Project 3-3: Secure Sensor Data Dissemination and Aggregation

Principal Investigator: Hong Huang (New Mexico State University)

A wireless sensor network offers the opportunity to observe the physical world with unprecedented spatial and temporal detail. Sensor nets used for military purposes must be designed such that the network cannot be co-opted or used effectively by an adversary, but the constraints that security places on a communications network must be balanced with the need for fast, efficient in-network processing. Optimizing the complex tradeoffs between processing, security, communication bandwidth, and power consumption in complex urban settings will push the frontier of high performance computing.

Of particular interest is the ability to jam signals in all or part of a sensor or communications network using a distributed jamming network (DJN). Swarms of tiny, low-powered radio signal emitters released within a target network can effectively disrupt signal transmission. Recent advances in nanotube radios and micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) have reduced the size of these signal emitters to the dimensions of a speck of dust. A jamming "dust cloud" is effective because the large number of emitters provides redundancy, low power requirements reduce self-interference effects, and the tiny size and low power emission of the particles makes them difficult to detect.

A DJN can be deployed to disrupt the communications of an adversary or to disrupt the triggering mechanisms on radio-triggered explosive devices without disrupting the communications of friendly forces (because of the low power used).

AHPCRC researchers are investigating phase transitions produced in a target network by a DJN, and they are determining critical values for the number and power of jammers within a DJN. They are also studying the effects of node mobility and the topology of the DJN on jamming effectiveness.

Current research is focusing on the relationship between network capacity and network size in the presence of a DJN, and coordinated and adaptive jamming effects. Efforts are also being devoted to developing counter-measures against DJNs. This research relies on accurate HPC simulations of large-scale networks to model network configurations and responses under numerous scenarios.

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