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This Knowledge Area is a review of the most relevant topics in wireless physical layer security. The physical phenomenon utilized by the techniques presented in this Knowledge Area is the radiation of electromagnetic waves. The frequencies considered hereinafter consist of the entire spectrum that ranges from a few Hertz to frequencies beyond those of visible light (optical spectrum). This Knowledge Area covers concepts and techniques that exploit the way these signals propagate through the air and other transmission media. It is organised into sections that describe security mechanisms for wireless communication methods as well as some implications of unintended radio frequency emanations.
Since most frequencies used for wireless communication reside in the radio frequency spectrum and follow the well-understood laws of radio propagation theory, the majority of this Knowledge Area is dedicated to security concepts based on physical aspects of radio frequency transmission. The chapter therefore starts with an explanation of the fundamental concepts and main techniques that were developed to make use of the wireless communication layer for confidentiality, integrity, access control and covert communication. These techniques mainly use properties of physical layer modulations and signal propagation to enhance the security of systems.
After having presented schemes to secure the wireless channel, the Knowledge Area continues with a review of security issues related to the wireless physical layer, focusing on those aspects that make wireless communication systems different from wired systems. Most notably, signal jamming, signal annihilation and jamming resilience. The section on jamming is followed by a review of techniques capable of performing physical device identification (i.e., device fingerprinting) by extracting unique characteristics from the device’s (analogue) circuitry.
Following this, the chapter continues to present approaches for performing secure distance measurements and secure positioning based on electromagnetic waves. Protocols for distance measurements and positioning are designed in order to thwart threats on the physical layer as well as the logical layer. Those attack vectors are covered in detail, together with defense strategies and the requirements for secure position verification.
Then, the Knowledge Area covers unintentional wireless emanations from devices such as from computer displays and summarises wireless side-channel attacks studied in literature. This is followed by a review on spoofing of analogue sensors. Unintentional emissions are in their nature different from wireless communication systems, especially because these interactions are not structured. They are not designed to carry information, however, they also make use of, or can be affected by, electromagnetic waves.
Finally, after having treated the fundamental concepts of wireless physical security, this Knowledge Area presents a selection of existing communication technologies and discusses their security mechanisms. It explains design choices and highlights potential shortcomings while referring to the principles described in the earlier sections. Included are examples from near-field communication and wireless communication in the aviation industry, followed by the security considerations of cellular networks. Security of global navigation systems and of terrestrial positioning systems is covered last since the security goals of such systems are different from communication systems and are mainly related to position spoofing resilience.
Course Content
Course Includes
- 8 Lessons
- 23 Topics
