Visually Understanding Jam Resistant Communication

The primary goal of information security is to ensure the confidentiality, integrity, authenticity, and availability of information. Availability is often relegated to a discussion of denial of service attacks on network resources. Another form of denying availability is to prevent communication through the use of traditional jamming techniques. At the United States Air Force Academy Center for Information Security, we have been working on a new algorithm, BBC, which is based on a new type of coding theory known as concurrent codes, that is resistant to traditional jamming techniques. While the formal definition and proofs of concurrent codes can be daunting, the algorithm’s effectiveness can be easily conveyed and appreciated through visual demonstration. This paper briefly introduces concurrent codes and describes an interactive applet that visually demonstrates the algorithm’s effectiveness in a noisy and/or hostile environment.