RINGS: Coding over High-Frequency for Absolute Post-Quantum Security (CHAPS)

新一代无线网络的目标是以可靠和安全的方式提供响应迅速、无处不在的服务。目前未充分利用的频谱部分，在非常高的频率，可以提供巨大的带宽，并为需要高响应能力的服务提供新的可能性，例如自动驾驶汽车或增强/虚拟现实（AR/VR）。此外，这些服务是关键和敏感的，因此需要高度安全。确保安全性的传统方法利用加密方法，由于其复杂性，这些方法可能会增加不可忽略的延迟;有些方法甚至会被量子计算的快速发展所破坏。现有的后量子安全技术甚至更慢，更繁琐，使得它们对延迟关键型应用程序的吸引力降低。 该项目通过积极和协同利用在非常高的频率下运行的特性以及在量子计算攻击下保持安全的系统中的最新数学发展，以综合的方式解决这些挑战。该方法还提供了低复杂性，因此与低延迟、高响应系统要求兼容。在高频率下，当使用适当的硬件（即天线）时，窃听者的位置严重影响他们监听私人通信的能力。有了正确的天线，合法的接收者可以获得一个优势，即使是轻微的，超过窃听者，这个优势可以通过数学变换转化为一个关键的优势。该方法依赖于数学预处理数据，使得通信的窃听拦截部分无法恢复丢失的数据，除非100%可用，从而挫败了努力。此外，无线通信经常受到从微波炉到相邻用户活动的噪声和干扰。为了对抗这些影响，数据编码机制必须健壮，同时仍然保持安全性。对抗噪音技术的新发展使其能够很好地与本项目中将要开发的安全方法一起工作。该项目的成果将是高速、低延迟、经济高效、节能高效的通信，即使对复杂、强大的攻击者也能保持安全。该奖项反映了NSF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。

New generations of wireless networks aim to provide responsive, ubiquitous service in a way that is reliable and secure. Currently underutilized parts of the spectrum, at very high frequencies, can provide massive bandwidth, and new possibilities for services that require high responsiveness, such as self-driving cars or augmented/virtual reality (AR/VR). Such services are, in addition, critical and sensitive, requiring thus high security. Traditional approaches to ensuring security exploit cryptographic approaches that can add non-negligible delay because of their complexity; some are even being steadily undermined by the fast progress of quantum computing. The existing security techniques that are post-quantum secure are even slower and more onerous, rendering them less attractive for delay-critical applications. This project addresses these challenges in an integrated way by making active and synergistic use of the characteristics of operating at very high frequencies and of recent mathematical developments in systems that remain secure under quantum computing attacks. The approach also offers low complexity and is therefore compatible with low-delay, highly responsive system requirements. At high frequencies, the location of an eavesdropper deeply affects their ability to listen in on private communications when the appropriate hardware, namely antennas, are used. With the right antennas, a legitimate receiver can be given an edge, even a slight one, over the eavesdropper and that edge can be turned into a key advantage through mathematical transformations. The approach relies on mathematically pre-processing data in such a way that an eavesdropping intercepting part of the communication cannot recover the missing data, unless 100% of it is available, thus thwarting the effort. Furthermore, wireless communications are often subjected to noise and interference, ranging from a microwave oven to a neighboring user's activity. In order to combat those effects, the data encoding mechanism must be robust, while still maintaining security. Very new developments in techniques for combatting noise lend themselves well to work with the sort of security approaches to be developed in this project. The outcomes of this project will be high speed, low delay, cost-effective, energy efficient communications that can remain secure even to sophisticated, powerful attackers.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.