ONBOARD AUTOMATIC IDENTIFICATION SYSTEM SPOOFING DETECTION MODULE FOR LOW-LATENCY AND RELIABLE MARITIME SURVEILLANCE (ARTES 4.0 SPL 4S 5A.096) - EXPRO+

Objective: The objective is to design, develop and test an Automatic Identification System (AIS) spoofing detection system onboard the satellite for satellite-based maritime surveillance, offeringreliable AIS information with low-latency.TargetedImprovements: Reduce by half the latency of detection of non-reliable reporting vessels compared to current technologies. Decrease reliance on ground-based infrastructures by enabling onboarddetection of deceptive AIS signals.Description: With approximately 90% of international trade travelling by sea, maritime routes are becoming increasingly congested. A reliable maritime domain awareness is thus paramount toaddress critical security (e.g. submarine cables, piracy), safety (e.g. collision avoidance), economic (e.g. fleet monitoring) or environmental (e.g. illegal fishing) needs, and space-basedcomponents are critical due to the limited terrestrial systems coverage. The Automatic Identification System (AIS) is one of the main components of the current maritime domain awarenessinfrastructure, being mandated by International Maritime Organisation and enabling the reporting of vessels worldwide. However, the current AIS setup suffers from reliability issues.Vessels can arbitrarily either switch off their AIS transponder or use (or being the target of) malicious deceiving techniques such as AIS spoofing and jamming or manipulation of GNSSinformation embedded in such messages. This results in fictitious abnormal behaviours that are becoming increasingly common and causing significant disruption across entire regions.Moreover, traditional satellite-based AIS processing systems rely heavily on ground-based validation, leading to high latency in spoofing detection and reducing the effectiveness of real timecountermeasures.An onboard detection module could overcome these challenges by detecting in near real-time any AIS anomaly and initiate the mitigation countermeasures, i.e. paired with communicationto other trailing satellites or direct-to-device communication links (out of the scope of this activity), such detection system could inform users about fraudulent activities faster thantraditional surveillance systems.This activity will develop and test an onboard Automatic Identification System (AIS) spoofing detection system for satellite-based maritime surveillance, offering reliableAIS informationwith low-latency. Low latency AI-based anomaly detection and other technologies such as signal fingerprinting and deterministic algorithms will be investigated and developed.The AIS spoofing detection module shall be designed according to selecteduse cases and implemented on a software-defined radio-based payload and tested in a representativemaritime surveillance scenario to evaluate its effectiveness in detecting, localising, and mitigating AIS spoofing in real time.Procurement Policy: C(2) = A relevant participation (in terms of quality and quantity) of non-primes (incl. SMEs) is required. For additional information please go to:http://www.esa.int/About_Us/Business_with_ESA/Small_and_Medium_Sized_Enterprises/Opportunities_for_SMEs/Procurement_policy_on_fair_access_for_SMEs_-_the_C1-C4_Clauses