
DOMINO: A System to Detect Greedy Behavior in IEEE 802.11 Hotspots
Maxim Raya, Jean-Pierre Hubaux, and Imad Aad, EPFL
The proliferation of hotspots based on IEEE 802.11 wireless
LANs brings the promise of seamless Internet access from a
large number of public locations. However, as the number of
users soars, so does the risk of possible misbehavior;
to protect themselves, wireless ISPs already make use of a number
of security mechanisms, and require mobile stations to
authenticate themselves at the Access Points (APs). However,
IEEE 802.11 works properly only if the stations also respect
the MAC protocol. We show in this paper that a greedy
user can substantially increase his share of bandwidth, at
the expense of the other users, by slightly modifying the
driver of his network adapter. We explain how easily this
can be performed, in particular with the new generation of
adapters. We then present DOMINO (System for Detection
Of greedy behavior in the MAC layer of IEEE 802.11 public
NetwOrks), a piece of software to be installed in the Access
Point. DOMINO can detect and identify greedy stations,
without requiring any modification of the standard
protocol at the AP and without revealing its own presence. We
illustrate these concepts by simulation results and by the
description of our prototype.
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