Full-Duplex Constant-Envelope Jamceiver and Self-Interference Suppression by Highpass Filter: Experimental Validation for Wi-Fi Security

Unauthorized access to data has been a recognized risk of wireless systems for many decades. While security solutions in communications engineering have typically revolved around cryptography in the higher layers, a semi-recent development is the elevating interest into security in the physical layer, namely by utilizing jamming for protection. In this paper, we present an experimental study into a full-duplex jammer-receiver (i.e., jamceiver) that is able to simultaneously interfere with the same radio resources it is actively receiving from. The radio architecture is loosely based on frequency-modulated continuous-wave radars that are constant-envelope radio transceivers, which benefit from simple-but-efficient self-interference suppression in the analog baseband domain by using a passive highpass filter. Its limitation to constant-envelope transmission is not an issue for efficient jamming waveforms unlike it would be with conventional direct-conversion transceivers in full-duplex communications. To show the performance limits of a practical jamceiver, we present comprehensive measurement results from a laboratory environment as well as a jamming case study from an open park area with actual Wi-Fi signals. Especially, the experiments validate the feasibility of preventing eavesdropping with continuous low-power jamming in a large area around a full-duplex jamceiver that acts as an access point for simultaneously offering decent Wi-Fi service to an off-the-shelf laptop.

Automated summary

Unauthorized access to data has long been a recognized risk in wireless systems, and recent developments have focused on utilizing jamming for protection. This paper presents an experimental study on a full-duplex jammer-receiver that can interfere with and receive the same radio resources simultaneously. The results validate the feasibility of preventing eavesdropping with continuous low-power jamming in both lab and real-world scenarios.