We speak with Roel de Vries, MSc EE, is the Business Developer for Fugro AtomiChron timing services.
The increasing dependence on reliable and secure Positioning, Navigation, and Timing (PNT) services has heightened the need for robust Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) protection measures, especially in light of growing vulnerabilities to interference, jamming, and spoofing. These threats have become more prevalent and accessible, posing a tangible risk to critical infrastructure and applications such as transportation, communication, and energy networks. Navigation Message Authentication (NMA) is a fundamental approach for verifying the authenticity of GNSS signals and detecting spoofing attempts.
Roel presented at PNT 2026 on the architecture and implementation details of Fugro AtomiChron NMA, a multi-constellation NMA solution capable of providing secure, real-time authentication for over 120 satellites.
Roel also presented the results from extensive testing conducted during Jammertest 2025 in Norway—the world’s largest open jamming and spoofing test—over a three-year period. The test results demonstrate the effectiveness of AtomiChron NMA in detecting and mitigating spoofing attempts under complex, real-world interference scenarios. The system consistently achieved strong performance in terms of detection latency, authentication success rate, and resilience, highlighting its robustness and suitability for enhancing GNSS security in contested environments.
The system architecture of AtomiChron NMA was discussed in detail, including a novel scheduling mechanism that ensures real-time NMA transmission in sync with varying navigation message update rates across different constellations. The solution achieves high performance while optimizing bandwidth utilization and computational resources, making it adaptable to a wide range of GNSS applications. The architecture incorporates an automated over-the-air key management system with a multi-level key hierarchy, securely distributing and updating cryptographic keys via satellite. This hierarchy ensures a layered security approach, where different levels of keys are used for various authentication operations, enhancing overall security without manual intervention. Additionally, dynamic signal handling strategies are introduced to mitigate the impact of jamming and spoofing, further improving system robustness.
Roel de Vries has over 12 years of experience in the GNSS time synchronization market at Arbiter Systems, Inc., primarily within the Power & Energy sector, Roel has made significant contributions to the field. He has been an active member of the working group responsible for the IEC/IEEE 60255-118-1 Standard on “Measurements of Synchrophasors for Power Systems” and has served as a co-convener for the Cigré working group on “Time in Communication Networks, Protection, and Control Applications.”
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