14-814: Wireless Network Security - Spring 2015
Cross-listed as 18-637
Instructor: Patrick Tague
- Email: tague [at] cmu [dot] edu
- Office: B23 218
- Phone: 650-335-2827
- Skype: ptague
- Office Hours: Tuesdays 1:00-3:00pm Pacific Time, via Skype
- Office: B23 218
Logistics:
- Class Meetings:
- Tuesdays & Thursdays, 10:30-11:50am PST (1:30-2:50pm EST)
- B23 212 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]
- Tuesdays & Thursdays, 10:30-11:50am PST (1:30-2:50pm EST)
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. Through the semester, teams will give four project presentations and submit two written reports. Details and deadlines are posted here and also available on Blackboard.
- Exam:
- An in-class exam will take place on April 7, 2015. Please contact the instructor 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.
- Assignment #1: Assigned Jan 13, 2015, Due Jan 27, 2015
- Assignment #2: Assigned Jan 27, 2015, Due Feb 12, 2015
- Assignment #3: Assigned Feb 12, 2015, Due Mar 5, 2015
- Assignment #4: Assigned Mar 5, 2015, Due Mar 26, 2015
- Project:
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.