On a New Type of Denial of Service Attack in Wireless Networks: The Distributed Jammer Network

Abstract

In this paper, we introduce a new type of denial of service attack to wireless networks: distributed jammer network (DJN), which is made of a large number of low-power, tiny radio jammers. Recent advancements in MEMS and NANO technologies made it possible to build nano-scale jammers that can be deployed in quantities of tens of thousands if not more. Jamming attack on wireless networks was traditionally treated from the perspective of individual jammers. We advocate an approach based on the networked perspective, and using this networked approach we show that some interesting results can be obtained. In the paper, first, we demonstrate that DJN can cause a phase transition in the performance of the target network. We employ percolation theory to explain such phase transition, to analyze the impact of DJN on the connectivity of the target network, and to provide lower and upper bounds for the percolation of the target network to occur in the presence of DJN. Second, we provide the scaling analysis of the jamming performance in relation to the jammer node density with the power density constraint. Third, we present simulation results describing the impact of DJN topology on the jamming effectiveness.