Coordinated UAV Beamforming and Control for Directional Jamming and Nulling

Abstract: Efficient mobile jamming against eavesdroppers in wireless networks necessitates accurate coordination between mobility and antenna beamforming. We study the coordinated beamforming and control problem for a UAV that carries two omnidirectional antennas, and which uses them to jam an eavesdropper while leaving a friendly client unaffected. The UAV can shape its jamming beampattern by controlling its position, its antennas' orientation, and the phases of the antennas' interference signals. We derive a closed-form expression for the antennas' phases that guarantees zero jamming impact on the client. In addition, we determine the antennas' orientation and the UAV's position that maximizes jamming impact on the eavesdropper through an optimal control problem, optimizing the orientation pointwise and the position through the UAV's control input. Simulations show how this coordinated beamforming and control scheme enables directional GPS denial while guaranteeing zero interference towards a friendly direction.