Abstract
The IEEE 802.11 MAC protocol is vulnerable to selfish backoff attacks exploiting the constituent CSMA/CA mechanism. Administrative prevention of such attacks fails in wireless ad-hoc LANs which cannot mandate stations’ behavior. We take a game-theoretic approach whereby stations are allowed to maximize their payoffs (success rates). Using a fairly accurate performance model we show that a noncooperative CSMA/CA game then arises with a payoff structure characteristic of a Prisoners’ Dilemma. For a repeated CSMA/CA game, a novel SPELL strategy is proposed. If the stations are rational players and wish to maximize a long-term utility, SPELL deters a single attacker by providing a disincentive to deviate from SPELL.
Effort sponsored by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, Air Force Material Command, USAF, under grant nmber FA8655-04-1-3074. The U.S Government is authorized to reproduce and distribute reprints for Governmental purpose notwithstanding any copyright notation thereon. The views and conclusions contained herein are those of the author and should not be interpreted as necessarily representing the official policies or endorsements, either expressed or implied, of the AFOSR or the U.S. Government.
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Konorski, J. (2005). Playing CSMA/CA Game to Deter Backoff Attacks in Ad Hoc Wireless LANs. In: Syrotiuk, V.R., Chávez, E. (eds) Ad-Hoc, Mobile, and Wireless Networks. ADHOC-NOW 2005. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 3738. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/11561354_12
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/11561354_12
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