Increasing security in the physical layer of wireless communication
Document Type
Conference Proceeding
Publisher
School of Computer and Information Science, Edith Cowan University
Faculty
Faculty of Computing, Health and Science
School
School of Computing, Health and Science
RAS ID
5278
Abstract
This paper introduces a concept of increasing securing in the Physical layer (PHY) of wireless communication. It gives a short description of current status of wireless standards and their security. Despite the existence of advanced security protocols such as IEEE 802.11i or WLAN VPNs, wireless networks still remain vulnerable to denial-of-service (DoS) attacks aiming at PHY and Data Link Layers. The new solution challenges the problems with the currently defined PHY and Data Link layers. The concept introduced here, holds a promise of descending with some of the security measures to the lower layers of the TCP/IP and in this way not only increases security but also efficiency and performance. In addition this model would reduce management overhead and security architecture complexity. The proposed solution is dealing with: encryption implemented as part of modulation techniques as well as authentication procedures partially deployed within the first two layers of Open System Interconnection (OSI) protocol stack. The introduced model attempts to solve problems related to DoS that is focused on Data Link Layer, eavesdropping and man-in-the-middle (MITM) attacks. Additionally, there are presented some ideas for future research in the area of protection from malicious activity aimed at the PHY Layer – e.g., jamming attacks, as well as other security issues such as eavesdropping prevention by use of physics laws and tunnelling as another layer of protection to ensure privacy and signal robustness. The potential deployment of this technology embraces Wireless Local Area Networks (WLANs) as well as the emerging IEEE 802.16e (mobile WiMAX) standard. In this paper there are considered and analysed practical needs, defined necessary steps and set priorities. In the final part, there are presented challenges concerning the research and there is established a background for the consecutive papers.
DOI
10.4225/75/57b52d39b8753
Access Rights
free_to_read
Comments
Golygowski, L. (2007, December). Increasing security in the physical layer of wireless communication. In Australian Information Security Management Conference (p. 26). Available here