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Secure Tracking Service S-TrackS

Position and timing data in existing asset tracking services are today obtained using open GNSS services like GPS or Galileo OS. These services are however quite vulnerable to spoofing (fraud). It is evident that there would be significant commercial benefits for the ability to provide 100% reliable evidence about the past whereabouts of an asset. Future governmental regulation may also require that service providers are able to reliably report the past wherea-bouts of an asset.



The S-TrackS (Secure Tracking Service) project will provide a solution for applications where the owner, transporter or operator of an asset:

• has commercial interests to be able to provide reliable proof of its past trajectory/route if this can avoid time consuming inspections (e.g. customs)

• requires reliable proof of its position to activate licences or to protect against liability (insurance)

• has an advantage when his positions will be accepted by the authorities as being legally correct (fishery---faster to fish market), so the fisherman can prove that he has been in the dedicated area where he was allowed to fish

• is interested to be able to detect spoofing attacks.

Usage of S-TrackS is actually endless, from observation, maritime, aviation and road containers to rental equipment (boats, planes and cars), as well as fisheries and electronic tagging. The concept also can be used for authentication of previously calculated PVT from other GNSS services. A candidate client will then be provided with proof of authenticated data by comparing both positions.

The intended development consist of two main element developments, a front end recorder that records spectrum snapshots (i.e Recorder) and a back end secure server (Server) that will be capable of processing the recorded raw spectrum samples into authenticated Position Velocity and Timing information.

Our recorder will interface (or be integrated in a later stage) with existing tagging devices, using their communication and authentication means, to transmit the recorded samples to the agent. From this agent the samples will be submitted to the S-TrackS server where reliable PVT will be generated based on these samples. Automated comparison of these PVTs to the other localisation information will provide 100% position and timing information on the evidence against suspects.

Off-line authentication of recorded baseband spectrum snapshots based on secure GNSS sig-nals can be the ultimate and reliable proof of the validity of any historic GNSS position or track, and (in the absence of this) provide an authentic position estimate for each baseband snap-shot.

 

Keywords
navigation
timing
GNSS
positioning
Duration
Research area
Other funding sources
ESA