Collaborative Attack Model at Physical Layer of Mobile WiMAX Network

Abstract

Since last few years, users have been paying significant attention and interest towards the WiMAX Internet technology because of the salient features i.e. Higher data rate, broad coverage, quality of service (QoS), scalability, security, and mobility support to the subscribers. Mobile WiMAX (IEEE 802.16e) supports the handover process and mobility of subscriber stations. WiMAX network security is a vital requirement to increase the reliability and to prevent from the various attacks. Implementation of top level security is highly required to lessen the vulnerabilities. Jamming attack, scrambling attack and water-torture attack are among the most severe threats to the physical layer of mobile WiMAX. This paper presents a collaborative attack model based on the combination of scrambling and water-torture attacks. Analysis of the paper shows that the cooperation of two or more attacks/attackers may be more devastating for the network security.