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  4. TDOA Source-Localization Technique Robust to Time-Synchronization Attacks
 
research article

TDOA Source-Localization Technique Robust to Time-Synchronization Attacks

Delcourt, Marguerite  
•
Le Boudec, Jean-Yves  
January 1, 2021
Ieee Transactions On Information Forensics And Security

In this paper, we focus on the localization of a passive source from time difference of arrival (TDOA) measurements. TDOA values are computed with respect to pairs of fixed sensors that are required to be accurately time-synchronized. This constitutes a weakness as all synchronization techniques are vulnerable to delay injections. Attackers are able either to spoof the signal or to inject asymmetric delays in the communication channel. By nature, TDOA measurements are highly sensitive to time-synchronization offsets between sensors. We first illustrate that time-synchronization attacks can severely affect the localization process. With a delay of a few microseconds injected on one sensor, the resulting estimate might be several kilometers away from the true location of the unknown source. We show that residual analysis does not enable the detection and identification of time-synchronization attacks. Our main contribution is then to propose a two-step TDOA-localization technique that is robust against time-synchronization attacks. It uses a known source to define a weight for each pair of sensors, reflecting the confidence in their time synchronization. Our solution then uses the weighted least-squares estimator with the newly created weights and the TDOA measurements received from the unknown source. As a result, our method either identifies the network as being too corrupt to localize, or gives a corrected estimate of the unknown position along with a confidence metric. Numerical results illustrate the performance of our technique.

  • Details
  • Metrics
Type
research article
DOI
10.1109/TIFS.2020.3001741
Web of Science ID

WOS:000692207600009

Author(s)
Delcourt, Marguerite  
Le Boudec, Jean-Yves  
Date Issued

2021-01-01

Publisher

IEEE-INST ELECTRICAL ELECTRONICS ENGINEERS INC

Published in
Ieee Transactions On Information Forensics And Security
Volume

16

Start page

4249

End page

4264

Subjects

Computer Science, Theory & Methods

•

Engineering, Electrical & Electronic

•

Computer Science

•

Engineering

•

sensors

•

delays

•

synchronization

•

calibration

•

frequency estimation

•

oscillators

•

communication system security

•

electronic warfare

•

source localization

•

tdoa

•

time-synchronization attack

•

wireless sensor networks

•

delay

•

estimator

•

error

Editorial or Peer reviewed

REVIEWED

Written at

EPFL

EPFL units
LCA2  
Available on Infoscience
September 11, 2021
Use this identifier to reference this record
https://infoscience.epfl.ch/handle/20.500.14299/181209
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