An Analysis of GPS Systems: Impact, Vulnerabilities, and Alternatives

This report delves into the Global Positioning System (GPS), examining its impact across various sectors like business, society, education, and the economy. It highlights the positive influences, such as improved efficiency and safety, while also addressing the negative consequences, including potential misuse and security vulnerabilities. The report then explores the vulnerabilities of GPS, specifically focusing on jamming, spoofing, and cyber attacks, detailing how these threats can compromise the system's integrity and lead to serious consequences, particularly in ship navigation. Furthermore, it discusses alternative electronic systems like Galileo, GNSS, and ELORAN, offering potential solutions to mitigate the vulnerabilities of GPS and enhance the reliability of navigation services. The report provides a comprehensive analysis of GPS technology, its challenges, and future prospects.

Navigation

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
Impact of GPS.............................................................................................................................1
Vulnerabilities of using GPS.......................................................................................................3
Outcomes of GPS........................................................................................................................5
Types of navigation systems.......................................................................................................5
CONCLUSION ............................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................7

INTRODUCTION
Global Positioning System (GPS) which is to used to track geographic location of person
or object. In order to process, informations are received from satellite and precise information of
location is provided to user. Informations are processed by using various level of calculations in
order to obtain exact information about speed, time and location of object. Still some issues are
associated with it related to security and authentication of users (Driankov and Saffiotti, eds.,
2013). GPS involves lower level authentication process due to which data can be attacked by
hackers. HERE is one of the leading company providing mapping and navigating services world
wide. This report contains impact and vulnerabilities of GPS systems. On the basis of that
outcomes are also analysed. Various other types of navigation systems are considered.
Impact of GPS
Global Positioning System (GPS) is used to provide location related information to
users. In this data is revived by satellite (New alternative to GPS. 2017). Civilian GPS does
implement any authentication due to which security issues may raise. It has both positive and
negative impact. Some of them are following:
Positive impact
Global positioning system has lots of positive impact. It is influencing every field such as
business, society, economic and education (Ekhaguere and et. al., Honeywell International Inc.,
2013). Through this services quality and effectiveness of work get improved. Some of them are
following:
 Business: GPS plays important role in success of business. Through this government and
private agencies are able to track location of vehicle, by using wireless communication
medium. As they are easily integrated with mobile devices, due to which managing and
processing of system become simple. It also helps by providing navigation facility due to
which driver do not face any difficulty (5 problems with tracking system 2017, 2010). It
can be implemented in various sectors, such as merchandising and amusement purpose
by providing information about speed, navigation, longitude and latitude. It is effective in
every medium such as air, water and land.
 Society: It cause huge impact on society. Through this safety and simplicity of
communication process get increased. by using the service, parents are able to track their
1

children through installing it into their mobile. Some watches are also available
containing this feature. Various ship manufacturing companies are also including this
feature into their system for effective navigation service (Frazier, 2015). It helps to trace
the locations of goods and can be used to rescue in emergency conditions. Along with
this there are various applications of global positioning system in society. Here provides
various app and devices in order to resolve securities issues of society.
 Education: In current scenario, lots of schools are using navigating system in order to
supervise the activity of teachers and students. Some of the subjects are integrated with
this system in order to provide better understanding of concepts. Such as speed,
directions and mapping problems of science and maths. Along with this various practical
sessions are also takes place by using this service (Peeters, Teller and Patrick, Google
Inc., 2015). Different skills such as communication, art and high order thinking projects
are collaborated with this navigation process. There are lots of scope of this technology
in future. Economic: Global positioning system is making huge impact on economy. By
integrating GPS system with other technology performance can be improved. Impact of
GPS can be easily measured because revenue of each sector get increased. Through this
services productivity quality and quantity get improved due to which economy of country
get raise (Psiaki, Miller and Ledvina, Coherent Navigation, Inc., 2014). Rapid change in
technologies takes places due to which standard of implementating technologies also get
increased. Applications and services provided by Here in creating huge increment in
revenue for organisation.
Negative impact
Global navigation system has lots of negative impact on society. Some of them are
following:
 Society: One of the biggest drawback of GPS is it can be used for illegal activity and
cause lots of damage to society. Such as various drug dealers and smuggler. They can use
this applications in order to find any safe location for dropping product to their partner.
Current navigation systems are not containing any proper authentication process. Lack of
authentication process data can be easily hacked by hackers (Kauffman and Raquet,
2014). Availability of jammers can also influence its performance, because it will not
2

able to receive signals. Through tracking and tracing location and phone of individual
violation of law also takes place. As Here is not restricting its use, in that case it can be
used by unauthorised person which can cause big issue related to safety.
Vulnerabilities of using GPS
Global Positioning Systems are provided with weak authentication processing due to
which vulnerability of system get increased. It can be easily hacked and interfaced by hackers
and informations can be theft (Bartels, Elektrobit Automotive Gmbh, 2015). This can be
considered as biggest disadvantage of this device. In this system informations are received from
satellite in the form of signals. By using different devices, informations of signals can be
changed and easily access by unauthorised person. Which may cause theft of information or can
create false interface and collect informations of users. Vulnerabilities of navigation systems are
like jamming, spoofing and cyber attacks. Ship navigation is highly influenced because through
this vessel get distracted from their actual path. Which can way huge consequences, some of
them are following:
 Jamming: In this information or communication channels are interfaced. Usually,
cellular jammer is used in order to distort transmission process of signals. As a result
information will not be received at the base station. In this process takes place at different
level such as network, radar and Wi-Fi. Availability of jamming devices at cheap prices,
helps hackers in order to interrupt service. This is considered as illegal activity and
various laws are their in order to stop such activity. Earley, Here is also not providing
backups facilities for such situations but know they considering various measures. In ship
navigation system, jamming is considered as a serious issue. Through using web and
online GPS software chances of jamming get increased. Hackers can easily change
location of vessels and can cause collision, which cause huge consequences. In order to
resolve such problems new devices are containing anti-jamming devices. Through this
way network and signal interface can be controlled, loss of data can also be reduced.
 Spoofing: This is another technique of interrupting signal processing. In this GPS reviver
will receive wrong information. In order to spoof any GPS network, only small GPS
stimulator is required, and through this network system can be easily distorted. Along
with this it can also break layers of technological security in few minutes. Example of
spoofing is “Pokemon Go”, in this some smartphone users are getting informations
3

without getting outside form their home (Leonard and Bahr, 2016). In order to prevent
this, game developer banned players by terminating account who are getting false
informations, for safety purpose. Along with this various companies had also faced such
issues where confidential information is controlled by external object of organisation.
Companies are facing lots of issues due to stealing of important information which may
impact on the growth. Spoofing is considered as area of research for HERE, they are
implementing various approach for this. Use of spoofing technique increase chances of,
hackers luring ship towards them. Through this activity ship can deviate from its path and
can reach different location. As it is quit difficult to identify the fake sensor, due to which
ships can be easily deviated from its original path. In order to reduce negative effect of
spoofing various anti-spoofing devices are installed into ship navigation system. So that
they can easily identify fake signals. Which help system, by not be deviated towards
false locations and do not get into trouble.
 Hacker interface: As GPS are enabled with low security features. Under this technique,
hackers are able to create false environment of GPS reviver. For this they use to bounce
the information coming from satellites by sending fake informations to user. Through this
user will share location and other details with unauthorised person. Which may cause
danger for society. As connection between GPS devices and satellites are established by
calculating speed, longitude, latitude and orbit. Through this hackers can easily establish
connection by using fake data for calculation. Cyber attack is simple task for hackers,
where they can introduce virus into system in order to corrupt information. Data related
to travelling, route plans and software services can be steeled can used for wrong
purpose. Along with this communication system can be also influenced through this. In
order to prevent hacking and unauthorised access, various safety wells are created. Along
with this access should be provided with permissions. Through this access can be
restricted, which will directly influence security of system. Various other permissions are
provided at satellites also, so that hackers can not create fake environment in order to
access it.
In order to prevents these issues of GPS, currents systems containing various safety
feature. Along with this various level of authentication process also takes place before
establishing connecting with new devices. Along with this availability of jamming and spoofing
4

equipments get reduced. Unavailability of these devices highly affected the hackers, due to
which performance of get improved (Li and et al., 2014). Safety of exchange process is also
maintained. For this selective availability anti-spoofing module(SAASM) can be placed into
satellites. Through this spoofing and jamming activities can be controlled. Military is already
using this safety feature , in order to maintain confidentiality of information. Along with this
various technologies can be implemented at operating system, so that they can access
information in access denied situation.
Jamming , spoofing and cyber attacks make ship navigating system highly vulnerable.
Previously, system does not contain any safety devices. Due to which vulnerabilities of system
get increased. In order to overcome various safety measures are adopted by developers such as
anti-jamming, anti-spoofing and safety walls. Through this access can be provided on
permissions, due to which unauthorised will be blocked. Through this way chances of risk also
get minimised. Along with this transmission and receiving signal is consists radio waves and
path calculation involve orbit.
Alternative Electronic System
In order to overcome vulnerabilities of existing ship GPS application, electronic systems
are also developed as alternative. Some of them are following:
 Galileo System: Through this GPS service, user is able to get precise information of
location compare to other services. It is being created by European Space Agencies. In
this data is provided with global network and forwarded to Galileo control centres,
followed by a redundant communication path. In this data is exchanged by using up-link
station of satellites. It is effectively implemented in ship navigation. Data is processed in
the form of signals, due to which chances of hacking, jamming and spoofing get reduces.
No networking related issues can influence their performance. Second generation Galileo
system is under development phase, which will launched at 2020.
 GNSs: It is a satellites based navigation system, helps by providing location of object
along with time. It is able to provide global coverage. In this signals are transmitted and
received by using encoded formate. In this location is traced by using In-orbit phase of
which is use to calculate fixed location of of object. Performance of system is based on
four factors such as: accuracy, integrity, continuity and availability. On the basis of
factors performance of system is measured. This is mainly preferred for ship navigation
5

system in emergency purpose, as it is able to process faster. It can be easily collaborated
with other devices. iNAT-M200-FLAT is considered as advance version of GNSs
system.
 ELORAN: This is one of the long range navigation system. It consists of cathode ray
tubes therefore, it is quit expensive compare to other GPS services. Navigation
information is provided on the basis of PNT principle, where P stands for position, N
stands for Navigation and T stands for timing. It is able to provide safe navigation
information. Currently, 95% of ships are installed with this GPS service. It uses different
frequencies for day and night navigation. SS LORAN is considered as advance version,
which is able to identify two LORAN location at same time over greater distance. System
consists of cathode tubes due to which size of device increased and development process
become expensive.
 GLONASS: This is also satellite based navigation approach. In which operation takes
place by using radio navigation. Results produces by this GPS system is precise compare
to other systems. It consists of second high budget programming code in order to find
precise location. It provides real time location of individual, along with time and angle. In
order to get perfection in results two types of signals are used, one is of standard
precision and another is of high precision. Along with this coding and encoding takes
place in binary formate. Device consists of coordinate datum in which average location of
north-pole provided as default. GLONASS k1 are currently being used for ship
navigation, where GLONASS k2. GLONASS kM is still under research phase.
 Electronic Chart Display and Information System (ECDIS): It is developed in chart
formate using electronic component. It is able to identify pinpoint location of ship's crew
members. It is mainly considered in emergency condition. Along with this backups are
provided into device in the form of SOLAS which can be used as paper in order to
produce navigational informational. It is provided with automated processing facility
such as route planning, monitoring and automated ETA computation & updating of
location.
 Local VTMS(Vessel Traffic Management System): This is another electronic
navigational system. It is major emphasised on monitoring traffic of different routes. On
the basis of gathered information path is selected in order to move ship. It also provides
6

informations about rain and wind of particular location. In this system transmission and
receiving process is done by using electronic communication process. Therefore,
interface and distributable in channel can be easily controlled and removed.
 Radio Detection And Identifying Device( RADAR): In this system information is
transmitted and received through electromagnetic waves. It is fitted with ARPA, capable
to monitoring and calculating speed, static and closest point of ship. Information of
location is provided in the form of Real Time draft and email. Along with this
information about closest location is provided with highlights, locations history is
maintained and updates are also provided to system.
Alternative electronic systems are able to resolve all the jamming, spoofing and cyber
steeling issues. As the systems consists of electronic components and information is exchanged
in the form of electromagnetic waves and digital charts. Therefore, no exchange of information
involve ordinary transmission and receiving system. Chances of jamming, spoofing and cyber
attacks get reduce. They are also very effective because they do not depends on network
connectivity.
CONCLUSION
On the basis of above report, global positioning system is considered as an important
invention. It is very useful for business, society and education system. HERE is developing
applications and devices for mapping and navigations various other companies prefer their
products such as ship and Nokia. In order to develop application they consider types but Hard-
wired GPS tracking system affects their economical growth by generating high revenue.
Electronic system can be used to develop alternative of GPS services such as ECDIS, Vessel
Traffic Management System and RADAR that are more efficient that then online services. Along
with this chances of jamming, spoofing and cyber attack also minimized. GLONASS,ELORAN
and Galileo System are also available with their advance versions. They are most efficient and
able to produce results faster, compare to other systems.
7

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Driankov, D. and Saffiotti, A. eds., 2013. Fuzzy logic techniques for autonomous vehicle
navigation (Vol. 61). Physica.
Ekhaguere, D. E. and et. al., Honeywell International Inc., 2013. Systems and methods for
unmanned aerial vehicle navigation. U.S. Patent 8,543,265.
Frazier, C., 2015. Re-Active Vector Equilibrium: A Novel Method of Autonomous Vehicle
Navigation using Artificial Potential Fields (Doctoral dissertation, Université
d'Ottawa/University of Ottawa).
Kauffman, K. and Raquet, J., 2014, May. Navigation via H-field signature map correlation and
INS integration. In Radar Conference. 2014 IEEE (pp. 1390-1395). IEEE.
Leonard, J. J. and Bahr, A., 2016. Autonomous underwater vehicle navigation. In Springer
Handbook of Ocean Engineering (pp. 341-358). Springer International Publishing.
Li, Q., and et. al., 2014. A sensor-fusion drivable-region and lane-detection system for
autonomous vehicle navigation in challenging road scenarios. IEEE Transactions on
Vehicular Technology. 63(2). pp.540-555.
Liu, M. and et. al., 2014, April. Bio-inspired navigation based on geomagnetic for the
autonomous underwater vehicle. In OCEANS 2014-TAIPEI (pp. 1-5). IEEE.
Mehler, B. and et. al., 2016. Multi-modal assessment of on-road demand of voice and manual
phone calling and voice navigation entry across two embedded vehicle
systems. Ergonomics. 59(3). pp.344-367.
Nikovski, D. N. and et. al., Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratories, Inc., 2015. Method and
system for dynamically adapting user interfaces in vehicle navigation systems to
minimize interaction complexity. U.S. Patent 9,170,119.
Rose, C. and et. al., 2014. An integrated vehicle navigation system utilizing lane-detection and
lateral position estimation systems in difficult environments for GPS. IEEE Transactions
on Intelligent Transportation Systems. 15(6). pp.2615-2629.
Schmid, K. and et. al., 2014. Autonomous Vision‐based Micro Air Vehicle for Indoor and
Outdoor Navigation. Journal of Field Robotics. 31(4). pp.537-570.
Shashua, A. and et. al., Mobileye Vision Technologies Ltd., 2017. Autonomous vehicle
navigation based on recognized landmarks. U.S. Patent 9,623,905.
8

Bartels, F., Elektrobit Automotive Gmbh, 2015. Vehicle navigation system. U.S. Patent
Application 14/814,574.
Peeters, E., Teller, E. and Patrick, W.G., Google Inc., 2015. Multi-part navigation process by an
unmanned aerial vehicle for navigating to a medical situatiion. U.S. Patent 8,930,044.
Psiaki, M.L., Miller, I.T. and Ledvina, B.M., Coherent Navigation, Inc., 2014. Vehicle
navigation using non-GPS LEO signals and on-board sensors. U.S. Patent 8,682,581.
Online
5 problems with tracking system 2017. 2010. [Online]. Available through:
<https://www.fleetmatics.com.au/blog/problems-with-gps-tracking>. [Accessed on 14th
June 2017].
New alternative to GPS. 2017. [Online]. Available through:
<http://www.powerandmotoryacht.com/navigation/new-alternatives-gps>. [Accessed on
14th June 2017].
Tracking the world 2017. 2016. [Online]. Available through:
<http://www.trackingtheworld.com/articles/4-types-of-gps-tracking-systems.php>.
[Accessed on 14th June 2017].
9