Wireless Information-Theoretic Security

• Type: Article in International Scientific Journal
• Date: 2008

Authors

M. Bloch (Author) Other; J. Barros (Author) FEUP; M. R. D. Rodrigues (Author) Other; S. W. McLaughlin (Author) Other

Journal

Title: IEEE Transactions on Information Theory

Vol. 54 No. 6

Pages: 2515-2534

ISSN: 0018-9448

Publisher: IEEE

Indexing

ISI Web of Science

INSPEC

COMPENDEX

Scientific classification

FOS: Engineering and technology > Electrical engineering, Electronic engineering, Information engineering

CORDIS: Technological sciences

Other information

DOI: 10.1109/TIT.2008.921908

Abstract (EN): This paper considers the transmission of confidential data over wireless channels. Based on an information-theoretic formulation of the problem, in which two legitimates partners communicate over a quasi-static fading channel and an eavesdropper observes their transmissions through a second independent quasi-static fading channel, the important role of fading is characterized in terms of average secure communication rates and outage probability. Based on the insights from this analysis, a practical secure communication protocol is developed, which uses a four-step procedure to ensure wireless information-theoretic security: (i) common randomness via opportunistic transmission, (ii) message reconciliation, (iii) common key generation via privacy amplification, and (iv) message protection with a secret key. A reconciliation procedure based on multilevel coding and optimized low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes is introduced, which allows to achieve communication rates close to the fundamental security limits in several relevant instances. Finally, a set of metrics for assessing average secure key generation rates is established, and it is shown that the protocol is effective in secure key renewal-even in the presence of imperfect channel state information

Language: English

Type (Professor's evaluation): Scientific