Civilisation and redundancy systems

[dieseltaylor]

Gosh, something no one could have foreseen until now [stable door shut etc] : )

I must admit I had never considered the timing issue as being an important factor.

The UK may have become dangerously over-reliant on satellite-navigation signals, according to a report from the Royal Academy of Engineering.

Use of space-borne positioning and timing data is now widespread, in everything from freight movement to synchronisation of computer networks.

The academy fears that too many applications have little or no back-up were these signals to go down.

Receivers need to be capable of using a variety of data sources, it says.

Dr Martyn Thomas, who chaired the group that wrote the report, told BBC News: "We're not saying that the sky is about to fall in; we're not saying there's a calamity around the corner.

"What we're saying is that there is a growing interdependence between systems that people think are backing each other up. And it might well be that if a number these systems fail simultaneously, it will cause commercial damage or just conceivably loss of life. This is wholly avoidable."

Economic value

Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) such as the US-operated Global Positioning System (GPS) are hugely popular and are finding more and more uses daily.

As well as the car dashboard device that provides directions, sat-nav systems are used by cellular and data networks, financial systems, shipping and air transport, agriculture, railways and the emergency services.

It is not just the excellent positioning that GNSS affords but the very precise timing information these systems deliver that has made them so popular.

The European Commission, in a recent update on its forthcoming Galileo sat-nav network, estimated that about 6-7% of Europe's GDP, approximately 800bn euros (£690bn) annually, was now dependent in some way on GNSS data.

The RAEng report claims to be the first assessment of just how many applications in the UK now use GPS signals and their like, and their probable vulnerability to an outage of some kind.

It says sat-nav signals are relatively weak - equivalent to receiving the light from a bright bulb at a distance of 20,000km - and this leaves them open to interference or corruption.

Possible sources include man-made ones, such as deliberate jamming, and natural hazards, such as solar activity. Both can introduce errors into the data or simply take it out altogether.

"The key thing for us is the concept of cascade failures," said report co-author Prof Jim Norton, the president-elect of BCS - the Chartered Institute for IT. "This is what we characterise as accidental systems - systems that exist, but people don't recognise they exist because they don't understand the interdependencies. There will be a single common point of vulnerability and failure, but it's not obvious."

Dr Thomas added: "We concluded that the UK was already dangerously dependent on GPS as a single source of position, navigation and timing (PNT) data.

"[We concluded] that the back-up systems are often inadequate or un-tested; that the jammers are far too easily available and that the risks from them are increasing; that no-one has a full picture of the dependencies on GPS and similar systems; and that these risks could be managed and reduced if government and industry worked together."

Jamming ban

The report makes 10 recommendations. Three relate to raising awareness of the problems and getting users to assess their own particular vulnerabilities and possible back-up solutions.

Two cover hardware solutions, including the suggestion of a government-sponsored R&D programme to seek better antenna and receiver technologies to enhance the resilience of systems. The report also lauds the land-based eLoran radio navigation system as a very worthy back-up technology.

And five recommendations fall into the policy domain. Chief among these is the urgent suggestion that mere possession of jamming equipment be made illegal.

Criminal gangs use this equipment to hide their activity, for example blocking the GPS tracking systems in the lorries or high-performance cars they seek to steal.

These jammers can be bought off the internet for as little £20. Some are capable of swamping all receivers over a wide area.

"It's already illegal to put GNSS jamming equipment on the market in the UK," said Prof Jim Norton. "The problem is it's not necessarily illegal to hold it, to import or even to advertise it. It doesn't require legislation; it just requires [the telecoms regulator] Ofcom to place a banning order, and we would strongly recommend they do that."

Jonathan.Amos-INTERNET@bbc.co.uk

[Affentitten]

I seem to recall a Tom Clancy style novel where this was the basis of nobbling the US military.

[Michael Emrys]

This is something I have been thinking about for 30 years. Not productively I fear... But it was pretty obvious from the first that becoming dependent on any system like this introduces new vulnerabilities. Taking down the entire system would not likely be a trivial task, but even damaging a part of it could be costly for the victims, and if it happened at a particularly bad time, then you get the cascading effects that the article mentions.

Michael

[Affentitten]

I guess it would be pretty hard to be taking sextant or astrolabe readings from the seat of an F-22.

[dieseltaylor]

The problem is not really war butwhat happens in some sort of solar storm or indeed another satellite equipped to destroy/blanket out/ or alter signals.

For all I know the rail system in the UK is effectively reliant on GPS timing, that goes and rail traffic grinds to a halt. Everybody tries to go by road. You could severely damage a country by knocking out or poisoning just one system.

With commercial satellite launching who checks what a device can do or do you just take someones word that it is a SETI hunter.

[Pak_43]

For all I know the rail system in the UK is effectively reliant on GPS timing, that goes and rail traffic grinds to a halt.

Come on mate, you know that the British railway timetable doesn't rely on GPS timing, it's unit of measure is the geological epoch

[dieseltaylor]

Britsh Rail ... : )

http://www.raeng.org.uk/news/publications/list/reports/Global_Navigation_Systems.pdf

is actually worth a read.. There are interesting examples of what has gone wrong in the past. Also a case study on navigation which would probably interest Somali pirates.

And every 100*200 years there might be one of these Carrington size events:

Examples of large solar flares

The most powerful flare of the last 500 years was the first flare to be observed, on September 1, 1859, and was reported by British astronomer Richard Carrington. The event is named the Solar storm of 1859, or the "Carrington event". The flare was visible to a naked-eye, and produced stunning auroras down to tropical latitudes such as Cuba or Hawaii, and set telegraph systems on fire.[7] The flare left a trace in Greenland ice in the form of nitrates and beryllium-10, which allow its strength to be measured today (New Scientist, 2005).

In modern times, the largest solar flare measured with instruments occurred on November 4, 2003 (initially measured at X28 and later upgraded to X45).[8][9] Other large solar flares also occurred on April 2, 2001 (X20), October 28, 2003 (X17), September 7, 2005 (X17) [10] and February 17, 2011 (X2).[11] [12] In 1989, during former solar cycle 22 two large flares occurred in March, 6 (X15) (see: March 1989 geomagnetic storm) and August, 16 (X20) causing disruptions in electric grids and computer systems.[13] A complete list is available at http://www.spaceweather.com/solarflares/topflares.html

and what Wiki says about the 1859 solar flare

History

Ice cores contain thin nitrate-rich layers that can be used to reconstruct a history of past events before reliable observations. These show evidence that events of this magnitude — as measured by high-energy proton radiation, not geomagnetic effect — occur approximately once per 500 years, with events at least one-fifth as large occurring several times per century.[3] Less severe storms have occurred in 1921 and 1960, when widespread radio disruption was reported.[4]

Sunspots

From August 28, 1859 until September 2, numerous sunspots and solar flares were observed on the sun. Just before noon on September 1, the British astronomer Richard Carrington observed the largest flare,[4] which caused a massive coronal mass ejection (CME) to travel directly toward Earth, taking 18 hours. This is remarkable because such a journey normally takes three to four days. It moved so quickly because an earlier CME had cleared its way.[4]

Magnetic storm

On September 1–2, 1859, the largest recorded geomagnetic storm occurred. Aurorae were seen around the world, most notably over the Caribbean; also noteworthy were those over the Rocky Mountains that were so bright that their glow awoke gold miners, who began preparing breakfast because they thought it was morning.[4]

Telegraph systems all over Europe and North America failed in some cases even shocking telegraph operators.[5] Telegraph pylons threw sparks and telegraph paper spontaneously caught fire.[6] Some telegraph systems appeared to continue to send and receive messages despite having been disconnected from their power supplies.[7]

News coverage

On September 3, 1859, the Baltimore American and Commercial Advertiser reported, "Those who happened to be out late on Thursday night had an opportunity of witnessing another magnificent display of the auroral lights. The phenomena was very similar to the display on Sunday night, though at times the light was, if possible, more brilliant, and the prismatic hues more varied and gorgeous. The light appeared to cover the whole firmament, apparently like a luminous cloud, through which the stars of the larger magnitude indistinctly shone. The light was greater than that of the moon at its full, but had an indescribable softness and delicacy that seemed to envelop everything upon which it rested. Between 12 and 1 o'clock, when the display was at its full brilliancy, the quiet streets of the city resting under this strange light, presented a beautiful as well as singular appearance."[8]

[Tero]

Come on mate, you know that the British railway timetable doesn't rely on GPS timing, it's unit of measure is the geological epoch

Even if they actually did rely on GPS "timing" it has nothing to do with running the lines according to a timetable.

[dieseltaylor]

Annexe A page 33 of the report says different. : )

In fact more things than you can think of with railways.

[dieseltaylor]

Signalling and train control

Infrastructure data collection High

End of movement authority Medium (Terminal)

Medium (Busy lines)

Low (Rural lines)

Supervision to buffer stops High

Speed profile calculation Medium (Terminal)

Medium (Busy lines)

Low (Rural lines)

Train location Medium (Terminal)

Medium (Busy lines)

Low (Rural lines)

Level crossing protection Medium (Terminal)

Medium (Busy lines)

Low (Rural lines)

High speed warning Low

Track-side personnel protection High

Geographical position of the train High

Power supply control High

Advisory station stop Medium (Terminal)

Medium (Busy lines)

Low (Rural lines)

Door control supervision Medium

Train integrity Medium

Train separation Medium (Terminal)

Medium (Busy lines)

Low (Rural lines)

Passenger information systems Pre-trip information Low

On-trip information Low

Management information systems

Fleet management Low

Cargo monitoring Low

Rolling stock maintenance Low

Infrastructure testing and inspection High

.......................................

[dieseltaylor]

Boeing has issued an alert after testing proved that Wi-Fi signals interfered with the navigational equipment on its 737 airplanes.

The aviation website Flightglobal reports that Honeywell Avionics Phase 3 Display Units (DU) used in Boeing’s commercial planes are susceptible to “blanking” – during which the navigational screens go totally blank -- as a result of in-aircraft Wi-Fi signals.

The DU blanking occurred during airline electromagnetic interference (EMI) testing, which covered a range between 100 MHz and 8 GHz. Wi-Fi signals operate at 2.4 GHz or 5 GHz; the testing levels exceeded “all normal scenarios,” Flightglobal wrote.

But Boeing is taking the news very seriously: according to Flightglobal, it has now stalled a proposed plan to outfit a new fleet of 777s with an in-flight high-speed Internet system called eXPhone.

[Cell Phones on Planes: The Risks Are Real]

Despite the security risks posed by the blanking navigation systems, some see the immediate loss of in-flight Wi-Fi and the restrictive policies against cell phones on planes as bigger problems.

“This is a major step back in enjoying in-flight Internet and mobile phone connectivity and needless to say, you’re at the mercy of your carrier’s equipment to keep yourself entertained during the flight. No ‘World of Warcraft’ at 40,000 feet, unfortunately,” technology blog Bright Side of News wrote (with tongue possibly planted firmly in cheek).

This item is interesting in a couple of ways. How great it is to be able to use elcectronic devices on-board and how the airline industry has moved on the safety matter. The second point is that this article stresses the extreme nature of the signal required to do the deed and this is level of testing is going over the top.

What the article does not explain is why terrorist are deemed incapable of designing "laptops" etc which will pass any scan but the electronics are designed for spoofing or jamming. Seems a little bizarre that scissors and liquids can be seen as dangerous whereas electronics are new its OK devices.

AND if as requested a demonstration of what can happen. The logistics of it and the time involved I have no idea.

Geonet is operated by Japan's Geographical Survey Institute (GSI). Work on the array began in 1993, and it has now grown into the largest GPS network in the world, according to the GSI.

Its data show a movement eastwards of up to 4m in coastal areas of Japan.

Dr Ken Hudnut, a geophysicist at the US Geological Survey (USGS) in Pasadena, California, told MSNBC that information resources linking GPS readings to maps, such as driving directions and property records, would have to be changed as a result of the shift.

"Their national network for property boundary definitions has been warped," he explained. "For ships, the nautical charts will need revision due to changed water depths, too (of about 3ft). Much of the coastline dropped by a few feet, too, we gather."