Michael Finke

Towards a more secure ATC voice communications system

Contradictory to communication safety in the aviation field communication security has received relatively little attention to date, although the threats regarding air traffic security have been rapidly increasing in recent years. Within the project GAMMA (Global ATM Security Management) the German Aerospace Center (DLR) is developing a prototype to support air traffic controllers (ATCO) in detecting intrusions into the air ground voice system and therefore allow subsequent mitigating actions to be conducted.

Towards validating a security situation management capability

With SESAR and NextGen readying towards implementing novel operational concepts and technical enablers in ATM/CNS, the question of how to manage security in a dynamic environment across a highly distributed and networked system gains higher attention. The Global ATM Security Management project (GAMMA) addresses the development of such a security situation management capability. Following the September 11 attacks and major large-scale outages of critical infrastructures, the security of air navigation has emerged as a critical capability gap. On-going transformation programs like SESAR and NextGen are moving into the deployment phase with limited to none tangible security solutions. GAMMA addresses this gap by investigating a security situation management capability. The framework of this capability is devised as a distributed network of aviation stakeholders that jointly collaborate in identifying and localizing security incidents while considering the constraints given by the different participants, national responsibilities, and collaboration-related requirements. This paper addresses the preparatory work for the validation of an initial security situation management capability. For that purpose, project partners setup a joint configuration and trial network for the security functions and systems developed in the frame of a real-time human-in-the-loop simulation. The simulation results have been measured against the mapping of the operational concept and validation requirements, in particular in terms of situational awareness on the operator side and networked incident management response. These results will inform the further validation activities of the project.

Application of visual and instrument flight rules to remotely piloted aircraft systems: A conceptual approach

The non-segregated participation of remotely piloted aircraft systems (RPAS) into civil air traffic is still a big challenge with many open questions, especially in terms of airspace integration, traffic handling and aircraft certification. One of the most basic and most natural regulatory requirements in aviation is the application of flight rules as written down in ICAO Annex II. This existing regulation is on one hand per definition not restricted to manned aviation, on the other hand it points to the need of finding a way to apply these flight rules also to RPAS, which has already been a known key issue for a long period of time, but which is not yet completely solved by now. Many ANSPs impose only few requirements for RPAS operations under instrument flight rules, but the application of visual flight rules to RPAS operations is more demanding, e.g. in terms of detect-and-avoid capabilities, navigation, right-of-way, aerodrome operations and others. Many of the worldwide research activities related to RPAS set the focus on developing technical solutions to reproduce these pilot-typical capabilities such as the see & avoid capability, and it should be just a question of time, until such a sensor-based technology will be available. But the introduction of these devices will most probably imply a significant change in terms of navigation, perception of the aircraft environment and decision making compared to manned aviation. The question how to apply visual and instrument flight rules to RPAS will still not be completely answered. Starting from ICAOs Manual on Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems (ICAO Doc 10019), this paper looks beyond required technical capabilities and gives a renewed definition of flight rules. This definition is especially designed for both manned and unmanned aviation without significantly changing or lowering the standards for manned aviation. Based on several conceptual studies, which were performed within the scope of the DLR research activities for traffic management and integration of unmanned aircraft, this paper provides a simple guideline for the application of these re-defined - or modernized - flight rules in analogy to the existing rules. It discusses manned and unmanned flight operations in non-segregated and segregated airspace as well as unmanned visual-line-of-sight operations in terms of navigation, surveillance, tactical ATM decision making and flight pre-notification, following existing procedures as far as possible. The basic ideas behind these procedures are outlined, but separately from aspects resulting from distinct technical solutions (such as secondary radar and transponders) or human factors (such as visibility minima) in order to cover the whole bandwidth of manned and unmanned flight operations. In this context, basic terms are also redefined.

Enhancing Air Traffic Management Security by Means of Conformance Monitoring and Speech Analysis

This document describes the concept of an air traffic management security system and current validation activities. This system uses speech analysis techniques to verify the speaker authorization and to measure the stress level within the air-ground voice communication between pilots and air traffic controllers on one hand, and on the other hand it monitors the current air traffic situation. The purpose of this system is to close an existing security gap by using this multi-modal approach. First validation results are discussed at the end of this article.

A comprehensive approach for validation of air traffic management security prototypes: A case study

Security in air traffic management is still a rather new challenge and receives increased interest during recent years. This implies that new security concepts and systems are developed. Usually all systems have to go through several validation cycles to reach a higher technical readiness level. As no well-established validation approach is available which considers the special aspects of security this forms an additional barrier when developing air traffic control security systems. This is true because suitable validation approaches have to be developed first. The latter includes the risk of forgetting something, when the development is not initiated in a structured way. Within the air traffic security project GAMMA such an approach has been developed and applied to a set of seven prototypes. Based on the European Operational Concept Validation Methodology and a Security Risk Assessment Methodology, this approach identifies additional security controls, system requirements, validation objectives and key performance indicators. These are the driving elements for the design of the validation setup and procedure The paper demonstrates the feasibility of this new approach using one specific example, the Secure Air Traffic Control Communications prototype. The paper describes the approach and the resulting validation setup and procedures in detail. It briefly describes the obtained results for the developed prototype as one specific use case of the approach.