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International Congress on Ultra Modern Telecommunications and Control Systems and Workshops (ICUMT)

Secret key generation based on channel and distance measurements

Ahmed Badawy, Tamer M. Khattab, Tarek Elfouly, Amr Mahmoud Salem Mohamed, Daniele Trinchero

Published Oct 1, 2014• 8 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Within the paradigm of physical layer secrecy, typically a physical layer specific characteristic is used as key generator to guarantee information hiding from eavesdroppers. In this paper, we propose a novel secret key generation algorithm based on two reciprocal physical layer parameters; the channel measurements and the distances between the two communicating nodes. The two parameters are estimated experimentally using implementations of our algorithm on three FPGA-based WARP kits emulating the two communicating nodes and the eavesdropper. The parameters are used as common sources of randomness to generate the secret key. We evaluate the performance of our algorithm through extensive iterations. We compare the bit mismatch rate as well as the entropy of the generated secret key of our algorithm versus classical channel only and distance only based algorithms. Our results reveal that even in the worst case scenarios, our algorithm outperforms the two other algorithms and overcomes their vulnerabilities.

DOI
10.1109/icumt.2014.7002092

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Within the paradigm of physical layer secrecy, typically a physical layer specific characteristic is used as key generator to guarantee information hiding from eavesdroppers. In this paper, we propose a novel secret key generation algorithm based on two reciprocal physical layer parameters; the channel measurements and the distances between the two communicating nodes. The two parameters are estimated experimentally using implementations of our algorithm on three FPGA-based WARP kits emulating the two communicating nodes and the eavesdropper. The parameters are used as common sources of randomness to generate the secret key. We evaluate the performance of our algorithm through extensive iterations. We compare the bit mismatch rate as well as the entropy of the generated secret key of our algorithm versus classical channel only and distance only based algorithms. Our results reveal that even in the worst case scenarios, our algorithm outperforms the two other algorithms and overcomes their vulnerabilities.
In the context of physical layer security, a physical layer characteristic is used as a common source of randomness to generate the secret key. Therefore an accurate estimation of this characteristic is the core for reliable secret key generation. Estimation of almost all the existing physical layer characteristic suffer dramatically at low signal to noise (SNR) levels. In this paper, we propose a novel secret key generation algorithm that is based on the estimated angle of arrival (AoA) between the two legitimate nodes. Our algorithm has an outstanding performance at very low SNR levels. Our algorithm can exploit either the Azimuth AoA to generate the secret key or both the Azimuth and Elevation angles to generate the secret key. Exploiting a second common source of randomness adds an extra degree of freedom to the performance of our algorithm. We compare the performance of our algorithm to the algorithm that uses the most commonly used characteristics of the physical layer which are channel amplitude and phase. We show that our algorithm has a very low bit mismatch rate (BMR) at very low SNR when both channel amplitude and phase based algorithm fail to achieve an acceptable BMR.
In the context of physical layer security, a physical layer characteristic is used as a common source of randomness to generate the secret key. Therefore an accurate estimation of this characteristic is the core for reliable secret key generation. Estimation of almost all the existing physical layer characteristic suffer dramatically at low signal to noise (SNR) levels. In this paper, we propose a novel secret key generation algorithm that is based on the estimated angle of arrival (AoA) between the two legitimate nodes. Our algorithm has an outstanding performance at very low SNR levels. Our algorithm can exploit either the Azimuth AoA to generate the secret key or both the Azimuth and Elevation angles to generate the secret key. Exploiting a second common source of randomness adds an extra degree of freedom to the performance of our algorithm. We compare the performance of our algorithm to the algorithm that uses the most commonly used characteristics of the physical layer which are channel amplitude and phase. We show that our algorithm has a very low bit mismatch rate (BMR) at very low SNR when both channel amplitude and phase based algorithm fail to achieve an acceptable BMR.
This manuscript aims to generate a secret key for a PHY layer to evaluate the channel characteristics in wireless communications. An algorithmic approach is adopted for multimedia encryption to generate a secret key between two entities communicating with each other in a real time simulation environment such as MATLAB. Two classes of PHY key generation schemes are analyzed for designing the algorithm such as received-signal-strength-based and channel- phase-based protocols. We present a performance comparison of them in terms of key disagreement probability, key generation rate, key bit randomness, scalability, and implementation issues.
Due to the unavoidable shared nature of the wireless radio spectrum, providing security for wireless communications presents unique challenges. Cryptographic keys have been used as a primary technique for securing wireless networks but are not completely secure. The symmetric keys used for cryptographic purposes are vulnerable to man-in-the-middle and brute force attacks. More recently, PHY-layer based techniques have gained significant attention, where the principle of channel reciprocity and the natural randomness of the measured wireless channel to generate secret keys is leveraged. Although, PHY-layer secret key generation has been investigated and presented in the literature before, there has been a lack of discussion in terms of obtaining symmetric keys on both ends of the link. In this work, we present a novel PHY-layer secret key generation technique that aims for symmetric encryption keys while limiting the information leaked to an eavesdropper to ensure complete secrecy and to prevent potential intelligent attacks. Our algorithm utilizes forward and backward channel state information in a given wireless link and combats the minute differences observed in these pairs by generating channel trend information. We demonstrate our technique using experimental results from a realtime SDR testbed connected to a wireless channel emulator. Our results indicate that the algorithm is successful in generating symmetric keys under various wireless environments without revealing any information pertaining to the key via the open wireless channel. Our secret key extraction rate can reach values in excess of 17.3 Kbps.
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.
Within the paradigm of physical layer security, a physical layer characteristic is used as a common source of randomness to generate the secret key. This key is then used to encrypt the data to hide information from eavesdroppers. In this paper, we survey the most recent common sources of randomness used to generate the secret key. We present the steps used to extract the secret key from the estimated common source of randomness. We describe the metrics used to evaluate the strength of the generated key. We follow that with a qualitative comparison between different common sources of randomness along with a proposed new direction which capitalizes on hybridization of sources of randomness. We conclude by a discussion about current open research problems in secret key generation.