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arXiv:1107.3534 · IEEE Transactions on Information Forensics and Security

Exploiting Channel Diversity in Secret Key Generation From Multipath Fading Randomness

Yanpei Liu, Stark Christiaan Draper, Akbar M. Sayeed

Published Jun 27, 2012• 160 citations
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Abstract

We design and analyze a method to extract secret keys from the randomness inherent to wireless channels. We study a channel model for a multipath wireless channel and exploit the channel diversity in generating secret key bits. We compare the key extraction methods based both on entire channel state information (CSI) and on single channel parameter such as the received signal strength indicators (RSSI). Due to the reduction in the degree-of-freedom when going from CSI to RSSI, the rate of key extraction based on CSI is far higher than that based on RSSI. This suggests that exploiting channel diversity and making CSI information available to higher layers would greatly benefit the secret key generation. We propose a key generation system based on low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes and describe the design and performance of two systems: one based on binary LDPC codes and the other (useful at higher signal-to-noise ratios) based on four-ary LDPC codes.

DOI
10.1109/tifs.2012.2206385

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We design and analyze a method to extract secret keys from the randomness inherent to wireless channels. We study a channel model for a multipath wireless channel and exploit the channel diversity in generating secret key bits. We compare the key extraction methods based both on entire channel state information (CSI) and on single channel parameter such as the received signal strength indicators (RSSI). Due to the reduction in the degree-of-freedom when going from CSI to RSSI, the rate of key extraction based on CSI is far higher than that based on RSSI. This suggests that exploiting channel diversity and making CSI information available to higher layers would greatly benefit the secret key generation. We propose a key generation system based on low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes and describe the design and performance of two systems: one based on binary LDPC codes and the other (useful at higher signal-to-noise ratios) based on four-ary LDPC codes.
Abstract—We design and analyze a method to extract secret keys from the randomness inherent to wireless channels. We study a channel model for multipath wireless channel and exploit the channel diversity in generating secret key bits. We compare the key extraction methods based both on entire channel state information (CSI) and on single channel parameter such as the received signal strength indicators (RSSI). Due to the reduction in the degree-of-freedom when going from CSI to RSSI, the rate of key extraction based on CSI is far higher than that based on RSSI. This suggests that exploiting channel diversity and making CSI information available to higher layers would greatly benefit the secret key generation. We propose a key generation system based on low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes and describe the design and performance of two systems: one based on binary LDPC codes and the other (useful at higher signal-to-noise ratios) based on four-ary LDPC codes. Index Terms—Common randomness, secret key generation, channel diversity, LDPC codes, Slepian-Wolf decoder I.
We design and analyze a method to extract secret keys from the randomness inherent to wireless channels. We study a channel model for the IEEE 802.11a orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing channel. We analyze the fundamental limits of key generation for this model and describe an implementation based on error correcting codes. We study key extraction based both on channel state information (CSI) and on received signal strength indicators (RSSI). Due to the reduction in the degree-of-freedom when going from CSI to RSSI, the rate of key extraction based on CSI is far higher than that based on RSSI. This suggests that making CSI information available to higher layers would greatly assist in key generation. We prototype a key generation system based on low-density parity-check codes. We describe the implementation and performance of two systems: one based on binary LDPC codes and the other (useful at higher signal-to-noise ratios) based on four-ary LDPC codes.
We analyze the fundamental limits of key generation and describe an implementation based on error correcting codes. We show that key extraction based on channel coefficients significantly outperforms key extraction based on received signal strength indicators (RSSI). The development in this paper is based on an IEEE 802.11a orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) model and We demonstrate that it is feasible to use the sampled channel coefficients in OFDM as the key source. The key extraction problem is cast as a Slepian-Wolf coding and decoding problem. We construct regular and irregular forms of binary and non-binary low-density parity check (LDPC) codes to prototype our key extraction.
Generating a secret key between two parties by extracting the shared randomness in the wireless fading channel is an emerging area of research. Previous works focus mainly on single-antenna systems. Multiple-antenna devices have the potential to provide more randomness for key generation than single-antenna ones. However, the performance of key generation using multiple-antenna devices in a real environment remains unknown. Different from the previous theoretical work on multiple-antenna key generation, we propose and implement a shared secret key generation protocol, Multiple-Antenna KEy generator (MAKE) using off-the-shelf 802.11n multiple-antenna devices. We also conduct extensive experiments and analysis in real indoor and outdoor mobile environments. Using the shared randomness extracted from measured Received Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI) to generate keys, our experimental results show that using laptops with three antennas, MAKE can increase the bit generation rate by more than four times over single-antenna systems. Our experiments validate the effectiveness of using multi-level quantization when there is enough mutual information in the channel. Our results also show the trade-off between bit generation rate and bit agreement ratio when using multi-level quantization. We further find that even if an eavesdropper has multiple antennas, she cannot gain much more information about the legitimate channel.
Extracting secret key from the common randomness of wireless channel has gained significant interest as a mechanism for providing secure point-to-point communications. Current works focus on the methods of exploiting channel characterizations based on Received Signal Strength Indication (RSSI), channel phase and Channel Impulse Response (CIR) under different propagation environments. However, when the channel fading is static or quasi-static, the secret key bits derived from the channel may be identical or nearly identical. In this paper, we propose a method to solve this problem in multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems based on random beamforming. Compared with single antenna systems, MIMO systems offer more randomness available. Furthermore we consider the worst scenario where the eavesdropper Eve knows perfect knowledge of the legitimate channel. The quantization error probability at Eve is simulated to assess the security of the proposed method.
Due to the broadcast nature of wireless channels, wireless communication is vulnerable to eavesdropping, message modification, and node impersonation. Securing the wireless communication requires the shared secret keys between the communicating entities. Traditional security schemes rely on public key infrastructures and cryptographic algorithms to manage secret keys. Recently, many physical-layer-based methods have been proposed as alternative solutions for key generation in wireless networks. These methods exploit the inherent randomness of the wireless fading channel to generate secret keys while providing information-theoretical security without intensive cryptographic computations. This article provides an overview of the existing PHY-based key generation schemes exploiting the randomness of the wireless channels. Specifically, we first introduce the fundamental and general framework of the PHY-based key generation schemes and then categorize them into two classes: received-signal-strength-based and channel- phase-based protocols. Finally, we present a performance comparison of them in terms of key disagreement probability, key generation rate, key bit randomness, scalability, and implementation issues.