A resource reservation attack against LTE networks

Quality of Service (QoS) assurances are essential for users requesting diverse services in cellular networks. Towards that end, Long Term Evolution (LTE) networks support procedures that assure the appropriate QoS of different applications that users demand, through the concept of bearers. A bearer is the central element of QoS in LTE and several bearers are standardized, each having its QoS parameters according to the application type it carries. In this work, we describe an attack in which a small number of users maliciously reserve the resources at the Enhanced-NodeB (eNB) in an LTE network by requesting high bandwidth bearers while strategically having a low Modulation and Coding Scheme. The attack is implemented and simulated in OPNET to verify its feasibility and effect on decreasing the QoS experienced by other users. Results show that two malicious users can cause denial of service for all other users of the same cell requesting TCP-based applications.