The L-band Digital Aeronautical Communications System (LDACS), the worldwide first true integrated Communication, Navigation and Surveillance (CNS) system, is in the process of being standardized at the International Civil Aviation Organization …
The capacity of current aeronautical datalinks is reaching its limits and becomes a hindrance to the growth of worldwide civil aviation. To modernize Air Traffic Management (ATM) and digitize aeronautical communications, successors for current …
Aeronautical communications still heavily depend on analog radio systems, despite the fact that digital communication has been introduced to aviation in the 1990’s. Since then, the digitization of civil aviation has been continued, as considerable pressure to rationalize the aeronautical spectrum has built up. In any modern digital communications system, the threat of digital attacks needs to be considered carefully. This is especially true for safety-critical infrastructure, which aviation’s operational communication services clearly are. In this article, we reverse the traditional approach in the aeronautical industry of looking at a system from the safety perspective and assume a security-oriented point of view. We use the lens of security properties to review the requirements and specifications of aeronautical communications infrastructure as of 2021 and observe that most standards lack cybersecurity as a key requirement. Furthermore, we review the academic literature to identify possible solutions for the lack of cybersecurity measures in aeronautical communications system. We observe that most systems have been thoroughly analyzed within the academic security community, some for decades even, with many papers proposing concrete solutions to missing cybersecurity features. We conclude that there is a systematic problem in the design process of aeronautical communication systems. We provide a list of eight key findings and recommendations to improve the process of specifying such systems in a secure manner.
Since the beginning of the century, an increasing amount of air traffic has pushed current aeronautical communication systems to their limits. Therefore, a modernization process is ongoing, envisioning to digitalize previously analog systems and …
Since the beginning of the century, an increasing amount of air traffic has pushed current aeronautical communication systems to their limits. Therefore, a modernization process is ongoing, envisioning to digitalize previously analog systems and …
In Europe the Single European Sky air traffic management master plan foresees the introduction of several modern digital data links for aeronautical communications. The candidate for long-range continental communications is LDACS. LDACS is a …
Aeronautical communications systems are currently undergoing a modernization process. Analogue legacy systems shall be replaced with modern digital alternatives, offering higher bandwidth, increasing capacity and paving the way for Unmanned …
Public Law 115-254, The FAA Reauthorization Act of 2018, states: “It is the sense of Congress that the Administration should, in consultation with appropriate Federal agencies and industry stakeholders, periodically review the use or proposed use of …
Growth of civil air traffic and new entrants into the air transportation sector such as Unmanned Aeronautical Vehicles (UAV) pose a great challenge for air traffic management and its supporting Communication, Navigation and Surveillance (CNS) …
The Ground Based Augmentation System (GBAS) is the cornerstone for enabling automated landings without the Instrument Landing System (ILS). Currently GBAS is evolving to GBAS Approach Service Type-D (GAST-D) for Category (CAT) III landings. This development towards GBAS GAST-D extends GBAS via the use of multiple frequencies (L1/L2 and L5) and the use of multiple global navigation satellite system constellations. GBAS requires correction data to be broadcast to aircraft, which is currently handled via the VHF Data Broadcast (VDB) datalink. However, VDB has several known shortcomings: (1) low throughput, (2) small area of operation and (3) no cyber-security measures. In this paper we propose the use of the L-band Digital Aeronautical Communications System (LDACS) for broadcasting GBAS correction data to address these shortcomings. In flight experiments conducted in 2019, we set up an experimental GBAS installation using LDACS. Broadcast data was secured using the Timed Efficient Stream Loss-tolerant Authentication (TESLA) broadcast authentication protocol. Our results indicate that cryptographically secured GBAS data via LDACS can provide GAST-C and GAST-D services with high availability if cryptographic parameters are chosen appropriately.