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IEEE Military Communications Conference (MILCOM)

A practical wireless reciprocity-aware key establishment protocol

Satya Prakash Ponnaluri, Babak Azimi-Sadjadi, Yik‐Kiong Hue, Tugba Erpek, Arash Komaee, Wade K. Trappe

Published Nov 1, 2016• 3 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Practical generation of secret bits using wireless channel measurements between two terminals is presented in this paper. The model used for this implementation assumes imperfect reciprocity between the channel measurements made by the two terminals in the presence of a passive eavesdropper. The channel measurements (e.g., received signal strength values) are used to estimate the secret key rate in order to establish the number of secret bits that can be generated between any two terminals. The main contributions of this paper are: 1) algorithm to generate uncorrelated channel measurements even when channel measurement statistics between the two terminals are time-varying; 2) development of a reconciliation algorithm based on BCH codes, where the statistics of error between bits generated by the two terminals is not known a priori; and 3) implementation of secret bit generation using channel reciprocity in a Linux environment. The channel measurement data that was collected for this paper is available at http://downloads.i-a-i.com/RAPOR.

DOI
10.1109/milcom.2016.7795478

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•Jan 1, 2010•3 citations
Practical generation of secret bits using wireless channel measurements between two terminals is presented in this paper. The model used for this implementation assumes imperfect reciprocity between the channel measurements made by the two terminals in the presence of a passive eavesdropper. The channel measurements (e.g., received signal strength values) are used to estimate the secret key rate in order to establish the number of secret bits that can be generated between any two terminals. The main contributions of this paper are: 1) algorithm to generate uncorrelated channel measurements even when channel measurement statistics between the two terminals are time-varying; 2) development of a reconciliation algorithm based on BCH codes, where the statistics of error between bits generated by the two terminals is not known a priori; and 3) implementation of secret bit generation using channel reciprocity in a Linux environment. The channel measurement data that was collected for this paper is available at http://downloads.i-a-i.com/RAPOR.
Key generation is essential for protecting wireless networks. Based on wireless channel reciprocity, transceivers can generate shared secret keys by measuring their communicating channels. However, due to non-simultaneous measurements, asymmetric noises and other interferences, channel measurements collected by different transceivers are highly correlated but not identical and thus might have some discrepancies. Further, these discrepancies might lead to mismatches of bit sequences after quantization. The referred mismatches significantly affect the efficiency of key generation. In this paper, an efficient key generation scheme leveraging wireless channel reciprocity is proposed. To reduce the bit mismatch rate and enhance the efficiency of key generation, the involved transceivers separately apply discrete cosine transform (DCT) and inverse discrete cosine transform (IDCT) to pre-process their measurements. Then, the outputs of IDCT are quantified and encoded to establish the bit sequence. With the implementations of information reconciliation and privacy amplification, the shared secret key can be generated. Several experiments in real environments are conducted to evaluate the proposed scheme. During each experiment, the shared key is established from the received signal strength (RSS) of heterogeneous devices. The results of experiments demonstrate that the proposed scheme can efficiently generate shared secret keys between transceivers.
Information theoretic limits for random key generation in multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) wireless systems exhibiting a reciprocal channel response are investigated experimentally with a new three-node MIMO measurement campaign. As background, simple expressions are presented for the number of available key bits, as well as the number of bits that are secure from a close eavesdropper. Two methods for generating secret keys are analyzed in the context of MIMO channels and their mismatch rate and efficiency are derived. A new wideband indoor MIMO measurement campaign in the 2.51- to 2.59-GHz band is presented, whose purpose is to study the number of available key bits in both line-of-sight and nonline-of-sight environments. Application of the key generation methods to measured propagation channels indicates key generation rates that can be obtained in practice for four-element arrays.
The multipath-rich wireless environment associated with typical wireless usage scenarios is characterized by a fading channel response that is time-varying, location-sensitive, and uniquely shared by a given transmitter–receiver pair. The complexity associated with a richly scattering environment implies that the shortterm fading process is inherently hard to predict and best modeled stochastically, with rapid decorrelation properties in space, time, and frequency. In this paper, we demonstrate how the channel state between a wireless transmitter and receiver can be used as the basis for building practical secret key generation protocols between two entities. We begin by presenting a scheme based on the “Reciprocity based key exchange model” allows two parties jointly establish  physically secure key combined with a (standard) computationally secure key, over an insecure communication channel. This key can then be used to encrypt subsequent communications. The channel state between a wireless transmitter and receiver can be used as the basis for building practical secret key generation protocols between two entities. We validate both proposed protocols through experimentations using a customized 802.11a platform, and show for the typical Wi-Fi channel that reliable secret key establishment can be accomplished at rates on the order of 11 b/s.
This paper investigates the role of the eavesdropper's statistics in the implementation of a practical secret-key generation system. We carefully conduct the information-theoretic analysis of a secret-key generation system from wireless channel gains measured with software-defined radios. In particular, we show that it is inaccurate to assume that the eavesdropper gets no information because of decorrelation with distance. We also provide a bound for the achievable secret-key rate in the finite key-length regime that takes into account the presence of correlated eavesdropper's observations. We evaluate this bound with our experimental gain measurements to show that operating with a finite number of samples incurs a loss in secret-key rate on the order of 20%.
Methods of symmetric key establishment using reciprocal quantization of channel parameters in wireless Rayleigh and Rician fading channels are considered. Two important aspects are addressed through generic analysis: impact of a proximity attack by a passive eavesdropper and achievable key establishing rates. The analysis makes use of the National Institute of Standards and Technology statistical test suite applied to the channel quantization bits as the outputs of a random number generator. For proximity attacks, a passive mobile eavesdropper with an ability to approach one of the communicating parties and a possible signal-to-noise ratio advantage is assumed. The minimal required distance from the eavesdropper in order to maintain perfect secrecy during key establishment is evaluated as a function of the Rician factor and quantization depth. For key establishing rates, the maximal rates are evaluated while ensuring that the generated secret key bits pass the entire statistical test suite. The generic analysis is applied to channel-phase quantization and performance in practical systems is considered as well.
Encryption of confidential data with a secret key has become a widespread technique for securing wireless transmissions. However, existing key distribution methods that either deliver the secret key with a key distribution center or exchange the secret key using public-key cryptosystems are unable to establish perfect secret keys necessary for symmetric encryption techniques. This research considers secret key establishment, under the broad research area of information theoretic security, using the reciprocal wireless channel as common randomness for the extraction of perfect secret keys in multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO)communication systems. The presentation discusses the fundamental characteristics of the time-variant MIMO wireless channel and establishes a realistic channel simulation model useful for assessing key establishment algorithms. Computational examples show the accuracy and applicability of the model. The discussion then turns to an investigation of the influence of the spatial and temporal correlation of the channel coefficients on the bound of the key size generated from the common channel, and it is found that a sampling approach exists that can generate a key using the minimum sampling time. A practical key generation protocol is then developed based on an enhancement of a published channel coefficient quantization method that incorporates flexible quantization levels, public transmission of the correlation eigenvector matrix and low-density parity-check (LDPC) coding to improve key agreement. This investigation leads to the development of improved channel quantization techniques that dynamically shift the quantization boundaries at one node based on the information provided by the other node. Analysis based on a closed-form bound for the key error rate (KER) and simulations based on the channel model and measurement data show that the enhanced algorithms are able to dramatically reduce key mismatch and asymptotically approach the KER bound. Finally, other secret key generation algorithms based on channel-encryption rather than quantization are discussed, leading to a new concept for secret key generation using the common wireless channel.