FGI Research Seminar: Protecting the GNSS Reception Chain – from Signals to Measurements

In the September’s FGI Research Seminar a guest lecturer Dr Daniele Borio from the European Comission’s Joint Research Centre will talk about protecting the GNSS reception chain. 

Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) are key enabler for a wide range of applications, from air navigation and precision agriculture to data acquisition for the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). GNSS signals are vulnerable to intentional interference, particularly jamming and spoofing, which pose significant threats to the safety, security, and integrity of these applications. Jamming overwhelms the weak satellite signal, while spoofing broadcasts counterfeit signals to deceive a receiver into providing a false position.

This seminar will explore how to build resilience against these threats by focusing on a multi-layered defense strategy within the receiver itself. We'll examine defenses across the full receiver chain, starting with the hardware level. Here, we'll discuss the role of automatic gain control (AGC) and spectrum monitoring to detect and react to incoming interference. Next, we'll delve into the signal processing level, where sophisticated mitigation algorithms are crucial. We'll cover techniques such as notch filtering, pulse blanking and robust interference mitigation.

Finally, we'll move to the measurement level, where dedicated detection algorithms can be implemented. An overview of recent results from the ESA competition on jammer testing will be given, providing a real-world perspective on the effectiveness of these resilience techniques.

Dr. Daniele Borio received the M.S. degree in Communications Engineering from Politecnico di Torino, Italy, the M.S. degree in Electronics Engineering from ENSERG/INPG de Grenoble, France, in 2004, and the doctoral degree in electrical engineering from Politecnico di Torino in April 2008. From January 2008 to September 2010, he was a senior research associate in the PLAN group of the University of Calgary, Canada. In October 2010, he joined the European Commission's Joint Research Centre (JRC). He is co-recipient of the Institute of Navigation (ION) 2012 Burka Award. He also received the 2023 ION Burka Award for his work on Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) meta-signals. Currently, he is a scientific technical officer in the JRC “Food Security” unit where he supports the European Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) through the European satellite programs, Galileo and Copernicus.

The monthly FGI Research Seminar is a platform, where researchers from FGI and visiting researchers present their findings. The event is open for all, and no registration is needed. You can attend the seminar via Teams or at Vuorimiehentie 5 auditorium, which is located at the ground floor. The presentations are given in English. 

Welcome to the FGI Research Seminar!