[Overview]   [People]   [Publication]   [Presentation]   [Courses]   [Funding]  

Overview

As the use of mobile, wireless computing devices continues to grow, so does concern with assuring that communications within these wireless networks is not vulnerable to various kinds of attacks. Physical-layer Network Coding (PNC) was developed as a means for improving communication in wireless networks. This project will conduct exploratory research to determine whether and how the use of PNC can be exploited to detect attacks. The work is organized into three tasks. The first task will identify capabilities to detect attacks and design corresponding mechanisms for differing network infrastructures and attacker models. Signal strength attacks, Sybil attacks, and wormhole attacks will be the initial targets of study. The second task will study the detection accuracy of the proposed mechanisms and explore more complex network scenarios. The third task will develop simulations to model the attack detection mechanisms.

Example applications of the proposed approach include:

• Detection of stealth attacks on wireless networks
• Localization in infrastructured and self-organized wireless networks
• Weak sender authentication
• Detection of primary user emulation attacks

People

Investigators

• Weichao Wang, Associate Professor, SIS Department, UNC Charlotte

Graduate Students

• Zhiwei Li
• Li Wu
• Xiongwei Xie

Publication

Detecting Primary User Emulation Attacks in Cognitive Radio Networks via Physical Layer Network Coding, in International Journal of Ubiquitous Systems and Pervasive Networks (JUSPN), volume 5, issue 1, pages 1--8, 2014. X. Xie and W. Wang. [PDF]

Detecting Primary User Emulation Attacks in Cognitive Radio Networks via Physical Layer Network Coding, in International Workshop on Communications and sensor Networks (ComSense), in conjunction with EUSPN 2013. X. Xie and W. Wang. [PDF]

Node Localization through Physical Layer Network Coding: Bootstrap, Security, and Accuracy, in Elsevier Ad Hoc Networks, vol. 10, No. 7, pages 1267--1277, 2012. Z. Li and W. Wang. [PDF]

Bootstrapping Node Localization through Physical Layer Network Coding in Ad Hoc Networks, in ACM Conference on Security and Privacy in Wireless and Mobile Networks (WiSec), Poster Session, April, 2012. Zhiwei Li and W. Wang.

Forced Collision: Detecting Wormhole Attacks with Physical Layer Network Coding, in Elsevier Tsinghua Science and Technology, special issue on Wireless Mobile Computing and Networking, volume 16, number 5, pages 505--519, October 2011. Z. Li, D. Pu, W. Wang, and A. Wyglinski. [PDF]

Node Localization in Wireless Networks Through Physical Layer Network Coding, in IEEE Globol Communications Conference (GLOBECOM 2010). Z. Li, D. Pu, W. Wang, and A. Wyglinski. [PDF]

Detecting Sybil Nodes in Wireless Networks with Physical Layer Network Coding, in Proceedings of IEEE/IFIP International Conference on Dependable Systems and Networks (DSN), pp. 21--30, Chicago, IL, 2010. W. Wang, D. Pu, and A. Wyglinski. (Accept Rate = 23%) [PDF]

Presentation

Node Localization in Wireless Networks Through Physical Layer Network Coding, presented on IEEE GLOBECOM 2010.

Detecting Sybil Nodes in Wireless Networks with Physical Layer Network Coding, presented at IEEE/IFIP International Conference on Dependable Systems and Networks (DSN), 2010.

Bootstrapping Node Localization through Physical Layer Network Coding in Ad Hoc Networks , presented at ACM WiSec 2012.

Related Courses

• ITIS 6010/8010: Special topics in Wireless Network Security, Fall 2011.
• ITIS 6167/8167: Network Security, Spring 2012.

Funding

This project is funded by the NSF Trustworthy Computing Program under the award number 1143602. The investigator is Weichao Wang at UNC Charlotte.