New Slot-Head Jamming Attack and Mitigation Mechanism for Wireless Body Area Networks

Abstract

IEEE 802.15.4 beacon-enabled mode offers to Wireless Body Area Networks the ability to deliver their periodic traffic in a contention-free way. The Guaranteed Time Slot (GTS) mode helps to avoid collisions and provides a deterministic transmission pattern. The main disadvantage of contention-free communication is being an easy target for selective jamming. In this paper, we propose a new optimized version of GTS attacks that conserve the adversary's resources and enable prolonging the lifetime of the attack, thus, increasing its negative impact on the network. In addition, a solution that mitigates the harm of this detrimental attack is provided. To evaluate the performance of the solution, extensive network simulation is conducted. The obtained results show that the proposed solution is efficient in terms of packet delivery ratio, energy consumption and delay.