Method and system for wireless intrusion detection, prevention and security management

• US 20080102797A1
• Filed: 09/19/2007
• Published: 05/01/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 08/12/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: 3e Technologies International, Inc. (Ultra Electronics Holdings PLC)
• Original Assignee: 3e Technologies International, Inc. (Ultra Electronics Holdings PLC)
• Inventors: Brown, William, Coleman, Ryon, Fossaceca, John
• Granted Patent: US 7,953,389 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/411
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/086 using weights depending on external parameters, e.g. direction of arrival [DOA], predetermined weights or beamforming
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/1416 Event detection, e.g. attack signature detection
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/1441 Countermeasures against malicious traffic countermeasures against attacks on cryptographic mechanisms H04L9/002
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/12 Detection or prevention of fraud
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/122 Counter-measures against attacks; Protection against rogue devices
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/63 Location-dependent; Proximity-dependent
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 16/28 using beam steering
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 48/02 Access restriction performed under specific conditions

Abstract

A method and system for wireless intrusion detection, prevention and security management. The method and system provides autonomous wireless intrusion detection and prevention, with minimal or no operator intervention. The method and system includes a smart wireless radio frequency (RF) antenna subsystem with an adaptive RF beamformer for adaptively and dynamically positioning RF nulls in a wireless RF transmission beam pattern to block one or more rouge wireless network devices from accessing a wireless network such as aboard a military ship.

Claims

1. A smart wireless antenna subsystem providing intrusion detection and prevention, comprising in combination:

one or more digital signal processors for controlling phases and time delays used in selectively steering a wireless radio frequency (RF) transmission beam pattern via an adaptive RF beamformer;

an adaptive RF beamformer for adaptively and dynamically positioning RF nulls in the wireless RF transmission beam pattern to block one or more wireless network devices from accessing a wireless network,

wherein the adaptive RF beamformer includes complex weighting factors to process incoming RF signals from a plurality of wireless antenna elements and a signal weight summer to add up processed RF signals to enhance RF signals of interest and ignore RF signals not of interest;

a direction of arrival detector for computing angles of arrival of incoming RF signals from the one or more wireless network devices and for passing the computed angles of arrival of the incoming RF signals to the adaptive RF beamformer; and

a plurality of wireless antenna elements for receiving a plurality of wireless RF signals from the one or more wireless network devices via the wireless network, for passing the plurality of wireless RF signals to the direction of arrival detector and for sending wireless RF signals created by adaptive RF beamformer to the one or more wireless network devices,

thereby providing an automated wireless network intrusion detection and prevention system for dynamically and adaptively detecting wireless device intruders to the wireless network and preventing the wireless device intruders from interfering with the wireless network.

2. The smart wireless antenna subsystem of claim 1 wherein, the direction of arrival detector calculates a direction of arrival of an RF signal with:

R_xx(k)=E[x_k x_k^H],

wherein R_xx (k) is a spatial correlation matrix, x_k is an RF signal sampled at discrete time k, E[ ] is an expectation operator and x_k^H is a Hermitian transpose of x_k.

3. The smart wireless antenna subsystem of claim 1 wherein an output from the adaptive beamformer includes:

y_k=w^H·

x_k,

wherein y_k is an RF signal vector output at discrete time k, w^H are complex weight factors and x_k is a received RF signal vector input at discrete time k.

4. The smart wireless antenna subsystem of claim 3 wherein the adaptive beamformer calculates the complex weight factors w^H with a Minimum Variance Distortionless Response method comprising:

5. The smart wireless antenna subsystem of claim 1 wherein the smart wireless antenna subsystem is used at a physical layer in an infrastructure for the wireless network.

6. The smart wireless antenna subsystem of claim 5 wherein the physical layer is an Open Systems Interconnection Layer 1 physical layer.

7. The smart wireless antenna subsystem of claim 1 wherein the wireless smart wireless antenna subsystem operates at a data-link layer or higher layer in a wireless network infrastructure on a wireless network.

8. The smart wireless antenna subsystem of claim 7 wherein the data-link layer is an Open Systems Interconnection Layer 2 data-link layer or higher layer.

9. The smart wireless antenna subsystem of claim 1 wherein the adaptive RF beamformer dynamically and adaptively directs a selected rouge wireless network device or a selected rouge wireless access point to a wireless null in a wireless signal pattern with the smart wireless antenna subsystem.

10. The smart wireless antenna subsystem of claim 1 wherein the smart wireless antenna subsystem is included on a military ship to adaptively and dynamically block one or more different rouge wireless network devices from accessing a wireless network on the military ship.

11. The smart wireless antenna subsystem of claim 1 wherein the smart wireless antenna subsystem is included on a military ship to adaptively and dynamically block one or more different rouge wireless access points from accessing a wireless network on the military ship.

12. A smart wireless antenna subsystem providing intrusion detection and prevention, comprising in combination:

means for controlling phases and time delays used in selectively steering a wireless radio frequency (RF) transmission beam pattern via a means for adaptively and dynamically positioning RF nulls in the wireless RF transmission beam pattern;

means for adaptively positioning RF nulls in the wireless RF transmission beam pattern to block one or more wireless network devices from accessing a wireless network,

wherein complex weighting factors are used to process incoming RF signals from a means for receiving a plurality of wireless RF signals from the one or more wireless network devices via the wireless network and a signal weight summer to add up processed RF signals to enhance RF signals of interest and ignore RF signals not of interest;

means for computing angles of arrival of incoming RF signals from the one or more wireless network devices and for passing the computed angles of arrival of the incoming RF signals to the means for means for receiving a plurality of wireless RF signals from the one or more wireless network devices via the wireless network; and

means for receiving a plurality of wireless RF signals from the one or more wireless network devices via the wireless network, for passing the plurality of wireless RF signals to the means for computing angles of arrival of incoming RF signals from the one or more wireless network devices and for sending wireless RF signals created by the means for adaptively and dynamically positioning RF nulls in the wireless RF transmission beam pattern to block one or more wireless network devices from accessing a wireless network to the one or more wireless network devices,

thereby providing an automated wireless network intrusion detection and prevention system for dynamically and adaptively detecting wireless device intruders to the wireless network and preventing the wireless device intruders from interfering with the wireless network.

13. The smart wireless antenna subsystem of claim 12 wherein the smart wireless antenna subsystem is included on a military ship to adaptively and dynamically block one or more different rouge wireless network devices from accessing a wireless network on the military ship.

14. The smart wireless antenna subsystem of claim 12 wherein the smart wireless antenna subsystem is used at a physical layer in an infrastructure for the wireless network.