Spoofing Resilient GNSS Equipment Architectures

Objective

Define and evaluate certifiable GNSS Spoofing Resilient Equipment architectures that extend beyond the vulnerable single-antenna single-receiver baseline while preserving clear equipment boundaries and testable claims.

Technical scope

• Model the Appendix W equipment configurations: MOPS-compliant baseline, receiver-integrated navigation solution and aircraft-integrated sensor solution.
• Identify necessary and sufficient conditions for successful spoofing and map equipment vulnerabilities to available defenses.
• Allocate ICD checks, inference, deduction and direct-comparison functions across sensors and equipment interfaces.
• Define architecture-specific claims, interfaces, failure modes and verification evidence without extending scope to ATC or human-intelligence functions.

Expected deliverables

• Resilient equipment architecture models
• Vulnerability-to-defense allocation matrix
• Interface and failure-mode analysis
• Architecture-specific verification and certification claim framework

About the GSDM project

Aircraft depend on GPS and Galileo every second they fly, and GNSS jamming and spoofing have become a real, daily threat to aviation around the world. GSDM is a multi-year research program led by ÉTS in partnership with the avionics manufacturer CMC Electronics, and funded through an NSERC and CRIAQ collaborative R&D grant. Its goal is to detect, mitigate and recover from GNSS jamming and spoofing in aviation receivers, and to help write the standards that will certify that equipment. As a GSDM student, you will work on problems that matter to real aircraft, alongside the industry engineers who build certified avionics. Your work will be tested on simulators, software-defined radios and real receiver data, and it can feed directly into international standards such as RTCA Appendix W. The program spans signal processing, detection theory, estimation, integrity monitoring, inertial navigation and systems engineering. Whether you like mathematics, algorithms or hands-on laboratory work, there is a project that will challenge you and prepare you for a career in aerospace, navigation or defence. We are looking for curious, rigorous and motivated students who want their research to make flying safer.