Microsemi’s BlueSky GPS Firewall. Photo: Microsemi.

Microsemi has introduced a new solution called BlueSky GPS Firewall, which is designed to provide security protection for GPS-delivered Position, Navigation And Timing (PNT) data. According to Microsemi, BlueSky can be deployed in-line between any standard GPS antenna and stationary GPS receiver to provide protection against GPS signal incidents, both intentional or accidental, before they enter a GPS receiver system.

According to Microsemi, the dependency on PNT is increasingly important to critical infrastructure sectors such as telecommunications, energy, transportation, emergency services, financial services and enterprise infrastructure, and is mainly provided through GPS. Published best practice documents by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) describe steps that can be taken to mitigate outages and disruptions with GPS reception. In alignment with these documents, Microsemi’s new BlueSky GPS Firewall provides infrastructure sectors with a first line of defense against GPS threats to help build out a resilient PNT platform for their infrastructures.

The BlueSky GPS Firewall filters the GPS signal in real time, removing anomalies from the GPS signal before it is consumed by the downstream GPS receiver. This creates a secure barrier against jamming and spoofing, Microsemi stated, and prevents the GPS receiver from being impacted by such incidents. Deployment of the BlueSky GPS Firewall does not require any new cabling or alteration of the pre-existing antenna installation and is interoperable with standard GPS receivers. Additionally, the BlueSky GPS Firewall incorporates an Ethernet interface for remote management and monitoring and includes a secure web interface that any browser can use for configuration and set-up of the device.

The BlueSky GPS Firewall also includes data validation rules based on real, live sky GPS threats, both intentional and unintentional. Microsemi is continuously tracking GPS signal manipulation including spoofing threats, jamming attacks, multipath signal interference, atmospheric activity and other issues that can create GPS signal anomalies, disruptions and outages. These advancements are incorporated into the software platform of the BlueSky GPS Firewall, which can be updated remotely using Microsemi’s TimePictra management system.

In response to the growing number of GPS incidents and their potential threat to critical infrastructure, and to assist customers in rapid adoption, Microsemi is making BlueSky GPS Firewall evaluation kits available in advance of the full production release of the solution.