Covert channels in 802.11e wireless networks

Abstract

WLANs (Wireless Local Area Networks) have been widely used in business, school and public areas. The newly deployed 802.11e protocol provides QoS in WLANs. However there are some vulnerability in it. This paper analyzed the 802.11e protocol for QoS support in WLANs and two new covert channels are proposed. These proposed covert channels provide signalling method in order to have reliable communication. The proposed covert channels have no impact on normal traffic pattern, thus it cannot be detected by monitoring traffic pattern.