Abstract
Secure communication is considered as an integral part of next generation wireless implantable medical devices. In this work, we provide the symmetric cryptographic key generating approach by exploiting the randomness in received signal strength (RSS) for data encryption in an in-body network. The application of concern is the wireless modules for next generation leadless cardiac pacemaker with two units. For RSS based key generation method, both the units probe the wireless channel for RSS measurements within the coherence time and outputs the encryption key bits based on available randomness and quantization algorithm. To evaluate the available randomness in RSS measurements, the methodology of phantom experiments is adapted to emulate the cardiac cycle. It has been found that the measurements emulating the cardiac cycle can be approximated to follow the log-Normal distribution. Moreover, a high correlation of RSS measurements is observed across the pacemaker units to generate a symmetric key whereas the eavesdropper link is found to be highly de-correlated. Based on the available randomness, the quantization algorithm generates 2-bits per cardiac cycle and requires 64 cardiac cycles to generate a 128-bit binary key string with an average mismatch percentage of 1 % over 1000 key runs.
Highlights
The technological advancements in wireless body area networks results in number of implantable and wearable medical devices
Several approaches are available in the literature to secure the wireless body area network (WBAN) communications, that includes techniques from traditional cryptographic algorithms to wireless physical layer security methods (PLS)
This section focuses on the 128-bit binary key string obtained from quantization algorithm and how well, the key matches at both ends (Alice and Bob) and how much it de-correlates from eavesdropper
Summary
The technological advancements in wireless body area networks results in number of implantable and wearable medical devices. Among these devices the most notable are cardiac pacemaker and implanted cardiac defibrillators. Several approaches are available in the literature to secure the wireless body area network (WBAN) communications, that includes techniques from traditional cryptographic algorithms to wireless physical layer security methods (PLS). In [8] [9], an RSS based secret key generation method is utilized for on-body WBAN nodes. We utilize an RSS based secret key generation approach in context of wireless in-body network.
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