CAREER: Building Secure Wireless Communication Systems via Physical Layer Resources

由于无线通信的开放性，必须提供全面的安全解决方案来保护通过无线介质交换的信息。在现有的研究中采用了两种方法。在第一种方法中，利用无线信道的物理层属性来实现可证明安全的信息传输。然而，对涉及主动攻击者和不诚实的合法用户的实用模型的研究一直是有限的。在第二种方法中，采用了能够处理一般实用模型的密码方案。然而，这些方案忽略了无线信道的物理属性，并且依赖于未经证实的难解性假设。这两种方法之间的协同作用和设计安全无线系统是至关重要的，它可以处理一般场景，同时提供分析安全保证。该项目旨在系统地利用无线信道物理层资源来设计提供可证明的机密性、完整性和私密性的安全无线系统。该项目研究了两个主要的推进力。在第一个推力中，开发了一种分层设计方法，该方法利用物理层资源来生成上层安全原语所需的理论上的信息安全密钥。在第二个推力中，研究了一种在上层安全原语设计中显式利用物理层资源的跨层设计方法。这种方法涉及开发同时具有信息论和密码学元素的新型性能指标，并在这些新指标下设计方案。这项研究与工程教育的三个阶段完全结合在一起：a)面向高中生；b)以项目和研究为导向的本科生教育；c)通过新课程开发、指导和行业合作对研究生进行培训。

Due to the open nature of wireless communications, it is important to provide a comprehensive security solution to protect information exchanged over the wireless medium. Two approaches have been adopted in the existing studies. In the first approach, physical layer properties of wireless channels are exploited to achieve provably secure information transmission. However, the study of practical models that involve active attackers and dishonest legitimate users has been limited. In the second approach, cryptographic schemes that can deal with general practical models are adopted. However, these schemes ignore the physical properties of wireless channels and rely on unproved intractability assumptions. It is critical to create synergies between these two approaches and design secure wireless systems that can deal with general scenarios while providing analytical security guarantees.This project aims to systematically exploit wireless channel physical layer resources to design secure wireless systems that provide provable confidentiality, integrity and privacy. Two main thrusts are investigated in this project. In the first thrust, a layered design approach, which uses physical layer resources to generate information theoretically secure keys needed for upper layer security primitives, is developed. In the second thrust, a cross-layer design approach that explicitly exploits physical layer resources in the design of upper layer security primitives is studied. This approach involves the development of novel performance metrics that have elements from both information theory and cryptography and the design of schemes under these new metrics. The research is fully integrated with three phases of engineering education: a) outreach to high school students; b) project- and research-oriented undergraduate student education; and c) graduate students training through new course development, mentoring and industry collaboration.