Systems and methods for proactively enforcing a wireless free zone

• US 20080119130A1
• Filed: 11/22/2006
• Published: 05/22/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 11/22/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Extreme Networks, Inc.
• Original Assignee: AirDefense Incorporated (Motorola Solutions, Inc.)
• Inventors: Sinha, Amit
• Granted Patent: US 7,783,300 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04K 2203/18 for wireless local area networks or WLAN
• CPC Class Codes: H04K 2203/34 involving multiple cooperating jammers
• CPC Class Codes: H04K 3/43 characterized by the control of the jamming power, signal-to-noise ratio or geographic coverage area
• CPC Class Codes: H04K 3/45 characterized by including monitoring of the target or target signal, e.g. in reactive jammers or follower jammers for example by means of an alternation of jamming phases and monitoring phases, called "look-through mode"
• CPC Class Codes: H04K 3/65 using deceptive jamming or spoofing, e.g. transmission of false signals for premature triggering of RCIED, for forced connection or disconnection to/from a network or for generation of dummy target signal
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0823 using certificates cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for entity authentication involving certificates H04L9/3263
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/126 the source of the received data
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/1408 by monitoring network traffic monitoring network traffic per se H04L43/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/06 Authentication
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/086 using security domains
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/088 using filters or firewalls
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/12 WLAN [Wireless Local Area Networks]

Abstract

The present disclosure is directed to systems and methods for proactively enforcing a wireless free zone over an enterprise'"'"'s airspace using Open Systems Interconnect (OSI) layer one, two, and three based techniques. The systems and methods prevent wireless communications over IEEE 802.11 (WiFi), IEEE 802.16 (WiMax), and IEEE 802.15.1 (Bluetooth) networks to enable an enterprise to enforce compliance to a no-wireless policy. Smart antennas and coverage planning are included to avoid disrupting a neighbor'"'"'s wireless communications. Further, the disclosed systems and methods can be combined into existing Wireless Intrusion Prevention Systems (WIPS) or in a stand-alone sensor and server configuration to offer proactive no-wireless zones.

Claims

1. A method for proactively enforcing a wireless free zone over a pre-defined area, the method comprising the steps of:

a) performing radio frequency (RF) simulation of the pre-defined area, wherein the RF simulation is configured to provide placement location of sensors to provide a coverage area in the pre-defined area and to minimize signal bleed into areas neighboring the pre-defined area;

b) placing sensors in the pre-defined area responsive to the RF simulation; and

c) enforcing the wireless free zone throughout the coverage area with the sensors.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the enforcing step comprises the steps of:

a) transmitting clear-to-send (CTS) frames with a long duration field to reserve a wireless channel thereby preventing other devices from communicating on the wireless channel; and

b) repeating step a).

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the enforcing step comprises the steps of:

a) selecting a first wireless channel;

b) transmitting clear-to-send (CTS) frames with a long duration field to reserve the first wireless channel thereby preventing other devices from communicating on the next wireless channel;

c) switching to a next wireless channel;

d) transmitting clear-to-send (CTS) frames with a long duration field to reserve the next wireless channel thereby preventing other devices from communicating on the next wireless channel; and

e) repeating steps c) through d) over a pre-determined set of wireless channels in the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands, the pre-determined set of wireless channels comprise the channels over which the wireless free zone is enforced;

wherein the time of the long duration field exceeds the time required to perform steps c) and d) through the pre-determined set of wireless channels.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the enforcing step comprises the steps of:

a) transmitting data frames with a long duration field over a wireless channel to cause other devices that may want to communicate to continuously set their network allocation vector to prevent the other devices from getting a clear channel assessment; and

b) repeating step a).

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the enforcing step comprises the steps of:

a) selecting a first wireless channel;

b) transmitting data frames with a long duration field over the first wireless channel to cause other devices that may want to communicate to continuously set their network allocation vector to prevent the other devices from getting a clear channel assessment;

c) switching to a next wireless channel;

d) transmitting data frames with a long duration field over the next wireless channel to cause other devices that may want to communicate to continuously set their network allocation vector to prevent the other devices from getting a clear channel assessment; and

e) repeating steps c) through d) over a pre-determined set of wireless channels in the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands, the pre-determined set of wireless channels comprise the channels over which the wireless free zone is enforced;

wherein the data frames comprise a frame body with data simulated to look like legitimate data; and

wherein the time of the long duration field exceeds the time required to perform steps c) and d) through all of the pre-determined set of wireless channels.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the enforcing step comprises the steps of:

a) selecting a first wireless channel;

b) selecting a data or clear-to-send frame with a long duration field;

c) transmitting the selected frame from step b) over the first wireless channel;

d) switching to a next wireless channel;

e) selecting a data or clear-to-send frame with a long duration field;

f) transmitting the selected frame from step e) over the next wireless channel;

g) repeating steps d) through f) over a pre-determined set of wireless channels, the pre-determined set of wireless channels comprise the channels over which the wireless free zone is enforced;

wherein the selecting in steps b) and e) is performed to simulate a mixture of legitimate traffic;

wherein the data frames comprise a frame body with data simulated to look like legitimate data; and

wherein the time of the long duration field exceeds the time required to perform steps d) and f) through all of the pre-determined set of wireless channels.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the mixture of legitimate traffic is created with an intelligent scanning pattern which differs frame sizes, power levels, payloads, duration values, and addresses.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein the switching step switches to the next wireless channel responsive to an intelligent scanning pattern which utilizes prior activity across the pre-determined set of wireless channels to focus on channels which are the most active based on history.

9. The method of claim 6, wherein the sensors comprise multiple radios to enable the enforcing step to operate on multiple channels simultaneously.

10. The method of claim 6, wherein the sensors are operable to communicate with other sensors through data frames with cryptographic payloads and special signatures that allow other sensors to determine these are authorized transmissions from a sensor and not attempt to block these transmissions.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the enforcing step comprises the steps of:

a) monitoring a wireless channel;

b) injecting burst noise while an unauthorized frame is being transmitted to prevent it from being successfully decoded by a receiver and acknowledged; and

c) repeating steps a) through b).

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the sensors comprise multiple radios to enable the enforcing step to operate on multiple channels simultaneously.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the enforcing step comprises the steps of:

a) selecting a wireless channel;

b) transmitting noise and interference on the wireless channel to prevent devices from communicating; and

c) repeating step b).

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the sensors comprise multiple radios to enable the enforcing step to operate on multiple channels simultaneously.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the enforcing step comprises higher layer blocking of Internet Protocol based communication using the sensors to inject frame spoofed ARP frames or SYN/RST frames for a TCP denial-of-service.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein the enforcing step comprises transmitting an 12ping flood from the sensors to prevent Bluetooth devices from communicating.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein the enforcing step comprises the steps of:

a) setting the sensors to IEEE 802.11 channel 6 (2437 MHz);

b) transmitting a 40 MHz wide continuous transmission to create broadband interference in the 2.4 GHz band to prevent Bluetooth devices from communicating; and

c) repeating step b).

18. The method of claim 1, wherein the enforcing step comprises the steps of:

a) monitoring WiMax stations for UL-MAP frames;

b) transmitting an in-band jamming signal during a station'"'"'s slot based upon the monitoring of UL-MAP frames to effectively deny the station WiMax service; and

c) repeating steps a) through b).

19. The method of claim 1, wherein the enforcing step comprises the steps of:

a) monitoring WiMax stations for a handshake;

b) transmitting Auth Reject frames that are not authenticated with the HMAC digest to prevent a station from successfully authenticating and

c) repeating steps a) through b).

20. The method of claim 1, further comprising the steps of:

a) measuring the signal strength of the transmissions of other sensors in the pre-defined area, the measuring performed by the sensors;

b) reporting the measured signal strengths to a server;

c) determining signal coverage over the pre-defined area, the server determines the signal coverage; and

d) adjusting transmit power level on sensors responsive to a determination in determining step c) that the signal coverage exceeds the pre-defined area.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein the server and sensors comprise a wireless intrusion prevention system (WIPS).

22. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of utilizing signal strength based physical location tracking to determine if the source of a transmission is in or out of bounds of the wireless free zone.

23. A system for proactively enforcing a wireless free zone, the system comprising:

one or more sensors connected to a network, the sensors comprise one or more wireless radios configured to monitor a wireless network and to transmit frames on the wireless network; and

a server connected to the one or more sensors through the network, the server configured to log events;

generate alarms, notifications, and reports; and

direct the one or more sensors to prevent wireless communications to enforce the wireless free zone;

wherein the one or more sensors are deployed in an area responsive to radio frequency (RF) simulations which predict the placement of the sensors to guarantee coverage over the area and to minimize signal bleed into neighboring areas.

24. The system of claim 23, wherein the one or more sensors transmit clear-to-send (CTS) frames with a long duration field to reserve the channel thereby preventing other devices from communicating over a wireless channel to enforce the wireless free zone.

25. The system of claim 23, wherein the one or more sensors transmit data frames with long duration fields to cause other devices that may want to communicate on a wireless channel to continuously set their network allocation vector (NAV) and prevent them from getting a clear channel assessment (CCA) to enforce the wireless free zone.

26. The system of claim 23, wherein the one or more sensors transmit a mixture of data and clear-to-send frames with long duration fields while scanning through multiple wireless channels to prevent any other devices from ever communicating on the wireless channels to enforce the wireless free zone.

27. The system of claim 26, wherein the one or more sensors in the area synchronize through the server and utilized intelligent scanning patterns to maximize temporal and spatial coverage of the multiple wireless channels in the area.

28. The system of claim 23, wherein the one or more sensors are operable to scan and transmit simultaneously over multiple channels using the one or more wireless radios.

29. The system of claim 23, wherein the one or more sensors transmit data frames with cryptographic payloads and special signatures that only allow other authorized sensors to determine these as authorized transmissions from the sensor infrastructure and not attempt to block there own transmissions.

30. The system of claim 23, wherein the sensors are further configured to measure the signal strength of the transmissions of other sensors in the area and report the measured signal strengths to the server;

and

Wherein the server is further configured to determine signal coverage over the area based on the signal strengths and adjust the transmit power level on the one or more sensors responsive to a determination that the signal coverage exceeds the area.

31. The system of claim 23, wherein the server and the one or more sensors comprise a wireless intrusion prevention system (WIPS).