SaTC: CORE: Small: A Practical Approach to Study Security in Wireless Networks

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With the fast growth of the information technology sector, it is expected that the security challenges associated with generation, storage and transmission of data become even more pervasive than before. In the case of data transmission, this calls for more sophisticated security schemes for the current and future communication networks. This project will develop a comprehensive framework for design of cross-layer security schemes that can significantly enhance the secrecy in communication systems. It fosters collaboration in traditionally isolated areas of science including communications and networks, cryptography, information theory and signal processing. The proposed framework will address the diverse security requirements of future networks and is expected to be of interest of academic community as well as the industry. Besides these societal and technical contributions, this project will also integrate research and education activities by promoting interdisciplinary undergraduate research opportunities via a number of unique initiatives and enhancing the undergraduate- and graduate-level course offerings. The education and outreach activities will additionally broaden the participation of underrepresented groups and female students.Through a collaboration of three experts in wireless communications, network information theory, and signal processing, the overall objective of the proposed research project is to investigate the mutual impact of security measures considered in physical and application layers, leading to a higher level of collaboration and coordination between these layers to achieve secrecy in communication. The specific aims of the project include the following: 1) to investigate the interaction between cryptographic hardness and transmission rate. The impact of error-prone ciphertext to cryptography and its interaction with physical layer security via the transmission rate will be investigated. As a result of this study, the detailed connection between the encryption hardness and transmission rate can be characterized, and the transmission rate above the secrecy rate can be achieved when some security guarantees are provided by the encryption; 2) to investigate efficient encryption-aware physical layer security designs by studying the impact of the encryption on physical layer security. The fundamental limits on the transmission rate under the aid of encryption are first studied to optimize physical layer security. Encryption-aware code designs for secrecy are then investigated under the aid of wiretap coding when encryption is present to increase the secrecy, and 3) to investigate the joint design of physical layer security and encryption schemes by establishing coordination between them. The extension to wireless networks with multiple users and adversaries will also be studied.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.