Locating multiple GPS jammers using networked UAVs

Recent technologies, such as, Internet of Things and cloud services, increases the usage of small and low-cost networked unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), which needs to be robust against malicious global positioning system (GPS) attacks. Due to the availability of low-cost GPS jammers in the commercial market, there has been a rising risk of multiple jammers and not just one. However, it is challenging to locate multiple jammers because the traditional jammer localization via multilateration is applicable for only a single jammer case. Also, during a jamming attack, the positioning capability of an on-board GPS receiver is compromised given its inability to track GPS signals. We propose a simultaneous localization of multiple jammers and receivers (SLMR) algorithm by analyzing the variation in the front-end signal power recorded by the GPS receivers on-board a network of UAVs. Our algorithm not only locates multiple jammers but also utilizes these malicious sources as additional navigation signals for positioning the UAVs. We design a Gaussian mixture probability hypothesis density filter over a graph framework, which is optimized using a Levenberg-Marquardt minimizer. Using a simulated experimental setup, we validate the convergence and localization accuracy of our SLMR algorithm for various cases, including attacks with a single jammer, multiple jammers, and a varying number of jammers. We also demonstrate that our SLMR algorithm is able to simultaneously locate multiple jammers and UAVs, even for a larger transmitted power of the jammers.