Towards Secure Localization Using Wireless "Congruity'

Traditional methods for localization in wireless networks rely on the correlation of the received signal strength with physical distance. It is also well known, that these mechanisms fail in an adversarial setting due to the lack of robustness of the signal strength property to malicious intent. In this paper, we present a property of the wireless medium, which we call "wireless congruity', that captures the relative similarities in wireless media characteristics (such as packet receptions, idle channel time, etc.) as observed by two receivers that are in physical proximity of each other. We show that wireless congruity holds promise for secure localization by presenting an initial yet encouraging set of results obtained through extensive experimentation in a rich indoor wireless environment.