Challenges
Datasets
Workspaces
Papers
Discussions
Leaderboard
Log inSign up
Challenges
Datasets
Workspaces
Papers
Discussions
Leaderboard
Blog
Job Board
Q3AS

© 2026 Aqora Quantum S.A.S.

TermsPrivacyLegal Notice

Journal of Discrete Mathematical Sciences and Cryptography

Secret Key Generation Using OFDM Samples

Shantnu Kakkar, Inderpreet Singh Makkar, Amar Kumar Mohapatra

Published Jun 22, 2015• 7 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Information is regarded as a resource with highest organizational value. Its confidentiality, integrity and authenticity are important for any organization. The broadcast nature of wireless medium makes communication vulnerable to security attacks such as eavesdropping, non-repudiation, denial of service and more. Hence, prior to transmission of information, a secret key is securely exchanged between sender and receiver. Conventional key generation algorithms work at the application layer. However, they suffer from computational overheads and require a reliable third party. Moreover, when system grows complex, these methods start failing considerably. To encounter these issues, a novel key exchange mechanism is proposed which works at the physical layer. The proposed method is based on the concept of self-jamming and exploits the properties of Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM). The simulation results show that the proposed scheme has a low Bit Error Rate (BER) for the receiver and high BER for the eavesdropper. It has also been shown that the number of attempts that eavesdropper has to make to guess the correct key are large, thereby decreasing its probability to decode the correct key.

DOI
10.1080/09720529.2015.1032577

Related papers

Scramble-Based Secret Key Generation Algorithm in Physical Layer Security

Dan Wang, Feng Chen, Yongtai Chen +2 more

As a new way to enhance wireless communication security, secret key generation based on physical layer channel characteristics has emerged. In this paper, we propose a novel secret key generation algorithm based on wireless channel characteristics for orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) communication systems. The mean quantization algorithm is applied to quantize the real part and imaginary part of OFDM subcarriers, respectively, which can significantly increase the length of the generated secret key in the OFDM system. To reduce the consistency between the secret keys generated by the eavesdropper and the legitimate communication nodes, a processing method by taking the subcarrier phase as initialization of a scrambling code and scrambling the quantized result is proposed. The simulation and test results show that compared with the existing research, the proposed algorithm can improve the key generation rate (KGR), reduce the key mismatch rate (KMR) and complexity, maintain high randomness, and disturb the eavesdroppers.

Mobile Information Systems•Oct 4, 2022•1 citation

Secure Key Exchange and Transmission Design Using Artificial Noise Injection in OFDM Systems

Mehmet Yazgan, Hüseyin Arslan

Orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) is such a vital waveform scheme that is utilized in fifth-generation (5G) communication systems as well as the previous one. Since the usage scenarios of 5G are quite wide, the security of those systems is currently an open and critical issue. In this paper, a promising paradigm is proposed for enhancing physical layer (PHY) security in OFDM systems. Two independent secret keys are extracted by legitimate users quantizing the channel measurements. Those key sequences are exchanged via a novel artificial noise (AN) injection method which does not result in a key mismatch. Bit error rate (BER) versus signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) performance of the adversary is still low even if the malicious node has better channel than the legitimate user. After agreement upon the same key, both legitimate parties directly employ key sequence and inter-carrier interference matrix caused by the local oscillators to produce a secrecy matrix. This matrix enables secure communication by inserting it into the transmission design.

IEEE Vehicular Technology Conference•Jun 1, 2022•2 citations

Efficient Physical-Layer Secret Key Generation and Authentication Schemes Based on Wireless Channel-Phase

Longwang Cheng, Li Zhou, Boon‐Chong Seet +3 more

Exploiting the inherent physical properties of wireless channels to complement or enhance the traditional security mechanisms has attracted prominent attention recently. However, the existing secret key generation schemes suffer from miscellaneous extracting procedure. Many PHY-layer authentication schemes assume that the knowledge of the shared key is preknown. In this paper, we propose PHY-layer secret key generation and authentication schemes for orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) systems. In the secret key generation scheme, to simplify the extracting procedure, only one legitimate party is chosen to probe the channel and quantize the measurements to obtain the preliminary key. The preliminary key is masked by the channel-phase after the mapping and before equalization and distributed to the other party. The final shared key is used for the PHY-layer authentication scheme in which random signals and the shared key masked by the channel-phase are exchanged at the PHY-layer. Then, a binary hypothesis test is formulated for authentication. Simulation results show that the proposed secret key generation scheme outperforms the existing schemes. For the PHY-layer authentication scheme, it is immune to various passive and active attacks and a high successful authentication rate is acquired even at low signal-to-noise ratio region.

Mobile Information Systems•Jan 1, 2017•43 citations

A New Scheme for Improving Channel-Based Secret Key Generation Rates

Jehad M. Hamamreh, Haji Muhammad Furqan

Physical layer key generation from the wireless channel is an emerging area of interest to provide confidentiality and authentication. One of the main challenges in this domain is to increase the length of the generated secret key while maintaining its randomness and uniformity. In this letter, new dimensions for wireless channel-based key generation are proposed for orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) systems. The novel perspective of the proposed work lies in the generation of key bits not only from the magnitudes of OFDM subchannels as it has conventionally been done but also from the number and positions/indices of those subchannels, whose channel gains are above the mean of the respective subblock. The effectiveness of the proposed algorithms is evaluated in terms of key generation rate and key mismatch rate. It is shown in the simulation results that the involvement of the proposed dimensions can double the key generation rate compared to conventional algorithms.

IEEE Wireless Communications Letters•Sep 6, 2024•3 citations

Fast and practical secret key extraction by exploiting channel response

Hongbo Liu, Yang Wang, Jie Yang +1 more

Securing wireless communication remains challenging in dynamic mobile environments due to the shared nature of wireless medium and lacking of fixed key management infrastructures. Generating secret keys using physical layer information thus has drawn much attention to complement traditional cryptographic-based methods. Although recent work has demonstrated that Received Signal Strength (RSS) based secret key extraction is practical, existing RSS-based key generation techniques are largely limited in the rate they generate secret bits and are mainly applicable to mobile wireless networks. In this paper, we show that exploiting the channel response from multiple Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiplexing (OFDM) subcarriers can provide fine-grained channel information and achieve higher bit generation rate for both static and mobile cases in real-world scenarios. We further develop a Channel Gain Complement (CGC) assisted secret key extraction scheme to cope with channel non-reciprocity encountered in practice. Our extensive experiments using WiFi networks in both indoor as well as outdoor environments demonstrate that our approach can achieve significantly faster secret bit generation rate at 60 ~ 90bit/packet, and is resilient to malicious attacks identified to be harmful to RSS-based techniques including predictable channel attack and stalking attack.

IEEE Conference on Computer Communications (INFOCOM)•Apr 1, 2013•268 citations

New Physical Layer Key Generation Dimensions: Subcarrier Indices/Positions-Based Key Generation

Haji Muhammad Furqan, Jehad M. Hamamreh, Hüseyin Arslan

In this letter, novel algorithms for secret key generation from the wireless channel in multi-carrier systems are proposed for ensuring the confidentiality and authentication in wireless communication systems. The novelty of the proposed algorithms lies in the generation of random secret bits not just from the magnitudes of orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) subchannels as it has conventionally been done in the literature, but also from the indices/positions of the subchannels corresponding to highest gains. Thus, the proposed algorithms provide additional dimensions for enhancing overall key rates. The efficiency of the proposed algorithms is evaluated in terms of key mismatch rate (KMR) and key generation rate (KGR). Simulation results showed that the proposed algorithms can enhance the overall performance of physical layer key-based algorithms by providing extra dimensions for secret key generation.

IEEE Communications Letters•Sep 21, 2020•41 citations
Information is regarded as a resource with highest organizational value. Its confidentiality, integrity and authenticity are important for any organization. The broadcast nature of wireless medium makes communication vulnerable to security attacks such as eavesdropping, non-repudiation, denial of service and more. Hence, prior to transmission of information, a secret key is securely exchanged between sender and receiver. Conventional key generation algorithms work at the application layer. However, they suffer from computational overheads and require a reliable third party. Moreover, when system grows complex, these methods start failing considerably. To encounter these issues, a novel key exchange mechanism is proposed which works at the physical layer. The proposed method is based on the concept of self-jamming and exploits the properties of Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM). The simulation results show that the proposed scheme has a low Bit Error Rate (BER) for the receiver and high BER for the eavesdropper. It has also been shown that the number of attempts that eavesdropper has to make to guess the correct key are large, thereby decreasing its probability to decode the correct key.
As a new way to enhance wireless communication security, secret key generation based on physical layer channel characteristics has emerged. In this paper, we propose a novel secret key generation algorithm based on wireless channel characteristics for orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) communication systems. The mean quantization algorithm is applied to quantize the real part and imaginary part of OFDM subcarriers, respectively, which can significantly increase the length of the generated secret key in the OFDM system. To reduce the consistency between the secret keys generated by the eavesdropper and the legitimate communication nodes, a processing method by taking the subcarrier phase as initialization of a scrambling code and scrambling the quantized result is proposed. The simulation and test results show that compared with the existing research, the proposed algorithm can improve the key generation rate (KGR), reduce the key mismatch rate (KMR) and complexity, maintain high randomness, and disturb the eavesdroppers.
Orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) is such a vital waveform scheme that is utilized in fifth-generation (5G) communication systems as well as the previous one. Since the usage scenarios of 5G are quite wide, the security of those systems is currently an open and critical issue. In this paper, a promising paradigm is proposed for enhancing physical layer (PHY) security in OFDM systems. Two independent secret keys are extracted by legitimate users quantizing the channel measurements. Those key sequences are exchanged via a novel artificial noise (AN) injection method which does not result in a key mismatch. Bit error rate (BER) versus signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) performance of the adversary is still low even if the malicious node has better channel than the legitimate user. After agreement upon the same key, both legitimate parties directly employ key sequence and inter-carrier interference matrix caused by the local oscillators to produce a secrecy matrix. This matrix enables secure communication by inserting it into the transmission design.
Exploiting the inherent physical properties of wireless channels to complement or enhance the traditional security mechanisms has attracted prominent attention recently. However, the existing secret key generation schemes suffer from miscellaneous extracting procedure. Many PHY-layer authentication schemes assume that the knowledge of the shared key is preknown. In this paper, we propose PHY-layer secret key generation and authentication schemes for orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) systems. In the secret key generation scheme, to simplify the extracting procedure, only one legitimate party is chosen to probe the channel and quantize the measurements to obtain the preliminary key. The preliminary key is masked by the channel-phase after the mapping and before equalization and distributed to the other party. The final shared key is used for the PHY-layer authentication scheme in which random signals and the shared key masked by the channel-phase are exchanged at the PHY-layer. Then, a binary hypothesis test is formulated for authentication. Simulation results show that the proposed secret key generation scheme outperforms the existing schemes. For the PHY-layer authentication scheme, it is immune to various passive and active attacks and a high successful authentication rate is acquired even at low signal-to-noise ratio region.
Physical layer key generation from the wireless channel is an emerging area of interest to provide confidentiality and authentication. One of the main challenges in this domain is to increase the length of the generated secret key while maintaining its randomness and uniformity. In this letter, new dimensions for wireless channel-based key generation are proposed for orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) systems. The novel perspective of the proposed work lies in the generation of key bits not only from the magnitudes of OFDM subchannels as it has conventionally been done but also from the number and positions/indices of those subchannels, whose channel gains are above the mean of the respective subblock. The effectiveness of the proposed algorithms is evaluated in terms of key generation rate and key mismatch rate. It is shown in the simulation results that the involvement of the proposed dimensions can double the key generation rate compared to conventional algorithms.
Securing wireless communication remains challenging in dynamic mobile environments due to the shared nature of wireless medium and lacking of fixed key management infrastructures. Generating secret keys using physical layer information thus has drawn much attention to complement traditional cryptographic-based methods. Although recent work has demonstrated that Received Signal Strength (RSS) based secret key extraction is practical, existing RSS-based key generation techniques are largely limited in the rate they generate secret bits and are mainly applicable to mobile wireless networks. In this paper, we show that exploiting the channel response from multiple Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiplexing (OFDM) subcarriers can provide fine-grained channel information and achieve higher bit generation rate for both static and mobile cases in real-world scenarios. We further develop a Channel Gain Complement (CGC) assisted secret key extraction scheme to cope with channel non-reciprocity encountered in practice. Our extensive experiments using WiFi networks in both indoor as well as outdoor environments demonstrate that our approach can achieve significantly faster secret bit generation rate at 60 ~ 90bit/packet, and is resilient to malicious attacks identified to be harmful to RSS-based techniques including predictable channel attack and stalking attack.
In this letter, novel algorithms for secret key generation from the wireless channel in multi-carrier systems are proposed for ensuring the confidentiality and authentication in wireless communication systems. The novelty of the proposed algorithms lies in the generation of random secret bits not just from the magnitudes of orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) subchannels as it has conventionally been done in the literature, but also from the indices/positions of the subchannels corresponding to highest gains. Thus, the proposed algorithms provide additional dimensions for enhancing overall key rates. The efficiency of the proposed algorithms is evaluated in terms of key mismatch rate (KMR) and key generation rate (KGR). Simulation results showed that the proposed algorithms can enhance the overall performance of physical layer key-based algorithms by providing extra dimensions for secret key generation.