Jammers: From Villains To Defenders When Interfering Can Help Protect

This work analyzes the role of jammers in wireless networks, discussing how such devices can act both as attack agents and as potential components of defensive strategies. Based on a reviews and analyzes experimental studies of jamming attacks against a wireless sensor network composed of MicaZ nodes and the IEEE 802.15.4/ZigBee standard, it evaluates the impact of transmission power, node synchronization and hardware limitations on metrics such as packet delivery ratio, latency and RSSI, contrasting real‑world and simulation results. In parallel, it examines Distributed Jammer Network (DJN) models, in which multiple low‑power jammers are organized as an interfering “network layer”, analyzed through percolation theory, Packet Delivery Ratio (PDR) and Packet Success Rate (PSR) to understand their influence on target network connectivity. Combining these two perspectives, the study explores the “jammers as villains and defenders” duality, assessing to what extent controlled interference can be used as a countermeasure in specific scenarios, for example to degrade malicious flows or in educational and CTF environments focused on wireless security. It highlights limitations of purely simulated models, emphasizes technical, legal and ethical risks of jamming, and proposes guidelines to use jamming experiments and metrics responsibly in network design and security training.