Jamming and anti-jamming techniques in wireless networks: a survey

Abstract

Because of the proliferation of wireless technologies, jamming in wireless networks has become a major research problem due to the ease in blocking communication in wireless networks. Jamming attacks are a subset of denial of service (DoS) attacks in which malicious nodes block legitimate communication by causing intentional interference in networks. To better understand jamming and anti–jamming, we surveyed and analysed their various techniques. For evaluating jamming, we categorised the types of jammers implemented in the literature and investigated the placement strategies for supporting effective jamming. For anti–jamming approaches, we start by discussing the protocols for localising jammers before presenting the mechanisms for detection and jamming countermeasure. We present comparison tables for each of the jammer types, jammer placements, jammer localisation, jamming detection schemes and jamming countermeasures. Our analyses are helpful for selecting an existing strategy for a particular system setup. Finally, we discuss open issues in this field.