infiniDome Highlights Technology Behind GPS Jamming Systems, Countermeasures
infiniDome, an Israeli developer of anti-GPS jamming systems, recently released a white-paper report specializing in various GPS jamming technologies, in addition to countermeasures (similar to the corporate’s own GPSdome product). While GPS jamming won’t be front-of-mind for a lot of drone operators, each government and civilian clients worldwide are vulnerable to GPS disruption techniques, which may send expensive drones falling from the sky as hackers use easily-acquired tools to attack the GPS access of drone units. Since the satellite-based GPS signal that truly reaches vehicles and drones is fairly weak, using an RF emitter at the identical frequencies at which GPS operates can have catastrophic effects, as was seen in Zhengzhou, China, when an attack on a lightweight show saw a whole bunch of drones fall to the bottom.
The paper discusses the several sorts of attacks jammers try with the intention to bring drones down, in addition to technologies to counter them. Typically, the denial of service attacks on GPS networks are made by powerful RF emitters, which may use a wide range of methods to attempt to interfere with the satellite connection between a drone or vehicle and the satellite networks above. To counter this, anti-jamming devices can either attempt to redirect the high-frequency beams (using beam forming or steering) or to attenuate attacking frequencies and create “null zones”, that are more practical but tougher to roll out. Infinidome’s own product is a smaller form-factor “null steering” unit, with antenna sensors that may independently fight off attempts at signal jamming, aiding in uninterrupted operation.
infiniDome’s technology has already seen real-world use, with the case study highlighting the successful use of their product to counter Syrian attempts to jam Israeli drones within the Golan Heights region engaged in each business and military tasks. In side-by-side testing, a video provided by infiniDome showed drones protected using the GPSdome system were able to tell apart sophisticated jamming techniques like mimicking real GNSS systems from the actual signal, allowing them to operate constantly while other drones failed to take care of their GPS connection. As awareness of drone security increases worldwide, operators should consider whether to adopt systems to counter GPS jamming and protect their drones from being brought down by bad actors.
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