Abstract
Software-defined radio (SDR) implements a radio system in software that executes on a programmable processor. The components of SDR, such as the filters, amplifiers, and modulators, can be easily reconfigured to adapt to the operating environment and user preferences. However, the flexibility of radio reconfiguration brings along the serious security concern of malicious modification of software in the SDR system, leading to radio malfunction and interference with other users' communications. Both the SDR device and the network need to be protected from such malicious radio reconfiguration.
In this article, a new architecture targeted at protecting SDR devices from malicious reconfiguration is proposed. The architecture is based on robust separation of the radio operation environment and user application environment, through the use of virtualization. A new radio middleware layer is designed to securely intercept all attempts to reconfigure the radio, and a security policy monitor checks the target configuration against security policies that represent the interests of various parties. Even if the operating system in the user application environment is compromised, the proposed architecture can ensure secure reconfiguration in the radio operation environment. We have prototyped the proposed secure SDR architecture using VMware and the GNU Radio toolkit and demonstrate that overheads incurred by the architecture are small and tolerable. Therefore, we believe that the proposed solution could be applied to address secure SDR reconfiguration in both general-purpose and embedded computing systems.
- Ben-Yehuda, M., Xenidis, J., and Ostrowski, M. 2007. The price of safety: Evaluating IOMMU performance. In Proceedings of the Linux Symposium. Vol. 1, 9--20.Google Scholar
- Brawerman, A., Blough, D., and Bing, B. 2004. Securing the download of radio configuration files for software defined radio devices. In Proceedings of the International Workshop of Mobility Management and Wireless Access Protocols. 98--105. Google Scholar
Digital Library
- Brawerman, A. and Copeland, J. 2005. An anti-cloning framework for software defined radio mobile devices. In Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Communications. Vol. 5.Google Scholar
- Falk, R., Esfahani, J. F., and Dillinger, M. 2002. Reconfigurable radio terminals—threats and security objectives. Tech. rep. SDRF-02-I-0056.Google Scholar
- Flanigan, P., Welch, V., and Pant, M. 2005. Dynamic policy enforcement for software defined radio. In Proceedings of the Software Defined Radio Technical Conference and Product Exposition.Google Scholar
- Halderman, J., Schoen, S., Heninger, N., Clarkson, W., Paul, W., Calandrino, J., Feldman, A., Appelbaum, J., Felten, E., and Foundation, E. 2008. Lest we remember: Cold boot attacks on encryption keys. In Proceedings of the USENIX Security Symposium. 45--60. Google Scholar
Digital Library
- Hill, R., Myagmar, S., and Campbell, R. 2005. Threat analysis of GNU software radio. In Proceedings of the World Wireless Congress.Google Scholar
- Jones, S. T., Arpaci-Dusseau, A. C., and Arpaci-Dusseau, R. H. 2006. Antfarm: Tracking processes in a virtual machine environment. In Proceedings of the USENIX Annual Technical Conference. 1--14. Google Scholar
Digital Library
- Kurdziel, M., Beane, J., and Fitton, J. 2005. An SCA security supplement compliant radio architecture. In Proceedings of the IEEE Military Communications Conference. Vol. 4. 2244--2250.Google Scholar
- Lee, P. SDR Architecture, http://www.sdrforum.org/pages/aboutSdrTech/SDR_Architectures.pdf.Google Scholar
- Michael, L., Mihaljevic, M., Haruyama, S., and Kohno, R. 2002a. A framework for secure download for software-defined radio. IEEE Comm. Mag. 40, 7, 88--96. Google Scholar
Digital Library
- Michael, L., Mihaljevic, M., Haruyama, S., and Kohno, R. 2002b. A proposal of architectural elements for implementing secure software download service in software defined radio. In Proceedings of the IEEE International Symposium on Personal, Indoor and Mobile Radio Communications. Vol. 1. 442--446.Google Scholar
- Mulliner, C. and Miller, C. Fuzzing the phone in your phone, http://www.blackhat.com/presentations/bh-usa-09/miller/bhusa09-miller-fuzzingphone-paper.pdf.Google Scholar
- Myagmar, S. 2008. Secure configuration for software defined radio. Ph.D. thesis, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Google Scholar
Digital Library
- Ravi, S., Raghunathan, A., Kocher, P., and Hattangady, S. 2004. Security in embedded systems: Design challenges. ACM Trans. Embedd. Comput. Syst. 3, 3, 461--491. Google Scholar
Digital Library
- Sakaguchi, K., Fung Lam, C., Doan, T., Togooch, M., Takada, J., and Araki, K. 2003. ACU- and RSM-based radio spectrum management for realization of flexible software defined radio world. IEICE Trans. Comm. E Series B 86, 12, 3417--3424.Google Scholar
- SDR Forum. 1999. Architecture and elements of SDR systems as related to standards. Tech. rep.Google Scholar
- SDR Forum. 2002a. Report on issues and activity in the area of security for software defined radio. Tech. rep. SDRF-02-A-0003.Google Scholar
- SDR Forum. 2002b. SDR system security. Tech. rep. SDRF-02-A-0006.Google Scholar
- SDR Forum. 2003. A structure for software defined radio security. Tech. rep. SDRF-03-I-0010.Google Scholar
- SDR Forum. 2004a. Hardware abstraction layer working group report on results of request for information. Tech. rep.Google Scholar
- SDR Forum. 2004b. SDR wireless security. Tech. rep. SDRF-04-I-0023.Google Scholar
- SDR Forum. 2005. SDR security requirements. Tech. rep., SDRF-04-W-0006.Google Scholar
- SDR Forum System Interface Working Group. 2003. API position paper. Tech. rep.Google Scholar
- Tonmukayakul, A. and Weiss, M. 2004. Secondary use of radio spectrum: A feasibility analysis. In Proceedings of the Telecommunications Policy Research Conference.Google Scholar
- Uchikawa, H., Umebayashi, K., and Kohn, R. 2002. Secure download system based on software defined radio composed of FPGAs. In Proceedings of the IEEE International Symposium on Personal, Indoor and Mobile Radio Communications. 437--441.Google Scholar
Index Terms
Secure reconfiguration of software-defined radio
Recommendations
A software-defined radio based cognitive radio demonstration over FM band
IWCMC '09: Proceedings of the 2009 International Conference on Wireless Communications and Mobile Computing: Connecting the World WirelesslyIn this paper, we present a software defined radio (SDR) based cognitive radio implementation and demonstration. Using GNU Radio and USRP SDR boards, we implement and demonstrate a cognitive radio that detects spectrum holes in the FM band and exploits ...
Real-time spectrum sensing using software defined radio platforms
As the lack of frequency resources became a critical problem in recent years, solutions had to be found in order to use the available spectrum in a more efficient way. Cognitive radio (CR) technology is a possible answer to this, by proposing a dynamic ...
A software-defined radio based cognitive radio demonstration over FM band
Recent Advances in Wireless Communications and NetworksIn this paper, we present a software-defined radio (SDR) based cognitive radio (CR) implementation and demonstration over the frequency modulation (FM) band. Using GNU Radio as the software platform and USRP (Universal Software Radio Peripheral) SDR ...






Comments