This course is also cross listed as CS 6710 - Wireless Networks for students of the BSCS program with concentration in Cyber Operations.
Time and Location: Tuesdays and Fridays from 09:50 - 11.30 pm over Zoom. Meeting link available on Canvas.
Canvas: All course related assignment submissions will happen on Canvas.
Piazza: All discussions and interactions will take place over Piazza (Note: We will use the same Piazza class for both CS4710 and CS6710). Enroll here!
Office hours: Tuesdays from 11.30 am - 12.30 pm over Zoom (link available through Canvas) or by prior appointment
Teaching Assistants: Narmeen Shafqat <@husky.neu.edu>, Harshad Sathaye [email protected] (TA office hours: Thursdays 10 - 11 am over Zoom (link available on Canvas))
Recent years have seen massive deployment of wireless devices and technologies around us. They are deployed in a wide variety of systems such as telephony, navigation, sensor networks, critical infrastructures etc. With the advent of the Internet of Things and autonomous cyber-physical systems, the proliferation of these wireless systems are only bound to increase. The broadcast nature of wireless technologies and the increased availabiloty of software defined radios have not only improved quality of life but pose significant security challenges. In particular, the course would cover the following topics:
Course Objective: After this course, the students should be able to describe and classify security goals and attacks in modern wireless networks. They should be able to identify the unique security implications of these effects and how to mitigate security issues associated with them.
Fundamental ideas in wireless communications and security notions preferable. Basic Matlab or Python programming skills will help in a couple of take home assignments (however not mandatory). Additional pre-requisites apply as mentioned in the respective course catalog entries.
There won’t be any single text book for this course. Every lecture will contain pointers to recommended reading material. For students who are not familiar with relevant background, the following links/textbooks may help.
The grades will be based on paper summary reports, presentations and project work during the course of the semester.
| Paper summaries / Discussion | 35% |
| Lab exercises and Assignments | 20% |
| Project pitch | 5% |
| Project report | 20% |
| Project presentation | 20% |
The assignments, paper summaries and the project are to be executed in small teams of 2.
Note: The schedule is tentative and can change due to weather, travel, syllabus coverage speed etc.
| Date | Topic | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 19 Jan | Course logistics, Basic Security Notions | |
| 22 Jan | Wireless Basics | |
| 26 Jan | Wireless Basics | |
| 29 Jan | Jamming | |
| 02 Feb | Jamming, Project Ideas | One on one discussions for projects this week |
| 05 Feb | lab Lab Exercise 1 (Intro to SDR) | |
| 09 Feb | Wireless Channel-based Security | |
| 12 Feb | Project pitches | Lab 1 due |
| 16 Feb | GNSS Security | |
| 19 Feb | GNSS Security | lab Lab 2 out |
| 23 Feb | Secure Localization | |
| 26 Feb | Secure Localization | Lab 2 due |
| 02 Mar | Paper presentation #1 | |
| 05 Mar | Paper presentation #1 | |
| 09 Mar | Broadcast authentication | |
| 12 Mar | lab Lab 3: Ring the bell | |
| 16 Mar | lab Lab 3: Ring the bell | |
| 19 Mar | 802.11 wireless security | |
| 23 Mar | 802.11 wireless security | |
| 26 Mar | 802.11 wireless security | |
| 30 Mar | lab Lab 4: WEP/WPA2 cracking | Lab 3 due |
| 02 Apr | Cellular networks | |
| 06 Apr | Cellular networks | |
| 09 Apr | Paper presentations #2 | |
| 13 Apr | Paper presentations #2 | Lab 4 due |
| 16 Apr | Final Project presentation | |
| 20 Apr | Reserve day |
This course is largely adopted from similar courses offered at ETH Zurich (Prof. Srdjan Capkun), CMU (Prof. Patrick Tague) and EPFL (Prof. Jean Pierre Hubaux).