Network security through wireless location

• Published in: 2009 Latin American Network Operations and Management Symposium pp. 1 - 8
• Main Authors: Peres, A., Weber, R.F.
• Format: Conference Proceeding
• Language: English
• Published: IEEE 01-10-2009
• Subjects: Access control; Attenuation; Communication system security; Computer networks; Fingerprint recognition; Information security; Microwave devices; Testing; Web server; Wireless networks
• ISBN: 1424445515; 9781424445516
• DOI: 10.1109/LANOMS.2009.5338804

This paper presents the results obtained in the development of a security mechanism for Web access control based on IEEE 802.11 mobile stations indoor location. The goal of the mechanism is to permit the control of the Web access made by students in an academic environment according to the classroom they are in. The access is controlled by a location server, which dynamically interacts with security mechanisms (in our testbed a firewall with HTTP/HTTPS proxy) according with the location of the wireless stations. The location server is based on the amplitude fingerprinting with dynamic obstacle identification, and dynamically checks the mobile station location. Due the fact that we use the signal amplitude to determine the station location, some adjustments were made to rebuild the calculations dynamically. This was necessary because there are dynamic obstacles in the building (such as people, furniture, etc) and the impact in the measurement of the signal amplitude. The adjustments were made based on the signal measuring among access points in order to identify the obstacles, and adjust the location system. With these adjustments, the location system becomes more accurate and can be applied in security applications. The major contribution of our approach is the dynamic obstacle identification and the dynamic adjustment in the fingerprint matrix based only in the access points information. We later demonstrate the results of field tests in which the proposed technique was implemented and validated in a indoor environment.