ADVA launches GPS-backup-as-a-service to help service providers combat GNSS cyberattacks

News summary:

• Vulnerabilities of satellite-based and in-network timing put critical network infrastructure at serious risk
• ADVA aPNT+^™ platform empowers service providers to deliver differentiated timing services with alternative PNT sources
• Offerings with integrated GNSS backup enable utilities, finance, telecom customers and more to meet new guidelines and standards

ADVA announced that it’s enabling service provider customers to offer GPS/GNSS-backup-as-a-service (GBaaS). A wide range of industries are increasingly reliant on satellite-delivered timing, but with threats including jamming and spoofing cyberattacks on the rise, operators need to find ways to safeguard services that rely on positioning, navigation, and timing (PNT) information. In-network timing based on NTP and PTP is also increasingly vulnerable to cyber threats. As a response, ADVA is now empowering service providers to offer GBaaS and enable end users to address new guidelines and standards for redundant PNT architectures. GBaaS meets the latest recommendations for PNT homeland security like US Executive Order 13905. Leveraging ADVA’s aPNT+™ technology, it eliminates the risks and costs associated with GNSS dependence.

“Threats to hamper PNT capabilities are growing, and much of the world’s critical infrastructure is still without adequate protection from GNSS vulnerabilities. All of that can change when service providers are able to offer GBaaS. It’s based on our aPNT+^™ platform, which leverages a suite of technologies, including multi-band GNSS receivers and AI- and ML-based management software. As well as making networks more resilient against cyberattacks, our aPNT+^™ platform also delivers highly accurate backup when GNSS fails,” said Gil Biran, GM of Oscilloquartz, ADVA. “Now service providers can offer ADVA’s aPNT+^™ protection as a subscription-based service as part of their SLAs. This will enable many more timing networks to achieve very high levels of resilience and assurance. Across a wide range of industries, this will be the easiest and most flexible way to guarantee robust PNT services.”

ADVA’s GBaaS solution employs a combination of multi-layer detection, multi-source backup and fault-tolerant mitigation to render timing networks more secure. Embedded in all timing devices, ADVA’s Syncjack^™ technology provides comprehensive and precise synchronization performance monitoring and analytics, enabling the Ensemble Sync Director network management suite to intelligently operate and prioritize multi-source timing feeds across the network. Onboard multi-band GNSS receivers boost timing accuracy and also protect against attacks like jamming and spoofing. But for those times when GNSS is either unavailable or compromised, a dispersed network of autonomous cesium atomic clocks and network backup timing feeds is always sitting on standby, ready to deliver highly accurate network timing over long periods of GNSS unavailability.

“GBaaS is a completely new way for service providers to sell critical PNT infrastructure as a service without the burden of investment and maintenance. For the first time, they can offer their customers SLAs at a range of levels that ensure the resilient and assured timing needed across time-sensitive networks and applications,” commented Nino De Falcis, senior director of business development at Oscilloquartz, ADVA. “The flexibility and protection that GBaaS affords is bad news for any malicious actors looking to attack PNT services. Service providers can now offer their customers a guarantee: When GNSS is compromised or goes offline, ADVA’s robust network of defense-in-depth PTP timing devices will be there to provide the accuracy and backup they urgently need.”

Source: ADVA media announcement