GNSS Interference Along a Highway near an Aircraft Approach Lane: A 5-Month Study

Intentional and unintentional GNSS interference can greatly affect the performance of precise timing and localization in areas such as automated driving or aviation. Nevertheless, reports show that jamming occurs near many European airports that are located close to a highway or in heavy industry areas due to broadcasting of interfering signals. To assess the impact of such potential risks, we investigated interference occurring on a section of highway located both near to an airport and close to logistics centers as part of the Austrian Security Research Program project CATCH-IN. This section of highway is of particular interest, as the highway runs in parallel to the approach path of aircraft and crosses the approach path 3.7 km before the aircraft touches down (the flight altitude is only 200 m above the ground). For this experiment, we distributed six Septentrio Mosaic x5 GNSS receivers as sensors along the highway and monitored this section for five months. We analyzed the data with AGC monitoring, CN0 monitoring, and baseband sample monitoring to identify interference along the highway that could affect sensors along the descending flight trajectory. During the period of this experiment, we saw events that we believe could cause potential safety risks and problems for aviation safety. In our analysis, we focused on the statistical evaluation of the temporal repetitions, in particular the times of day that see more interference and the frequencies at which more interference occurs. Additionally, we analyzed the performance of different algorithms for dealing with large datasets. The results provide new insight into potential monitoring stations near airports and raise awareness of potential risks and vulnerabilities in aviation safety as well as automated driving along highways.