In Ukraine, a new remedy against the "glutchil" of the Russian Federation: how simple smartphones help

At the end of 2023, the Ukrainian military appealed to Sean Gorman and teams at Zephr, which specializes in protecting devices from obstacles of GPS signals. She soon sent six Pixel brand phones to Ukraine with special software, and in April began conducting field tests near the front line in Donetsk region. According to Sean Gorman, the researchers installed smartphones on drones, cars and stationary stands, and then conducted experiments on the search for "gluthers".

For him, the Ukrainians used their reBs, the location of which was known. First of all, the team wanted to check if regular mobile phones operating on the same network can show the availability of equipment that was trying to suppress the location. As it turned out, if you compare the acceptance of GPS signals by different devices, you can detect when one or more of them are attacked.

For this purpose, built -in phone sensors are used to help it determine the distance to satellites, mobile towers and other equipment. Manufacturers put them so that the device can optimize their performance, such as connecting to the nearest tower. In addition, such measurements are important when processing GPS signals and determining the location of satellites.

"Thanks to the computing AI we use on the server side and the difficulty of processing most signals and software, instead of relying only on sensors or really expensive antenna grates, you can do a lot by combining a few phones into one large distributed. the antenna, "said Sean Gorman. Russia uses Reb means to suppress or substitute GPS signals (this method is called "purulent"). This prevents Ukrainian troops from applying drones and other weapons, including high -precision American missiles.

Popular tactics are to fake a signal so that the drone thinks that it is in a forbidden area and should land. Russia also fakes GPS signals in the Baltic Sea, forcing the receivers to display incorrect location data and creating what NATO representatives were described as a dangerous situation for aircraft. On the front line in Donetsk, Ukrainian soldiers often report on the attacks of their drones using purfing. Sean Gorman's team found that most of such activity is just on powerful "muffins".

Since suppression occurs in the same frequency ranges as GPS or GNSS (global satellite navigation system), they look like satellite signals, actually creating phantom or ghost satellites in places where they could not exist and as before. For example, behind the horizon. "This noise is not like a typical GNSS signal, but it contains energy at the frequencies at which the receiver is looking for satellite signals.

The receiver signal algorithms use correlation methods to identify and track satellite signals. When a strong signal is present, it may cause false correlations, forcing the receiver to "think" that he finds satellites that are not really visible, "Gorman explained in the testing report provided by Defense One. It is very difficult to calculate the means that create obstacles, it is usually necessary expensive electronic reconnaissance with modern software.

Cheap systems capable of detecting Russian "muffins" will help Ukraine greatly during the war, as they will allow you to restore the advantage in drones. In addition, it will be useful for Ukrainian mobile operators to protect against attacks. Now a group led by Sean Horman works under a contract with the Government of Ukraine and is trying to bring the research to a new level, not only to identify the sources of obstacles, but also to determine their exact location.

If this is done, the military will be able to bypass the obstacles or destroy their sources. Although researchers do not consider the method of panacea. "Each smartphone will detect the obstacle signal, register the last known location and mark the acceptance time, giving data points throughout the network. By combining and processing these signals centralized, the system will triangularly the location of the muffler," Gorman said in the email.