Leveraging Waveform for Accurate and Secure Time Transfer (WATTR) to Networked GPS Receivers infrasructure

ABSTRACT: Mayflower proposes an accurate and secure GPS time-aiding service for military receivers in challenged RF environments, namely the Leveraging Waveforms for an Accurate and Secure Time Transfer to Networked GPS Receivers (WATTR) to meet the objectives stated in the solicitation. WATTR will utilize carefully selected commercial and/or tactical waveforms for performing an initial time transfer to a military GPS receiver, apply authentication mechanisms that have been developed under a related AF SBIR program for securing this initial time transfer, and apply a network synchronization strategy that has been developed under a related AF SBIR program for scaling this time transfer to a large network. The selected waveforms will offer the best performance among all candidate waveforms based on metrics such as accuracy to UTC, the inherent level of security, and integration/deployment costs. BENEFIT: The proposed WATTR technology would be applicable in a scenario where a network of military radios need to acquire accurate time and is faced with the problems of (1) an adversary actively jamming the GPS frequency bands and (2) an adversary using a spoofing attack on time transfer in the network. The WATTR technology would address these problems by explicitly considering the resulting jammer outage zones and ensuring that its underlying waveform would be able to perform a secure and accurate time transfer to this network. The WATTR technology will also minimize the integration and deployment costs of its underlying waveform. Several commercial waveforms rely on GPS signals as a source of accurate time. For instance, IS-95 requires accurate time since a mobile must be synchronized with the base station in its cell in order to decode its transmissions. Given the presence of a GPS jammer, an IS-95 base station would not be able to obtain accurate time via GPS; the mobiles in its cell would not be able to place or receive calls. The proposed WATTR technology would provide an alternate source of accurate time to an IS-95 base station and other radios that use analogous commercial waveforms.