An integrated mission and cyber simulation for Air Traffic Control

Worldwide statistics show that air traffic has been growing significantly in recent years. In order to maintain safety, new technologies and architectures are constantly being proposed and deployed. However, several of those technologies contain design flaws and security vulnerabilities which, if properly exploited, can affect the Air Traffic Control (ATC) system in such a way that its effects could range from simple flight delays (economic loss) to air disasters (loss of life). In order to better assess the new generation of air traffic services, this paper presents a simulation/emulation framework based on open source tools to able to evaluate the effects of cyber-attacks and network/communication failures on Air Traffic Control. It presents a case study on Automatic Dependent Surveillance - Broadcast (ADS-B) technology, with real implementations of cyber-attacks at the link layer. Furthermore, mitigation/defense mechanisms are also evaluated from a mission-assurance perspective.