On the Applicability of Satellite-Based Air Traffic Control Communication for Security

As air traffic control communication moves toward digital systems, there is an emerging trend toward supplementing or even fully substituting the traditional air-ground link in favor of communication between aircraft and satellites. In this article, we analyze coverage and security against wireless attacks of the novel satellite-based version of the Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) technology. We compare it to the widely deployed terrestrial ADS-B system, which is known to be insecure and is inherently unable to provide coverage in some parts of the global airspace, such as oceans and polar regions. Our analysis shows that satellites can provide vast advantages in such non-surveillance areas. However, they are as fundamentally insecure as terrestrial ADS-B.