DETECTIONMEASUREMENT

by Gerhard Lamprecht & Brendon Bentley

compelling
evidence
using standard public key cryptography
With the seemingly never ending advance and sophistication in speed radar
equipment, the impact that the technology has on evidence gathering and
processing should be scrutinized more carefully
igh-end vehicles are currently
H produced with as many as four
24GHz ultra-wideband radars and
Reflector

one 77GHz long-range radar. But the rapid

growth in radar sophistication and accuracy
is opening up opportunities in the traffic law
enforcement industry as well.
Another technology that is growing
rapidly is data cryptography. Initially a
CAR 2

specialized military function, it has now

developed into a large commercial industry,
and will be a key part of law enforcement
following the introduction of digital
cameras for the generation of evidence.
CAR 1

Such evidence is often transmitted over

public networks, including the internet.
Many systems currently generate weak
evidence as a result of the cryptographic
POLICE

systems employed, but a strong public key

cryptographic system is recommended.

Currrent CW radar
Continuous wave (CW) Doppler radars
transmit a constant frequency towards
a target vehicle. The reflection from the
vehicle is mixed back with the transmitted
signal to produce a difference in frequency
– a difference that is proportional to the
radial velocity component of the target.
These radars are simple and cannot
resolve the speed to more than one target
on a busy multi-lane road. In addition, they
cannot be used in many locations where
there is infrastructure such as buildings or
bridges. Figure 1 shows an example of how
the wrong vehicle can be prosecuted for an
offense, while Figure 2 (opposite) shows
another case in which the measured speed
can be twice the real speed of the vehicle.
New generation FMCW radar
Many of the limitations of Doppler radar
guns can be overcome by Frequency
Modulated Continuous Wave (FMCW)
radars, which determine the distance
or range to the target by measuring the
Figure 1: The above shows how the wrong vehicle can be prosecuted for an offense: the intention is
to measure the speed of CAR 2, but the reflector causes the speed of CAR 1 to be measured
frequency difference during a modulated
chirp. The angle of the target may be found
in one plane (typically the azimuth plane)
through digital beam-forming. The radar
receiver has multiple receiving antennae
spatially separated, which can use phase and
level comparison to determine the angle of
direction of the target. It is therefore possible
with modern FMCW radars to measure
the speed, angle and distance to multiple
vehicles simultaneously.
These radars are now commercially
available at frequencies as high as 77GHz,
but more bandwidth is available at higher
frequencies, which translates into increased
range and speed resolution.
Another area of progress that has had
a significant effect on radar performance
is signal-processing algorithms. Although
examples of progress in this field are
numerous, one such example that addresses
the problem of finding the direction of
arrival (DOA) with improved resolution
may be found in System Design of a 77GHz
automotive RADAR Sensor with Superresolution
DOA estimation.[1]
The nature of Newton’s laws of motion
– which dictate the movement of radar
targets traveling at speeds much less than
the speed of light – allow for most radar
receivers to apply closed-form linear analysis
to track targets. But there are more advanced
radar problems that could not be resolved
before, for which computational intelligence
provides solutions.[2] Control parameters
in the receiver as well as chirp parameters
can be optimized by evaluating a penalty
(or error) function. This will improve range
resolution and target tracking for most cases.
Finally, innovative signal generation
technology has also allowed radar
transmitters to be improved. Direct digital

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 DETECTIONMEASUREMENT

synthesizers (DDS) have made it possible

to reduce the range and speed errors by Retro-reflector
modulating the transmitted signal more
linearly. DDSs make use of quartz crystal
oscillators, which provide extremely stable
reference signals. It is a property of quartz

CAR 1
crystal oscillators that their frequency
stability increases as time passes – a
property known as aging.
Other passive radio components used
in radar systems are remarkably resilient to
changing environmental conditions and can
usually survive and operate reliably in high
temperatures to the point of melting, cold
temperatures to far below freezing point,
and under severe mechanical strain to the
point of deformation.

POLICE
Radar jamming devices
A weakness of radar systems is that they are
sensitive to jamming. Jamming is intentional
or unintentional radiation of electromagnetic Figure 2: The above diagram shows that the radar signal undergoes Doppler shift twice, so the
waves at or close to the operating frequency measured speed is actually twice the actual speed
of a radar system. This radiation appears to
the radar as noise and reduces the ability
of the radar receiver to identify and track
RTX
targets. Consequently, a ratio called the
signal-to-jam ratio (SJR) may be calculated, Speed ß Target
as shown below: measuring
vehicle
Bista

R TX
R TR
tic pla

At the burnthrough range for the jammer,

the SJR = 1 and the radar receiver can
ne

no longer distinguish a target from the

disruptive jamming signal. There are several
things which are important to note.
The signal power of a target decreases as
the fourth power of the distance between
the radar and the target (i.e. R4 in the
equation), while the signal power of the
jammer decreases as the second power of
the distance between the radar and the
jammer (i.e. R2j in equation 1). This gives
the jammer an advantage, meaning the
jammer’s disruptive signal would be affecting
the radar at distances far greater than the
maximum distance at which the radar can
identify a target, and also that the amplitude
of the jamming signal would overpower that
of a true target at the same distance.
The last factor in the below equation
gives the radar a big advantage over being
jammed if its side lobes are well suppressed
and it has a narrow beam width.
The only parameters that can be
controlled by the jammer are the jammer’s
transmitted power and its transmitted
gain (i.e. PJ and in the first equation). The
jammer’s power PJ is legally regulated by the
ITU and authorities in all countries. In order
to direct the jamming signal at the radar, the
GSM BTS
UMTS node B
Figure 3: The principle of operation of a bistatic radar, which parasitically employs existing public
radio transmitters, such as cellphone, and only the receiver is designed and constructed
jammer would need an antenna broadcasting
over a wide angle (with a relatively low GJ)
“It is possible to as it does not know the position of the radar
and cannot steer a more directed antenna to
design the radar always illuminate the radar.
In contrast, the radar is free of these
receiver such that constraints and may employ a highly
directive antenna to increase its resilience
it can detect if it against jamming.
It is possible to design the radar receiver
is being jammed, such that it can detect if it is being jammed,
but cannot determine if it was intentional.
but cannot It is furthermore possible to implement
strategies within the radar receiver to
determine if it circumvent the problem of being jammed.
The radar can control its transmitted signal
was intentional” or apply signal-processing techniques to
the received signal, or use a combination of
these two techniques to successfully evade

TRAFFIC TECHNOLOGY INTERNATIONAL ANNUAL 2008 ???

 DETECTIONMEASUREMENT

a jamming attempt. As FMCW radars often Raw radar and result data Image/s or video System meta data
generate compicated chirp sequences, true • Serial numbers
• Physical configuration
targets may be resolved in the face of radar • Camera and lens
• Software versions
jamming by disregarding received signals GPS time • Radar configuration
• Software settings
that do not match the known generated source • User settings

transmission chirp sequence.

stealth radars
It is possible to build passive radar systems Mixer

that do not transmit any signal, and SHA hash Evidence package
consequently cannot be detected by radar generator
detectors. In a bistatic radar (Figure 3), the
transmitter and receiver have significant
geographical separation, such that the angle Crypto engine on silicon
(known as the bistatic angle, b) spanned Signature
between the transmitter and the receiver at RSA/DSA cipher
Public
the target is within the range 0º < b < 180º. key
Mixer

Such a radar parasitically employs existing Key pair

public radio transmitters, such as cellphone generator
communications, and only the receiver is The digital signature, meta
designed and constructed. Laser Sequencing data and raw radar data
fingerprint EEPROM are watermarked onto the
The radar yields the ranges RRX and
evidential images of videos
RTX between the target and the receiver
and between the target and the transmitter
respectively, as well as the Doppler speed in
the direction parallel to the bistatic plane. Figure 4: Modern computer and communication systems make use of public key cryptography and
Operation of a bistatic radar system public key infrastructure (PKI) to protect privacy and prevent illegal use
has several requirements: the receiver and
transmitter must have line-of-sight (LOS) Speed resolution: 0.622317([km/h]
contact and the receiver and transmitter to
each must have LOS contact with the target.
Cellular base transceiver stations (BTS)
are usually close to roads, making this an 100
excellent choice for a transmitter source.
The LOS distance between the receiver
and the transmitter should be known as 80
accurately as possible. Cellular BTS positions
Radial speed [km/h]

are constantly transmitted on the broadcast

control channel.
The receiver antenna must have a 60

narrow beam if the angle at the receiver Strong

is an important parameter. These systems

are currently in development for military
applications, but have not yet found their
way into law enforcement applications.
handling of digital evidence
As digital speed cameras have replaced most
wet-film cameras, the risk of managing
digital evidence is beginning to surface in
the courts. Most systems on the market use
some form of symmetric cryptography that
does not sufficiently protect the evidence.
A cryptographic technique, such as 3DES
or AES, may be strong but the system
may be weak as a result of the difficulty
in managing the cryptographic keys. The
management of keys has been the downfall
of most symmetric cryptographic systems
since World War II, where the German
Enigma[3] was broken by several countries.
Furthermore, the validity period of evidence
is usually long enough to put many key
management schemes at high risk.
Another system that camera
suppliers promote is watermarking.
Most watermarking systems are weak
40
20
0 Weak
Time (sec)
Figure 5: Raw radar data – a typical visualization of a simple Doppler radar over a number of seconds
in preserving the authenticity of digital Each traffic camera is fitted with a hardware
evidence.[4] The watermark creator usually RSA or DSA public key engine. A unique
keeps the existence and placement of fingerprint and ever-increasing sequential
the watermark secret, but the different plain text input is provided to the cipher. To
organizations involved in the field of speed guarantee sufficient security over the life of
law enforcement make it difficult to keep the evidence, a large key should be selected.
this information secret. The processing power required for a typical
Modern computer and communication image at 4MB would be prohibitive. A hash
systems make use of public key function, such as MD5 or SHA, is therefore
cryptography and public key infrastructure used to generate a hash code from the image
(PKI) to protect privacy and prevent and raw radar data. The hash code is then
illegal use. This can be applied in law provided to the cipher instead of the raw
enforcement,[3] as illustrated in Figure 4. image and radar data. The cipher then uses

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Figure 6: The above shows safeTcam, a new-generation speed enforcement system that employs sophisticated radar and encryption technology
the private key to encrypt the hash, time,
sequence and fingerprint into a digital
signature. The digital signature, public key
and raw radar data can then be coded or
watermarked to the image.
Only if the image, radar data, unique
identity and position in timespace is
unaltered would it produce the same
signature than the one decrypted with the
public key. The public key cannot generate
the digital signature, so the system therefore
guarantees that fabrication, tampering and
destruction of evidence can be detected.
To prevent tampering and destruction of
evidence, multiple copies of the evidence
can be distributed for courts and police
records, etc, meaning that all copies have
to be changed or destructed to affect the
evidence. In contrast, symmetric systems
want to limit the number of copies of data
to prevent access to keys.
The purpose of the meta data is to record
the assumptions made between components
of an evidence-recording device, such as the
camera, radar and storage medium. Signal-
processing algorithms make numerous
“A cryptographic technique may
be strong but the system may be
weak as a result of the difficulty in
managing the cryptographic keys”
assumptions to optimize DSP processing
speed, and these can be exploited in court.
The recording of raw radar data allows
the data to be reprocessed afterwards
using more advanced and more intensive
algorithms. Figure 5 shows a visualization
of a simple Doppler radar over a number
of seconds that clearly indicates the value
of these visualization techniques in court.
In this diagram, there were two targets
with different speeds. The safeTcam
in Figure 6 uses an advanced tracking
radar and encrypts digital evidence from
the radar, camera and GPS using public
key cryptography. Each violation can be
validated over the cellular network, then
gathered and processed as evidence. n
TRAFFIC TECHNOLOGY INTERNATIONAL ANNUAL 2008
DETECTIONMEASUREMENT
Gerhard Lamprecht is the chief technical officer of
TMT Services, while Brendon Bentley is a microwave
engineer, TMT Services. For further information,
please contact info@safetcam.com, telephone +27 21
551 6092, or log on to www.tmtservices.co.za
References
[1]
Wenig, P, Schoor, M, et al. System Design
of a 77GHz automotive RADAR Sensor with
Superresolution DOA estimation, Proceedings of the
International Symposium on Signals, Systems and
Electronics (ISSSE), July 2007
[2]
Veeramachaneni, K.; Osadciw, L.A; 2006 IEEE
Conference on RADAR, Multiple sectors, multi
function, multi RADAR dwell time management using
particle swarm optimization (M3RTM), Date: 24-27
April 2006, Page(s): 7
[3]
J.N. Wenger, H.T. Engstrom, and R.I. Meader, History
of the Bombe Project, OP-20-G Memorandum dated
30 May 1944, 2 (NARA Record Group 457,
File #4584)
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