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Wireless physical-layer encryption with programmable metasurface in real environment

Wireless physical-layer encryption with programmable metasurface in real environment

Authors: Menglin Wei, Zhuo Wang, Hanting Zhao, Tie Jun Cui, Lianlin Li
Status: Final
Date of publication: 6 March 2023
Published in: ITU Journal on Future and Evolving Technologies, Volume 4 (2023), Issue 1, Pages 78-86
Article DOI : https://doi.org/10.52953/QEQQ3695
Abstract:
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.

Keywords: Physical-level encryption, programmable metasurface, secure wireless communication
Rights: © International Telecommunication Union, available under the CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 IGO license.
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