Random Access Performance of Distributed Sensors Attacked by Unknown Jammers

Area of Science:

• Wireless communication networks
• Network security
• Signal processing

Background:

• Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) rely on central Head Sensors (HS) for data collection from distributed Sensor Nodes (SNs).
• Jamming attacks pose a significant threat to WSNs by disrupting information transmission through interference.
• Two primary jamming strategies, power jamming and code jamming, are investigated for their impact on network performance.

Purpose of the Study:

• To model and investigate the random access (RA) performance of SNs in a WSN under different jamming attack scenarios.
• To analyze the impact of power jamming and code jamming on WSN throughput and delay.
• To compare the effectiveness of different jamming attacks on RA performance.

Main Methods:

• Modeling of random access (RA) performance in WSNs.
• Analysis of two jamming attack types: power jamming and code jamming.
• Numerical investigation comparing jamming effects on throughput and delay.

Main Results:

• Power jamming degrades throughput by up to 30.3% and increases delay by up to 40.1%.
• Code jamming degrades throughput by up to 40.5% and increases delay by up to 65.6%.
• Both jamming types significantly impair WSN random access performance compared to non-jammed networks.

Conclusions:

• Code jamming has a more detrimental effect on WSN RA performance than power jamming.
• Understanding jamming impacts is crucial for developing robust WSN security mechanisms.
• Mitigation strategies are needed to counter jamming attacks and ensure reliable WSN operation.