Wireless Location Estimation Using Distributed Sniffer Triangulation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional techniques fail to accurately determine the physical location of wireless stations associated with undesirable activities such as denial of service attacks, spoofing, and address forging in wireless networks, limiting the ability to track and mitigate security breaches and performance intrusions.
Innovation Solution
A method and system that utilize a plurality of sniffers to receive and process wireless signals, identify subsets associated with specific undesirable activities, and estimate the location of wireless devices based on received signal strengths, employing techniques like triangulation and signal strength signature matching.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If conventional location determination techniques are used, then the system can operate with simple infrastructure, but the location accuracy of wireless stations engaged in malicious activities cannot be achieved
Solution Approach 1:
The system segments the wireless network monitoring function into multiple distributed sniffers placed at different locations. Each sniffer independently captures wireless signals and provides location measurements. This segmentation enables accurate location determination through triangulation while distributing system complexity across multiple simple nodes rather than requiring a single complex centralized system.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces a location determination system that acts as an intermediary between wireless signal captures and security responses. This intermediary processes signals from multiple sniffers, performs triangulation calculations, and generates location estimates for malicious devices, thereby achieving accurate location tracking without requiring direct complex integration between sniffers and security systems.
2Adaptability or versatility
If wireless stations can change identities or spoof MAC addresses, then the adaptability of malicious devices is improved, but the ability to detect and track them deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of trying to identify malicious devices by their claimed identities (MAC addresses), the system inverts the approach by determining location based on physical signal characteristics captured by multiple sniffers. This inversion makes detection reliable because physical location cannot be spoofed like MAC addresses, thereby countering the adaptability of identity-changing malicious devices.
Solution Approach 2:
The system continuously monitors wireless signals and provides feedback about detected malicious activities along with their estimated locations. This feedback loop enables real-time tracking of malicious devices even as they change identities, allowing security systems to respond dynamically to ongoing threats regardless of identity changes.
Data Source
AI summary
A method of estimating a location of a wireless device providing a wireless attack. The method includes disposing a number of sniffers in a geographic region and receiving a number of wireless signals at one or more of the number of sniffers. The method also includes processing the number of wireless signals to identify a subset of the number of wireless signals that are associated with the wireless device and determining a number of received signal strengths associated with the subset of the number of wireless signals. The method further includes providing an estimation of the location of the wireless device utilizing the determined received signal strengths associated with the subset of the number of wireless signals.