Detecting Interference in Wireless Sensor Network Received Samples: A Machine Learning Approach

Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) technology has developed substantially over the past decade or so and now numerous solutions exist across a diverse range of innovative applications. The expanding Internet of Things (IoT) sector is becoming an ever more important aspect of modern technology and a key motivator for improving security and privacy in WSNs. Typically, WSN protocols form an integral part of the overall IoT infrastructure by enabling the sensor to access point communication links. These wireless links inherently encompass security challenges, frequently due to external interference and intrusions. As IoT applications incorporate WSNs in their architecture, the incentive to attack and compromise these WSNs escalates. Often, commercial off the shelf devices and standardized open-access protocols combine to achieve specific WSN deployments. Numerous WSN vulnerabilities exist, whilst attack approaches are abundant and change frequently. Thus, to ensure acceptable performance, safety and privacy in many IoT applications, the adopted WSN must be secure. This paper discusses IoT security and privacy, by evaluating a machine learning approach for interference detection focused entirely on analyzing received In-phase (I) and Quadrature-phase (Q) samples. Significantly, once an intrusion is detected, mitigation strategies can be implemented, thus emphasizing the requirement for interference detection. Random Forest is chosen as the machine learning classifier as it consists of a large number of individual decision trees operating as an ensemble. An intrusion detection system (IDS) is developed based on Matlab simulated ZigBee data as an initial insight into whether a real wireless data approach may be viable.