SaTC: CORE: Small: Collaborative: Security Assurance in Short Range Communication with Wireless Channel Obfuscation

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As the prevalence of mobile computing technologies and applications, short-range communication over emerging aerial acoustic and visible light channel is undergoing a fast rate of expansion with many promising benefits including low power and peer-to-peer communication, without incurring complex network infrastructure. Although those short range wireless channels have an inherent and physical protection against many malicious attacks, the confidentiality of the data transmission against eavesdropping remains a risk, motivating considerable interest in the security of short range communication. Unlike traditional cryptographic methods that rely on central security management infrastructure to secure wireless links, this project proposes to obfuscate the transmitting wireless signals by incorporating random channel dynamics to defend against eavesdroppers. Specifically, based on specific wireless channel characteristics, different channel obfuscation schemes are to be developed to achieve information-theoretic secrecy with respect to aerial acoustic and visible light channels. The proposed research will also contribute to interdisciplinary education on wireless security for both graduate and undergraduate students.This proposal aims to enhance physical layer security for short range wireless communications over acoustic and visible light channels. The research reveals that the unique characteristics of different types of wireless channels can be exploited to perform channel obfuscation for protecting secrecy against eavesdropping attacks. Particularly, for acoustic channels, this project develops the channel obfuscation scheme relying on self-jamming signals emitted by the legitimate receiver to secure short-range communication. Moreover, a novel communication protocol based on time-difference-of-arrival modulation is introduced to achieve accurate and robust data transmission. For visible light communication, a channel obfuscation scheme is developed for screen-to-camera channels to realize a secure secret key distribution leveraging the color shift property of Liquid Crystal Display and Light-Emitting Diode screens.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.