The objective of this activity is the investigation on potential techniques for the detection/characterization/classification/localization/potential mitigation of interference to be embedded or added to the telecommands or mission receivers and protect space assets against interference sources.

Protection of space assets is becoming more and more important now that vital services and applications are depending on space infrastructure. This is particularly true in the domain of navigation where an increased number of applications like safety of life aeronautical services, critical bank transaction are relying on the services provided by the GNSS systems as the primary if not the sole source of the time and position solution.Designing robust telecommanding and Mission receivers is therefore one of the mandatory requirements for the design of future systems. The support also for the investigation on the nature of the threat, the characterization and even its localization/mitigation are also becoming features of interest to ease the investigation and the implementation of a solution/countermeasure, that would allow the overall infrastructure to be more robust. This activity is focusing on this additional capability. Key characteristics of the identified solution would be the minimum modification to the current telecommanding/Mission receiver/antenna configuration, the maximum flexibility towards the characterization and classification of the type of interference, as well as its range of power level, and good accuracy in the localization.This activity shall look broadly to the type of interference and techniques to allow its detection, characterization, classification and localization starting from simple power profile to more complex Doppler or Phase tracking, on board quasi real time against offline post processing, shall also define the scenarios and the mission profiles (GEO, MEO, IGSO). The set of most suitable techniques shall be traded off taking into account performance and complexity aspects. Finally the selected interference detection and protection techniques shall be implemented in a simulator representative of defined realistic scenarios and performance analysis run. Tasks:- Definition of scenarios/ mission profiles - Definition of interference type/characteristics - Detection/characterization/classification/localization techniques /assumptions on the equipment- Analysis of the performance/tools and simulations