xBeam: Satellite Telemetry Protection

The Problem

Satellite telemetry transmitted to a single ground station creates a single point of interception. Nation-state adversaries can capture, manipulate, or deny the entire data stream.

Low-Earth-orbit constellations downlink terabytes of sensor, imagery, and command telemetry to ground stations every day. The standard architecture funnels all frames through one primary ground station with optional redundancy that shares the same network backbone. An adversary who compromises that station — or the link to it — owns the entire telemetry stream.

Encryption alone does not solve the problem. A compromised ground station with the decryption key can silently alter readings before they reach mission control. There is no integrity guarantee that the data received matches what the satellite transmitted.

The Old Way

The PRIVATE.ME Solution

XorIDA splits each telemetry frame into K-of-N shares distributed to geographically independent ground stations. No single station receives enough data to reconstruct — or forge — the original frame.

Each telemetry frame is split on-board the satellite (or at the first trusted relay) into N shares using XorIDA over GF(2). Any K shares are sufficient to reconstruct. Fewer than K shares reveal zero information about the original frame — this is information-theoretic, not computational.

Every share carries an HMAC-SHA256 integrity tag. Mission control collects K shares from independent ground stations, verifies all HMACs, and reconstructs the original frame. A compromised station cannot alter data without detection — its tampered share will fail HMAC verification.

The New Way

How It Works

A four-stage pipeline: frame ingestion, XorIDA split, multi-station distribution, and HMAC-verified threshold reconstruction at mission control.

Use Cases

Integration

import { splitTelemetry, verifyFrame } from '@private.me/sattelemetry';

// Split telemetry frame across 3 ground stations (2-of-3)
const shares = await splitTelemetry(
  telemetryFrame,
  ['station-alpha', 'station-bravo', 'station-charlie'],
  { n: 3, k: 2 }
);

// Verify and reconstruct at mission control
const result = await verifyFrame(collectedShares);
if (result.ok) {
  // result.value contains the verified telemetry frame
  processFrame(result.value);
}

Security Properties

Verifiable Data Protection

Every operation in this ACI produces a verifiable audit trail via xProve. HMAC-chained integrity proofs let auditors confirm that data was split, stored, and reconstructed correctly — without accessing the data itself.

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Ship Proofs, Not Source

xBeam generates cryptographic proofs of correct execution without exposing proprietary algorithms. Verify integrity using zero-knowledge proofs — no source code required.

Use Cases