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Physical Communication

Research on physical layer key generation and distribution for maritime communications based on channel fingerprinting

Mi Lin, Mingliang Chen, Lin Liu, Yu Zhang, Long Chen, Yongjun Li, Xiaoyu Li, Zhilong Chen, Wenbin Cai, Xiaomin Liu, Daokui Wang

Published Oct 29, 2026• 0 citations
Publisher
DOI
10.1016/j.phycom.2026.103426

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The new power system is the national development strategy and development direction of smart grid. Communication is the basis of the development of the new power system. in the distribution automation business, communication is the weakest link. In order to make electric power communication develop more smoothly, we should improve our awareness of security issues. Because of the particularity of electric power communication, it often has very high requirements for the security of communication. In order to effectively ensure the security of electric power communication data, data encryption technology can be applied to the data transmission process, and the security of information transmission can be improved through the application of encryption and decryption keys.Physical layer key generation technology is a security technology that uses wireless channel characteristics as a random source to generate keys. This technology uses the anisotropy, time variation and spatial uniqueness of wireless channels to generate random sequences, which is different from traditional encryption methods. Physical layer key generation technology does not require the key management and distribution of a third party trusted organization. In theory, it can achieve one encryption at a time to achieve the absolute security of Shannon confidential communication[1]. This paper first briefly introduces the wireless channel physical layer key generation model and the general process of key generation scheme based on channel feature quantization, and then studies the improved optimization scheme based on traditional channel detection, preprocessing and quantization algorithm, so as to effectively improve the key generation performance.

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Quantum communication is a key enabler of next-generation networks, leveraging quantum entanglement to enable a new class of information exchange. While prior work has focused on the theoretical analysis of communication protocols, their exposure to physical layer side channel analysis remains largely unexplored. In classical systems, side channel analysis has been shown to reveal sensitive information without accessing the underlying data, raising the question of whether similar risks exist in quantum networks. In this work, we investigate whether different quantum communication protocols exhibit distinguishable signatures that can be inferred through passive side channel observations. We consider a threat model in which an observer accesses only a fraction of the optical signal without directly measuring the encoded quantum states. Under this setting, we experimentally examine four representative protocols, namely entanglement distribution, quantum gate sequences, heralded quantum key distribution, and quantum identity authentication, realized on a polarization entangled photon link. Observable physical layer features, including single photon detection statistics and optical power measurements, are collected and used to construct protocol fingerprints. We develop a data-driven framework for protocol identification based on these observations. Our results show that protocol identity can be inferred with accuracy reaching up to 96% under 30:70 sampling configuration/optical tapping, while remaining distinguishable at 10:90 with accuracy ranging from 70-89%. Bell inequality measurements confirm that the sampling/tapping process preserves entanglement, validating the non-destructive nature of the observation model. These findings demonstrate that side channel analysis can expose protocol-level information without disrupting quantum correlations, introducing new security considerations.

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The new power system is the national development strategy and development direction of smart grid. Communication is the basis of the development of the new power system. in the distribution automation business, communication is the weakest link. In order to make electric power communication develop more smoothly, we should improve our awareness of security issues. Because of the particularity of electric power communication, it often has very high requirements for the security of communication. In order to effectively ensure the security of electric power communication data, data encryption technology can be applied to the data transmission process, and the security of information transmission can be improved through the application of encryption and decryption keys.Physical layer key generation technology is a security technology that uses wireless channel characteristics as a random source to generate keys. This technology uses the anisotropy, time variation and spatial uniqueness of wireless channels to generate random sequences, which is different from traditional encryption methods. Physical layer key generation technology does not require the key management and distribution of a third party trusted organization. In theory, it can achieve one encryption at a time to achieve the absolute security of Shannon confidential communication[1]. This paper first briefly introduces the wireless channel physical layer key generation model and the general process of key generation scheme based on channel feature quantization, and then studies the improved optimization scheme based on traditional channel detection, preprocessing and quantization algorithm, so as to effectively improve the key generation performance.
Quantum communication is a key enabler of next-generation networks, leveraging quantum entanglement to enable a new class of information exchange. While prior work has focused on the theoretical analysis of communication protocols, their exposure to physical layer side channel analysis remains largely unexplored. In classical systems, side channel analysis has been shown to reveal sensitive information without accessing the underlying data, raising the question of whether similar risks exist in quantum networks. In this work, we investigate whether different quantum communication protocols exhibit distinguishable signatures that can be inferred through passive side channel observations. We consider a threat model in which an observer accesses only a fraction of the optical signal without directly measuring the encoded quantum states. Under this setting, we experimentally examine four representative protocols, namely entanglement distribution, quantum gate sequences, heralded quantum key distribution, and quantum identity authentication, realized on a polarization entangled photon link. Observable physical layer features, including single photon detection statistics and optical power measurements, are collected and used to construct protocol fingerprints. We develop a data-driven framework for protocol identification based on these observations. Our results show that protocol identity can be inferred with accuracy reaching up to 96% under 30:70 sampling configuration/optical tapping, while remaining distinguishable at 10:90 with accuracy ranging from 70-89%. Bell inequality measurements confirm that the sampling/tapping process preserves entanglement, validating the non-destructive nature of the observation model. These findings demonstrate that side channel analysis can expose protocol-level information without disrupting quantum correlations, introducing new security considerations.