CAREER: Building Secure Wireless Communication Systems via Physical Layer Resources

由于无线通信的开放性，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是很重要的。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，涉及主动攻击者和不诚实的合法用户的实际模型的研究一直是有限的。在第二种方法中，密码方案，可以处理一般的实际模型。然而，这些方案忽略了无线信道的物理特性，并依赖于未经证明的棘手的假设。这两种方法之间的协同作用和设计安全的无线系统，可以处理一般的情况下，同时提供分析的安全性guarantee.This项目的目的是系统地利用无线信道物理层资源，设计安全的无线系统，提供可证明的机密性，完整性和隐私。本项目主要研究两个方面。在第一个推力，分层的设计方法，它使用物理层的资源来产生信息理论上安全的密钥所需的上层安全原语，开发。在第二个推力，一个跨层的设计方法，明确利用物理层资源的上层安全原语的设计进行了研究。这种方法涉及到开发新的性能指标，这些指标具有信息论和密码学的元素，并根据这些新的指标设计方案。该研究与工程教育的三个阶段完全整合：a）向高中生推广; B）以项目和研究为导向的本科生教育; c）通过新课程开发，指导和行业合作培养研究生。

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.