaturized follow-on (LOCO GPSI Mini Lite). The system today consists of both hardware and software, including a three-element antenna, a three-channel receiver, and a state-of-the-art DF signal processor. Although initially developed and demonstrated on airborne platforms, LOCO GPSI technology is potentially adaptable for ground applications including motor vehicles, stationary posts as well as a hand held variant. In addition, this technology is easily adapted for other frequencies, and could provide similar situational awareness for other GNSS systems.
Published in:	Proceedings of the 17th International Technical Meeting of the Satellite Division of The Institute of Navigation (ION GNSS 2004) September 21 - 24, 2004 Long Beach Convention Center Long Beach, CA
Pages:	555 - 560
Cite this article:	Simonsen, Ken, Suycott, Mark, Crumplar, Robert, Sloat, Shon, "LOCO GPSI: Detection and Location of GPS Interference/Jamming," Proceedings of the 17th International Technical Meeting of the Satellite Division of The Institute of Navigation (ION GNSS 2004), Long Beach, CA, September 2004, pp. 555-560.
Full Paper:	ION Members/Non-Members: 1 Download Credit Sign In