Channel Access Model to Predict Impact of Authentication Attack on AIS

Recommendation ITU-R M.1371-5 from ITU-R provides technical characteristics for an automatic identification system using time division multiple access in the VHF maritime mobile frequency band. Security is an important aspect in Automatic Identification System (AIS) for global maritime applications. For short range data exchange, AIS radios transmit in the VHF band, and Self-Organizing Time Division Multiple Access (SOTDMA) manages the channel resources that can be shared by multiple users. The challenge of the system mainly lies in the overall system security. In this work, the reliability of the network is evaluated as the traffic increases in a local area, representative of a seaport. The performance is assessed as a function of number of nodes and report rate. Also, the degradation of the network performance is evaluated as an attacker attempts to flood the network.