11,904 research outputs found
Physical-Layer Security Enhancement in Wireless Communication Systems
Without any doubt, wireless infrastructures and services have fundamental impacts on every aspect of our lives. Despite of their popularities, wireless communications are vulnerable to various attacks due to the open nature of radio propagation. In fact, communication security in wireless networks is becoming more critical than ever. As a solution, conventional cryptographic techniques are deployed on upper layers of network protocols. Along with direct attacks from lower layer, wireless security challenges come with the rapid evolution of sophisticated decipher techniques. Conventional security mechanisms are not necessarily effective against potential attacks from the open wireless environment anymore. As an alternative, physical-layer(PHY) security, utilizing unique features from lower layer, becomes a new research focus for many wireless communication systems.
In this thesis, three mechanisms for PHY security enhancement are investigated. Beginning with a discussion on the security vulnerability in highly standardized infrastructures, the thesis proposed a time domain scrambling scheme of orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) system to improve the PHY security. The method relies on secretly scrambling each OFDM symbol in time domain, resulting in constellation transformation in frequency domain, to hide transmission features. As a complement to existing secrecy capacity maximization based optimal cooperative jamming systems, a security strategy based on the compromised secrecy region (CSR) minimization in cooperative jamming is then proposed when instantaneous channel state information(CSI) is not available. The optimal parameters of the jammer are derived to minimize the CSR which exhibits high secrecy outage probability. At last, security enhancement of OFDM system in cooperative networks is also investigated. The function selection strategies of cooperative nodes are studied. Our approach is capable of enhancing the security of broadband communications by selecting the proper function of each cooperative node. Numerical results demonstrate the feasibility of three proposed physical layer security mechanisms by examining the communication reliability, achievable CSR and secrecy capacity respectively
Physical Layer Service Integration in 5G: Potentials and Challenges
High transmission rate and secure communication have been identified as the
key targets that need to be effectively addressed by fifth generation (5G)
wireless systems. In this context, the concept of physical-layer security
becomes attractive, as it can establish perfect security using only the
characteristics of wireless medium. Nonetheless, to further increase the
spectral efficiency, an emerging concept, termed physical-layer service
integration (PHY-SI), has been recognized as an effective means. Its basic idea
is to combine multiple coexisting services, i.e., multicast/broadcast service
and confidential service, into one integral service for one-time transmission
at the transmitter side. This article first provides a tutorial on typical
PHY-SI models. Furthermore, we propose some state-of-the-art solutions to
improve the overall performance of PHY-SI in certain important communication
scenarios. In particular, we highlight the extension of several concepts
borrowed from conventional single-service communications, such as artificial
noise (AN), eigenmode transmission etc., to the scenario of PHY-SI. These
techniques are shown to be effective in the design of reliable and robust
PHY-SI schemes. Finally, several potential research directions are identified
for future work.Comment: 12 pages, 7 figure
A Survey on Wireless Security: Technical Challenges, Recent Advances and Future Trends
This paper examines the security vulnerabilities and threats imposed by the
inherent open nature of wireless communications and to devise efficient defense
mechanisms for improving the wireless network security. We first summarize the
security requirements of wireless networks, including their authenticity,
confidentiality, integrity and availability issues. Next, a comprehensive
overview of security attacks encountered in wireless networks is presented in
view of the network protocol architecture, where the potential security threats
are discussed at each protocol layer. We also provide a survey of the existing
security protocols and algorithms that are adopted in the existing wireless
network standards, such as the Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, WiMAX, and the long-term
evolution (LTE) systems. Then, we discuss the state-of-the-art in
physical-layer security, which is an emerging technique of securing the open
communications environment against eavesdropping attacks at the physical layer.
We also introduce the family of various jamming attacks and their
counter-measures, including the constant jammer, intermittent jammer, reactive
jammer, adaptive jammer and intelligent jammer. Additionally, we discuss the
integration of physical-layer security into existing authentication and
cryptography mechanisms for further securing wireless networks. Finally, some
technical challenges which remain unresolved at the time of writing are
summarized and the future trends in wireless security are discussed.Comment: 36 pages. Accepted to Appear in Proceedings of the IEEE, 201
Artificial-Noise-Aided Physical Layer Phase Challenge-Response Authentication for Practical OFDM Transmission
Recently, we have developed a PHYsical layer Phase Challenge-Response
Authentication Scheme (PHY-PCRAS) for independent multicarrier transmission. In
this paper, we make a further step by proposing a novel artificial-noise-aided
PHY-PCRAS (ANA-PHY-PCRAS) for practical orthogonal frequency division
multiplexing (OFDM) transmission, where the Tikhonov-distributed artificial
noise is introduced to interfere with the phase-modulated key for resisting
potential key-recovery attacks whenever a static channel between two legitimate
users is unfortunately encountered. Then, we address various practical issues
for ANA-PHY-PCRAS with OFDM transmission, including correlation among
subchannels, imperfect carrier and timing recoveries. Among them, we show that
the effect of sampling offset is very significant and a search procedure in the
frequency domain should be incorporated for verification. With practical OFDM
transmission, the number of uncorrelated subchannels is often not sufficient.
Hence, we employ a time-separated approach for allocating enough subchannels
and a modified ANA-PHY-PCRAS is proposed to alleviate the discontinuity of
channel phase at far-separated time slots. Finally, the key equivocation is
derived for the worst case scenario. We conclude that the enhanced security of
ANA-PHY-PCRAS comes from the uncertainty of both the wireless channel and
introduced artificial noise, compared to the traditional challenge-response
authentication scheme implemented at the upper layer.Comment: 33 pages, 13 figures, submitted for possible publicatio
ZigBee/ZigBee PRO security assessment based on compromised cryptographic keys
Sensor networks have many applications in monitoring and controlling of environmental properties such as sound, acceleration, vibration and temperature. Due to limited
resources in computation capability, memory and energy, they are vulnerable to many kinds of attacks. The ZigBee specification based on the 802.15.4 standard, defines a set of layers specifically suited to sensor networks. These layers support secure messaging using symmetric cryptographic. This paper presents two different ways for grabbing the cryptographic key in ZigBee: remote attack and physical attack. It also surveys and categorizes some additional attacks which can be performed on ZigBee networks: eavesdropping, spoofing, replay and DoS attacks at different layers. From this analysis, it is shown that some vulnerabilities still in the existing security schema in ZigBee technology.Les xarxes de sensors tenen moltes aplicacions en el control i la monitorització de les propietats del medi ambient, com ara el so, l¿acceleració, la vibració i la temperatura. A causa dels limitats recursos en la capacitat de càlcul, la memòria i l'energia són vulnerables a molts tipus d'atacs. L'especificació ZigBee basada en l'estàndard 802.15.4, defineix un conjunt de capes, adaptada específicament per a xarxes de sensors. Aquestes capes suporten missatgeria segura mitjançant criptografia simètrica. Aquest article presenta dues formes diferents per agafar la clau de xifrat en ZigBee: atac a distància i atacs físics. També les enquesta i classifica alguns atacs addicionals que es poden realitzar en les xarxes ZigBee: espionatge, falsificació, reproducció i atacs DoS en les diferents capes. A partir d'aquesta anàlisi, es demostren algunes vulnerabilitats existents en l'esquema de seguretat en tecnologia ZigBee.Las redes de sensores tienen muchas aplicaciones en el control y la monitorización de las propiedades del medio ambiente, como el sonido, la aceleración, la vibración y la temperatura. Debido a los limitados recursos en la capacidad de cálculo, la memoria y la energía son vulnerables a muchos tipos de ataques. La especificación ZigBee basada en el estándar 802.15.4, define un conjunto de capas, adaptada específicamente para redes de sensores. Estas capas soportan mensajería segura mediante criptografía simétrica. Este artículo presenta dos formas diferentes para coger la clave de cifrado en ZigBee: ataque a distancia y ataques físicos. También las encuesta y clasifica algunos ataques adicionales que se pueden realizar en las redes ZigBee: espionaje, falsificación, reproducción y ataques DoS en las diferentes capas. A partir de este análisis, se demuestran algunas vulnerabilidades existentes en el esquema de seguridad en tecnología ZigBee
Physical Layer Security: Coalitional Games for Distributed Cooperation
Cooperation between wireless network nodes is a promising technique for
improving the physical layer security of wireless transmission, in terms of
secrecy capacity, in the presence of multiple eavesdroppers. While existing
physical layer security literature answered the question "what are the
link-level secrecy capacity gains from cooperation?", this paper attempts to
answer the question of "how to achieve those gains in a practical decentralized
wireless network and in the presence of a secrecy capacity cost for information
exchange?". For this purpose, we model the physical layer security cooperation
problem as a coalitional game with non-transferable utility and propose a
distributed algorithm for coalition formation. Through the proposed algorithm,
the wireless users can autonomously cooperate and self-organize into disjoint
independent coalitions, while maximizing their secrecy capacity taking into
account the security costs during information exchange. We analyze the
resulting coalitional structures, discuss their properties, and study how the
users can self-adapt the network topology to environmental changes such as
mobility. Simulation results show that the proposed algorithm allows the users
to cooperate and self-organize while improving the average secrecy capacity per
user up to 25.32% relative to the non-cooperative case.Comment: Best paper Award at Wiopt 200
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