An adaptive and robust secret key extraction scheme from high noise wireless channel in IIoT

Abstract

The Sixth-Generation (6G) enhances the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) communication efficiency and further raises security requirements. It is crucial to construct a post-quantum security communication channel between any pair of industrial equipment. Recent work shows that two legitimate devices can directly extract symmetrical secret keys in information-theoretic secure by measuring their common wireless channels. However, existing schemes may cause a high bit mismatch rate in IIoT with high noise. In addition, the physical layer key extraction scheme widely uses passive attack assumptions, which also contradicts the high-security requirements of IIoT. By analyzing and modeling IIoT systems and channels, we propose an Adaptive and Robust Secret Key Extraction scheme (ARSKE) from high noise wireless channels in 6G-enabled IIoT. To eliminate the non-reciprocity of the wireless channel, we design a smoothing method as the preprocessing module. Then, we propose a Robust Secure Reconciliation technique that can effectively resist active attacks by jointly designing the information reconciliation and privacy amplification phases. Extensive real-world experiments are conducted to test the effectiveness and robustness of our scheme.