We unveil the existence of a vulnerability in Wi-Fi, which allows an adversary to remotely launch a Denial-of-Service (DoS) attack that propagates both in time and space. This vulnerability stems from a coupling effect induced by hidden nodes. Cascading DoS attacks can congest an entire network and do not require the adversary to violate any protocol. We demonstrate the feasibility of such attacks through experiments with real Wi-Fi cards, extensive ns-3 simulations, and theoretical analysis. The simulations show that the attack is effective both in networks operating under fixed and varying bit rates, as well as ad hoc and infrastructure modes. To gain insight into the root-causes of the attack, we model the network as a dynamical system and analyze its limiting behavior. The model predicts that a phase transition (and hence a cascading attack) is possible when the retry limit parameter of Wi-Fi is greater or equal to 7, and characterizes the phase transition region in terms of the system parameters.
The work in @cite_19 @cite_41 show that local coupling due to interferences can have global effects on wireless networks. Thus, @cite_19 proposes a queuing-theoretic analysis and approximation to predict the probability of a packet collision in a multi-hop network with hidden nodes. It shows that the sequence of the packet collision probabilities in a linear network converges to a fixed point. The work in @cite_41 evaluates the impact of rate adaption and finds out that traffic increase at a single node can congest an entire network, and points out the existence of a phase transition.
@cite_41 @cite_19
2094570745 2117658522 2022637917 2019715307
We consider the problem of two wireless networks operating on the same (presumably unlicensed) frequency band. Pairs within a given network cooperate to schedule transmissions, but between networks there is competition for spectrum. To make the problem tractable, we assume transmissions are scheduled according to a random access protocol where each network chooses an access probability for its users. A game between the two networks is defined. We characterize the Nash Equilibrium behavior of the system. Three regimes are identified: one in which both networks simultaneously schedule all transmissions, one in which the denser network schedules all transmissions and the sparser only schedules a fraction, and one in which both networks schedule only a fraction of their transmissions. The regime of operation depends on the path loss exponent α, the latter regime being desirable but attainable only for α > 4. This suggests that in certain environments, rival wireless networks may end up naturally cooperating. To substantiate our analytical results, we simulate a system where networks iteratively optimize their access probabilities in a greedy manner. We also discuss a distributed scheduling protocol that employs carrier sensing and demonstrate via simulations that again a near cooperative equilibrium exists for sufficiently large α. The objective of the paper is to provide qualitative insight into the global effects of distributed mechanisms, such as carrier sense multiple access (CSMA) and rate control, on the performance and stability of multi-hop wireless networks. Toward this end, we introduce a linear queueing network model where the service capacity of each node is modulated by the transmission state of its neighbor. We derive lower bounds on the steady-state utilization at each queue of such networks and demonstrate the existence of a phase transition phenomenon, whereby infinitesimal traffic increase at a single node in the network can suddenly render the entire network instable. We also present NS simulation results that show how this phenomenon can actually take place in IEEE 802.11 multi-hop wireless networks. Our results have direct bearing on rate control schemes, in that they indicate a minimum admissible threshold rate required to prevent network instability. In mobile networks, distance variations caused by node mobility generate fluctuations in the channel gains. Such fluctuations can be treated as another type of fading besides multipath effects. In this paper, the interference statistics in mobile random networks are characterized by incorporating the distance variations of mobile nodes to the channel gain fluctuations. The mean interference is calculated at the origin and at the border of a finite mobile network. The network performance is evaluated in terms of the outage probability. Compared to a static network, the interference in a single snapshot does not change under uniform mobility models. However, random waypoint mobility increases (decreases) the interference at the origin (at the border). Furthermore, due to the correlation of the node locations, the interference and outage are temporally and spatially correlated. We quantify the temporal correlation of the interference and outage in mobile Poisson networks in terms of the correlation coefficient and conditional outage probability, respectively. The results show that it is essential that routing, MAC, and retransmission schemes need to be smart (i.e., correlation-aware) to avoid bursts of transmission failures. The interference in wireless networks is temporally correlated, since the node or user locations are correlated over time and the interfering transmitters are a subset of these nodes. For a wireless network where (potential) interferers form a Poisson point process and use ALOHA for channel access, we calculate the joint success and outage probabilities of n transmissions over a reference link. The results are based on the diversity polynomial, which captures the temporal interference correlation. The joint outage probability is used to determine the diversity gain (as the SIR goes to infinity), and it turns out that there is no diversity gain in simple retransmission schemes, even with independent Rayleigh fading over all links. We also determine the complete joint SIR distribution for two transmissions and the distribution of the local delay, which is the time until a repeated transmission over the reference link succeeds.