A Survey on Wireless Security: Technical Challenges, Recent Advances and Future Trends

This paper examines the security vulnerabilities and threats imposed by the inherent open nature of wireless communications and to devise efficient defense mechanisms for improving the wireless network security. We first summarize the security requirements of wireless networks, including their authenticity, confidentiality, integrity and availability issues. Next, a comprehensive overview of security attacks encountered in wireless networks is presented in view of the network protocol architecture, where the potential security threats are discussed at each protocol layer. We also provide a survey of the existing security protocols and algorithms that are adopted in the existing wireless network standards, such as the Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, WiMAX, and the long-term evolution (LTE) systems. Then, we discuss the state-of-the-art in physical-layer security, which is an emerging technique of securing the open communications environment against eavesdropping attacks at the physical layer. We also introduce the family of various jamming attacks and their counter-measures, including the constant jammer, intermittent jammer, reactive jammer, adaptive jammer and intelligent jammer. Additionally, we discuss the integration of physical-layer security into existing authentication and cryptography mechanisms for further securing wireless networks. Finally, some technical challenges which remain unresolved at the time of writing are summarized and the future trends in wireless security are discussed.Comment: 36 pages. Accepted to Appear in Proceedings of the IEEE, 201

Encrypted CDMA audio network

We present a secure LAN using sound as the physical layer for low speed applications. In particular, we show a real implementation of a point-to-point or point-to-multipoint secure acoustic network, having a short range, consuming a negligible amount of power, and requiring no specific hardware on mobile clients. The present acoustic network provides VPN-like private channels to multiple users sharing the same medium. It is based on Time-hopping CDMA, and makes use of an encrypted Bloom filter. An asymmetrical error-correction is used to supply data integrity, even in the presence of strong interference. Simulations and real experiments show its feasibility. We also provide some theoretical analysis on the principle of operation.Fil: Ortega, Alfredo A.. Instituto Tecnológico de Buenos Aires; ArgentinaFil: Bettachini, Victor. Instituto Tecnológico de Buenos Aires; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Fierens, Pablo Ignacio. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Instituto Tecnológico de Buenos Aires; ArgentinaFil: Alvarez Hamelin, Jose Ignacio. Instituto Tecnológico de Buenos Aires; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentin

Prediction of Wireless Network Signal Strength within a Building

With the increase in the provision of access to Wireless Local Area Networks and the abundance of user devices capable of utilising Wi-Fi, the design of the network infrastructure has introduced some significant problems. Prior to the installation of Access Points it is difficult to predict whether access can be guaranteed at specific locations. Additionally, to increase the level of security, it is often preferable, despite the use of security protocols, to ensure that the signal strength is not large enough to enable connection in areas other than those designated. By combining the theory of antennae and the measurement of the performance of devices, it is possible to predict whether access is likely and hence how secure the network design is. Additionally, the use of a simple application is proposed that enables the network designer to enter a configuration and produce an answer showing if WIFI will operate and a value to indicate the margin