EAGER SARE: Physical-Layer Security of THz Communication Using Orbital Angular Momentum and Rapid Frequency Hopping

EAGER SARE：使用轨道角动量和快速跳频的太赫兹通信物理层安全

• 批准号: 2028824
• 负责人: Ruonan Han
• 金额: $ 30万
• 依托单位: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2020-09-01 至 2023-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2028824&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: EAGER; SARE; Physical; Layer; Security

With the ever-growing number of wireless devices handling personal health, finance, and other private data, the security associated with the over-the-air data transmission becomes a major concern. At present, the protection of data transmission almost entirely relies on digital encryption, which has various drawbacks and vulnerabilities. For high-volume data transmission, energy-efficient and fast symmetric encryption (e.g., advanced encryption standard, AES) is commonly used, but its cipher secret key, which needs to be wirelessly shared between the transmitter and receiver, is susceptible to eavesdropping. Asymmetric encryption with a public-key infrastructure (e.g., RSA cryptography) can be used to secure key distribution, but it requires energy-consuming computation and complex two-way communication protocols. As a result, additional non-digital security approaches using the physical properties of wireless hardware and electromagnetic waves become attractive. Transmission using narrow beams at millimeter-wave and terahertz (THz) frequencies is expected to reduce the chance of eavesdropping. However, due to the inherently non-ideal beam shape generated by actual antenna arrays, leakage of information still occurs. To address the above issues, this project will investigate the design, analysis, and experiments of a new approach for secured wireless transmission of secret keys. It is expected to significantly increase the capabilities of wireless backhaul infrastructures, especially the future “beyond-5G” networks, against eavesdropping and attacking. It will also advance the interdisciplinary research and education across the fields of THz technologies, microelectronics, and wireless security.The project will use a scheme that encodes the data onto various spatial-distribution patterns (i.e., orbital-angular momentum, OAM) of the wave-front phases in a THz beam. The decoding of such a scheme requires the receiver to be precisely located along the axis of the OAM wave, making eavesdropping very hard and prone to be detected. The project will study approaches that utilize superposition of multiple OAM modes, which further enhances security with the additional information ambiguity induced to illegitimate receivers. To avoid any possible selective jamming, a bit-level rapid frequency hopping scheme will also be applied. The researchers will not only investigate the theoretical security performance limits of the “laser-like” transmission scheme against various sophisticated hacking scenarios, but also provide experimental demonstrations using custom-designed microelectronic chips. Operations such as the generation, detection, coding, frequency-hopping, and beam-steering of THz OAM waves will be performed. The one-way, high-security transmission of secret key to be enabled by this project will complement the existing digital encryption schemes and further the understanding of the THz technologies and applications in wireless security systems.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.

随着处理个人健康、财务和其他私人数据的无线设备的数量不断增加，与空中数据传输相关的安全成为一个主要问题。目前，数据传输的保护几乎完全依靠数字加密，存在各种缺陷和漏洞。对于大容量数据传输，通常使用节能和快速的对称加密(例如，高级加密标准，AES)，但其需要在发送器和接收器之间无线共享的密码密钥容易被窃听。使用公钥基础设施(例如，RSA密码术)的非对称加密可用于保护密钥分发，但它需要耗能的计算和复杂的双向通信协议。因此，使用无线硬件和电磁波的物理属性的其他非数字安全方法变得很有吸引力。使用毫米波和太赫兹(THz)频率的窄波束传输预计将减少窃听的机会。然而，由于实际天线阵产生的波束形状本身并不理想，仍然存在信息泄漏的问题。为了解决上述问题，本项目将研究一种新的安全无线传输密钥的方法的设计、分析和实验。预计它将显著提高无线回程基础设施的能力，特别是未来的“Beyond-5G”网络，抵御窃听和攻击。它还将推动太赫兹技术、微电子学和无线安全等领域的跨学科研究和教育。该项目将使用一种方案，将数据编码到太赫兹波束中波前相位的各种空间分布模式(即轨道角动量，OAM)上。这种方案的译码要求接收器沿着OAM波的轴线精确定位，这使得窃听非常困难并且容易被检测到。该项目将研究利用多种OAM模式叠加的方法，这将进一步增强安全性，因为给非法接收者带来了额外的信息模糊。为了避免任何可能的选择性干扰，还将应用比特级快速跳频方案。研究人员不仅将调查针对各种复杂黑客场景的类似激光的传输方案的理论安全性能极限，还将使用定制设计的微电子芯片提供实验演示。将执行THzOAM波的产生、检测、编码、跳频和波束控制等操作。该项目将实现密钥的单向、高安全性传输，这将补充现有的数字加密方案，并进一步了解太赫兹技术和在无线安全系统中的应用。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

项目成果

Physical-Layer Security for THz Communications via Orbital Angular Momentum Waves

• DOI: 10.1109/sips55645.2022.9919249
• 发表时间: 2022-11
• 期刊: 2022 IEEE Workshop on Signal Processing Systems (SiPS)
• 作者: Jongchan Woo;Muhammad Ibrahim Wasiq Khan;Mohamed I. Ibrahim;R. Han;A. Chandrakasan;R. Yazicigil

A 0.31THz CMOS Uniform Circular Antenna Array Enabling Generation/Detection of Waves with Orbital-Angular Momentum

• DOI: 10.1109/rfic51843.2021.9490402
• 发表时间: 2021-06
• 期刊: 2021 IEEE Radio Frequency Integrated Circuits Symposium (RFIC)
• 作者: Muhammad Ibrahim Wasiq Khan;Jongchan Woo;Xiang Yi;Mohamed I. Ibrahim;R. Yazicigil;A. Chandrakasan

A 0.31-THz Orbital-Angular-Momentum (OAM) Wave Transceiver in CMOS With Bits-to-OAM Mode Mapping

• DOI: 10.1109/jssc.2022.3141366
• 发表时间: 2022-05
• 期刊: IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits
• 影响因子: 5.4
• 作者: Muhammad Ibrahim Wasiq Khan;Jongchan Woo;Xiang Yi;Mohamed I. Ibrahim;R. Yazicigil;A. Chandrakasan