Application of Maritime Non-line-of-sight Relay Attack on Wireless Digital Communication

Authors

• Nathan Meyer, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow

First Advisor

Hamid R. Sharif-Kashani

Committee Members

Andrew Harms

Date of this Version

5-2026

Document Type

Thesis

Citation

A thesis presented to the faculty of the Graduate College at the University of Nebraska in partial fulfillment of requirements for the degree of Master of Science

Major: Telecommunications Engineering

Under the supervision of Professor Hamid R. Sharif-Kashani

Lincoln, Nebraska, May 2026

Comments

Copyright 2026, Nathan Meyer. Used by permission

Abstract

As wireless communication becomes increasingly prevalent, securing information over wireless channels is an ongoing challenge, especially in maritime environments where communication depends on radio links. While higher layer wireless attacks have been widely studied, lower level physical-layer relay attacks in maritime settings have received less attention. This thesis presents a simulation of a maritime relay attack in a beyond line-of-sight wireless environment for study. A three antenna communication model is developed where a legitimate transmitter sends a digital wireless signal, an attacking antenna intercepts, modifies, and retransmits the signal, and a final receiver observes both the direct and relay transmission. The model evaluated the feasibility of altering transmitted file contents while being able to successfully mimic key receiver observable signal characteristics such as timing, receiver-space similarity, channel estimation behavior, and power related metrics. Results show that a relay attack can successfully modify transmitted contents while maintaining high similarity to the direct signal across several physical layer features, while geometry constrained timing and residual power mismatch remain important limitations. These findings demonstrate the feasibility and the limits of maritime physical layer relay attacks and the foundation for future work on wireless authentication for maritime signal security.

Advisor: Hamid R. Sharif-Kashani