Wireless Communications under Broadband Reactive Jamming Attacks

A reactive jammer jams wireless channels only when target devices are transmitting; Compared to constant jamming, reactive jamming is harder to track and compensate against [2], [38]. Frequency hopping spread spectrum (FHSS) and direct sequence spread spectrum (DSSS) have been widely used as countermeasures against jamming attacks. However, both will fail if the jammer jams all frequency channels or has high transmit power. In this paper, we propose an anti-jamming communication system that allows communication in the presence of a broadband and high power reactive jammer. The proposed system transmits messages by harnessing the reaction time of a reactive jammer. It does not assume a reactive jammer with limited spectrum coverage and transmit power, and thus can be used in scenarios where traditional approaches fail. We develop a prototype of the proposed system using GNURadio. Our experimental evaluation shows that when a powerful reactive jammer is present, the prototype still keeps communication, whereas other schemes such as 802.11 DSSS fail completely.