RINGS: Just-in-Time Security: Adaptive Physical-Layer Security for NextG Low-Latency mmWave Wireless Networks

全球无线网络的积极部署和机器对机器通信的增长加剧了对隐私和保密的担忧。物理层安全，利用无线信道和设备固有的随机缺陷，使用物理层信号处理和编码算法的保密或认证提供了一种在设计阶段将安全性与其它系统级度量（例如功耗、吞吐量和等待时间）同等对待的方法。然而，在物理层安全的理论和实践之间仍然存在很大的差距。该项目通过结合硬件和软件工作来解决这一挑战，包括具有波束成形能力的毫米波射频前端和低延迟算法，以创建物理层安全单片集成硬件平台。该项目的成果将是提供“即时保密”的硬件，即适应链路条件并在功耗、延迟和安全性之间实现成本效益的权衡。该项目的第一个目标是研究一个硬件平台，该平台集成了宽带天线阵列，以设计适合物理层安全的物理层链路，并实现低延迟的混合信号保密代码。努力还包括安全分析，以评估保密引起的系统级权衡。该项目的第二个重点是开发新型前端功能，以进一步增强物理层安全方案的弹性，包括超低延迟高精度波束形成的混合解决方案和具有天线负载变化弹性的可重新配置功率放大器。第三个重点是研究系统中反馈的集成，以感知无线环境并使保密性适应瞬时信道条件。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。

The active deployment of wireless networks worldwide and the growth of machine-to-machine communications are exacerbating concerns for privacy and secrecy. Physical-layer security, which exploits the random imperfections inherent to wireless channels and devices to provide, e.g., secrecy or authentication, using physical-layer signal processing and coding algorithms, offers an approach to treat security on par with other system-level metrics, such as power consumption, throughput, and latency, at the design stage. There remains, however, a wide gap to bridge between the theory and practice of physical-layer security. This project addresses this challenge by combining hardware and software efforts, including milimeter-wave radio-frequency front-ends with beamforming capability and algorithms with low-latency, to create a physical-layer security monolithically integrated hardware platform. The outcome of this project will be hardware offering "just-in-time secrecy," in the sense of adapting to link conditions and achieve cost-effective tradeoffs between power, latency, and security.The first thrust of this project investigates a hardware platform that integrates a broadband antenna array to engineer a physical-layer link suitable for physical-layer security together with a low-latency mixed-signal implementation of codes for secrecy. Efforts also include a security analysis to evaluate the system level tradeoffs incurred by secrecy. The second thrust of this project considers the development of novel front-end capabilities to further the resilience of the physical-layer security scheme, including a hybrid solution for ultra-low latency high precision beam forming and a reconfigurable power amplifier with antenna load variation resilience. The third thrust studies the integration of feedback in the system to sense the wireless environment and adapt the secrecy provided to instantaneous channel conditions.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.