Security of Ultra-Wideband Communications

Contact: Manuel Flury

Ultra-wideband (UWB) is a new radio technology with a large range of applications in future wireless communication networks. UWB has several properties that are not present in current wireless protocols (like, e.g., 802.11) and enable new applications, such as high precision ranging and localization. Its properties also make UWB very interesting for security applications.

Most current wireless security protocols neglect the impact of the underlying communication technology. This opens space to new kinds of attacks (see e.g. [1]). These could prove to be devastating to the overall system security, much like so called “side-channel attacks” can break provably secure cryptographic schemes by analyzing the power consumption of a device that implements them.

The goal of this project would be to investigate current wireless security protocols under the assumptions that the underlying communication technology is UWB. Furthermore, we would like to explore to what extent the use of UWB can enhance the security of wireless networks.

[1] J. Clulow, G.P. Hancke, M.G. Kuhn and T. Moore, “So Near and yet So Far: Distance-Bounding Attacks in Wireless Networks.”, European Workshop on Security and Privacy in Ad-Hoc and Sensor Networks (ESAS), Springer-Verlag LNCS 4357, pp 83-97, July 2006.

This is a joint project between LCA1 and LCA2. The responsible are Manuel Flury (LCA2) and Marcin Poturalski (LCA1).

Prerequisites: Strong background in digital communications. Good knowledge of Matlab.

Benefits: Getting familiar with state-of-the-art wireless technology, notably from the security perspective.