RINGS: Coding, High-Frequency and Antennas for Post-Quantum Security (CHAPS)
Award # 2148132
Overview
This project presents a research collaboration between the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Rice University, Brown University, and Clemson University. CHAPS addresses the critical confluence of two trends. The first is that, as new generations (dubbed Gs) of wireless mobile communications emerge, there is an increasingly aggressive use of higher frequencies for transmission, in order to make fuller use of the available spectrum. This trend has been particularly marked in 5G, with the incorporation of millimeter wave bands, at carrier frequencies reaching tens of GHz. The second trend is the rapid progress of post-quantum computing, and the associated need to consider post-quantum security, as traditional cryptosystems appear to be broken or eroded by quantum computing. CHAPS is not devoted merely to physical-layer security, nor does it strive for a purely cryptographic solution; rather, it relies on combining the unique characteristics of antennas and channels at high carrier frequencies with recent developments in coding-based post-quantum security in a way that makes unique and synergistic use of both.
Technical Approach
In an eavesdropping scenario, it has been shown that the transmitter Alice can zero-force (steer her radiation null) to an eavesdropper Eve to secure the transmission, but only when Alice knows Eve’s channel. We propose the Absolute Security approach that achieves security without the stringent requirement of knowledge about Eve. Our Absolute Security approach relies on (i) diverse radiation minima over different frequency channels and (ii) a linear secure coding across all frequency channels. The radiation minima create what we call “blind regions” within which Eve cannot even detect the transmitted signal. The secure coding ensures that, whenever Eve fails to detect one frequency channel, she cannot obtain any information about the individual message Alice sends to the receiver Bob. Together, the blind region of the total transmission expands with more frequency channels. With enough frequency channels, we show that the blind region can expand to almost all locations except the spatial regions near Bob, allowing secure transmission without specific knowledge about Eve’s location, as long as she is within the blind region.
Project Team
Prof. Daniel M. Mittleman (co-PI)
Prof. Edward W. Knightly (co-PI)
Prof. Rafael G. L. D’Oliveira (co-PI)
