Cyber-physical Threat Monitoring, Localization and Enforcement in Support of Safety Critical Infrastructure and System Operation

Multiple existing safety and liability critical infrastructure components including all segments of transportation, search and rescue, power grid system support, and even some banking operations depend on reliable and robust Position, Navigation, Timing and Communication (PNTC) services. Also the evolution and adoption of safety critical autonomous operations and systems (unmanned autonomous cars/passenger ferries/aerial vehicles/etc.) depend heavily on the unobstructed access to PNTC signals. Unfortunately, it has been determined that PNTC signals are under threat from illegal interference at a level which exceeds the tolerable limit, and which is expected to become even more common due to growing financial, and geopolitical incentives. Signal disruption invariably results in safety and liability noncompliance, increased operator confusion, delayed operations e.g. flight delays, traffic jams, shipping disruptions, and telecom outages. Additional costs are incurred by service and network operators who must respond to the disruption and by the regulatory authorities who must take action to search for and interdict the sources. While substantial effort is dedicated to hardening the critical infrastructure components against interference, there is a very strong need for active involvement and efficient enforcement measures by the frequency managing/spectrum protection authorities on both the national and international levels. To ensure safe and reliable operation of critical infrastructures and autonomous systems, it is increasingly urgent to develop novel solutions for time and cost-efficient detection, localization, and interception of illegal interference sources. The goal of this project is to solve the issue of rapid and cost-effective interference source interdiction to facilitate enforcement against present and future threats. Highlighted activities undertaken to date include: - PNTC RFI monitoring and localization test bed design development and deployment in Trondheim. Multiple data collections including static emitters and receivers, static emitters and a mixture of static and mobile receivers and tests with vehicle borne emitters in 2025. - Extensive system concept test at Jammertest 2023. - Lab capture of a broad cross section of illegal PPD emitters under authority supervision. - Development of conversion software to allow lab captured data to be converted to simulated static and mobile emitter scenarios for target tracking and AI/ML pre-classification algorithm development. - Development of AI/ML techniques for event pre-classification via a mixture of convolutional Tsetlin machines. - Organization of a seminar series to support knowledge exchange on AI/ML threat classification aspects with FFI. Seminar in Oslo 2025 in collaboration with NNF and the Jammertest organizers. - Active dissemination of results by all project partners.

Multiple existing safety and liability critical infrastructure components including all segments of transportation, search and rescue, power grid system support, and even some banking operations depend on reliable and robust Position, Navigation, Timing and Communication (PNTC) services. Also the evolution and adoption of safety critical autonomous operations and systems (unmanned autonomous cars/passenger ferries/aerial vehicles/etc.) depend heavily on the unobstructed access to PNTC signals. Unfortunately, it has been determined that PNTC signals are under threat from illegal interference at a level which exceeds the tolerable limit, and which is expected to become even more common due to growing financial incentives. Over the past several years the combination of ubiquitous, low-cost communications systems and satellite navigation has moved PNTC services into application domains where there are strong privacy and financial motivations for attacks. In particular, widespread use in road-tolling, automotive insurance or fleet-management systems encourages attacks directed at the PNTC signals. Another example of emerging applications increasing the number of PNTC signal disruptions is illegal or indiscriminate use of low-cost anti-drone/counter UAV devices. While substantial effort is dedicated to hardening the critical infrastructure components against interference, there is a very strong need for active involvement and efficient enforcement measures by the frequency managing/spectrum protection authorities on both the national and international levels. To ensure safe and reliable operation of critical infrastructures and autonomous systems, it is increasingly urgent to develop novel solutions for time and cost-efficient detection, localization, and interception of illegal interference sources. The goal of this project is to solve the issue of rapid and cost-effective interference source interdiction to facilitate enforcement against present and future threats. The defence sector presently deals with analogous threats though with a broader threat space including spoofing, sophisticated jamming attacks, wider dynamic power ranges and highly mobile emitters. This project will also integrate the needs of the defence sector into the development of the wide-area malicious signal source detection and localization system with effective AI/ML event pre-screening and fingerprinting, thereby providing the defence sector with the knowledge, results and algorithms that can be adopted for the broader threat space faced in defence sector applications.