Journal of Communications and Networks

The Korean Institute of Commucations and Information Sciences (한국통신학회)
권호 표지
DOI QR코드

DOI QR Code

Protocol-Aware Radio Frequency Jamming inWi-Fi and Commercial Wireless Networks

  • Hussain, Abid (School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, National University of Sciences and Technology (NUST)) ;
  • Saqib, Nazar Abbas (College of Electrical and Mechanical Engineering, National University of Sciences and Technology (NUST)) ;
  • Qamar, Usman (College of Electrical and Mechanical Engineering, National University of Sciences and Technology (NUST)) ;
  • Zia, Muhammad (Department of Electronics, Quaid-i-Azam University) ;
  • Mahmood, Hassan (Department of Electronics, Quaid-i-Azam University)
  • Received : 2014.04.02
  • Published : 2014.08.30
Download PDF
⟨ Previous Next ⟩

Abstract

Radio frequency (RF) jamming is a denial of service attack targeted at wireless networks. In resource-hungry scenarios with constant traffic demand, jamming can create connectivity problems and seriously affect communication. Therefore, the vulnerabilities of wireless networks must be studied. In this study, we investigate a particular type of RF jamming that exploits the semantics of physical (PHY) and medium access control (MAC) layer protocols. This can be extended to any wireless communication network whose protocol characteristics and operating frequencies are known to the attacker. We propose two efficient jamming techniques: A low-data-rate random jamming and a shot-noise based protocol-aware RF jamming. Both techniques use shot-noise pulses to disrupt ongoing transmission ensuring they are energy efficient, and they significantly reduce the detection probability of the jammer. Further, we derived the tight upper bound on the duration and the number of shot-noise pulses for Wi-Fi, GSM, and WiMax networks. The proposed model takes consider the channel access mechanism employed at the MAC layer, data transmission rate, PHY/MAC layer modulation and channel coding schemes. Moreover, we analyze the effect of different packet sizes on the proposed jamming methodologies. The proposed jamming attack models have been experimentally evaluated for 802.11b networks on an actual testbed environment by transmitting data packets of varying sizes. The achieved results clearly demonstrate a considerable increase in the overall jamming efficiency of the proposed protocol-aware jammer in terms of packet delivery ratio, energy expenditure and detection probabilities over contemporary jamming methods provided in the literature.

Keywords

Acknowledgement

Grant : SecureDial

Supported by : Higher Education Commission

References

  1. IEEE Standard for Wireless LAN-Medium Access Control and Physical Layer Specification, IEEE Standard P802.11, 1999.
  2. D. Kotz and K. Essien. Analysis of a Campus-Wide Wireless Network [Online]. Available: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11276-004-4750-0
  3. G. Legg. (2005) The bluejacking, bluesnarfing, bluebugging blues: Bluetooth faces perception of vulnerability [Online]. Available: http://www. wirelessnetdesignline.com/showArticle.jhtml
  4. P. Kyasanur and N. H. Vaidya, "Detection and handling of MAC layer misbehavior in wireless networks," in Proc. IEEE DSN, 2003, pp. 173-182.
  5. A. A. Cardenas, S. Radosavac, and J. S. Baras, "Detection and prevention ofMAC layer misbehavior in ad hoc networks" in Proc. ACMSASN, 2004, pp. 17-22.
  6. W. Xu, K. Ma, W. Trappe, and Y. Zhang, "Jamming sensor networks: Attack and defense strategies," IEEE Netw., vol. 20, pp. 41-47, May 2006. https://doi.org/10.1109/MNET.2006.1637931
  7. G. Noubir and G. Lin, "Low-power DoS attacks in data wireless LANs and countermeasures," ACM SIGMOBILE Mob. Comput. Commun. Rev., vol. 7, pp. 29-30, July 2003. https://doi.org/10.1145/961268.961277
  8. T. X. Brown J. E. James, and A. Sethi, "Jamming and sensing of encrypted wireless ad hoc networks," in Proc. ACM MobiHoc, 2006, pp. 120-130.
  9. W. Xu,W. Trappe, and Y. Zhang, "Anti-jamming timing channels for wireless networks," in Proc. ACM WiSec, 2008, pp. 203-213.
  10. Y. Zhang and Wenke Lee, "Intrusion detection in wireless ad-hoc networks," in Proc. ACM MobiCom, 2000, pp. 275-283.
  11. D. Thuente and M. Acharya, "Intelligent jamming in wireless networks with applications to 802.11b and other networks," in Proc. IEEE MILCOM, Oct. 2006, pp. 1075-1081.
  12. G. Alnifie and Robert Simon, "A multi-channel defense against jamming attacks in wireless sensor networks," in Proc. ACM Q2SWinet, 2007, pp. 1075-1081.
  13. A. Hussain and N. A. Saqib, "Protocol aware shot-noise based radio frequency jamming method in 802.11 networks," in Proc. IEEE WOCN, 2011, pp. 1-6.
  14. W. Xu et al., "The feasibility of launching and detecting jamming attacks in wireless networks," in Proc. ACM MobiHoc, 2005, pp. 46-57.
  15. A. D. Wood, J. A. Stankovic, and G. Zhou, "DEEJAM: Defeating energy-efficient jamming in IEEE 802.15.4-based wireless networks," in Proc. IEEE SECON, 2007, pp. 60-69.
  16. IEEE Standard for Information Technology - telecommunications and information exchange between systems - local and metropolitan area networks - specific requirements. Part 11: Wireless LANMedium Access Control (MAC) and physical layer (PHY) specifications, IEEE Standard, 2007.
  17. Y. W. Law et al., "Energy-efficient link-layer jamming attacks against wireless sensor network MAC protocols," in Proc. ACM SASN, 2005, pp. 76-88.
  18. Y. W. Law et al., "Energy-efficient link-layer jamming attacks against wireless sensor network MAC protocols," ACM Trans. Sen. Netw., vol. 5, no. 1, pp. 6:1-38, Feb. 2009.
  19. The Specifications of PCMCIA 650 NIC [Online]. Available: http://www.dlink.com/products/?pid=23
  20. The Universal Software Radio Peripheral [Online]. Available: https://www.ettus.com/