Remote detection of interfered downlinks in wireless cellular systems

This work provides a novel technological solution to jamming in wireless systems, particularly to remotely detect interfered communications in a cellular network. The new system is focused on the detection of a failure in a link between a base station and a fixed wireless terminal located in a residential or business area. It has an important impact in security systems based on wireless terminals to transmit an alarm to a central station. In these systems, non‐authorised people can prevent the transmission of the alarm by using a short‐range jammer. The main advantage of this proposal is that it is non‐intrusive; that is, no modification is needed in the base station, and no protocol modification is performed in the terminal. The detection is implemented in an external unit developed on a software‐defined radio platform. The novel system proposed is valid for any cellular system and operator. In this work, we focus on its implementation in the GSM/GPRS system to illustrate its benefits and outline the method for Universal Mobile Telecommunications System. We describe the results of some experiments where the system successfully detects the presence of a short‐range jammer in a real scenario. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.