LTE/LTE-A jamming, spoofing, and sniffing: threat assessment and mitigation

Abstract

LTE is currently being proposed for use in a nationwide wireless broadband public safety network in the United States as well as for other critical applications where reliable communication is essential for safety. Unfortunately, like any wireless technology, disruption of these networks is possible through radio jamming. This article investigates the extent to which LTE is vulnerable to RF jamming, spoofing, and sniffing, and assesses different physical layer threats that could affect next-generation critical communication networks. In addition, we examine how sniffing the LTE broadcast messages can aid an adversary in an attack. The weakest links of LTE are identified and used to establish an overall threat assessment. Lastly, we provide a survey of LTE jamming and spoofing mitigation techniques that have been proposed in the open literature.