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IEEE Globecom Workshops (GC Wkshps)

Secret Key Generation Assisted by Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces for Quasi-static Channel

Lijun Yang, Tiancheng Zhu, Zishuo CHEN, Haitao LU

Published Dec 1, 2023• 1 citation
Publisher

Abstract

To address the problem of low secret key rate (SKR) for quasi-static environments, a secret key generation protocol assisted by Reconfigurable Intelligent Surface (RIS) and artificial noise is proposed. On the one hand, RIS is used to construct the fast-changing channel, and on the other hand, artificial noise is designed to disturb the eavesdropper, both of which boost the SKR. Then, the closed-form expressions for the lower and upper bounds of the secret key capacity of the protocol are derived. Based on this expression, the impact of pilot and artificial noise power allocation on the key capacity is analyzed and the pilot power ratio is optimized. In addition, the influences of RIS elements number, channel correlation coefficient and pilot length on the SKR are further analyzed. Finally, the simulation analysis shows that compared to existing works, the proposed protocol reduces information leakage and further increases the SKR.

DOI
10.1109/gcwkshps58843.2023.10464734

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•Apr 1, 2021•0 citations
To address the problem of low secret key rate (SKR) for quasi-static environments, a secret key generation protocol assisted by Reconfigurable Intelligent Surface (RIS) and artificial noise is proposed. On the one hand, RIS is used to construct the fast-changing channel, and on the other hand, artificial noise is designed to disturb the eavesdropper, both of which boost the SKR. Then, the closed-form expressions for the lower and upper bounds of the secret key capacity of the protocol are derived. Based on this expression, the impact of pilot and artificial noise power allocation on the key capacity is analyzed and the pilot power ratio is optimized. In addition, the influences of RIS elements number, channel correlation coefficient and pilot length on the SKR are further analyzed. Finally, the simulation analysis shows that compared to existing works, the proposed protocol reduces information leakage and further increases the SKR.
We propose a key generation protocol with the aid of a reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) to boost secret key rate (SKR) in quasi-static environments. Considering a passive eavesdropper, we derive the closed-form expression of the lower and upper bounds of the SKR. Our findings indicate the SKR is determined by the number of RIS elements, the correlation coefficient, the pilot length and the quality of the reflecting channel. Our protocol fully exploits the randomness from the direct channel and the reflecting channel. Monte Carlo simulations validate the analytical expression of the SKR and demonstrate our protocol outperforms existing work.
Abstract In this paper, we introduce a new method to solve the low-entropy problem in a quasi-static environment. We utilize a simultaneous transmission and reflection reconfigurable intelligent surface (STAR-RIS) that transmits and reflects incoming signals to users located on different sides of the surface. Specifically, we design the flow of multi-user channel probing when STAR-RIS is assisted, analyze and derive the analytical expression of the secret key capacity (SKC) of STAR-RIS-assisted system from the perspective of information theory, and finally analyze how to maximize the SKC and sum of all users under three different working protocols of STAR-RIS. The simulation results show that: (1) STAR-RIS can achieve better SKC performance than the conventional reflection/transmission RIS; and (2) the SKC is determined by the number of STAR-RIS elements, correlation coefficient, pilot length and RIS-reflected channel quality, and the time switching protocol can obtain higher SKC than the energy splitting protocol and mode switching protocol.
A conventional secret key generation scheme achieves a low secret key rate in static environments. To solve this problem, the reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) antenna is merged with the device at the base station and is firstly proposed for secret key generation. By tuning the phase shifts at the RIS, a random varying beam can be generated and combined with the original wireless channel to form a new equivalent channel so that the key capacity is not subject to the time variance of the wireless channel. Then the closed-form solution is derived. Theoretical analysis and simulation show that the performance can be increased to that of a fast varying channel with limited radiating units. Moreover, the proposed scheme is superior to the existing schemes, in which the RIS is used as a reflective surface, over performance gain and preventing information disclosure. To further develop the gain of RIS, a joint design scheme is proposed, where some units are used for key generation, and some units are used for beamforming. Finally, the joint's closed-form solution scheme is derived. Finally, on the basis of satisfying the key capacity and communication performance, an optimal resource allocation strategy is proposed. Simulation results illustrate that the key capacity and communication performance can be improved simultaneously.
Reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) has been widely studied as a promising approach in improving secret key rate (SKR) for physical layer (PHY) secret key generation (SKG). Existing RIS-assisted PHY SKG studies mainly focus on improving the SKR by optimizing RIS phase. However, RIS can also be exploited by active attackers to contaminate the channel probing. As a result, there is a trade-off between the increased randomness and the improved correlation between legitimate channels and eavesdropping channels in a RIS-assisted SKG system under channel contamination. In this paper, we study the impact of RIS on PHY SKG by analyzing the SKR performance. A closed-form expression for the lower-bound of secret key capacity is obtained. Theoretical analysis shows that gains of legitimate channel, eavesdropping channel, and RIS-induced channels are key parameters in determining whether the assisting RIS is beneficial or harmful to the PHY SKG. Further, a SKR maximization problem under channel contamination is proposed and solved. Results show that the assisting RIS is definitely harmful to the SKG when the gain ratio of legitimate channel and eavesdropping channel is reduced with the leverage of RIS, while it can significantly improve the SKR with an optimized RIS phase when the gain ratio is improved with the help of RIS.
Wireless Channel-based Secret Key Generation (WC-SKG) offers a promising alternative for wireless communication security, yet suffers from an extremely low key generation rate (KGR) in quasi-static environments (e.g., indoor Internet of Things), where key refresh cycles can extend for hours, creating a security vulnerability. Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces (RIS) can boost KGR by introducing artificial randomness, yet existing schemes only randomize the RIS phase shifts without using environmental priors, failing to maximize the KGR and meet the communication signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) requirement, causing service outages. To overcome these limitations, we propose the RIS-assisted Integrated Communication and WC-SKG (RICK) scheme. First, we treat the RIS-adjusted channel as a designable random variable and derive its optimal probability density function (PDF) using a novel geometric-algebraic framework to maximize the KGR under the communication SNR constraint. Second, we design a constrained-clustering-based quantization region division scheme tailored to this optimal non-uniform PDF, guaranteeing uniformly distributed secret keys. Simulation results show RICK achieves a KGR approximately 3.5-5 times higher than the state-of-the-art scheme while saving at least 20 dB of transmit power for the same KGR, confirming its effectiveness in quasi-static scenarios.
Aiming at the problems of slow channel changes and low key generation rate in IoT quasi-static scenarios, a key generation method based on reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) was proposed.First, the agility characteristics of RIS was used to construct a fast-changing channel.Then, the base station and legitimate users extracted a consistent key from the channel information through channel estimation, conversion, and information negotiation.Finally, optimal time allocation for data transmission and key generation in the coherent time to achieve the maximum transmission rate of one-time pad.The simulation results show that the key generation rate of proposed method is higher than that of the existing relay-assisted method, random signal flow method and random number method, and as the number of RIS reflection units and frequency of channel estimation in the coherence time increase, the key generation rate will be further improve.