Intrusion detection for airborne communication using PHY-layer information

Abstract

With passenger and cargo traffic growing rapidly worldwide, and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) poised to enter commercial airspaces, a secure next generation of air traffic management systems is required. Recent articles in the academic and hacker community highlight crucial security challenges faced by integral parts of these next generation protocols, with the most dangerous attacks based on classic message injection. In this article, we analyze the possibility and effectiveness of detecting such attacks on critical air traffic infrastructures with a single receiver based on physical layer information. Using hypothesis testing and anomaly detection schemes, we develop an intrusion detection system (IDS) that can accurately detect attackers within 40 s.