Received: 11 May 2022 Revised: 1 February 2023 Accepted: 23 February 2023
DOI: 10.33012/navi.595
NAVIGATION, 70(3) Licensed under CC-BY 4.0 © 2023 Institute of Navigation
ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Authentication of Satellite-Based Augmentation Systems
with Over-the-Air Rekeying Schemes
Jason Anderson* Sherman Lo Andrew Neish Todd Walter
1 INTRODUCTION
In this work, we delineate a complete satellite-based augmentation system
(SBAS) authentication scheme, including over-the-air re-keying (OTAR) and dis-
cuss how this proposed scheme meets necessary security levels and desirable traits
for SBAS stakeholders, including backward compatibility, data efficiency, and
quick time to first authenticated fix (TFAF). Moreover, this new scheme can be
expanded in response to additional stakeholder feedback. This work addresses the
complete authentication scheme design, including the connecting receiver hard-
ware requirements needed for maintenance schedules, key updates, and scheme
maintenance, and uses a full-stack Monte-Carlo SBAS simulation to test and
evaluate its performance. This work builds on and expands on our previous work
(Anderson et al., 2021) and includes updated security details as well as additional
results and definitions based upon SBAS Stakeholder feedback.
Aeronautics and Astronautics
Stanford, California
United States of America
Correspondence
Jason Anderson
Email: jand271@stanford.edu
Abstract
Here we delineate a complete satellite-based augmentation system (SBAS)
authentication scheme, including over-the-air rekeying (OTAR), that uses the
elliptic curve digital signature algorithm (ECDSA) and timed efficient stream
loss-tolerant authentication (TESLA) without the quadrature (Q) channel. This
scheme appends two new message types to the SBAS scheduler without over-
burdening the message schedule. We have taken special care to ensure that our
scheme (1) meets the appropriate security requirements needed to prevent and
deter spoofing; (2) is compatible with existing cryptographic standards; (3) is
flexible, expandable, and future-proof to different cryptographic and imple-
mentation schemes; and (4) is backward compatible with legacy receivers.
The scheme accommodates a diverse set of features, including authenticating
core-constellation ephemerides. We discuss the SBAS provider and receiver
machine state and its startup, including its use by aircraft that traverse differing
SBAS coverage areas. We tested our scheme with existing SBAS simulation and
analysis tools and found that it had negligible effects on current SBAS availabil-
ity and continuity requirements.
Keywords
authentication, over-the-air rekeying, SBAS, TESLA