Secure Wireless Communication Research Articles

Editorial for the Special Issue on Underwater Wireless Communications and Sensor Networks Technology

In the scientific, military, and industrial world, the deployment of robust, reliable, secure, and efficient wireless communication links is of particular importance [...]

Survey: Self-Empowered Wireless Sensor Networks Security Taxonomy, Challenges, and Future Research Directions

In the recent past, patient wearable devices and implantable biosensors revealed exponential growth in digital healthcare, because they have the capability to allow access to the information anywhere and every time to improve the life standard of multifarious disease effected patients followed by healthy people. Following these advantages, digital healthcare demands a secure wireless communication infrastructure for interconnected self-empowered biosensor devices to maintain the trust of patients, doctors, pharmacologists, nursing staff, and other associated stakeholders, etc. Several authentications, privacy, and data preservation schemes had been used in the literature to ensure the security of this emerging technology, but with time, these counteraction prototypes become vulnerable to new security threats, as the hackers work tirelessly to compromise them and steal the legitimate information of user’s or disrupt the operation of an employed self-empowered wireless sensor network (SWSN). To discuss the security problems of SWSN applications, in this review article, we have presented a detailed survey of the present literature from 2019 to 2022, to familiarize the readers with different security threats and their counteraction schemes. Following this, we will highlight the pros and cons of these countermeasure techniques in the context of SWSN security requirements to underscore their limitations. Thereafter, we will follow-up the underlined limitations to discuss the open security challenges of SWSN that need the concerned authorities’ attention. Based on this, we will pave a road map for the future research work that could be useful for every individual associated with this technology. For the novelty and uniqueness of this work, we will make comparative analysis with present survey papers published on this topic to answer the question of reviewers, readers, editors, and students that why this paper is in time and needed in the presence of rival papers.

An End-to-End Dual ASIC OFDM Transceiver for Ultrasound In-Body Communication.

Implanted medical devices need a reliable, secure and low-energy wireless communication link. Ultrasound (US) wave propagation is promising over other techniques due to its lower body attenuation, inherent security and well-studied physiological impact. While US communication systems have been proposed, they either neglect realistic channel conditions or fail to be integrated into small-scale, energy-scarce systems. Therefore, this work proposes a custom, hardware efficient OFDM modem optimized for the diverse needs of ultrasound in-body communication channels. This custom OFDM modem is implemented in an end-to-end dual ASIC transceiver: a 180nm BCD analog front end and a digital baseband chip in 65nm CMOS technology. Furthermore, the ASIC solution provides tuning knobs to increase the analog dynamic range, to update the OFDM parameters and to fully reprogram the baseband processing, necessary to adjust for the channel variability. Ex-vivo communication experiments on a 14cm thick piece of beef achieve 470kbps with BER 3e-4, while consuming 56nJ/bit and 10.9nJ/bit Tx/Rx.

Joint Trajectory Design and User Scheduling for Secure Aerial Underlay IoT Systems

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have been widely employed to enhance the end-to-end performance of wireless communications since the links between UAVs and terrestrial nodes are line-of-sight (LoS) with high probability. However, the broadcast characteristics of signal propagation in LoS links make them vulnerable to being wiretapped by malicious eavesdroppers, which poses a considerable challenge to the security of wireless communications. In this work, we investigate the security of aerial underlay Internet of Things (IoT) systems by jointly designing trajectory and user scheduling. An airborne base station transmits confidential messages to secondary users utilizing the same spectrum as the primary network. An aerial jammer transmits jamming signals to suppress the eavesdropper to enhance secrecy performance. The uncertainty of eavesdropping node locations is considered, and the average secrecy rate of the secondary user is maximized by optimizing multiple users’ scheduling, the UAVs’ trajectory, and transmit power. To solve the non-convex optimization problem with mixed multi-integer variable problem, we propose an iterative algorithm based on block coordinate descent and successive convex approximation. Numerical results verify the effectiveness of our proposed algorithm and demonstrate that our scheme is beneficial in improving the secrecy performance of aerial underlay IoT systems.

Design of Software Defined Radio (Sdr) Waveforms For Portabilityand Interoperability

The way war is fought depends on the age. The war fighting tactics have been evolving along with the technology innovation. Accordingly, military community is transforming the battlefield of 21st century around Network-Centric Warfare (NCW). As such, the armed forces fight future wars that will be Network-centric. Anything from satellite to soldiers and everything in between whether manned ships, aircraft, ground vehicles, unmanned missiles, sensors and UAVs, secure wireless communications will be the core. The NCW demands voice, video and data capabilities with megabit bandwidths and security so that, seamless sharing of battle field information happens in a timely manner. Hardware intensive radio systems that are currently in use with many armed forces across the globe has limited utility, since parameters for each of the functional modules are fixed. Therefore, existing communication systems is being replaced with digital radio systems called as Software-Defined Radio (SDR). Once deployed, these radios need to be reconfigured periodically to meet the prevailing operational needs. Accordingly, wireless devices and network equipments are reconfigured, enhanced and upgraded through software updates that define the radio functionalities. In military terms it is called as "waveforms". SDR deployed in the battle field vary in size and capability with variety of form factors such as handheld, man pack, airborne, base station, maritime/ ship borne etc. However, the common requirement for all of them is the need to remain in network with portable and interoperable waveforms. It implies that, the waveforms can be used across all platforms with minimal modification with the same baseline architectures while satisfying the specific demands of the application.

Secure and Stable Wireless Communication for an Ingestible Device.

Wireless communication enables an ingestible device to send sensor information and support external on-demand operation while in the gastrointestinal (GI) tract. However, it is challenging to maintain stable wireless communication with an ingestible device that travels inside the dynamic GI environment as this environment easily detunes the antenna and decreases the antenna gain. In this paper, we propose an air-gap based antenna solution to stabilize the antenna gain inside this dynamic environment. By surrounding a chip antenna with 1 ~ 2 mms of air, the antenna is isolated from the environment, recovering its antenna gain and the received signal strength by 12 dB or more according to our in vitro and in vivo evaluation in swine. The air gap makes margin for the high path loss, enabling stable wireless communication at 2.4 GHz that allows users to easily access their ingestible devices by using mobile devices with Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE). On the other hand, the data sent or received over the wireless medium is vulnerable to being eavesdropped on by nearby devices other than authorized users. Therefore, we also propose a lightweight security protocol. The proposed protocol is implemented in low energy without compromising the security level thanks to the base protocol of symmetric challenge-response and Speck, the cipher that is optimized for software implementation.

The Security in Optical Wireless Communication: A Survey

With the demand for economical and high-speed wireless services, Optical Wireless Communication (OWC) has attracted increasing attention in both research and the market. In the past decades, numerous optical-related techniques (e.g., LEDs, displays, cameras) and systems (e.g., VLC, LiFi, LiDAR) have been invented. OWC techniques, which are considered as a competitive mechanics in next-generation networks as an alternative to RF approaches, offer 10,000 times more bandwidth than conventional radio frequency (RF)-based wireless techniques (e.g., WiFi, LoRa, Bluetooth, LTE), as well as tremendous spatial reuse potential with even less interference. Because optical communications have a limited wavelength and travel in the line of sight (LoS) manner, the OWC is commonly thought as a secure wireless approach to confine light transmissions within physical bounds. However, in the real world, it is completely untrue. The privacy leakages and security risks broadly exist in the optical-related wireless applications including OWC networks. These threats and weaknesses have recently been the subject of several initial studies. However, they lack systematic analysis and are isolated. This survey first presents a general workflow of OWC systems, which consists of three stages: before signal emission (BSE), during signal propagation (DSP), and after signal receiving (ASV). For each stage, related risks are reviewed. Then, we summarize existing attacks in optical-related wireless applications and corresponding counter-attack solutions. Finally, we outline the future trends for improving OWC security.

Learning-Based IRS-Assisted Secure Transmission for Mine IoTs.

Mine Internet of Things (MIoT) devices in intelligent mines often face substantial signal attenuation due to challenging operating conditions. The openness of wireless communication also makes it susceptible to smart attackers, such as active eavesdroppers. The attackers can disrupt equipment operations, compromise production safety, and exfiltrate sensitive environmental data. To address these challenges, we propose an intelligent reflecting surface (IRS)-assisted secure transmission system for an MIoT device which enhances the security and reliability of wireless communication in challenging mining environments. We develop a joint optimization problem for the IRS phase shifts and transmit power, with the goal of enhancing legitimate transmission while suppressing eavesdropping. To accommodate time-varying channel conditions, we propose a reinforcement learning (RL)-based IRS-assisted secure transmission scheme that enables MIoT device to optimize both the IRS reflecting coefficients and transmit power for optimal transmission policy in dynamic environments. We adopt the deep deterministic policy gradient (DDPG) algorithm to explore the optimal transmission policy in continuous space. This can reduce the discretization error caused by traditional RL methods. The simulation results indicate that our proposed scheme achieves superior system utility compared with both the IRS-free (IF) scheme and the IRS randomly configured (IRC) scheme. These results demonstrate the effectiveness and practical relevance of our contributions, proving that implementing IRS in MIoT wireless communication can enhance safety, security, and efficiency in the mining industry.

Predicting and analyzing technology convergence for exploring technological opportunities in the smart health industry

Technology convergence (TC) represents a prevailing innovation pattern in various industries, as it enables the integration of two or more existing technologies to create new hybrid technologies or even a new technological domain, transforming the way firms compete with each other. The advent of smart health can be attributed to the convergence of various technologies, including wireless communication, embedded systems, artificial intelligence (AI), medical technologies, and information security. It is essential for smart health firms to systematically comprehend TC patterns and anticipate emerging convergent technologies at an early stage to leverage potential technological opportunities. This paper proposes a machine learning methodology that integrates network analysis to predict and analyze changing TC patterns from patent data related to smart health. A machine learning-based link prediction method is developed to forecast convergent technologies from a comprehensive set of link prediction measures. Network centrality analysis is then used to understand and evaluate the convergent patterns in the predicted technological knowledge interaction network and identify critical convergent technologies that may play significant roles in the future. The research not only demonstrates that convergent innovation is a continually growing trend in the smart health industry but also identifies several important emerging convergent patterns.

Mode Adaptive Secure UAV Relay Transmissions

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) can enhance wireless transmission security by improving the secrecy rate through relaying the legitimate transmission and injecting artificial noise to the eavesdroppers. However, due to the inherent mechanical energy consumption and the long-range signal propagation pathloss, the traditional cruising and hovering UAV relay modes are deficient in energy utilization and secrecy rate, respectively. Modeling of the secrecy energy efficiency with respect to UAV mode adaptation is limited in the literature and deserves further investigation. Therefore, in this paper, we propose a secrecy rate-energy efficient UAV relay mode adaptation scheme for secure wireless communications scenarios where the eavesdropping locations are known, i.e., the eavesdropper is a hijacked internal legitimate node. In this secure system, the UAV cooperatively assists the legitimate transmissions and injects artificial interference to the eavesdropper. We investigate optimum UAV placement and relay period planning for the hovering and the cruising relay modes, respectively. By modeling the UAV modes transfer and maximizing the secrecy energy efficiency, the optimum mode adaptation ratios are obtained under both the secrecy rate-prioritized and the energy-saving criteria. In addition, the proposed UAV relay mode adaptation mechanism is further studied for each UAV task division, to adapt to the dynamic channel variations and enhance the security. Our theoretical analysis shows that the mode adaptation ratio is determined by the secrecy rate-energy gain between the cruising and the hovering modes, and by the energy consumption threshold of the UAV relays. Our numerical results demonstrate that the proposed scheme achieves higher secrecy energy efficiency than the traditional schemes.

Rethinking Wireless Communication Security in Semantic Internet of Things

Rethinking Wireless Communication Security in Semantic Internet of Things

Hybrid precoding design for secure smart-grid enabled MIMO wireless communications in Industry 5.0

Secure and reliable wireless communication systems are essential for the successful integration of smart grid-enabled wireless communications and Industry 5.0 applications. This work proposes a hybrid precoding design for secure smart-grid multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) wireless communications in Industry 5.0 to maximize the average secrecy capacity of the system while minimizing user outages crucial for maintaining the security and privacy of sensitive data in critical infrastructure. To achieve this, we develop a mathematical model that considers the impact of various system parameters, such as eavesdropping and interference caused by the active eavesdropper and noise, on the secrecy capacity. To find an efficient solution to the optimization problem, we propose an algorithm that decouples the original optimization problem into a series of subproblems and uses iterative techniques to find the optimal values, thereby improving computational efficiency. The hybrid precoding scheme is an effective technique for optimizing the design parameters of MIMO-based secure wireless communication systems. Our proposed approach provides a practical solution for achieving this optimization. Our numerical results demonstrate that our proposed scheme outperforms traditional benchmark schemes, maximizing the average secrecy capacity while minimizing user outages. Our work highlights the importance of secure wireless communication systems in Industry 5.0 and smart grid applications. The proposed approach provides an efficient method for designing secure wireless communication systems that can effectively address the unique challenges posed by these critical infrastructure systems.

PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS OF A POINT-TOPOINT SYSTEM UNDER ACTIVE ATTACK

—In wireless communications, security issues have become difficult due to unchangeable and unpredictable nature of the wireless medium. There are many traditional cryptographic techniques which were used previously. The physical layer security used for ensuring secure wireless communications apart from the cryptographic techniques, which is achieved after proper understanding of the nature wireless channels. Classical information theoretic secrecy is one of the metrics followed, in which, we assume that there is no(zero) leaked information at the eavesdropper which means the information decoding probability at the eavesdropper is '0'. But, practically achieving classical information theoretic secrecy is not possible. So, this project deals with partial secrecy. The partial secrecy of a system is measured in terms of equivocation, which gives the information of the level at which the eavesdropper (active) is confused. It means that in partial secrecy, there is information leakage but the eavesdropper cannot exactly decode the original message. The new secrecy metrics used GSOP (generalized secrecy outage probability), AFE (average fractional equivocation) and AILR (average information leakage rate) altogether provides more comprehensive and in-depth understanding of the secrecy performance over the fading channels.

Implementation of a secure wireless communication system using true random number generator for internet of things

This paper describes the design and implementation of an internet of thing (IoT)-based application that uses a true random number generator (TRNG) with an all digital phase locked loop (ADPLL) for secure wireless communication. Field programmable gate array (FPGA) boards were used on the transmitter and receiver sides and were interfaced with Esp8266 chips to wirelessly send and receive encrypted sensor data. The MQ-2 gas sensor and tracking sensor were connected to the FPGA board on the transmitter side, where data from the sensors was encrypted using the exclusive-OR (XOR) function and the TRNG architecture. The system can be controlled by users through a web browser served by the ThingSpeak cloud. The Artix-7 FPGA device is used to implement the proposed wireless communication system, for which design and synthesis were done using the Xilinx Vivado 2015.2 tool. The proposed system uses a low amount of power and is suitable for a standalone, highly secure TRNG-based IoT application. The National Institute of Standard and Testing (NIST SP 800-22) test showed that ADPLL with finite impulse response (FIR) filter-based TRNGs are better for encrypting IoT devices for secure wireless communication.

A Deep-Learning Neural Network Approach for Secure Wireless Communication in the Surveillance of Electronic Health Records

The electronic health record (EHR) surveillance process relies on wireless security administered in application technology, such as the Internet of Things (IoT). Automated supervision with cutting-edge data analysis methods may be a viable strategy to enhance treatment in light of the increasing accessibility of medical narratives in the electronic health record. EHR analysis structured data structure code was used to obtain data on initial fatality risk, infection rate, and hazard ratio of death from EHRs for prediction of unexpected deaths. Patients utilizing EHRs in general must keep in mind the significance of security. With the rise of the IoT and sensor-based Healthcare 4.0, cyber-resilience has emerged as a need for the safekeeping of patient information across all connected devices. Security for access, amendment, and storage is cumulatively managed using the common paradigm. For improving the security of surveillance in the aforementioned services, this article introduces an endorsed joint security scheme (EJSS). This scheme recognizes the EHR utilization based on the aforementioned processes. For each process, different security measures are administered for sustainable security. Access control and storage modification require relative security administered using mutual key sharing between the accessing user and the EHR database. In this process, the learning identifies the variations in different processes for reducing adversarial interruption. The federated learning paradigm employed in this scheme identifies concurrent adversaries in the different processes initiated at the same time. Differentiating the adversaries under each process strengthens mutual authentication using individual attributes. Therefore, individual surveillance efficiency through log inspection and adversary detection is improved for heterogeneous and large-scale EHR databases.

Image and Text Transmission using Li-Fi Technology

This research paper focuses on the use of LiFi (Light Fidelity) technology for the transmission of image and text data. LiFi technology is an emerging technology that uses visible light communication (VLC) for data transmission, providing a high-speed and secure wireless communication system. In this project, a LiFi system is developed using an LED (Light Emitting Diode) bulb and a photodiode receiver to transmit and receive data. The system is tested for its ability to transmit image and text data at a high speed and with minimal interference. The results show that LiFi technology can provide a viable alternative to traditional wireless communication systems for certain applications, such as indoor communication and data transfer, where security and high-speed data transfer are essential. Overall, this research demonstrates the potential of LiFi technology as a reliable and secure means of wireless data transmission

Secure wireless communications for STAR‐RIS‐assisted millimetre‐wave NOMA uplink networks

AbstractThis paper explores the potential application of simultaneously transmitting and reflecting reconfigurable intelligent surface (STAR‐RIS) in improving the physical layer security (PLS) of millimetre wave (mmWave) non‐orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) uplink communications. In particular, the legitimate users on both sides of STAR‐RIS send confidential information simultaneously to the base station (BS) while keeping it secret from the eavesdroppers near the BS by exploiting the STAR‐RIS to proactively regulate the electromagnetic propagation environment. By jointly designing the transmit power, the active beamforming at the BS, and the reflecting/transmitting coefficients at the STAR‐RIS, the authors' goal is to maximize the minimum secrecy capacity subject to the successive interference cancellation decoding order constraints. Due to the non‐convexity of the formulated problem, an efficient algorithm is proposed by capitalizing on alternating optimization, a penalty‐based approach, successive convex approximation, and semi‐definite relaxation. Firstly, a two‐layer iterative algorithm based on the penalty for the joint beamforming optimization sub‐problem is proposed. Then, the non‐convex problem is transformed into a convex positive semi‐definite programming problem for the transmit power sub‐problem. Numerical simulation results reveal that the STAR‐RIS‐aided system has more tremendous advantages and effectiveness in improving the PLS of mmWave NOMA uplink communication compared with the benchmark schemes.

Massive MIMO and Secrecy Guard Zone Based Improving Physical Layer Security in UAV-Enabled uRLLC Networks

Ultra reliable low latency communications (uRLLC) is a new service category for sixth-generation (6G) wireless networks. The security and confidentiality of information transmission faces more challenges in the context of uRLLC because of the openness nature of wireless medium. By using the inherent characteristics of wireless medium, physical layer security (PLS) can be used as a promising solution to ensure the security of wireless communications. Unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) communications is frequently characterized by line-of-sight (LoS) and dynamic propagation conditions. Since UAV can provide a strong line-of-sight link with strong reliability and speed, it is widely used in various wireless communication scenarios. Much previous work ignored the role of UAVs in PLS research in uRLLC. In this paper, we consider the line-of-sight/non-line-of-sight (NLoS) path-loss model for UAV-aided air-to-ground (A2G) wireless channel. Furthermore, massive MIMO technology is adopted in the deployment of transmitter-receiver pairs. In terms of performance measurement, we introduce the network insurance framework for network users. Under this framework, this paper deduces the closed expressions of connection outage probability (COP) and secrecy outage probability (SOP) for the above UAV-enabled network scenarios. Finally, the secrecy guard zone is proposed to further protect the confidentiality. Simulations validate our derived theoretical results, and indicate that communication security increases with the radius of the guard zone, while eavesdropper density has a detrimental effect.

Optimal Position and Target Rate for Covert Communication in UAV-Assisted Uplink RSMA Systems

With the explosive increase in demand for wireless communication, the issue of wireless communication security has also become a growing concern. In this paper, we investigate a novel covert communication for unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)-assisted uplink rate-splitting multiple access (RSMA) systems, where a UAV adopts the rate-splitting (RS) strategy to increase the total transmission rate while avoiding deteriorating the covert transmission of a ground user. In the proposed system, a ground user and a UAV adopt the RSMA scheme to simultaneously communicate with a base station surveilled by an evil monitor. The UAV acts as both the transmitter and the friendly jammer to cover the ground user’s transmission with random power. To maximize the expected sum rate (ESR), we first study the RS strategy and obtain the optimal power allocation factor. Then, the closed-form of minimum detection error probability (DEP), ESR, and optimal target rate of the UAV are derived. Constrained by the minimum DEP and expected covert rate (ECR), we maximize the ESR by optimizing the position and target rate of the UAV. Numerical results show that the proposed scheme outperforms the traditional NOMA systems in terms of ESR with the same DEP and ECR.

Wireless physical-layer encryption with programmable metasurface in real environment

Wireless communication with physical layer security is of great importance in modern society, especially with the advent of the Internet-of-Things, fifth-generation communication, and beyond. More recently, metasurface-enabled physical-level encryption methods have attracted researchers' attention, in which the programmable metasurface is introduced as a controllable temporal entropy source. In this work, we present a novel approach to wireless physical-layer encryption by exploring the programmable metasurface as the high temporal-spatial entropy source via its unique capability in manipulating a flexibly temporal-spatial electromagnetic wavefront. We implement a proof-of-principle system working at around 2.4 GHz and develop associated efficient algorithms for the generation of a physical-level encryption key, where the programmable metasurface and surrounding environment are treated as a whole in a deterministic way. We experimentally demonstrate that the proposed method enables us to generate the Mbps-rate encryption key with the high spatial-temporal entropy in real-world settings. Our work could pave the way toward the next generation of model-free physical-layer secure wireless communication.