Boundary conditions for snapshot-based spoofing detection using OSNMA unpredictable symbols
Shahid, Husnain (Institut d'Estudis Espacials de Catalunya)
Egea-Roca, Daniel (Institut d'Estudis Espacials de Catalunya)
Canzian, Luca (Qascom SRL)
Sarto, Carlo (Qascom SRL)
Pozzobon, Oscar (Qascom SRL)
Reyes-González, J. (European Union Agency for the Space Programme)
Seco Granados, Gonzalo (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona)
López Salcedo, José Antonio (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona)

Date:	2026
Abstract:	Anti-spoofing techniques for Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) receivers are garnering growing interest as crucial facilitators for the deployment of GNSS-based applications and services. To this end, Galileo is providing the Galileo Open Service Navigation Message Authentication (OSNMA), which conveys a set of cryptographic data with the purpose of authenticating the content of the Galileo I/NAV message. Some of these data are unpredictable to the users, and therefore cannot be known in advance and used to generate a counterfeit signal, thus introducing an additional protection level against potential spoofers. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the boundary conditions that make possible the use of such unpredictable symbols for spoofing detection. The proposed technique is referred to as snapshot OSNMA and it is envisaged as a client-server architecture whereby the user gathers a snapshot of the Galileo E1-B signal, extracts a few unpredictable symbols and sends them to a remote server where their authenticity is analyzed and reported back to the user. The problem is formulated using an equivalent binary symmetric channel (BSC), and results show that spoofing detection is possible provided that certain boundary conditions are fulfilled. The proposed technique thus becomes a valuable candidate for the exploitation of OSNMA in snapshot GNSS receivers where neither continuous processing of the GNSS signal nor OSNMA-enabled capabilities are implemented.
Grants:	Agencia Estatal de Investigación PID2020-118984GB-I00 Agencia Estatal de Investigación PDC2021-121362-I00
Note:	Altres ajuts: acords transformatius de la UAB
Note:	OSNMAplus project funded by the European Union Agency for the Space Programme (EUSPA) under contract GSA/GRANT/03/2019/02
Rights:	Aquest document està subjecte a una llicència d'ús Creative Commons. Es permet la reproducció total o parcial, la distribució, la comunicació pública de l'obra i la creació d'obres derivades, fins i tot amb finalitats comercials, sempre i quan es reconegui l'autoria de l'obra original.
Language:	Anglès
Document:	Article ; recerca ; Versió publicada
Subject:	Galileo ; GNSS ; Spoofing ; OSNMA ; Snapshot receiver ; Symbol unpredictability
Published in:	GPS Solutions, Vol. 30, Num. 1 (February 2026) , art. 27, ISSN 1521-1886

DOI: 10.1007/s10291-025-01968-9

16 p, 3.5 MB

The record appears in these collections:
Research literature > UAB research groups literature > Research Centres and Groups (research output) > Engineering > Signal Processing for Communications and Navigation (SPCOMNAV)
Articles > Research articles
Articles > Published articles