Protecting Multi-Function Wireless Systems From Jammers With Backscatter Assistance: An Intelligent Strategy

Abstract

In this paper, we present a novel unified framework to protect multi-function wireless systems from jamming attacks. Examples of such multi-function system include joint radar and communication (JRC) systems and simultaneous wireless information and power transfer (SWIPT) systems. By abstracting the system functionalities as a joint optimization problem of multiple queues, we achieve effective resistance against jammers for the multi-functions simultaneously. We incorporate different anti-jamming techniques into one framework. Deception mechanism is adopted to lure the jammer to attack and make its actions more predictable, and ambient backscatter technology is used to leverage the jamming signals. Since conventional Markov decision process (MDP) has only one decision epoch at every time slot, it cannot be used to model the deception strategy which needs two decision epochs to leverage the jamming signals. We therefore formulate the problem using an advanced two-step MDP. After that, a deep reinforcement learning algorithm with a prioritized double deep Q-Learning architecture is proposed to learn optimal strategies in different system states. We show that by jointly considering the multi-functions of the system with potential jamming attacks during design phase, significant improvement can be achieved for both of the system functionalities.