Cyberattack on Flight Safety: Detection and Mitigation Using LoRa

• Published in: Sensors
• Main Authors: Rony Ronen, Boaz Ben-Moshe
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2021-07-01
• Subjects: ADS-B; cyber; Internet of Things (IoT); LoRa; sense and avoid; Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs)
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/21/13/4610

Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) is the main communication system currently being used in Air Traffic Control (ATC) around the world. The ADS-B system is planned to be a key component of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) NextGen plan, which will manage the increasingly congested airspace in the coming decades. While the benefits of ADS-B are widely known, its lack of security measures and its vulnerability to cyberattacks such as jamming and spoofing is a great concern for flight safety experts. In this paper, we first summarize the cyberattacks and challenges related to ADS-B’s vulnerabilities. Thereafter, we present theoretical and practical methods for implementing an Internet of Things (IoT)-based system as a possible additional safety layer to mitigate the presented cyber-vulnerabilities. Finally, a set of simulations and field experiments is presented to test the expected performance of the suggested IoT flight safety system. We conjecture that the presented system can be implemented in a wide range of civilian airplanes, leading to an improvement in flight safety in cases of cyberattacks or the absence of reliable ADS-B communication.