An Evaluation of Disrupting 5G Industrial Environments with Stealth Jamming

Jung T, Fink L, Spinnler C, Maiwald T, Franchi N (2026)

Publication Language: English

Publication Type: Conference contribution, Conference Contribution

Publication year: 2026

Pages Range: 1-10

Event location: Okayama

Abstract

Operational modes for fifth generation (5G) and
upcoming mobile generations, such as ultra-reliable and low-
latency communications (URLLC), are important for modern
industrial environments. The requirements for such network
operations must be guaranteed even in challenging scenarios,
including cases of external interference. This paper investigates
network interference by stealthy noise jamming, i.e., an attack
with low power and not aiming for a complete denial-of-service
(DoS) but for network degradation. We conduct a measurement
campaign within a 5G non-public network (NPN) testbed and
evaluate the impact of the attack on Key Performance Indicators
(KPI) in a static and a dynamic scenario. Our analysis reveals
that attacking areas of weak coverage using subband noise with
a power of -18.9 dBm can effectively reduce throughput and
increase latency by 18.5% and 34%, respectively. Crucially, this
is achieved with minimal impact on standard observed metrics
and derived features. Although the divergence of signal-to-
interference plus noise ratio (SINR) and received signal received
power (RSRP) is an indicator of noise jamming, an adversary
can circumvent this by avoiding jamming the Synchronization
Signal Block (SSB), which leaves the reported SINR and RSRP
to the base station unaffected. In such cases, the only valuable
feature to estimate the SINR of the downlink channel is the
quantized channel quality indicator (CQI). These findings high-
light a critical vulnerability in industrial 5G deployments that
require guaranteed quality of service (QoS), as disrupting reliable
operation can be achieved with little effort, whereas mitigating
such attacks require a sophisticated detection system that uses
different metrics throughout a mobile communication system.

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How to cite

APA:

Jung, T., Fink, L., Spinnler, C., Maiwald, T., & Franchi, N. (2026). An Evaluation of Disrupting 5G Industrial Environments with Stealth Jamming. In IEEE (Eds.), Proceedings of the 2026 8th International Conference on Computer Communication and the Internet (ICCCI) (pp. 1-10). Okayama, JP.

MLA:

Jung, Tobias, et al. "An Evaluation of Disrupting 5G Industrial Environments with Stealth Jamming." Proceedings of the 2026 8th International Conference on Computer Communication and the Internet (ICCCI), Okayama Ed. IEEE, 2026. 1-10.

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