Research Article
An Encryption System for Securing Physical Signals
@INPROCEEDINGS{10.1007/978-3-030-63086-7_13, author={Yisroel Mirsky and Benjamin Fedidat and Yoram Haddad}, title={An Encryption System for Securing Physical Signals}, proceedings={Security and Privacy in Communication Networks. 16th EAI International Conference, SecureComm 2020, Washington, DC, USA, October 21-23, 2020, Proceedings, Part I}, proceedings_a={SECURECOMM}, year={2020}, month={12}, keywords={Physical channel security Vernam Cipher Harmonic encryption FFT Signal encryption Waveforms}, doi={10.1007/978-3-030-63086-7_13} }- Yisroel Mirsky
Benjamin Fedidat
Yoram Haddad
Year: 2020
An Encryption System for Securing Physical Signals
SECURECOMM
Springer
DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-63086-7_13
Abstract
Secure communication is a necessity. However, encryption is commonly only applied to the upper layers of the protocol stack. This exposes network information to eavesdroppers, including the channel’s type, data rate, protocol, and routing information. This may be solved by encrypting the physical layer, thereby securing all subsequent layers. In order for this method to be practical, the encryption must be quick, preserve bandwidth, and must also deal with the issues of noise mitigation and synchronization.
In this paper, we present the Vernam Physical Signal Cipher (VPSC): a novel cipher which can encrypt the harmonic composition of any analog waveform. The VPSC accomplishes this by applying a modified Vernam cipher to the signal’s frequency magnitudes and phases. This approach is fast and preserves the signal’s bandwidth. In the paper, we offer methods for noise mitigation and synchronization, and evaluate the VPSC over a noisy wireless channel with multi-path propagation interference.
