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Practical Trial for Low-Energy Effective Jamming on Private Networks with 5G-NR and NB-IoT Radio Interfaces

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Abstract

Fourth-generation (4G) mobile networks are successively replaced by fifth-generation (5G) ones, based on the new releases of the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) standard. 5G generation is dedicated to civilian users and the conducted analytical work shows that it has numerous technological gaps that prevent its direct implementation in military communications systems. However, the recent armed world conflicts showed that closed or public mobile networks are willingly used by soldiers for both private and business communications, and to conduct defensive and offensive operations as well. From the military operation viewpoint, jamming both civil and military systems is one of the essential elements of electronic warfare. This paper focuses on the practical trial of low-energy and smart jamming on a 5G private network using narrowband signals, which facilitates the reduction of the available throughput, e.g. in the time division duplex – uplink (TDD-UL) by 99%, or by 82% in the frequency division duplex – downlink (FDD-DL). This type of jamming also allows for reaching up to 25 dB of energy gain comparing to barrage jamming. The authors moreover investigated jamming the Narrowband IoT radio interface using synchronized, selective jamming. The goal was to propose energy efficient methods that will allow the jammers to work longer and be mounted on a small unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) that can operate near the gNB. The generation of low-power jamming signals in the gNB vicinity successfully hinders detecting the jammer by the enemy’s electronic reconnaissance systems. The proposed solutions are compared with the test results for other types of jamming methods.
Date of publication xxxx 00, 0000, date of current version xxxx 00, 0000.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/ACCESS.2023.0322000
Practical Trial for Low-Energy Effective Jamming
on Private Networks with 5G-NR and NB-IoT
Radio Interfaces
PAWEŁ SKOKOWSKI1, KRZYSZTOF MALON1, MICHAŁ KRYK1, KRZYSZTOF MAŚLANKA1,
JAN M. KELNER1,(Member, IEEE), PIOTR RAJCHOWSKI2, (Member, IEEE), and
JAROSŁAW MAGIERA 2
1Military University of Technology, Faculty of Electronics, Warsaw, Poland (e-mail: [pawel.skokowski, krzysztof.malon, michal.kryk, krzysztof.maslanka,
jan.kelner]@wat.edu.pl)
2Gdańsk University of Technology, Faculty of Electronics, Telecommunications and Informatics, Gdańsk, Poland (e-mail: [piotr.rajchowski,
jaroslaw.magiera]@pg.edu.pl)
Corresponding author: Paweł Skokowski (e-mail: pawel.skokowski@wat.edu.pl).
This work was financed by the Military University of Technology under project no. UGB/22-863/2023/WAT on "Modern technologies of
wireless communication and emitter localization in various system applications.”
ABSTRACT Fourth-generation (4G) mobile networks are successively replaced by fifth-generation (5G)
ones, based on the new releases of the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) standard. 5G generation
is dedicated to civilian users and the conducted analytical work shows that it has numerous technological
gaps that prevent its direct implementation in military communications systems. However, the recent armed
world conflicts showed that closed or public mobile networks are willingly used by soldiers for both private
and business communications, and to conduct defensive and offensive operations as well. From the military
operation viewpoint, jamming both civil and military systems is one of the essential elements of electronic
warfare. This paper focuses on the practical trial of low-energy and smart jamming on a 5G private network
using narrowband signals, which facilitates the reduction of the available throughput, e.g. in the time division
duplex uplink (TDD-UL) by 99%, or by 82% in the frequency division duplex downlink (FDD-DL). This
type of jamming also allows for reaching up to 25 dB of energy gain comparing to barrage jamming. The
authors moreover investigated jamming the Narrowband IoT radio interface using synchronized, selective
jamming. The goal was to propose energy efficient methods that will allow the jammers to work longer and
be mounted on a small unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) that can operate near the gNB. The generation of
low-power jamming signals in the gNB vicinity successfully hinders detecting the jammer by the enemy’s
electronic reconnaissance systems. The proposed solutions are compared with the test results for other types
of jamming methods.
INDEX TERMS Electronic warfare, low-energy jamming, narrowband jamming, NB-IoT, 5G private
network, smart jamming.
I. INTRODUCTION
IN In the large majority of developed countries, the Long
Term Evolution (LTE) with its enhancements LTE Ad-
vanced (LTE-A) and LTE-A Pro have become the standard
for mobile communication. In comparison, older solutions
based on the 2nd (2G) and 3rd generation (3G) technologies
are slowly being withdrawn from the market. Mobile network
operators (MNOs) resign from older systems and use released
radio resources for newer standards networks instead. At the
same time, in mobile networks, we witness a technological
revolution related to the implementation of the 5th generation
(5G) New Radio (NR) standard developed by the 3rd Genera-
tion Partnership Project (3GPP). Release 18 is being finalized,
and the 5G Advanced standard specification will have been
defined by 3GPP by 2028. Increasing the system efficiency
in many areas involving LTE is one of the main goals set for
5G. In particular, the following are envisaged [1]:
improving the quality of service (QoS) by increasing
throughput and capacity (i.e. enhanced mobile broadban
d (eMBB) scenario),
increasing number and density of the supported devices
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Paweł Skokowski et al.: Practical Trial for Low-Energy Effective Jamming on 5G Private Network
(i.e. massive machine type communications (mMTC)
scenario, massive Internet of Things (IoT), ultra-dense
network (UDN)),
assuring reliability and reducing latency (i.e. ultra-
reliable and low latency communications (URLLC) sce-
nario, missioncritical applications).
Behind the success of 5G there are many modern radio
and network technologies that have been developed for many
years. For example, new modulation schemes or multiple
access methods increase the spectral efficiency of the trans-
mitted signals. Furthermore, using energy harvesting or green
communication technologies improves the energy efficiency
of 5G networks and reduces the energy consumption there
[2]. On the other hand, implementing interference mitigation
techniques increases the reliability and resilience of the 5G
system which is targeted at unintentional interference [3].
Unfortunately, the civilian 5G standard is not designed to be
resistant to jamming (intentional interference).
The enormous attractiveness and effectiveness of the 5G
system utilizing modern technologies is recognized by vari-
ous vendors of military communication equipment and inter-
national defence bodies such as European Defence Agency
(EDA) [4], North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) Com-
munications and Information Agency (NCIA) [5], NATO
Science and Technology Organisation (NATO STO) [6]. Dif-
ferent use cases of the 5G technologies (including the Nar-
rowband Internet of Things (NB-IoT) radio interface) are
considered for military applications. These scenarios often
use the private 5G network concept that operates in spatially
limited areas, e.g. in large or small operational deployable
headquarters, naval task force, etc. [5]. On the other hand,
the analysis of the civilian 3GPP standard indicates numerous
technological gaps that ought to be fixed before it can be
used for military purposes [4]. A crucial issue is to increase
its resilience to jamming which may occur during military
operations [6]–[8].
A. RELATED WORKS
The classic definition of jamming describes it as intentional
interference affecting radio signals, communication systems,
or electronic devices, which is usually carried out by emit-
ting radio frequency (RF) signals in the same frequency
band as the attacked communication radio interface, aiming
to overwhelm, block, or distort these signals. The primary
purpose of jamming is to disrupt the regular operation of
communication systems, radar systems, or other electronic
devices. This technique is commonly employed in military,
electronic warfare or security contexts [9]–[11]. On the other
hand, the development of cybersecurity in the last decade has
resulted in the perception of jamming as one of the types
of cybersecurity attacks [12], [13]. This is also due to the
blurring of boundaries between electronic and information
warfare [14].
Until recently, the classical jamming approach was devel-
oped and considered in the context of military communication
and radar systems. With the progress of mobile networks, the
development of jamming techniques also applies to civilian
and commercial systems. This is due to the fact that they
are widely used for auxiliary communication in conflict ar-
eas. A decade earlier, the military doctrine assumed destruc-
tion or causing substantial damage to telecommunications
infrastructure. Recent armed conflicts have shown that both
their sides want to keep this infrastructure out of the occu-
pied territory [15]. Therefore, effective methods for jamming
cellular systems without causing permanent damage are in-
dispensable. On the other hand, 5G technologies are being
seriously considered for implementation in future military
communication systems due to the benefits they offer [16],
[17]. Therefore, developing 5G jamming techniques is crucial
from the viewpoint of the potential 5G application in military
operations [18]–[20].
The first works in the field of 5G jamming focused mainly
on theoretical analysis [21]–[23]. This results from the signal
structure of the 5G-NR standard and jamming techniques
used in LTE and older generation networks, what can be
seen in the surveys of 5G jamming methods [19], [24]–[27],
and this is additionally consistent with the classification of
the techniques used in LTE [28]–[31]. This convergence also
results from the similarities in the physical layer, mostly due
to the application of OFDM (Orthogonal Frequency Divi-
sion Multiplexing) technique in both generations of mobile
networks. On the other hand, the next 5G-NR generation
introduces new technologies in the network and radio in-
terface such as new modulations and coding schemes, and
subcarrier spacing. A characteristic feature of LTE was the
spread of Multiple-Input-Multiple-Output (MIMO) method
[31], whereas massive MIMO and beamforming [32], [33]
began to play an essential role in 5G-NR.
With greater availability of 5G equipment, more works
present the practical implementation of jamming techniques,
e.g. [34]–[38]. The Norwegian Armed Forces plan to use
5G-NR connectivity in military operations carried out in
congested urban environments, including electronic warfare
applications. Hence, the Norwegian Defense Research Estab-
lishment (FFI) assessed technological gaps in 5G resistance
to jamming and conducted a comprehensive study including a
practical jamming experiment targeting the commercial 5G-
NR system operating in the 3.6 GHz frequency band [36],
[38]. The tests were conducted on a commercial 5G network
operating in Non-Standalone (NSA) mode with Time Divi-
sion Duplex (TDD). The research has shown weaknesses in
the 3GPP standard, especially in the uplink (UL) signal due
to limited user terminal transmit power. FFI has defined the
threshold for jamming intensity and developed a model to es-
timate the distance and the jammer output power required for
successful attacks. Additionally, practical countermeasures to
enhance the robustness of 5G-NR radio interface, especially
in the uplink, have been proposed in the report [36].
Similar studies of the resistance of the 5G TDD system op-
erating in the 3.6 GHz band to jamming, but within a narrower
scope, are presented in [34], [35], [37]. In these cases, the
tests concerned a 5G private network in the Standalone (SA)
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Paweł Skokowski et al.: Practical Trial for Low-Energy Effective Jamming on 5G Private Network
mode of operation. In [37], the authors used GNU Radio soft-
ware and a SDR (Software Defined Radio) platform, USRP
(Universal Software Radio Peripheral) B210 as a jammer
to disrupt the 5G SA network. Three types of techniques,
i.e. barrage, spot, and sweep jamming were tested. In [35],
SDRs were used for jamming and emulating the gNB base
station and the user equipment (UE). The authors examined
the susceptibility of the 5G Physical Uplink Shared Channel
(PUSCH) to a smart jamming attack as well as the impact
of such an attack on the UE effective throughput. In [10] and
[34], the authors additionally proposed mounting a jammer on
an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV). This approach increases
the jammer’s mobility and allows it to be placed close to the
gNB, making it more difficult to be detected and located.
The advancement of jamming techniques has spurred the
search for methods to detect, avoid, and cancel both interfer-
ence and jamming [36]. The use of 5G-NR technologies im-
proves the network’s resistance to unintentional interference.
However, in the case of intentional interference, this is usually
insufficient. Hence, novel jamming detection [39]–[42] and
mitigation [43], [44] techniques are also being researched
and developed in relation to the 5G-NR standard. In [41],
the author proposed a new metric for jamming detection in
OFDM-based systems which may be used in both the time
and frequency domains, and be implemented separately in
each physical resource block. The effectiveness of the de-
veloped algorithm was estimated based on simulation tests.
In another paper, [39], the authors highlight the benefits of
using the Open Radio Access Network (O-RAN) architecture.
It is suitable for detecting jamming events due to the open
interfaces and the ability to analyze wireless traffic metrics.
In this case, a statistical method is used for downlink jamming
detection utilizing the link quality reports provided by the
UE. The effectiveness of the proposed solution was verified
through simulations. In [42], a novel method of detecting
targeted interference in a NB-IoT network is proposed. The
statistical anomaly detector algorithm is based on the anal-
ysis of the network performance data collected at the UE
which aids reasoning about the current interference situation.
The authors demonstrate that the detector can distinguish
jamming attacks from unintentional interference occurring
in cellular networks. Moreover, in [40], the authors propose
exploitation of the principal direction of Physical Broadcast
Channel (PBCH) demodulation reference signal space in or-
der to detect PBCH intelligent jamming on the user side.
This approach results from the fact that PBCH is used in
smart jamming, e.g. [19], [24], [26]. The effectiveness of
this detection method is confirmed and assessed based on
numerical analysis.
Artificial intelligence algorithms such as machine learning
(ML) or deep learning (DeL) are some of the trends in the
development of 5G-NR and beyond mobile networks. These
methods can also be adopted in interference mitigation tech-
niques. An example is [44], where a federated deep reinforce-
ment learning (DRL)-based anti-jamming technique for two-
tier 5G heterogeneous networks (HetNets) has been proposed.
The presented concept involves a joint optimization problem
of beamforming and power allocation at femto-stations (FSs)
to improve the throughput for femto-users (FU), simultane-
ously mitigating the negative influence of a multi-antenna
jammer. In another publication, [43], the authors explore the
improvement of the throughput for a primary user (PU) facing
a random jamming attack near the receiver within a cognitive
radio network. They suggest a cooperative spectrum-sharing
approach, involving a PU and a secondary user (SU) with
limited energy resources, which harvests non-RF energy. The
location of the SU is optimized to maximize the PU through-
put. Notably, this approach operates under the assumption of
no prior knowledge regarding the parameters controlling the
random behaviour of the jammer, the energy harvesting pro-
cess, and the sensing system. Bayesian reinforcement learn-
ing (BRL) is employed to both learn the unknown parameters
and to optimize the PU decisions concurrently, which was
proven to be an adaptive approach.
Our experimental studies presented in this paper are con-
sistent with the contemporary trend in research on jamming
topics, showing the results of empirical tests of selective and
smart jamming on a private 5G-NR network and on the NB-
IoT radio interface.
During the research, the authors used narrowband jamming
signals in several variants, which is more subtle than burst
jamming. During the real tests, it was possible to obtain high
jamming efficiency, even up to 99% for 5G-TDD-UL or 82%
for 5G-FDD-DL, compared to the mentioned burst jamming
(84%). Moreover, the proposed jamming methodology is suit-
able for jamming only the selected subcarriers in the OFDM
symbol, while barrage jamming is spread over all of them.
The selective (smart) jamming scenario was investigated
for the second analyzed radio interface, NB-IoT. In this case,
with a 3 dB jamming-to-signal peak power ratio and the inter-
ference focused solely on pilot resources, it was possible to
substantially degrade the accuracy of the channel estimation.
As a result, the percentage of successfully decoded MIBs
(Master Information Blocks) was reduced to less than 50%.
The proposed technique is characterized by greater energy
efficiency while blocking or significantly disturbing the con-
nection between the UE and the 5G gNB base station. This
approach is in line with the green communication trend and
energy savings allow the jammer to work longer and be imple-
mented on a small UAV, which prevents an uplink connection,
when placed near the gNB, or a downlink connection, when
placed close to the UE. Moreover, generation of low-power
jamming signals in the DL frequency band in the gNB vicinity
makes the jammer detection process challenging, also with
the electronic reconnaissance systems. The proposed solution
was compared with the test results for other types of jamming.
This practical trial testifies to the paper’s originality because
most of the works in the literature are focused on theoretical
or simulation considerations [6]–[8], [45].
The main contributions of this paper can be summarized as
follows:
The authors tested the influence of narrowband and bar-
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Paweł Skokowski et al.: Practical Trial for Low-Energy Effective Jamming on 5G Private Network
rage jamming on a 5G-NR SA private network based on
the O-RAN concept;
The efficiency of different jamming techniques was ad-
ditionally studied on the NB-IoT radio interface, which
is also treated as part of the next generation networks;
The adopted energy efficient and smart jamming meth-
ods were proposed as solutions suitable for implementa-
tion on the UAV platform equipped with the SDR radio
front-end.
The rest of the paper is organized as follows. The architec-
ture of a 5G private network and the time-frequency structure
of 5G and NB-IoT signals are shortly described in Sections
II and III respectively. The low-energy effective jamming
technique based on a 5G physical layer structure is explained
in Section IV. Section V presents the jamming operational
scenario, whereas the testbed and exemplary results of the
practical trial are shown in Section VI. Finally, the research
studies are completed with conclusions in Section VII.
II. 5G PRIVATE NETWORK
A. THE MAIN CONCEPT
The evolution of cellular networks can be perceived as a sig-
nificant change in the set of services, the physical layer, and
technical realization [46], [47]. Over the last years, 4G-LTE
(Long Term Evolution) networks overlapped with the rapid
growth of the 5G-NR (New Radio) concept. The main change
in the physical realization of the new and next generation cel-
lular networks can be seen in the software-defined elements in
the network core and the RAN (Radio Access Network) part.
Currently, many companies offer software packages for those
5G-Core and RAN components that are easily deployable and
compliant with the 3GPP technical specification [48]–[50].
They can be purchased by any customer deploying a private
or an R&D (Research and Development) 5G network. At this
point it is worth mentioning that not all the implementations
are capable of serving as large-scale networks, with many
gNBs, but they are fully functional for stationary company
networks, nomadic networks for critical communication, and
for military applications [51], [52]. In this point it is worth
mentioning that analogical software realization of the net-
work core and RAN can be met for the 4G-LTE/NB-IoT
networks.
B. PRACTICAL REALISATION OF A 5G PRIVATE NETWORK
In Fig. 1, a block diagram of commercially available private
networks is presented. In the figure two main components
can be distinguished: the 5G-Core and the RAN part. The
core is deployed on an industrial-class server as a software
package based on the virtual machine and container structure.
The connection between the core and the RAN utilizes a
standard Ethernet link, which provides flexibility in selecting
the radio heads. In the presented solution, the RAN compo-
nent is implemented using SDR technology whereas the UL
and downlink (DL) signals are received and transmitted by
the wideband radio front-end and further processed by the
FIGURE 1. Block diagram of a 5G private network.
software. In this case, the RAN was configured to operate in
N7 and N77 bands.
As it has already been mentioned, the concept of easily
deployable and flexible 5G private networks is usually based
on virtual machines and the container structure. This ap-
proach has been adopted in the presented example (Fig. 1).
This private 5G network is designed to serve, for instance,
as a dispatch network. Thus, nontypical services ought to be
implemented, like instant voice communication between the
users. In this network implementation, the PTT (Push to Talk)
service was realized as a virtual machine operating in the 5G-
Core. From the user operation level, it is seen as an application
that facilitates realisation of instant calls without the need to
select the UE phone number. The presented service implies
one of the major differences between a 5G private network
and the commercial ones, which is the traffic scheme. When a
5G private network is used mainly for speech communication
with a low duty cycle or short data transmission, most of the
radio resources in the DL and UL are unoccupied. As the
activity we can identify mainly the synchronization signals,
broadcast messages, and RRC (Radio Resource Control) mes-
sages [46], [47].
III. TIME-FREQUENCY STRUCTURE OF THE 5G AND
NB-IOT SIGNALS
A. 5G-NR RADIO INTERFACE
Smooth evolution from the 4G-LTE to 5G-NR technology
implied inheritance of the key elements in the physical layer
with significant modifications for extended and heteroge-
neous usage of the radio network. 5G-NR uses the 10 ms
frame structure divided into slots, grouping the subcarriers
and symbols in OFDM resource blocks (RB). Nevertheless,
a different pattern was proposed for carrier spacing and the
symbol length. 5G-NR implements an extended set of sub-
carrier spacing defined by the value of µsparameter [47],
from the set of [0, 1, 2, 3, 4], which corresponds to the
subcarrier spacing of [15, 30, 60, 120, 240] kHz respectively.
At this point it must be noted that the higher the subcarrier
spacing, the shorter the length of the OFDM symbol, which
implies a shorter duration of the slot, which, in this case,
is in a range from 62,5 µs(240 kHz subcarrier spacing)
to 1 ms (15 kHz subcarrier spacing). This new concept of
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Paweł Skokowski et al.: Practical Trial for Low-Energy Effective Jamming on 5G Private Network
FIGURE 2. 5G-NR downlink signal spectrum and the spectrogram
without jamming.
slot timing and subcarrier spacing allows for adjusting the
physical layer parameters to different applications (services)
and for its coexistence with 5G-NR networks in the frequency
bands of 4G-LTE networks [46], [47], [53]. The spectrum and
spectrograms of the real signal of the gNB operating in the
FDD (Frequency Division Duplex) mode is presented in Fig.
2. Compared to the LTE DL signal, a different occupation
profile of the time-frequency resources can be observed. The
presented spectrogram corresponds to the DL signal of the 5G
SA gNB that was used as the testbed in the presented research
studies.
Considering the main goal of the conducted research, the
content of the 5G-NR radio frame needs to be briefly dis-
cussed. Physical channels and signals allocated in the time-
frequency resources can be treated as similar with respect to
4G-LTE [46], [47]. In the DL, PBCH (Physical Broadcast
Channel), PDCCH (Physical Downlink Control Channel),
PDSCH (Physical Downlink Shared Channel) channels, PSS
(Primary Synchronization Signal), and SSS (Secondary Syn-
chronization Signal) signals are allocated. The channels are
used to transmit the broadcast messages to the UE, such as
the MIB as well as the user data. In the resource grid DMRS
(Demodulation Reference Signal) signals used for channel
parameters estimation are allocated in the RB assigned for the
PDSCH. Analyzing the possible allocation of DMRS symbols
in the two resource elements patterns, named type A and B
in the 3GPP specification [47], can be pointed ou at. For
instance, the basic configuration assumes the presence of
DMRS symbols in the third (index 2) or fourth (index 3)
OFDM symbol on 6 subcarriers, starting from subcarrier 0,
and with 2 subcarrier spacing between the DMRS symbols (6
DMRS symbols in total). The allocation of additional DMRS
symbols is optional and defined by a higher-layer parameter
[47], [53].
B. NB-IOT RADIO INTERFACE
NB-IoT is a communication standard defined by 3GPP for
providing reliable, narrowband communication between IoT
devices usually in frequency bands below 1 GHz. The radio
FIGURE 3. Example of resource allocation for an NRS signal in a single
NB-IoT downlink subframe.
interface between a NB-IoT device (UE) and a base station
(eNodeB/gNodeB) implements a simplified version of the
LTE protocol stack. Frequency resources allocated for NB-
IoT may reside within the LTE band (in-band mode), between
LTE FDD uplink and downlink (guard-band mode), or outside
the LTE band (SA mode). Irrespective of the mode of opera-
tion, the NB-IoT downlink employs the OFDM transmission
scheme in a single physical resource block (PRB) with a
180 kHz bandwidth (12 subcarriers with 15 kHz spacing).
Downlink transmission is also organized in 10 ms frames,
where one frame consists of 10 subframes and each subframe
is divided into 2 slots containing 7 OFDM symbols. Charac-
teristic static resource allocation is defined within the frame
structure in the following ways [46]:
Narrowband Primary Synchronization Signal (NPSS)
occupies the resources of subframe 5 in each frame,
Narrowband Secondary Synchronization Signal is
present in subframe 9 of all even frames,
Narrowband Physical Broadcast Channel (NPBCH) is
transmitted in subframe 0 of each frame,
NRS is transmitted in symbol 5 and 6 of each slot
(except NPSS and NSSS subframes) and occupies two
subcarriers according to the Cell ID specific pattern - an
example of NRS resource allocation is depicted in 3.
Other subframes are reserved for the transmission of
Narrowband Physical Downlink Control Channel (NPD-
CCH) and Narrowband Physical Downlink Shared Channel
(NPDSCH). The resources for these channels are allocated
dynamically, depending on the cell configuration and traf-
fic intensity, thus they are less prone to smart jamming.
In contrast, subframes 0 and 5 as well as NRS resources
are considered the most vulnerable components of NB-IoT
downlink transmission.
IV. EFFECTIVE JAMMING
Each radio communication system operates in the presence
of interference. In the case of civilian systems, we primar-
ily consider intra- or inter-system unintentional interference
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Paweł Skokowski et al.: Practical Trial for Low-Energy Effective Jamming on 5G Private Network
FIGURE 4. Regular jammer an example of a continuously transmitted
jamming signal.
[54], [55]. Military systems are additionally exposed to in-
tentional interference, i.e. jamming [11]. Jamming is one of
the essential elements of electronic warfare (EW) and it is
designed to interrupt or prevent effective communications
between enemy units [14], [56]. Hence, military wireless
communication systems must be robust to interference and
still provide reliable operational capability in a contested
radio frequency (RF) environment. New jamming systems are
being developed along with the use of new radio resources
and technologies in military systems. On the other hand, new
methods of counteracting and avoiding interference are inves-
tigated too. This last issue concerns both civilian and military
systems, regarding unintentional and intentional interference
respectively.
There are many jamming techniques with specific features.
Every jammer unit differs from another in terms of power
efficiency, signal parameters, complexity and vulnerability
to detection. The most common types of jammers related to
the most recent wireless communications systems are named
as regular, delusive (deceptive), random, responsive, go-next
(with frequency hopping) and control channels jammers (se-
lective jammers) [7].
A regular jammer can be a contrast for the most advanced
methods. In this case, the jamming radio signal is transmitted
continuously, generally with high output power, resulting in
short battery life of mobile devices. This type of jammer
is also fairly easy to detect by the adversary’s equipment
for monitoring electromagnetic resources. Nevertheless, the
main and significant advantage is its universality. Moreover,
there is no need to possess precise knowledge about the
parameters of the system that will be jammed. The only
important thing in this case is the frequency range used. An
example signal generated by this type of jammer is presented
in Fig. 4.
More advanced jamming methods involve a’priori knowl-
edge about the attacked system, such as the time-frequency
structure of the physical layer. In this case, jamming signals
are adjusted to a particular radio interface. For instance,
the jamming signal can be periodical, with the duration of
FIGURE 5. Effective jamming an example of a narrowband jamming
signal.
one slot. It may also occur during the transmisssion of the
PSS/SSS synchronization signals, or it can occupy only the
subcarriers allocated for the DMRS (Fig. 5) or NRS symbols.
In the case of simple barrage jamming (Fig. 4), the power
of interference is spread across the entire frequency band
of the signal, while a smart jammer may concentrate the
power at specific frequency components. This improves the
effectiveness or increases the range of jamming, assuming
that the peak power of the interference is fixed. Moreover,
the pulsed transmission pattern of a smart jammer reduces
its power consumption. This adaptive approach can cause
nontypical behaviour of the jammed system, e.g. the UE can
detect and synchronize with the gNB but cannot correctly
receive any data [6].
In odrer to operate properly, a smart jammer must maintain
time synchronization between its transmission and the rate
of the jammed signal. One way to acheive this is to equip
the jammer with an appropriate receiver with time synchro-
nization output which could be used as a triggering clock
source for jamming transmission. However, this approach is
not recommended for two reasons. Firstly, when the jammer
is active, it may not be possible to receive the signal, which
is required to keep the jammer synchronized with the at-
tecked system. Secondly,the jammer location is limited by the
range of the useful signal. This excludes the scenario where
a jamming source with a highly directional antenna is at a
coniderable distance from the target receiver. Due to these
limitations, another solution has been proposed, based on the
assumption that network nodes are synchronized with respect
to Global Navigation Satellite Systems’ (GNSS) signals. In
such a case, the jammer transmitter may be synchronized with
GNSS signals as well, thus excluding the need to receive the
jammed radio interface signal.
V. JAMMING OPERATIONAL SCENARIO
The operational scenario of the proposed jamming test is
presented in Fig. 6. The aim is to prevent data transmission
or significantly degrade the quality of service in the target
5G private network. The given scenario assumes placing a
6VOLUME 11, 2023
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content may change prior to final publication. Citation information: DOI 10.1109/ACCESS.2024.3385630
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Paweł Skokowski et al.: Practical Trial for Low-Energy Effective Jamming on 5G Private Network
FIGURE 6. Low-energy jamming operational scenario.
jamming device on a UAV. During operation, the UAV gets
close to the 5G-NR base station (gNB) so that the generated
jamming signals can be transmitted with as low power as
necessary. Thanks to the reduced energy consumption, it is
possible to operate the UAV and the jammer for a longer
period of time. Besides, a significant benefit while using
the proposed solution in military scenarios is reducing the
probability of detecting the operation of such a jammer by the
enemy. At this point it is worth mentioning that the methods
of jamming UAV control signals are not the point of interest,
especially if a military UAV can operate in an SA mode with
a predefined route, e.g. based on GNSS (Global Navigation
Satellite Systems) signals.
In the second investigated scenario, verification of smart
jamming effectiveness on the NB-IoT radio interface was pos-
sible by using a testbed whose scheme is presented in Fig. 7.
The jammer generates OFDM signals in which the locations
of jamming-intended time-frequency resources are occupied
by the pulses of unit magnitude and random phase shift. In
other locations of the OFDM resource grid the pulses are
muted. This transmission pattern is stored as a waveform on
a PC class computer. When jamming is initiated, samples are
cyclically transferred to a USRP X310 front-end, whose TX
path generates an RF signal at the desired carrier frequency.
The USRP internal clock and oscillator are synchronized with
the PPS signal provided by the embedded GPS receiver.
Instead of using a laboratory radio communication tester,
the jammed transmission was an actual NB-IoT signal re-
ceived from a nearby eNodeB station, operating in LTE band
8. The purpose of using the real signal source was to verify
whether the LTE/NB-IoT base station is actually synchro-
nized with the GNSS reference signals. The received RF
signal was combined with the generated interference one.
A variable attenuator was placed between the transmitter
and the combiner in order to acheive the desired jammer-to-
signal power ratio. Additionally, an RF isolator was plugged
between the receive antenna and the combiner so that the
interference was not radiated outside the testbed. The RF
combiner output was directed to the RX path input of the
USRP device, which allowed for recording the received sig-
nals. The samples of the jammed NB-IoT signal were further
post-processed using developed Matlab scripts for analysis
and decoding NB-IoT radio interface signals.
FIGURE 7. NB-IoT Smart jamming testbed scenario.
FIGURE 8. Laboratory testbed for the jamming practical trial
flowchart.
VI. PRACTICAL TRIALS
A. TESTBED
In order to conduct the measurements of 5G private network
jamming, a dedicated and isolated laboratory stand was built,
including a software and a hardware layer (Fig. 8). Using
a base station for 5G private networks in the study allowed
the authors to analyse the 5G SA standard. The presented
approach can also be applied to LTE and 5G NSA base
stations after considering the time-frequency structure of their
signals. At this stage, the authors did not have the opportunity
to test the system at a commercial base station. Discussions
are being held with one of the operators so that such tests
can be conducted in a real environment. In addition, an iso-
lated laboratory 5G network is being built to implement the
research experiments in cooperation with several research
centres and it is planned to be used for future work as well.
As a 5G private network, the device provided by Athonet
company was used. It consists of an SA 5G-Core and a 5G-
RAN developed by Amarisoft. The set operates in two FR1
frequency bands, N77 - 3.75 GHz for TDD, and N7 - 2.68
GHz for FDD operation, with occupied 20 MHz bandwidth
and MIMO 2x2 connection. It must be pointed out that the
hardware realization of the RAN part is dedicated to indoor
environments considering its output power (below 10 dBm),
VOLUME 11, 2023 7
This article has been accepted for publication in IEEE Access. This is the author's version which has not been fully edited and
content may change prior to final publication. Citation information: DOI 10.1109/ACCESS.2024.3385630
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Paweł Skokowski et al.: Practical Trial for Low-Energy Effective Jamming on 5G Private Network
FIGURE 9. Laboratory testbed for the 5G jamming practical trial photo
of the stand.
FIGURE 10. Real photo of the integrated UAV RF jammer: DJI Mavic 3 +
USRP B200mini + RaspberyPi 4.
but it can easily be employed to perform the assumed test
case. As the UE, a Xiaomi Mi11 smartphone was used.
Moreover, a USRP B200 mini (adapted for mounting on
and powered from the UAV platform) was selected as the
source of jamming signals. The last element of the testbed
was a Rohde&Schwarz receiver used to monitor the spectrum
during the tests.
Fig. 9 and Fig. 10 present the actual views of the laboratory
testbed, and the integrated UAV jammer respectively.
B. THE 5G-NR JAMMING SCENARIO
The scenario to evaluate the effectiveness of 5G radio in-
terface jamming utilized the following signals generated by
the software-defined radio platform (USRP B200 mini +
RaspberyPi 4):
AWGN (Additive White Gaussian Noise) signal with a
20 MHz bandwidth,
Four narrowband (62,5 kHz) signals generated simulta-
neously (the total signals bandwidth was 250 kHz),
Four narrowband (62,5 kHz) signals generated sequen-
tially (slow hopping 1 hop/s),
Four narrowband (62,5 kHz) signals generated sequen-
tially (medium hopping 5 hops/s).
Four narrowband (62,5 kHz) signals generated sequen-
tially (fast hopping 10 hops/s).
The tests were conducted for two duplex modes of oper-
ation: FDD (Frequency Division Duplex) and TDD (Time
Division Duplex) in two different frequency bands regarding
3GPP regulations. In the FDD mode, jamming signals were
generated on DL frequencies. In contrast, in the case of the
TDD mode, the jamming affected both DL and UL trans-
missions. The quality of service in the presence of jamming
signals was tested for data transmission. The laboratory stand
allowed us to run DL and UL data benchmarks from the UE
to the 5G-Core (Service number 2 in Fig. 1).
TABLE 1. Data rates measured for downlink and uplink transmission
Jamming signal Operation
mode
Downlink
speed [Mb/s]
Uplink speed
[Mb/s]
FDD 212.00 27.80
TDD 149.80 22.90
AWGN, 20 MHz FDD (DL) 33.96 23.99
Four simultaneous nar-
rowband signals FDD (DL) 103.73 25.26
Four sequentially gener-
ated narrowband signals
(fast frequency hopping)
FDD (DL) 37.98 23.49
Four simultaneous nar-
rowband signals TDD 43.40 0.22
C. THE NB-IOT JAMMING SCENARIO
The experiments were conducted in two test cases: barrage
jamming and NRS jamming. It is worth mentioning that in
the literature the impact of selective jamming on an NRS
signal was not investigated widely, in contrast to NB-IoT
synchronization signals jamming [57]. In each scenario the
same source of NB-IoT downlink signal was used, which
was the eNodeB located at the campus of Gdańsk Univer-
sity of Technology. This is a public base station belonging
to a commercial provider, operating in the SA mode on
935.10 MHz carrier frequency. The first test was intended to
verify if the downlink transmision is synchronized with the
GPS system clock. More precisely, the test was expected to
prove that the beginning of each GPS clock second (the pulse
per second signal) coincides with the beginning of an even
NB-IoT frame. In order to verify this statement, a test signal
with a specific temporal pattern was generated and recorded
simultaneously with NB-IoT signal. Next, the spectrograms
of the two signals were compared.
In the second step, selective jamming effectiveness was
compared with barrage jamming, i.e. a continuous jamming
signal covering the entire 180 kHz NB-IoT frequency band.
The tests focused on jamming the NPBCH channel which
carries MIBs which provide initial information acquired by
the UE during the cell attachment procedure.
The selective interference consisted of pulses jamming
only the NRS resource elements in subframe 0 and the NRS
resources occurring before subframe 0 (i.e. the NRS in the
second slot of subframe 8 or 9, depending on the frame
oddity). In contrast, barrage interference covered the whole
NB-IoT band in all the subframes, except those carrying
NPSS and NSSS, in order to avoid the jamming impact on
the UE synchronization performance needed for a proper
jamming effectiveness analysis.
D. SELECTED RESULTS OF 5G R ADIO INTERFACE
JAMMING
The results of the test scenario are presented in Table 1. It also
contains reference values acquired for the donwlink and up-
link transmission when no jamming signals were generated.
In the TDD mode, jamming in the hopping mode by four
narrowband signals made it impossible to perform benchmark
tests. Based on the results, it can be inferred that each pro-
8VOLUME 11, 2023
This article has been accepted for publication in IEEE Access. This is the author's version which has not been fully edited and
content may change prior to final publication. Citation information: DOI 10.1109/ACCESS.2024.3385630
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Paweł Skokowski et al.: Practical Trial for Low-Energy Effective Jamming on 5G Private Network
FIGURE 11. 5G signal spectrum and spectrogram with a narrowband
jamming signal (medium frequency hopping).
posed jamming signal disrupts 5G radio interface transmis-
sion. Therefore, an essential aspect of the proposed jamming
solution effectiveness is the energy required to disable 5G-
based communication. For example, a quantitative analysis
shows that in the case of a signal interfering selectively in
sub-bands occupying 62.5 kHz each (250 kHz total) and
compared to a 20 MHz width signal from a regular jammer,
the energy gain reaches 19 dB. It is worth noting that the effect
of blocking communications is also possible for selective
interference with only one sub-band out of four with a width
of 62.5 kHz according to the set scheme (Fig. 11).
In this case, the energy is consumed for only one selec-
tively chosen sub-band at a time, reducing the total energy
consumption (the required necessary radiation power) four
times (6 dB). Moreover, compared to a regular jammer, in
one sub-band jamming scenario the gain of 25 dB can be
achieved. Thanks to the jammer’s efficiency, we can assume
obtaining these potential benefits: a larger operational range
of the jammer, reduction in the required radiated power,
longer operating time of the device due to lower power con-
sumption, and/or minimization of the detection probability in
the military context. In addition to this, following the obtained
results, when a DL is jammed the source of the jamming
signal should be as close as possible to the UE to maximize
the jamming effectiveness.
E. SELECTED RESULTS OF N B-IOT RADIO INTERFACE
JAMMING
The test signal in the first step was generated as an OFDM
waveform which consisted of pulses located only in symbols
and subcarriers allocated for NRS signal transmission (in or-
der to determine the NRS location, the eNodeB cell identifier
was found first). Next, based on this waveform, an RF signal
was generated at a center frequency of 935.3 MHz, with +200
kHz offset from the received NB-IoT signal.
The 400 kHz wide spectrogram of both signals recorded
simultaneously is presented in Fig. 12. The spectrum of the
NB-IoT signal from the eNodeB is visible in the lower part,
centered around the baseband frequency of -500 kHz. The
FIGURE 12. Spectrogram for illustrating signal synchronization.
time axis was limited so that its beginning coincides with the
beginning of the NB-IoT frame and spans three subsequent
frames (30 ms duration). The spectrogram clearly shows
characteristic components corresponding to specific signals
and physical channels. In the 1st , 11th and 21st millisecond,
NPBCH transmission is visible. Similarly, NPSS is transmit-
ted in the 6th, 16th and 26th millisecond. NSSS is present in
the 20th millisecond, which means that the first frame of the
spectrogram is odd. Moreover, NPDSCH resources carrying
a System Information Block (SIB) are present in the 5th,
15th and 25th millisecond. Isolated pulses observed at four
subcarriers correspond to the NRS signal components. NRS
is present in subframes 0 and 4 as well, but cannot be
distinguished from other resources in the spectrogram.
The upper part of Fig. 12 shows the spectrogram of the
generated test signal, centered at -300 kHz baseband fre-
quency. It can be seen that time intervals, when the test signal
is active, coincide with OFDM symbols carrying the NRS
signals in NB-IoT downlink. Moreover, longer periods of the
test signal inactivity correspond to the segments of the NB-
IoT signal when synchronization signals (NPSS and NSSS)
are transmitted. These results prove that the NB-IoT signal
transmitted by eNodeB is synchronized with the GPS clock.
In the second phase of the tests, the effectiveness of jam-
ming the NPBCH channel was investigated. Jamming ef-
fectiveness is considered here to be the percentage of not
decoded Master Information Blocks (MIB). MIB decoding is
considered successful if the cyclic redundancy check (CRC)
of the respective transport block is passed.
Fig. 13 shows variations in instantaneous power for barrage
jamming (blue) and selective NRS jamming (red). As can be
seen, peak relative power levels of both signals are roughly
the same. This is essential for fair comparison of jamming
effectiveness for which the transmitter peak power is consid-
ered to be the main limiting factor. The spectrograms of the
NB-IoT signal in the presence of both types of jamming, with
a jamming-to-signal peak power ratio of 3 dB, are shown in
Fig. 14 and Fig. 15. For readers’ convenience, the positions
of characteristic subframes were labeled at the bottom. In the
case of selective interference, stronger pulses (yellow color)
are visible in the locations of NRS symbols in the NPBCH
(subframe 0) or they precede the NRS symbols (subframe 8
VOLUME 11, 2023 9
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Paweł Skokowski et al.: Practical Trial for Low-Energy Effective Jamming on 5G Private Network
FIGURE 13. Instantaneous powers of barrage and selective jamming.
FIGURE 14. Spectrogram for selective NRS jamming.
FIGURE 15. Spectrogram for barrage jamming.
or 9). In contrast, barrage jamming covers the whole NB-IoT
signal except for the NPSS and NSSS subframes which begin
with the period of inactivity in the first three OFDM symbols,
which is characteristic for the NB-IoT SA operation mode.
The comparison of NPBCH jamming effectiveness is pre-
sented in Fig. 16. The tests were conducted for jamming-to-
signal peak power ratios of -6 dB, -3 dB, 0 dB, and 3 dB. In
each case, 500 trials of MIB decoding were performed. The
results show that barrage jamming barely affects the possibil-
ity of decoding the MIBs, regardless of the power ratio. Only
a few MIB decoding failures were observed, which is likely
FIGURE 16. Effectiveness of jamming the NPBCH.
even for no-jamming conditions (e.g. because of the negative
influence of the channel conditions). Different results were
obtained for selective jamming, where a strong relationship
between jamming effectiveness and jammer power was ob-
served. When the jamming-to-signal power ratio was 3 dB,
less then half the MIBs were successfully decoded.
VII. CONCLUSION
In the presented research studies, it was proven that nar-
rowband jamming signals can be used to disturb or disable
communication in a 5G private network for the FDD and
TDD modes of operation. The obtained jamming efficiency,
reaching up to 99% for the TDD-UL or 82% for the FDD-
DL, can be compared to broadband jamming (84%), also in
the context of power gain. In the proposed use case, the power
gain can reach up to 25 dB when one narrowband sub-band
is jammed. Based on the obtained results, the authors assume
similar effectiveness of the jamming technique for other gNB
operation configurations, i.e. 200/100 MHz bandwidths. Be-
cause of the 5G physical Layer EW resistant weakness, it
seems that 5G private networks should be carefully selected
in the context of operational activities on the battlefield in
the presence of strong radio interference and/or intentional
jamming. This issue does not narrow down the application of
5G to isolated, controlled military environments, but it offers
space for further research studies.
Moreover, the results of smart jamming prove that per-
forming selective and efficient jamming of the NB-IoT radio
interface is feasible. Since the base stations’ clocks are syn-
chronized with the GNSS signal, this offers the opportunity to
use the signal to synchronize the jamming source as well, thus
avoiding the necessity to receive and detect the attacked radio
interface signal beforehand. Based on the obtained results, it
can be concluded that significantly greater effectiveness of
selective jamming stems mainly from the fact that jamming
signal power is focused on selected resource elements. In
the analyzed case, the interference was active only at two
subcarriers in the OFDM symbol, while barrage jamming was
spread over all the twelve subcarriers. In addition to this,
10 VOLUME 11, 2023
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content may change prior to final publication. Citation information: DOI 10.1109/ACCESS.2024.3385630
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License. For more information, see https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
Paweł Skokowski et al.: Practical Trial for Low-Energy Effective Jamming on 5G Private Network
with the 3 dB jamming-to-signal peak power ratio and the
signal focused on NRS resources it was possible to degrade
the accuracy of the channel estimation for subframe 0. This
negatively affected the reception of MIB transport blocks
(successful decoding ratio below 50%), which is crucial dur-
ing the UE attachment procedure.
In the paper it was demonstrated that narrowband jamming
signals can be used to disturb or disable communication in
a 5G private network for the FDD and TDD modes of op-
eration. Owing to the proposed energy-efficient and flexible
5G private networks jammer, it is possible to use it to prevent
or disturb communications in the area of interest, minimizing
the risk of possible detection. The significant advantage of
the developed jammer is its high mobility and the possibility
of being steered from a remote location (in the case of armed
conflicts, the risk of the system operators’ localization can
be subtantially reduced). Furthermore, using the commercial
SDR platform and UAV equipment allows for a quick increase
in the number of jammers and for adapting the solution to the
current operational requirements. The assumed future works
might aim to develop other smart methods of jamming and to
verify their practical implementations. In addition, the authors
are considering using commercial LTE and 5G NSA base
stations for future tests and performing experiments on an
emerging isolated 5G network.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
This paper is a collaborative work of research task group
(RTG) members from the IST-187-RTG on “5G Technologies
Application to NATO Operations” operating within the Infor-
mation Systems Technology (IST) Panel at the NATO Since
and Technology Organization (NATO STO).
The article’s authors would like to thank the Systemics-
PAB company, especially Leszek Wojdalski, for lending the
5G standalone private networks developed by Athonet.
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content may change prior to final publication. Citation information: DOI 10.1109/ACCESS.2024.3385630
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PAWEŁ SKOKOWSKI was born in Poland in
1983. He received the M.Sc.Eng. and Ph.D. in
wireless communications systems from the Mil-
itary University of Technology (MUT) in War-
saw, Poland, in 2007 and 2019, respectively. He
works as an Assistant Professor at MUT Insti-
tute of Communications Systems (Department of
Radiocommunications). Since 2007 involved in
many research and development projects for the
Polish Ministry of Defence, the European Defence
Agency (EDA) and the National Centre for Research and Development.
His main research interests are signal processing, wireless communication
systems, cognitive radios, situation awareness building, electronic warfare
and data fusion. Currently also participates in the NATO-STO IST-187 RTG
working group ”5G Technologies Application to NATO Operationson”. He
was awarded 1st prize in the ABB Award Competition (the main goal of
the competition is to promote and suport talented people passionate about
advanced technologies) and 3rd prize in the Ministry of Defense competition
(a competition for the best doctoral dissertation in the field of modern
technologies in communications, with potential application in the area of
national defense or security). Privately a happy husband, dad and dog owner.
12 VOLUME 11, 2023
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content may change prior to final publication. Citation information: DOI 10.1109/ACCESS.2024.3385630
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License. For more information, see https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
Paweł Skokowski et al.: Practical Trial for Low-Energy Effective Jamming on 5G Private Network
KRZYSZTOF MALON (was born in Poland in
1987. He received the E.Eng., M.Sc., and Ph.D.
in telecommunications systems from the Mili-
tary University of Technology (MUT) in Warsaw,
Poland, in 2010, 2011, and 2019, respectively. He
works as an Assistant Professor at MUT Institute
of Communications Systems (Department of Ra-
diocommunications). Since 2010, he has actively
participated in national and international research
and development projects for the European De-
fence Agency (EDA) and the National Center for Research and Development.
His main research interests are modern wireless communication systems,
software-defined and cognitive radios, dynamic spectrum access, electronic
warfare, and radio spectrum monitoring. He also participates in the NATO
IST-187 RTG working group on using civilian 5G standards in military
operations (5G Technologies Application to NATO Operations). He was
awarded first prize in the Ministry of Defence competition (a competition
for the best doctoral dissertation in the field of modern technologies in
communications, with potential application in the area of national defence
or security) and third prize in the National Competition for the Best Doctoral
Dissertation in Radio Communication and Multimedia Techniques.
MICHAŁ KRYK was born in Poland in 1986. He
received the M.Sc.Eng. in wireless communica-
tions systems from the Military University of Tech-
nology (MUT) in Warsaw, Poland, in 2011. He
works as an assistant at MUT Institute of Commu-
nications Systems (Department of Radiocommuni-
cations). Since 2010, he has actively participated
in national and international research and develop-
ment projects for the European Defence Agency
(EDA) and the National Center for Research and
Development. His current research interests include modern wireless com-
munication systems, simulations, modelling, and measurements of channels
and propagation, signal–processing, software-defined radio, electronic war-
fare, and radio spectrum monitoring.
KRZYSZTOF MAŚLANKA was born in Poland
in 1974. He received the M.S. and Ph.D. de-
gree in telecommunications systems from the Mil-
itary University of Technology (MUT) in Warsaw,
Poland in 1999 and 2017 respectively. He is cur-
rently working as Assistant Professor at Institute of
Communications Systems, Faculty of Electronics,
Military University of Technology. He engages in
problems of communications and information sys-
tems (CIS), modelling and simulation of computer
networks, IP networks problems and telecommunication systems engineer-
ing. Since 2000, he has been actively participating in national and interna-
tional research and development projects for the Polish Ministry of Defence,
NATO, EDA and the National Center for Research and Development. He
is currently involved in, among others, the NATO IST-187 RTG working
group on using civilian 5G standards in military operations (5G Technologies
Application to NATO Operations).
JAN M. KELNER (Member, IEEE) was born in
Poland in 1977. He received M.Sc. degree with
honors in applied physics and Ph.D. in telecommu-
nications from the Military University of Technol-
ogy (WAT) in Warsaw, Poland, in 2001 and 2011,
respectively. In 2020, he received D.Sc. degree
(habilitation) in information and communication
technology from the AGH University of Science
and Technology, Krakow, Poland. He works as an
associate professor at the Institute of Communica-
tions Systems (ICS), Faculty of Electronics WAT, where he started working in
2003. Since January 2021, he has been the Institute Director. Since 2017, he
has been a principal voting member in the Information Systems Technology
Panel operating within the NATO Science and Technology Organization. He
is an expert at the European Defence Agency (EDA) CapTech Information
and the Office of Electronic Communication since 2019 and 2022, respec-
tively. Since 2001, he has been involved in many research and development
projects for the Polish Ministry of Defence, EDA, National Centre for
Research and Development, and National Science Centre. Currently, he is the
manager of four research projects and the supervisor for ten Ph.D. students.
He has authored or co-authored more than two hundred articles in peer-
reviewed journals and conferences. He is a reviewer for thirty-five scientific
journals and about twenty conferences. His current research interests include
wireless communications, simulations, modelling, and measurements of
channels and propagation, quality of services, signal–processing, navigation
and localization techniques.
PIOTR RAJCHOWSKI (Member, IEEE) was born
in Poland, in 1989. He received the E.Eng., M.Sc.,
and Ph.D. degrees in radio communication from
the Gda´nsk University of Technology (Gda´nsk
Tech), Poland, in 2012, 2013, and 2017, respec-
tively. Since 2013, he has been working at the
Department of Radiocommunication Systems and
Networks, Faculty of Electronics, Telecommuni-
cations and Informatics, Gda´nsk University of
Technology, as a IT Specialist, during 2013–2017,
a Research Assistant, during 2017–2019, and as an Assistant Professor, since
2019. Since 2020, he has been the Deputy Head of the Department. His
research and science activity include being the Contractor of six research
and development projects related to homeland security, radiolocalization,
and modern wireless networks. From 2019 to 2020, he was the Early Career
Investigator Representative of the COSTIRACON CA-15104 Action, now
he participates the CA20120 Action. His main research interests include
radiolocalization in modern sensor and cellular networks. Moreover, he
is interested in the aspects of the synchronization in the NB-IoT and 5G
networks, especially in the harsh propagation conditions. He received the
Young Scientists Award of URSI in 2020 and some domestic awards like
the Annual Award of the President of the City of Gda´nsk and the Gda´nsk
Scientific Society for Young Scientists.
VOLUME 11, 2023 13
This article has been accepted for publication in IEEE Access. This is the author's version which has not been fully edited and
content may change prior to final publication. Citation information: DOI 10.1109/ACCESS.2024.3385630
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License. For more information, see https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
Paweł Skokowski et al.: Practical Trial for Low-Energy Effective Jamming on 5G Private Network
JAROSŁAW MAGIERA graduated from Gdansk
University of Technology (Faculty of Electronics,
Telecommunications and Informatics) in 2009. In
2015 he received Ph.D. degree with distinction
at Faculty of ETI for the thesis: “Analysis and
research on anti-spoofing system for GPS”. Cur-
rently he is an assistant professor in Department
of Radio Communication Systems and Networks
at Gdańsk Tech. Area of his research activities
include: digital signal processing, multi-antenna
systems, physical layer security, electronic warfare and others. From 2008
to 2023 he was engaged in ten R&D projects supported by EU and Polish
National Centre for Research and Development. He is involved in NATO
IST-187 working group and COST CA20120 INTERACT action.
14 VOLUME 11, 2023
This article has been accepted for publication in IEEE Access. This is the author's version which has not been fully edited and
content may change prior to final publication. Citation information: DOI 10.1109/ACCESS.2024.3385630
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License. For more information, see https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
... Of particular concern is the vulnerability to sophisticated jamming attacks, which can § Collaborative authors with equal contribution. exploit the characteristics of both Time Division Duplex (TDD) and Frequency Division Duplex (FDD) systems to achieve devastating effects -up to 99% disruption in TDD uplink and 82% in FDD downlink scenarios [14], [17]. ...
... Second, they struggle in ultra-dense network environments where local jammers can be obscured by legitimate network traffic, especially when dealing with narrowband selective jamming targeting specific OFDM subcarriers. [12], [13], [14], [17]. ...
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... Additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) or quadrature phase shift keying (QPSK) modulated signals, relying on the orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) technique, may be used as examples of such jamming signals. Such a method is usually effective in disrupting radio communication, but is energy-inefficient and easily detectable [6]. Therefore, some papers present jamming detection solutions based on estimating the received signal's power in the analyzed bandwidth, or the power of reference signals. ...
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Modern cellular wireless communication systems of the fourth (4G) and fifth generation (5G) face a problem of various types of interference or intentional jamming. Consequently, a degradation of the services provided and an incorrect network operation may occur. In this paper, configuration of the networks' physical layer is investigated, with the said investigation preceded by the measurement of parameters of commercial networks operating in two different environments, to assess their vulnerabilities to interference or intentional jamming. Finally, a method for analyzing the radio signal received with the use of 5G New Radio (NR), Long Term Evolution (LTE), and Narrowband Internet of Things (NB-IoT) radio interfaces is proposed, to detect and mitigate the negative impact of unwanted signals. Software-based implementation of the proposed method allows one to detect and mitigate co-channel interference, intentional jamming and maintain compatibility of user equipment (UE) with the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) standard, as it does not affect operations performed, for instance, at the time and frequency synchronization or channel parameter estimation phases.
... A novel approach using optical devices to generate electromagnetic signals was proposed in [35], enabling secure communication while conducting radar range and velocity deception jamming. Real-world tests have demonstrated the efficacy of narrowband signals with low energy in disrupting the fifth-generation networks [36]. ...
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To ensure the thriving development of low-altitude economy, countering unauthorized unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) is an essential task. The existing widely deployed base stations hold great potential for joint communication and jamming. In light of this, this paper investigates the joint design of beamforming to simultaneously support communication with legitimate users and countermeasure against unauthorized UAVs based on dual-functional multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) cellular systems. We first formulate a joint communication and jamming (JCJ) problem, relaxing it through semi-definite relaxation (SDR) to obtain a tractable semi-definite programming (SDP) problem, with SDR providing an essential step toward simplifying the complex JCJ design. Although the solution to the relaxed SDP problem cannot directly solve the original problem, it offers valuable insights for further refinement. Based on these insights, we design a novel constraint specifically tailored to the structure of the SDP problem, ensuring that the solution adheres to the rank-1 constraint of the original problem. Finally, we validate effectiveness of the proposed JCJ scheme through extensive simulations. The results confirm that the proposed JCJ scheme can operate effectively when the total number of legitimate users and unauthorized UAVs exceeds the number of antennas.
... A novel approach using optical devices to generate electromagnetic signals was proposed in [35], enabling secure communication while conducting radar range and velocity deception jamming. Real-world tests have demonstrated the efficacy of narrowband signals with low energy in disrupting the fifth-generation networks [36]. ...
Preprint
To ensure the thriving development of low-altitude economy, countering unauthorized unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) is an essential task. The existing widely deployed base stations hold great potential for joint communication and jamming. In light of this, this paper investigates the joint design of beamforming to simultaneously support communication with legitimate users and countermeasure against unauthorized UAVs based on dual-functional multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) cellular systems. We first formulate a joint communication and jamming (JCJ) problem, relaxing it through semi-definite relaxation (SDR) to obtain a tractable semi-definite programming (SDP) problem, with SDR providing an essential step toward simplifying the complex JCJ design. Although the solution to the relaxed SDP problem cannot directly solve the original problem, it offers valuable insights for further refinement. Therefore, we design a novel constraint specifically tailored to the structure of the SDP problem, ensuring that the solution adheres to the rank-1 constraint of the original problem. Finally, we validate effectiveness of the proposed JCJ scheme through extensive simulations. Simulation codes are provided to reproduce the results in this paper: https://github.com/LiZhuoRan0. The results confirm that the proposed JCJ scheme can operate effectively when the total number of legitimate users and unauthorized UAVs exceeds the number of antennas.
Chapter
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In fifth generation (5G) new radio (NR), since the synchronization signal blocks are unencrypted during the initial access, an intelligent adversary can detect these signals to obtain the full physical cell identity (PCI) by sniffing, and then use the PCI to attack physical broadcast channel (PBCH) extraction by targeted jamming. Such kind of PBCH intelligent jamming (PBCH-IJ) will cause the failure of the master information block (MIB) decoding, and further result in severe denial of services for those users who want to access this PCI cell. In this letter, we propose to exploit the principal direction of PBCH demodulation reference signal space to detect PBCH-IJ at the user side, which is motivated by the fact that such principal direction under the low mobility scenarios will be significantly impacted if PBCH-IJ happens. Numeric results evaluate and confirm the effectiveness of our detection method.