Fast-Forward Relaying Scheme to Mitigate Jamming Attacks by Full-Duplex Radios

Abstract: In this work, we address reliable communication of low-latency packets in the presence of a full-duplex adversary that is capable of executing a jamming attack while also being able to measure the power levels on various frequency bands. Due to the presence of a strong adversary, first, we point out that traditional frequency-hopping does not help since unused frequency bands may not be available, and moreover, the victim's transition between the frequency bands would be detected by the full-duplex adversary. Identifying these challenges, we propose a new cooperative mitigation strategy, referred to as the Semi-Coherent Fast-Forward Full-Duplex (SC-FFFD) relaying technique, wherein the victim node, upon switching to a new frequency band, seeks the assistance of its incumbent user, which is also a full-duplex radio, to instantaneously forward its messages to the destination using a portion of their powers. Meanwhile, the two nodes cooperatively use their residual powers on the jammed frequency band so as to engage the adversary to continue executing the jamming attack on the same band. Using on-off keying (OOK) and phase-shift-keying (PSK) as the modulation schemes at the victim and the helper node, respectively, we derive upper bounds on the probability of error of jointly decoding the information symbols of the two nodes, and subsequently derive analytical solutions to arrive at the power-splitting factor between the two frequency bands to minimize the error of both the nodes. We also present extensive simulation results for various signal-to-noise-ratio values and PSK constellations to showcase the efficacy of the proposed approach.