Electromagnetic Signatures of Wireless Local Area Network Cards: Implementation Issues and Detection in the Presence of Interferers

Published

December 21, 2005

Author(s)

K. Remley, Robert Johnk, Tom T. Karygiannis, Emmanouil Antonakakis

Abstract

This work investigates a measurement method for detecting the radio-frequency electromagnetic characteristics of an individual 802.11b wireless local-area network (WLAN) card--its electromagnetic signature--in the presence of an interfering signal. The method may present a way to identify individual wireless cards in a wireless network based on radio-frequency measurements, independent of any security protocols or anonymity protection features that may be applied in software. Here we explore the accuracy of the method in the presence of an interfering signal. The electromagnetic signature of each wireless card is first established in isolation. Then an interfering wireless card is placed in proximity of the original card. This study demonstrates that we can still identify the cards even when the interfering wireless card is present.

Conference Dates

September 29, 2006

Conference Location

Los Angeles, CA, USA

Conference Title

ACM Workshop on Wireless Security

Pub Type

Conferences

Keywords

privacy, RFID, security, taxonomy

Citation

Remley, K. , Johnk, R. , Karygiannis, T. and Antonakakis, E. (2005), Electromagnetic Signatures of Wireless Local Area Network Cards: Implementation Issues and Detection in the Presence of Interferers, ACM Workshop on Wireless Security, Los Angeles, CA, USA (Accessed October 13, 2025)