TITLE:
Analysis of GNSS Interference Impact on Society and Evaluation of Spectrum Protection Strategies
AUTHORS:
Do Alexis Sanou, René Jr. Landry
KEYWORDS:
Critical Applications; Critical Infrastructures; GNSS; Mitigation Strategies; RFI; SATCOM
JOURNAL NAME:
Positioning,
Vol.4 No.2,
May
22,
2013
ABSTRACT: Global Navigation Satellite System
(GNSS) technology is growing fast in our society and new applications are being
introduced at an unprecedented pace. The GNSS products provide worldwide and
real-time services using precise timing information, positioning and synchronization technologies. Within
years, GNSS applications are becoming more accurate and their precision opens
doors to a wide range of applications. Nevertheless, these applications are
susceptible to disruption in the operation of GNSS receivers when malfunctions,
failures or interference occur. This paper’s objective is to make an overall analysis of
GNSS failure impact on society and therefore make a review of GNSS spectrum
protection strategies. In the first three sections of this analysis, we survey
GNSS applications, their importance and their criticality. While questioning
the criticality of GNSS applications, we evaluate their impact on main critical
infrastructures and
particularly the risks of critical dependencies in case of failure or
interference. In the last two sections, we investigate GNSS spectrum
interference in relation to its effects on crucial infrastructures. We review
the principal Radio
Frequency Interference (RFI) sources leading to GNSS and satellite
communications (SATCOM) spectrum issues. Alongside, we study various ways to
mitigate RFI. This process is essential to further develop and standardize
mitigation techniques
and to ensure GNSS spectrum immunity against RFI.