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Encoded ADS-B


markejackson02

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The NBAA wants to selectively block people's ability to receive ADS-B transmissions. (http://www.wsj.com/articles/business-aviation-close-to-retaining-flight-privacy-protections-1450556265)

I'm very curious how they plan on doing this.  They could encode the transmissions which would require replacing the entire ADS-B infrastructure.  The article suggests that they are going adopt some sort of rotating code system where the ADS-B code for every plane changes on a timely basis.  Would this also require a substantial retooling of the ADS-B system?

I can't really see how any of their proposed solutions could be implemented in anything less that a maybe 5 more like 10 year time frame.  Am I off base on this?  I know very little about the technical side of ADS-B implementation.

 

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Not to mention everyone with ADS-B would need a software change. Who is going to pay for that?

Not to mention, NOBODY is allowed to be anonymous any more! What would Apple, Google and Facebook say about that? How are they going to send ads to the aircraft if they are hiding their identify? 

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Not possible.   They could block the access to the FAA database of what plane goes to what ICAO code.   but just like Flight Radar 24 and Flight aware have done to track the planes they could build their own database of planes to match to the ICAO code

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Oh, it is possible. The 1090ES reply message could be encrypted so only the FAA can decrypt it. The problem I see is that unless all aircraft can decrypt it, traffic advisories will not work. I guess they could just encrypt the ID parts of the message. Even so some 15 year old will crack it, or find some exploit to ID the aircraft.

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None of the equipment in play today has encryption capabilities.   Sure you could scramble the ICAO code and just send the altitude, speed and direction part of the message, but that was not designed into the standard.   Taking pictures of N number and the plane and starting a database would get around the supposed privacy.

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Personally , I never understood why FAA databases are public. After all, car registrations and drivers licenses are not in the public domain. I am sure Google would love to have access to DMV databases . 

I guess unlike jets, there is always the risk of forgetting to turn that transponder. Especially when you are below 10kfeet and outside mode C vail. 

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I agree, the FAA shouldn't release flight data to the general public. I worked for the government DOD for years and they we're restrictive of releasing any personal information to the public. I was told by a FAA person that Money was involved in releasing the flight data. Your right if they did this to our cars people would have a fit.

 

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I brought this up a long time ago. The Feds have to get a court order to put a GPS tagger on your car BUT we blithely agree to GPS tracking of our every move from start up to stop with ADSB. No guarantee as to how long the info is kept or who it goes to.  

I asked my Senator to investigate and he did AND what  came back was only "there is no provision for anonymity in the US Airspace system".

Much like an airline flight number, random assignment of  "N" numbers can be done quite easily right at the TRACON level. 

 

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4 hours ago, N1395W said:

Two of the ADS-B transmitters (Navworx UAT and Freeflight UAT) can be set to transmit in a "stealth" mode, like squawking 1200 on your Mode C transponder.

Mode -S (1090 ES) can't do that.

How difficult is it to change the N number in a mode S  ?

this is a rhetorical question .... 

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On 12/21/2015 at 5:48 PM, teejayevans said:

Are they afraid of user fees?emoji1.png

You fly IFR approaches we already have a form of user fees. To get the coded instrument approach data for RNAV approaches, our buddies in the faa charge. Jeppson is passing that fee along to us in the renewals. Just wait until DOT realizes they can do this with speed limits and takes down the signs, and charges us for a speed limit database for the roads.

https://www.faa.gov/air_traffic/flight_info/aeronav/productcatalog/digitalproducts/cifp/

 

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46 minutes ago, OR75 said:

How difficult is it to change the N number in a mode S  ?

this is a rhetorical question .... 

The N number or address code is programmed from the front panel of the transponder. The ATC radar decodes the N number and present it on the controller screen. The problem is that if you change the N number it will be different than the one you convey by voice and painted on the plane. The N number coding is a direct conversion, so there is no need for a database correlation. The encoding scheme proposed would have problems flying abroad in other countries. The coordination of code changes between the airborne segment and ATC would be another problem.

José

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