The implementation of a malicious node localisation system on an FPGA

Abstract

Wireless technology is an ever growing field were everyday, more devices are being implemented. Although this technology offers a wide range of advantages, because of the lack of wiring and ease of deployment, nodal failures are still present and security is of vital importance. Various systems have security measures implemented; however, intrusions still take place. Therefore data needs to be continuously monitored and any suspicious activity within the network needs to be reported. Due to the mobility of such nodes, localisation of these malicious nodes is required and needs to be continually updated when the node is moving. In this project, packets of data are sent between nodes. The time it takes for a packet to reach a node and be acknowledged is used as a distance measure to locate the malicious node. The system is made up of four field programmable gate arrays (FPGA) connected to four RF modules. One of these FPGAs acts as a network host; two other nodes act as clients to the host; and the last FPGA is a malicious node. A CRT monitor was used to display the location of the malicious node with respect to the other three nodes. Various simulations are carried out to ensure the functionality of the system and Bresenham's line algorithm is used to generate the circles on the monitor. These circles represent the distance of the malicious node from the other nodes thus giving an indication of its physical position. The common point of these circles represents the estimated position of the malicious node