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: Mondays and Thursdays from 11.45am - 1.25 pm. Kariotis Hall 309.
Office hours: Mondays from 3 - 4 pm in ISEC 608
Teaching Assistants: Narmeen Shafqat <@husky.neu.edu>, Harshad Sathaye [email protected] (TA office hours: Tuesdays 12 - 1 pm)
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 | 30% |
| Lab exercises and Assignments | 25% |
| Random Quizzes | 5% |
| Project pitch | 5% |
| Project report | 15% |
| 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 |
|---|---|---|
| 20 Jan | Course logistics, Basic Security Notions | |
| 24 Jan | Wireless Basics | |
| 27 Jan | Wireless Basics | lab Lab 1 out |
| 31 Jan | Jamming | |
| 03 Feb | Jamming, Project Ideas | Lab 2 due , One on one discussions for projects this week |
| 07 Feb | lab Lab Exercise 2 (Intro to SDR) | |
| 10 Feb | Wireless Channel-based Security | |
| 14 Feb | Project pitches | Lab 2 due |
| 17 Feb | GNSS Security | |
| 21 Feb | President’s Day no class | |
| 24 Feb | GNSS Security, Secure Localization | lab Lab 3 out |
| 28 Feb | in class lab | |
| 03 Mar | Secure Localization | Lab 3 due |
| 07 Mar | Paper presentation #1 | |
| 10 Mar | Paper presentation #1 | |
| 14 Mar | Spring break no class | |
| 17 Mar | Spring break no class | |
| 21 Mar | Broadcast authentication | |
| 24 Mar | lab Lab 4: Ring the bell | |
| 28 Mar | 802.11 wireless security | |
| 31 Mar | 802.11 wireless security | |
| 04 Apr | lab Lab 5: WEP/WPA2 cracking | Lab 4 due |
| 11 Apr | Cellular networks | |
| 14 Apr | Cellular networks | Lab 5 due |
| 18 Apr | Patriot’s Day no class | |
| 21 Apr | Paper presentations #2 | |
| 25 Apr | Paper presentations #2 | |
| 28 Apr | Final Project presentation | |
| 02 May | 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).