ADVA launches GPS backup service to help combat cyberattacks

June 1, 2022 - By Tracy Cozzens

ADVA is enabling service providers to offer GPS/GNSS-backup-as-a-service (GBaaS) to answer the need for operators to safeguard services that rely on positioning, navigation and timing (PNT) information.

Along with spoofing and jamming of GNSS, in-network timing based on network time protocols (NTP) and precision time protocols (PTP) are also increasingly vulnerable to cyber threats.

As a response, ADVA is now empowering service providers to offer GBaaS and enable end users to address new guidelines and standards for redundant PNT architectures. GBaaS meets the latest recommendations for PNT homeland security, including U.S Executive Order 13905. Leveraging ADVA’s aPNT+ technology, GBaaS eliminates the risks and costs associated with GNSS dependence.

“Threats to hamper PNT capabilities are growing, and much of the world’s critical infrastructure is still without adequate protection from GNSS vulnerabilities,” said Gil Biran, general manager of Oscilloquartz, ADVA. “All of that can change when service providers are able to offer GBaaS.”

GBaas is based on ADVA’s aPNT+ platform, which leverages a suite of technologies, including multi-band GNSS receivers and management software based on artificial intelligence and machine-learning.

Service providers can offer ADVA’s aPNT+ protection as a subscription-based service as part of their service-level agreements.

ADVA’s GBaaS solution employs a combination of multi-layer detection, multi-source backup and fault-tolerant mitigation to render timing networks more secure. Embedded in all timing devices, ADVA’s Syncjack technology provides comprehensive and precise synchronization performance monitoring and analytics, enabling the Ensemble Sync Director network management suite to intelligently operate and prioritize multi-source timing feeds across the network.

Onboard multi-band GNSS receivers boost timing accuracy and also protect against attacks like jamming and spoofing. When GNSS is either unavailable or compromised, a dispersed network of autonomous cesium atomic clocks and network backup timing feeds is ready to deliver highly accurate network timing over long periods of GNSS unavailability.