Apparatus and method for protecting against victim masquerade attack in remote interference management

1. A central entity for verifying legitimate victim-aggressor pairs in remote interference management operation, the central entity comprising:

radio front end circuitry; and

processor circuitry, coupled to the radio front end circuitry, the processor circuitry configured to:

detect a first event report from a victim base station, wherein the first event report is based on the victim base station detecting a presence of an atmospheric duct, and wherein the first event report includes an ID of the victim base station;

trigger, using the radio front end circuitry and in response to the first event report, an aggressor base station to begin monitoring for transmission of a victim reference signal sent in response to detecting the presence of the atmospheric duct;

detect a second event report from the aggressor base station, the second event report being sent in response to detecting the victim reference signal; and

upon receipt of the second event report, verify that the victim base station and the aggressor base station are legitimate based on the first event report and the second event report.

2. The central entity of claim 1 , wherein the second event report includes an ID of the aggressor base station, and a resource configuration index of a reference signal for remote interference management (RIM-RS) associated with the victim reference signal or a corresponding set ID.

3. The central entity of claim 2 , wherein the resource configuration index is an index that uniquely identifies one or more: time resources, frequency resources, or a sequence of the RIM-RS.

4. The central entity of claim 1 , wherein:

responsive to passing the verification, the central entity sends a message to the aggressor base station to trigger a start of remote interference mitigation, and

responsive to failing the verification, the remote interference mitigation is not triggered and the victim reference signal is ignored.

5. A non-transitory computer-readable medium for verifying legitimate victim-aggressor pairs in remote interference management operation, the computer-readable medium having instructions stored thereon that, when executed by one or more processors, causes a central entity to perform operations comprising:

detecting a first event report from a victim base station, wherein the first event report is based on the victim base station detecting a presence of an atmospheric duct, and wherein the first event report includes an ID of the victim base station;

triggering, in response to the first event report, an aggressor base station to begin monitoring for transmissions of a victim reference signal sent in response to detecting the presence of the atmospheric duct;

detecting a second event report from the aggressor base station, the second event report being sent in response to detecting the victim reference signal; and

upon receipt of the second event report, verifying that the victim base station and the aggressor base station are legitimate based on the first event report and the second event report.

6. The computer-readable medium of claim 5 , wherein the second event report includes an ID of the aggressor base station, and a resource configuration index of a reference signal for remote interference management (RIM-RS) associated with the victim reference signal or a corresponding set ID.

7. The computer-readable medium of claim 6 , wherein the resource configuration index is an index that uniquely identifies one or more: time resources, frequency resources, or a sequence of the RIM-RS.

8. The computer-readable medium of claim 5 , wherein the operations further comprise:

responsive to passing the verification, causing the central entity to send a message to the aggressor base station to trigger a start of remote interference mitigation, and

responsive to failing the verification, ignoring the victim reference signal without triggering the remote interference mitigation.

9. A method of a central entity for verifying legitimate victim-aggressor pairs in remote interference management operation, the method comprising:

detecting a first event report from a victim base station, wherein the first event report is based on the victim base station detecting a presence of an atmospheric duct, and wherein the first event report includes an ID of the victim base station;

triggering, in response to the first event report, an aggressor base station to begin monitoring for transmissions of a victim reference signal sent in response to detecting the presence of the atmospheric duct;

detecting a second event report from the aggressor base station, the second event report being sent in response to detecting the victim reference signal; and

upon receipt of the second event report, verifying that the victim base station and the aggressor base station are legitimate based on the first event report and the second event report.

10. The method of claim 9 , wherein the second event report includes an ID of the aggressor base station, and a resource configuration index of a reference signal for remote interference management (RIM-RS) associated with the victim reference signal or a corresponding set ID.

11. The method of claim 10 , wherein the resource configuration index is an index that uniquely identifies one or more: time resources, frequency resources, or a sequence of the RIM-RS.

12. The method of claim 9 , further comprising:

responsive to passing the verification, causing the central entity to send a message to the aggressor base station to trigger a start of remote interference mitigation, and

responsive to failing the verification, ignoring the victim reference signal without triggering the remote interference mitigation.