Pattern-reconfigurable antenna-assisted secret key generation from multipath fading channels

Physical layer key generation (PKG) technology leverages reciprocal channel randomness to generate shared secret keys. However, multipath fading at the receiver may degrade the correlation between legitimate uplink and downlink channels, resulting in a low key generation rate (KGR). In this paper, w...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Frontiers of information technology & electronic engineering 2023-12, Vol.24 (12), p.1803-1814
Main Authors: Wan, Zheng, Yan, Mengyao, Huang, Kaizhi, Zhong, Zhou, Xu, Xiaoming, Chen, Yajun, Wu, Fan
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Algorithms
Antennas
Channels
Communication
Communications Engineering
Computer Hardware
Computer Science
Computer Systems Organization and Communication Networks
Electrical Engineering
Electronics and Microelectronics
Fading
Instrumentation
Networks
Optimization
Particle swarm optimization
Propagation
Random variables
Receivers & amplifiers
Reconfigurable intelligent surfaces
Reconfiguration
Research Article
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Summary:Physical layer key generation (PKG) technology leverages reciprocal channel randomness to generate shared secret keys. However, multipath fading at the receiver may degrade the correlation between legitimate uplink and downlink channels, resulting in a low key generation rate (KGR). In this paper, we propose a PKG scheme based on the pattern-reconfigurable antenna (PRA) to boost the secret key capacity. First, we propose a reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) based PRA architecture with the capability of flexible and reconfigurable antenna patterns. Then, we present the PRA-based PKG protocol to improve the KGR via mitigation of the effects of multipath fading. Specifically, a novel algorithm for estimation of the multipath channel parameters is proposed based on atomic norm minimization. Thereafter, a novel optimization method for the matching reception of multipath signals is formulated based on the improved binary particle swarm optimization (BPSO) algorithm. Finally, simulation results show that the proposed scheme can resist multipath fading and achieve a high KGR compared to existing schemes. Moreover, our findings indicate that the increased degree of freedom of the antenna patterns can significantly increase the secret key capacity.
ISSN:2095-9184
2095-9230
DOI:10.1631/FITEE.2300126