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Cross-Layer Cryptography For Wireless Communication

Hesham Hashim Mohammed

Published Aug 1, 2023• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Spectrum access in the next-generation wireless networks will be congested, competitive, and vulnerable to malicious intents of strong adversaries. This motivates us to rethink secure wireless communication in a zero-trust electromagnetic environment. Classical cryptography is an add-on feature that provides semantic security between trusted partners at higherlayers. However, cryptography ignores cross-layer interaction with physical layer which is required to enhance the secrecy level of the transmitted waveform. Moreover, cryptographic schemes might no longer be secure in the quantum era. Physical layer security (PLS) is introduced as a complement to cryptography, where security is provided in the physical layer using the channel state information (CSI) between the trusted partners. Although PLS can theoretically provide perfect secrecy, it might be impractical in many scenarios due to the constraints imposed on adversary’s reception.

DOI
10.54014/p9am-38z6

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Spectrum access in the next-generation wireless networks will be congested, competitive, and vulnerable to malicious intents of strong adversaries. This motivates us to rethink secure wireless communication in a zero-trust electromagnetic environment. Classical cryptography is an add-on feature that provides semantic security between trusted partners at higherlayers. However, cryptography ignores cross-layer interaction with physical layer which is required to enhance the secrecy level of the transmitted waveform. Moreover, cryptographic schemes might no longer be secure in the quantum era. Physical layer security (PLS) is introduced as a complement to cryptography, where security is provided in the physical layer using the channel state information (CSI) between the trusted partners. Although PLS can theoretically provide perfect secrecy, it might be impractical in many scenarios due to the constraints imposed on adversary’s reception.
Ensuring secure wireless communications is crucial, given their vulnerability to a wide range of risks and attacks. Physical Layer Security (PLS) techniques offer an excellent complement to traditional cryptographic algorithms, enhancing overall security. This paper provides a brief overview of the theoretical foundations of PLS techniques, and presents the basic concept. Three models are simulated and analyzed: a basic model and two cooperative models involving one and two jammers. The performance for these models, in terms of secrecy rate and bit error rate, are evaluated. Finally, the paper concludes with insights into potential applications and the future prospects of PLS techniques in modern wireless communication systems.
The open nature of radio propagation enables ubiquitous wireless communication. This allows for seamless data transmission. However, unauthorized users may pose a threat to the security of the data being transmitted to authorized users. This gives rise to network vulnerabilities such as hacking, eavesdropping, and jamming of the transmitted information. Physical layer security (PLS) has been identified as one of the promising security approaches to safeguard the transmission from eavesdroppers in a wireless network. It is an alternative to the computationally demanding and complex cryptographic algorithms and techniques. PLS has continually received exponential research interest owing to the possibility of exploiting the characteristics of the wireless channel. One of the main characteristics includes the random nature of the transmission channel. The aforesaid nature makes it possible for confidential and authentic signal transmission between the sender and the receiver in the physical layer. We start by introducing the basic theories of PLS, including the wiretap channel, information-theoretic security, and a brief discussion of the cryptography security technique. Furthermore, an overview of multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) communication is provided. The main focus of our review is based on the existing key-less PLS optimization techniques, their limitations, and challenges. The paper also looks into the promising key research areas in addressing these shortfalls. Lastly, a comprehensive overview of some of the recent PLS research in 5G and 6G technologies of wireless communication networks is provided.
Physical layer security is emerging as a promising means of ensuring secrecy in wireless communications. The key idea is to exploit the characteristics of wireless channels such as fading or noise to transmit a message from the source to the intended receiver while keeping this message confidential from eavesdroppers. Topics covered in Trusted Communications with Physical Layer Security for 5G and Beyond include secrecy metrics for physical layer security over fading channels; trusted wireless communications with spatial multiplexing; directional modulation enabled physical layer wireless security; secure waveform for 5G systems; confidential and energy efficient communications using physical layer security; secure data networks with channel uncertainty; antenna selection strategies for wiretap channels; physical layer security for massive MIMO systems, millimeter wave cellular networks, non-orthogonal multiple access, multiuser relay networks, cognitive radio networks, MIMOME-OFDM systems; wirelessly powered communication systems and D2D-enabled cellular networks; and security solutions and applications at the physical layer, including case studies of secret key generation and secrecy coding in communication nodes and terminals.
Security has emerged as one of the critical requirements of future wireless networks. Unlike traditional cryptography-based security, physical layer security (PLS) tends to exploit various features of the random wireless channel to secure not only the information being communicated but the whole communication process from any type of attack. Due to the limited capability of the legacy wireless networks, only a few channel features could be effectively exploited for PLS. Future wireless networks are envisioned to feature advanced transceiver technologies, signal processing techniques, channel control, and sensing capabilities which will allow them to easily access and extract additional channel features that can be readily exploited for PLS. The novel use cases to be accommodated in future networks are also found to experience some peculiar channel characteristics which enrich the list of channel features that can be exploited for PLS. This article, thus, tends to highlight the opportunities and potential challenges of these new channel features from the PLS perspective. In the course of the article, the assessment of important qualities while selecting a certain channel feature for the PLS application is discussed. The importance of the channel control concept and sensing technologies for PLS is highlighted. Finally, the article discusses the challenges and vulnerabilities of the channel-based PLS concept from which future research directions are derived.
Physical layer security is an emerging technique to improve the wireless communication security, which is widely regarded as a complement to cryptographic technologies. To design physical layer security techniques under practical scenarios, the uncertainty and imperfections in the channel knowledge need to be taken into consideration. This paper provides a survey of recent research and development in physical layer security considering the imperfect channel state information (CSI) at communication nodes. We first present an overview of the main information-theoretic measures of the secrecy performance with imperfect CSI. Then, we describe several signal processing enhancements in secure transmission designs, such as secure on-off transmission, beamforming with artificial noise, and secure communication assisted by relay nodes or in cognitive radio systems. The recent studies of physical layer security in large-scale decentralized wireless networks are also summarized. Finally, the open problems for the on-going and future research are discussed.
Physical layer security is an emerging technique to improve the wireless communication security, which is widely regarded as a complement to cryptographic technologies. To design physical layer security techniques under practical scenarios, the uncertainty and imperfections in the channel knowledge need to be taken into consideration. This paper provides a survey of recent research and development in physical layer security considering the imperfect channel state information (CSI) at communication nodes. We first present an overview of the main information-theoretic measures of the secrecy performance with imperfect CSI. Then, we describe several signal processing enhancements in secure transmission designs, such as secure on-off transmission, beamforming with artificial noise, and secure communication assisted by relay nodes or in cognitive radio systems. The recent studies of physical layer security in large-scale decentralized wireless networks are also summarized. Finally, the open problems for the on-going and future research are discussed.