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

随着移动计算技术和应用的普及，新兴的航空声学和可见光信道上的短距离通信正在快速发展，具有低功耗和点对点通信等许多有前景的优点，而且不需要复杂的网络基础设施。尽管这些短距离无线信道对许多恶意攻击具有固有的物理保护，但数据传输的机密性对窃听仍然是一种风险，这激发了人们对短距离通信安全性的极大兴趣。与依赖中央安全管理基础设施来保护无线链路的传统加密方法不同，该项目建议通过结合随机信道动态来混淆传输的无线信号，以防御窃听者。具体而言，基于特定的无线信道特性，需要开发不同的信道混淆方案，以实现相对于航空声学和可见光信道的信息论保密。这项研究也将有助于研究生和本科生在无线安全方面的跨学科教育。该方案旨在增强通过声光和可见光信道的短距离无线通信的物理层安全性。研究表明，可以利用不同类型无线信道的独特特性来执行信道混淆，以保护机密免受窃听攻击。特别是对于声信道，本项目开发了依赖于合法接收机发出的自干扰信号的信道混淆方案，以确保短距离通信。在此基础上，提出了一种基于到达时间差调制的通信协议，实现了数据的准确鲁棒传输。在可见光通信中，利用液晶显示器和发光二极管屏幕的色移特性，提出了一种屏幕到摄像机信道的信道混淆方案，实现了密钥的安全分发。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

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.