Application of wavelet-based RF fingerprinting to enhance wireless network security

This work continues a trend of developments aimed at exploiting the physical layer of the open systems interconnection (OSI) model to enhance wireless network security. The goal is to augment activity occurring across other OSI layers and provide improved safeguards against unauthorized access. Relative to intrusion detection and anti-spoofing, this paper provides details for a proof-of-concept investigation involving “air monitor” applications where physical equipment constraints are not overly restrictive. In this case, RF fingerprinting is emerging as a viable security measure for providing device-specific identification (manufacturer, model, and/or serial number). RF fingerprint features can be extracted from various regions of collected bursts, the detection of which has been extensively researched. Given reliable burst detection, the near-term challenge is to find robust fingerprint features to improve device distinguishability. This is addressed here using wavelet domain (WD) RF fingerprinting based on dual-tree complex wavelet transform (DT-CWT) features extracted from the non-transient preamble response of OFDM-based 802.11a signals. Intra-manufacturer classification performance is evaluated using four like-model Cisco devices with dissimilar serial numbers. WD fingerprinting effectiveness is demonstrated using Fisher-based multiple discriminant analysis (MDA) with maximum likelihood (ML) classification. The effects of varying channel SNR, burst detection error and dissimilar SNRs for MDA/ML training and classification are considered. Relative to time domain (TD) RF fingerprinting, WD fingerprinting with DT-CWT features emerged as the superior alternative for all scenarios at SNRs below 20 dB while achieving performance gains of up to 8 dB at 80% classification accuracy.