APLOE

Applied Physical Layer Orthogonal frequency division multiplexing Encryption

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 Obiettivo del progetto (Objective)

'Future telecommunication products promise increased data rates and signal quality, enabling the convergence of services including voice, data and video on wireless platforms. The majority of 4G systems, including LTE, employ OFDM modulation. For the success of these systems, a key, user-oriented requirement is security in the wireless transmission. Security in current wireless systems is achieved by cryptographic algorithms that are employed at upper layers of the network.

Commonly encryption algorithms rely on – unproven – assumptions about the difficulty in solving certain mathematical problems. An increasing number of widespread encryption algorithms were recently compromised and proved inefficient for secure wireless transmission. Such issues prohibit the expansion of services such as secure mobile banking. On the other hand, it has been rigorously demonstrated that encryption at the physical layer can offer unconditional security. Physical layer encryption approaches are unbreakable, invoking perfect secrecy in the wireless transmission of data of any kind.

The principal aim of this research program is to investigate a novel approach for physical layer encryption for systems that use OFDM modulation, termed Masked-OFDM (MOFDM). The proposed project is relevant to 4G wireless systems. The ultimate objective of this is work is to address theoretical, technical and practical aspects of the MOFDM systems. The means by which these aims will be achieved can be grouped into three main themes: 1. A thorough analysis of the signal properties and possible variations of MOFDM systems will be performed. 2. The development of realistic system scenarios will be investigated. The main issue to be addressed is the reduction of power consumption and therefore the prolongation of the device battery duration. Furthermore, synchronisation strategies are to be researched. 3. Finally, the proposal of practical designs for 4G systems is envisaged.'

Introduzione (Teaser)

Security of wireless data transmission is an increasingly important concern. Novel masking technologies developed with EU funding promise perfect secrecy.

Descrizione progetto (Article)

Conventional encryption algorithms employed at upper layers of most fourth-generation (4G) wireless systems were considered nearly unbreakable due to the computational complexity involved.

However, a new generation of super-hackers has shown this assumption to be false.Recent developments based on information theory have demonstrated that physical layer encryption (at the signal level) can provide perfect secrecy of data transmission.

EU-funded scientists working on the project 'Applied physical layer orthogonal frequency division multiplexing encryption' (http://www.aploe.eu/ (APLOE)) investigated this and other friendly jamming technologies that can be used for proven secrecy in data exchange.Physical layer security (PLS) concepts exploit the inherent characteristics of the wireless medium, including fading or noise.

In order to evaluate performance, scientists defined the secrecy capacity (SC) as the highest communication rate for which 'encoding schemes exist that simultaneously guarantee reliability in the exchange of information with a legitimate user and perfect secrecy with respect to an eavesdropper'.Initial work focused on systems that use orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) in which a signal is broken up, encoded and sent out on multiple carrier frequencies.

Most 4G wireless systems including long-term evolution products use it.APLOE proposed the masked-OFDM scheme in which OFDM signals become practically undetectable through masking with a non-orthogonal FDM signal of approximately the same overall bandwidth.

In fact, the results take seminal early work on PLS even further by showing that the SC using the structured interferer was even higher than that using a noise-like masker.

Scientists investigated several other areas of wireless security, providing new insight into additional applications of PLS, effects on transmission rates and achievable SC.The team succeeded in all its objectives, pointing the way to realisation of perfect secrecy in wireless communications covering a huge global market and numerous sectors of the economy.

Proposed PLS technologies will enhance confidence in secure data transmission, providing a boost to e-commerce, e-banking, e-healthcare and a whole host of other services that will enhance the quality of life of EU citizens while ensuring a leading position for the EU in information and communications technology.