The necessity for precision in networks, significantly people who help essential infrastructure, has by no means been extra acute. Positioning, Navigation, and Timing (PNT) companies have grow to be indispensable, enabling exact synchronization and coordination throughout numerous sectors comparable to telecommunication, transportation, vitality and finance. At its core, PNT depends on alerts from world navigation satellite tv for pc programs (GNSS) like GPS, Galileo, and GLONASS to offer correct location and timing info. These alerts are important for a variety of functions, from guiding plane and ships to synchronizing monetary transactions and energy grid operations. Nevertheless, the widespread dependence on GNSS alerts additionally exposes essential infrastructure to vulnerabilities and dangers, making it prone to disruptions attributable to sign jamming, “spoofing” and different types of interference.
These vulnerabilities stem from their reliance on radio frequency transmissions, which will be simply disrupted or manipulated by malicious actors. For instance, GPS jamming entails the transmission of interference alerts that overpower legit GNSS alerts, inflicting receivers to lose lock and fail to offer correct positioning and timing info. Equally, GPS spoofing entails the transmission of false alerts that mimic legit GNSS alerts, main receivers to calculate incorrect positions or timestamps. These vulnerabilities pose vital dangers to essential infrastructure, as they will disrupt important companies, compromise security and even facilitate cyberattacks concentrating on delicate programs. As such, enhancing the resilience of PNT companies has grow to be a high precedence for governments, trade stakeholders and cybersecurity consultants alike, necessitating the event of strong options able to mitigating these dangers and making certain the integrity of essential infrastructure operations.
Why Addressing PNT Vulnerabilities is Now Crucial
Current incidents have underscored a few of the vulnerabilities inherent in PNT companies, significantly in essential sectors like aviation. In Might 2024, Reuters reported on a pointy improve in GPS jamming and spoofing in areas near battle zones comparable to Ukraine. There are extensive experiences of incidents rising across the Baltic States because the expertise is used to divert enemy drones. It is a downside for contemporary airliners which, whereas outfitted with an array of sensors to watch their place, nonetheless rely to a big diploma on GPS. If spoofing or jamming happens, GPS could must be switched off altogether and can, most often, want to stay off throughout the flight. This will result in vital delays in take-offs and landings. Lauri Soini, a Finnair pilot and Finnish Pilots Affiliation Security and Safety Committee Chair, stated, GPS jamming “now happens in an space extending from Poland throughout the Baltic States to the Swedish and Finnish coasts, affecting low altitude and maritime visitors.”
The Nationwide Enterprise Aviation Affiliation (NBAA) has additionally reported an uptick in incidents of GPS disruption. Pilots are reporting navigation errors, flight deviations and compromised security throughout essential phases of flight, all attributable to spoofing and jamming. The implications additionally prolong past particular person flights to broader airspace administration and visitors management programs, the place correct and dependable PNT companies are indispensable for making certain the secure and environment friendly movement of air visitors.
Aviation shouldn’t be the one sector the place GPS jamming and spoofing is a priority. Maritime vessels rely closely on GPS and different PNT programs for navigation, route planning and collision avoidance. GPS-based timing and synchronization are additionally integral to the operation of transportation networks, together with railways, highways and public transit programs. The web and telecommunications networks, together with mobile networks and satellite tv for pc communications programs additionally depend on exact timing and synchronization for seamless connectivity and information transmission. The expertise additionally underpins the synchronization of energy grids, sensible meters and different essential elements within the vitality sector.
Put merely, the dangers inherent to PNT vulnerabilities are profound and far-reaching.
Authorities Mandates and Rising Business Requirements
Understanding the criticality of PNT resilience, governments at the moment are taking motion and introducing a number of mandates and frameworks to make sure increased requirements of reliability and safety. Notably, the US authorities’s Govt Order 13905 emphasizes the necessity for the accountable use of PNT companies to strengthen nationwide resilience:
“The nationwide and financial safety of america is dependent upon the dependable and environment friendly functioning of essential infrastructure. Since america made the International Positioning System accessible worldwide, positioning, navigation, and timing (PNT) companies offered by space-based programs have grow to be a largely invisible utility for expertise and infrastructure, together with {the electrical} energy grid, communications infrastructure and cellular gadgets, all modes of transportation, precision agriculture, climate forecasting, and emergency response. Due to the widespread adoption of PNT companies, the disruption or manipulation of those companies has the potential to adversely have an effect on the nationwide and financial safety of america. To strengthen nationwide resilience, the Federal Authorities should foster the accountable use of PNT companies by essential infrastructure house owners and operators.”
This order outlines particular actions for enhancing the safety and resilience of essential infrastructure by mitigating dangers related to the disruption or manipulation of PNT companies.
Supporting these mandates, a number of frameworks and requirements have been established to information organizations in enhancing their PNT programs. The NIST 8323.1 Cybersecurity Framework for PNT Profile, developed by the Nationwide Institute of Requirements and Expertise, affords a complete strategy to assessing and mitigating cybersecurity dangers particular to PNT companies. It outlines a set of cybersecurity actions, desired outcomes and informative references tailor-made to the distinctive traits and necessities of PNT operations.
Equally, the IEEE Resilient PNT P1952 Commonplace focuses on establishing resilience necessities for PNT programs. Developed by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, this customary defines a framework for assessing the resilience of PNT companies in opposition to a variety of threats and hazards. It addresses key elements comparable to system structure, redundancy and interoperability, making certain that PNT options can proceed to function successfully in difficult environments.
Along with these steerage frameworks, the DHS Resilient PNT Conformance Framework and CISA Federal PNT Companies Acquisition Steering play pivotal roles in selling the resilience and safety of PNT companies. The DHS framework affords a structured strategy to evaluating and certifying the resilience of PNT options, offering organizations with clear standards for assessing their capabilities and figuring out areas for enchancment. The CISA steerage outlines finest practices and procurement methods for buying dependable and safe PNT companies, guiding federal businesses in deciding on distributors and options that meet their particular wants and safety necessities. Collectively, these frameworks and steerage paperwork kind a complete toolkit for enhancing the resilience and safety of PNT companies, safeguarding essential infrastructure and nationwide safety pursuits.
VIAVI Portfolio of Options for Assured PNT
VIAVI’s SecurePNT™ with SecureTimeSM Companies represents a serious development in safeguarding essential infrastructure in opposition to the vulnerabilities inherent in conventional GPS and GNSS programs. By integrating Fugro AtomiChron® atomic clock expertise, VIAVI offers a extremely correct and secure timing reference for PNT synchronization, making certain resilience in opposition to exterior threats comparable to sign jamming, spoofing and interference. This resolution affords a complete strategy to enhancing the integrity and reliability of PNT companies, addressing the evolving safety challenges confronted by telecommunications, transportation, vitality, public security and protection sectors.
Included within the portfolio is the CLAW GPS Simulator, which offers an artificial GPS sign throughout the staging part of community deployments. On this part, RAN and Core tools could also be positioned indoors for testing with out entry to an exterior GPS antenna. The CLAW GPS Simulator affords a brief resolution, making certain that the RAN operates seamlessly and permits for uninterrupted testing and validation of PNT companies.
It additionally contains the PNT-6200 Collection, which contains a variety of time and frequency reference options designed to reinforce the resilience and reliability of PNT companies in telecommunications networks. This affords exact timing synchronization, frequency stability and sign distribution capabilities, making certain that essential community infrastructure stays synchronized even in difficult environments. By leveraging the PNT-6200, operators can deploy resilient PNT infrastructure that meets the stringent necessities of contemporary networks, supporting the seamless operation of essential companies and functions.
Current occasions, comparable to geopolitical conflicts, together with the modernization of community infrastructure and the precision it requires, have made PNT resilience an agenda-topping problem. VIAVI SecurePNT™, now enhanced with Fugro AtomiChron® SecureTimeSM expertise, affords a technique to meet this problem head-on, permitting networks to be deployed with uninterrupted connectivity whereas safeguarding essential infrastructure in opposition to rising threats. For extra info, click on right here.
