A Novel Physical Layer Authentication With PAPR Reduction Based on Channel and Hardware Frequency Responses

Abstract

Next generation wireless communications such as 5G are expected to feature wide channel bandwidths on the order of hundreds of MHz. As bandwidths increase, circuit impairments caused by frequency dependent behaviour such as ripple and tilt in gain and group delay become more significant. PAPR of OFDM signals also increase with increasing number of sub-carriers. Transmitter circuit characterisation for the wide-band frequency response is needed to pre-compensate the signal to be transmitted. In this article, we propose a novel scheme which uses the circuit characteristics combined with the channel response to generate the keys for encrypting signals to provide an additional tier of security at the physical layer. The modulated constellation of the signal of interest is encrypted by dispersing its phases in addition to encrypting the bits using Diffie Hellman scheme. It is also shown that the method is able to reduce the PAPR of OFDM signals. This scheme is experimentally validated from end-to-end on a millimetre wave wireless link at 28.9 GHz demonstrating security against a well-positioned eavesdropper and a reduction of PAPR by 3.5 dB in a 2048 point OFDM signal with 1664 active QPSK modulated sub-carriers.