TY - GEN
T1 - A comparative study of anonymous 802.11 protocols
AU - Qin, Yang
AU - Yin, Yin
AU - Huang, Dijiang
AU - Shah, Nirav
PY - 2008
Y1 - 2008
N2 - Many anonymous communication solutions have been proposed to provide anonymous mobile ad hoc network (MANET) communications. However, they mainly focus on the routing layer and above to hide the end-to-end traffic patterns. The point-to-point communication relations are often considered as non-critical information in terms of anonymity, which actually exposes the traffic patterns on the PHY/MAC layer. Adversaries may utilize the MAC layer protocol to derive the end-to-end communication relations by using statistical traffic analysis. Unfortunately, the most popular wireless MAC protocol used in MANETs, i.e., IEEE 802.11, will reveal the point-to-point communication relations to attackers. In this paper, we investigate several solutions to hide the 802.11 point-to-point communication relation. We perform a comparative study to analyze the feasibility of these potential solutions. Our research results indicate that the pure physical carrier sensing approximately archives the similar performance compared to the standard 802.11 protocols, while achieving better point-to-point anonymity.
AB - Many anonymous communication solutions have been proposed to provide anonymous mobile ad hoc network (MANET) communications. However, they mainly focus on the routing layer and above to hide the end-to-end traffic patterns. The point-to-point communication relations are often considered as non-critical information in terms of anonymity, which actually exposes the traffic patterns on the PHY/MAC layer. Adversaries may utilize the MAC layer protocol to derive the end-to-end communication relations by using statistical traffic analysis. Unfortunately, the most popular wireless MAC protocol used in MANETs, i.e., IEEE 802.11, will reveal the point-to-point communication relations to attackers. In this paper, we investigate several solutions to hide the 802.11 point-to-point communication relation. We perform a comparative study to analyze the feasibility of these potential solutions. Our research results indicate that the pure physical carrier sensing approximately archives the similar performance compared to the standard 802.11 protocols, while achieving better point-to-point anonymity.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=78650758890&partnerID=8YFLogxK
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U2 - 10.1109/MILCOM.2008.4753626
DO - 10.1109/MILCOM.2008.4753626
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:78650758890
SN - 9781424426775
T3 - Proceedings - IEEE Military Communications Conference MILCOM
BT - 2008 IEEE Military Communications Conference, MILCOM 2008 - Assuring Mission Success
T2 - 2008 IEEE Military Communications Conference, MILCOM 2008 - Assuring Mission Success
Y2 - 17 November 2008 through 19 November 2008
ER -