Methodologies of Secret―Key Agreement Using Wireless Channel Characteristics.docVIP

Methodologies of Secret―Key Agreement Using Wireless Channel Characteristics 　　Abstract 　　In this article， we give an overview of current research on shared secret-key agreement between two parties. This agreement is based on radio wireless channel characteristics. We discuss the advantages of this approach over traditional cryptographic mechanisms and present the theoretical background of this approach. We then give a detailed description of the key-agreement process and the threat model， and we summarize the typical performance metrics for shared secret-key agreement. There are four processes in shared secret-key agreement： sampling， quantization， information reconciliation， and privacy amplification. We classify prior and current research in this area according to innovation on these four processes. We conclude with a discussion of existing challenges and directions for future work. 　　Keywords 　　physical-layer security； secret key generation 　　1 Introduction 　　The Diffie-Hellman key exchange protocol is the de facto mechanism for cryptographic secret-key agreement [1]. Relying on the intractability of the discrete logarithm problem， two parties with no prior knowledge of each other are able to exchange public messages over an insecure communications channel and arrive at a shared secret key that is safe from an eavesdropper and that can be used for encrypting communications between themselves. Research interest has recently revived an alternative approach to secret-key agreement. Two parties （Alice and Bob） who are communicating using radios can exploit unique spatio-temporal properties of the wireless channel between them to generate a shared secret. Due to the highly unpredictable and symmetric nature of multipath propagation， the wireless channel that Alice and Bob share is unique to them. It is reciprocal and cannot be deduced in detail by an eavesdropper （Eve）. The wireless channel is also highly sensitive to motion and changes in the environment，