Mobile, Embedded, & Wireless Security

14-814: Wireless Network Security - Spring 2014

Cross-listed as 18-637 and 96-836

Instructor: Patrick Tague
Email: tague [at] cmu [dot] edu
Office: B19 1029
Phone: 650-335-2827
Skype: ptague
Teaching Assistant: Brian Ricks
Email: brian [dot] ricks [at] sv [dot] cmu [dot] edu
Office hours: Wed 1-4pm PST, B19 1030
Phone: 817-713-9622
Skype: absolutefunk; Hangouts: use email above

Logistics:

Contacting the instructor & TAs:
For sensitive or critical questions or concerns, please contact the instructor at the address above. For all other course-related questions, comments, or concerns, please email both the instructor and TA.

Class Meetings:
Tuesdays & Thursdays, 10:30-11:50am PST (1:30-2:50pm EST)
B23 118 in SV, CIC 1201 in Pgh

Course Description:
With communication and network services and applications increasingly leveraging wireless media, the importance of information and network security in the wireless domain continues to grow. The challenges of providing secure communication and network services are considerably more difficult in wireless environments than in traditional wired systems (e.g., the Internet), so the focus of the course will be purely wireless environments such as wireless ad hoc, mesh, and sensor networks. Coverage will focus on wireless vulnerabilities and attacks at various layers of the protocol stack, spanning the stack from aspects of physical communication to application and service security issues. Focus will be placed on securing the operation and performance of wireless networks, with less emphasis on information security. Topics include MAC-layer misbehavior; selective packet dropping, modification, and insertion; jamming; distributed trust in ad hoc environments; reputation systems; and cross-layer attacks. Class material will be largely based on recent and current research; students will read and present recent research papers and participate in a group research project.

Evaluation & Grading:
Students will be individually evaluated on all course deliverables. Contributions to the final grade will be 30% for individual assignments; 25% for group presentations; 25% for written reports; and 20% for the exam.

Prerequisites:
Graduate standing; students are expected to be comfortable with security at the level of 14-741 or 18-730 and telecommunications / networking at the level of 14-740 or 15-441; 18-759 will be helpful, but is not required. Contact the instructor directly with questions about requirements.

Reading Material & Textbooks:
Textbooks will not be explicitly used; course material will be based primarily on research papers. Students are expected to read the assigned research papers (reading material may show up on assignments and exam), but reading reviews are not required. For students who are not familiar with relevant background, the following optional textbooks may help.
  • Levente Buttyán and Jean-Pierre Hubaux, Security and Cooperation in Wireless Networks, 2008. [Available Online]
  • Charlie Kaufman, Radia Perlman, and Mike Speciner, Network Security: Private Communication in a Public World, 2002.
  • James Kempf, Wireless Internet Security: Architectures and Protocols, 2008.
  • William Stallings, Wireless Communications & Networks, 2004.
  • David Tse and Pramod Viswanath, Fundamentals of Wireless Communication, 2005. [Available Online]

Course Deliverables:

Students will participate in a significant group project in addition to individual homework assignments and an exam. All submissions are to be made through Blackboard. Email submissions will not be accepted.

Project:
Teams of students will work on a collaborative project for the duration of the semester. Students are responsible for forming their own teams based on common interests and/or complementary skills. Teams will provide five primary deliverables: a topic survey, a project proposal, a progress report, a final presentation, and a final report. Details and deadlines are posted here and also available on Blackboard.

Exam:
An in-class exam will take place on April 8, 2014. Please contact the instructor and TA as soon as possible if special arrangements are needed.

Assignments:
Students will individually complete four assignments. We encourage students to discuss the assignments, but all aspects of the graded submission (e.g., coding, design, writing) must be done individually. Assignment details and deadlines are below.

Daily Schedule and Reading Material:

Students should consult the daily schedule for relevant reading materials and a complete list of the topics covered, important dates, and events. Note that this daily schedule is tentative and can change at any time.