Worst-Case Detection Performance for Distributed SIMO Physical Layer Authentication
2022 (English)In: IEEE Transactions on Communications, ISSN 0090-6778, E-ISSN 1558-0857, Vol. 70, no 1, p. 485-499Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]
Feature-based physical layer authentication (PLA) schemes, using position-specific channel characteristics as identifying features, can provide lightweight protection against impersonation attacks in overhead-limited applications like e.g., mission-critical and low-latency scenarios. However, with PLA-aware attack strategies, an attacker can maximize the probability of successfully impersonating the legitimate devices. In this paper, we provide worst-case detection performance bounds under such strategies for a distributed PLA scheme that is based on the channel-state information (CSI) observed at multiple distributed remote radio-heads. This distributed setup exploits the multiple-channel diversity for enhanced detection performance and mimics distributed antenna architectures considered for 4G and 5G radio access networks. We consider (i) a power manipulation attack, in which a single-antenna attacker adopts optimal transmit power and phase; and (ii) an optimal spatial position attack. Interestingly, our results show that the attacker can achieve close-to-optimal success probability with only statistical CSI, which significantly strengthens the relevance of our results for practical scenarios. Furthermore, our results show that, by distributing antennas to multiple radio-heads, the worst-case missed detection probability can be reduced by 4 orders of magnitude without increasing the total number of antennas, illustrating the superiority of distributed PLA over a co-located antenna setup.
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc. , 2022. Vol. 70, no 1, p. 485-499
Keywords [en]
distributed physical layer authentication, optimal attack strategies, Wireless physical layer security, 4G mobile communication systems, Antennas, Authentication, Channel capacity, Channel state information, Physical layer, Probability, Radio access networks, Channel characteristics, Detection performance, Distributed antennas, Impersonation attack, Lightweight protection, Missed detection probabilities, Orders of magnitude, Remote radio heads, 5G mobile communication systems
National Category
Communication Systems Telecommunications
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:kth:diva-308862DOI: 10.1109/TCOMM.2021.3073002ISI: 000742731500039Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-85104253969OAI: oai:DiVA.org:kth-308862DiVA, id: diva2:1638254
Note
QC 20220216
2022-02-162022-02-162022-06-25Bibliographically approved