Patent attributes
An air traffic control automatic dependent, WAAS/GPS based, surveillance system (ADS), for operation in the TRACON airspace. The system provides encryption protection against unauthorized reading of ADS messages and unauthorized position tracking of aircraft using multilateration techniques. Each aircraft has its own encryption and long PN codes per TRACON and transmit power is controlled to protect against unauthorized ranging on the ADS-S aircraft transmission. The encryption and PN codes can be changed dynamically. Several options which account for available bandwidth, burst data rates, frequency spectrum allocations, relative cost to implement, complexity of operation, degree of protection against unauthorized users, system capacity, bits per aircraft reply message and mutual interference avoidance techniques between ADS-S, ADS-B Enroute and Mode S/ATCRBS TRACON are disclosed. ADS messages are only transmitted as replies to ATC ground terminal interrogations (no squittering). Derivative surveillance backup systems provide an anti-spoofing capability.
