Jamming energy allocation in training-based multiple access systems

We consider the problem of jamming attack in a multiple access channel with training-based transmission. First, we derive upper and lower bounds on the maximum achievable ergodic sum-rate which explicitly shows the impact of jamming during both the training phase and the data transmission phase. Then, from the jammer's design perspective, we analytically find the optimal jamming energy allocation between the two phases that minimizes the derived bounds on the ergodic sum-rate. Numerical results demonstrate that the obtained optimal jamming design reduces the ergodic sum-rate of the legitimate users considerably in comparison to fixed power jamming.The work of X. Zhou was supported by the Australian Research Council's Discovery Projects funding scheme (Project No. DP110102548)

Mitigating Smart Jammers in Multi-User MIMO

Wireless systems must be resilient to jamming attacks. Existing mitigation methods based on multi-antenna processing require knowledge of the jammer's transmit characteristics that may be difficult to acquire, especially for smart jammers that evade mitigation by transmitting only at specific instants. We propose a novel method to mitigate smart jamming attacks on the massive multi-user multiple-input multiple-output (MU-MIMO) uplink which does not require the jammer to be active at any specific instant. By formulating an optimization problem that unifies jammer estimation and mitigation, channel estimation, and data detection, we exploit that a jammer cannot change its subspace within a coherence interval. Theoretical results for our problem formulation show that its solution is guaranteed to recover the users' data symbols under certain conditions. We develop two efficient iterative algorithms for approximately solving the proposed problem formulation: MAED, a parameter-free algorithm which uses forward-backward splitting with a box symbol prior, and SO-MAED, which replaces the prior of MAED with soft-output symbol estimates that exploit the discrete transmit constellation and which uses deep unfolding to optimize algorithm parameters. We use simulations to demonstrate that the proposed algorithms effectively mitigate a wide range of smart jammers without a priori knowledge about the attack type.Comment: arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:2201.0877

Attacking Massive MIMO Cognitive Radio Networks by Optimized Jamming

Massive multiple-input multiple-output (MaMIMO) and cognitive radio networks (CRNs) are two promising technologies for improving spectral efficiency of next-generation wireless communication networks. In this paper, we investigate the problem of physical layer security in the networks that jointly use both technologies, named MaMIMO-CRN. Specifically, to investigate the vulnerability of this network, we design an optimized attacking scenario to MaMIMO-CRNs by a jammer. For having the most adversary effect on the uplink transmission of the legitimate MaMIMO-CRN, we propose an efficient method for power allocation of the jammer. The legitimate network consists of a training and a data transmission phase, and both of these phases are attacked by the jammer using an optimized power split between them. The resulting power allocation problem is non-convex. We thus propose three different efficient methods for solving this problem, and we show that under some assumptions, a closed-form solution can also be obtained. Our results show the vulnerability of the MaMIMO-CRN to an optimized jammer. It is also shown that increasing the number of antennas at the legitimate network does not improve the security of the network

Universal MIMO Jammer Mitigation via Secret Temporal Subspace Embeddings

MIMO processing enables jammer mitigation through spatial filtering, provided that the receiver knows the spatial signature of the jammer interference. Estimating this signature is easy for barrage jammers that transmit continuously and with static signature, but difficult for more sophisticated jammers: Smart jammers may deliberately suspend transmission when the receiver tries to estimate their spatial signature, they may use time-varying beamforming to continuously change their spatial signature, or they may stay mostly silent and jam only specific instants (e.g., transmission of control signals). To deal with such smart jammers, we propose MASH, the first method that indiscriminately mitigates all types of jammers: Assume that the transmitter and receiver share a common secret. Based on this secret, the transmitter embeds (with a linear time-domain transform) its signal in a secret subspace of a higher-dimensional space. The receiver applies a reciprocal linear transform to the receive signal, which (i) raises the legitimate transmit signal from its secret subspace and (ii) provably transforms any jammer into a barrage jammer, which makes estimation and mitigation via MIMO processing straightforward. We show the efficacy of MASH for data transmission in the massive multi-user MIMO uplink.Comment: submitted to Asilomar 202

A critical review of cyber-physical security for building automation systems

Modern Building Automation Systems (BASs), as the brain that enables the smartness of a smart building, often require increased connectivity both among system components as well as with outside entities, such as optimized automation via outsourced cloud analytics and increased building-grid integrations. However, increased connectivity and accessibility come with increased cyber security threats. BASs were historically developed as closed environments with limited cyber-security considerations. As a result, BASs in many buildings are vulnerable to cyber-attacks that may cause adverse consequences, such as occupant discomfort, excessive energy usage, and unexpected equipment downtime. Therefore, there is a strong need to advance the state-of-the-art in cyber-physical security for BASs and provide practical solutions for attack mitigation in buildings. However, an inclusive and systematic review of BAS vulnerabilities, potential cyber-attacks with impact assessment, detection & defense approaches, and cyber-secure resilient control strategies is currently lacking in the literature. This review paper fills the gap by providing a comprehensive up-to-date review of cyber-physical security for BASs at three levels in commercial buildings: management level, automation level, and field level. The general BASs vulnerabilities and protocol-specific vulnerabilities for the four dominant BAS protocols are reviewed, followed by a discussion on four attack targets and seven potential attack scenarios. The impact of cyber-attacks on BASs is summarized as signal corruption, signal delaying, and signal blocking. The typical cyber-attack detection and defense approaches are identified at the three levels. Cyber-secure resilient control strategies for BASs under attack are categorized into passive and active resilient control schemes. Open challenges and future opportunities are finally discussed.Comment: 38 pages, 7 figures, 6 tables, submitted to Annual Reviews in Contro

Applied Metaheuristic Computing

For decades, Applied Metaheuristic Computing (AMC) has been a prevailing optimization technique for tackling perplexing engineering and business problems, such as scheduling, routing, ordering, bin packing, assignment, facility layout planning, among others. This is partly because the classic exact methods are constrained with prior assumptions, and partly due to the heuristics being problem-dependent and lacking generalization. AMC, on the contrary, guides the course of low-level heuristics to search beyond the local optimality, which impairs the capability of traditional computation methods. This topic series has collected quality papers proposing cutting-edge methodology and innovative applications which drive the advances of AMC