Hardening Cybersecurity for mmWave Massive MIMO 5G Networks at Physical Layer
Abstract
5G wireless communication technologies are considered as the key enabler of various IoT applications. Although there is significant ongoing work on the development of advanced 5G wireless communication techniques, such as mmWave (millimeter wave) and massive MIMO for communication performance enhancement (achieving ultra high bandwidth,extreme low delay, and high reliable communication), the security aspects of these 5G wireless communication techniques have not been well investigated. The potential security benefits brought by mmWave massive MIMO technologies as well as new security threat against these new technologies have not been well understood. To fill this gap, in this project, the PI proposes a comprehensive research plan to 1) explore new channel characteristics and methodologies to achieve efficient physical layer key generation in mmWave massive MIMO 5G networks; 2) develop novel detection and mitigation mechanisms to thwart pilot contamination attacks in mmWave massive MIMO communications; 3) study the impact of mobility on physical layer security, develop secure user association in mmWave cellular networks, and develop mobility-aware schemes to enhance security; and 4) evaluate the proposed mechanisms and techniques through theoretical analysis, simulation, and proof-of-concept experiments. The proposed research will greatly promote the understanding of physical layer security benefits as well as challenges brought by 5G techniques. The proposed research on physical layer key generation in mmWave massive MIMO networks is expected to significantly reduce the bit disagreement ratio by one or two orders of magnitude compared with traditional CSI (channel state information) based key generation schemes under the same SNR. It can also potentially achieve low bit disagreement ratio under low SNR (e.g, -10dB), which is not achievable by the existing methods. The proposed research on PCA attack detection and mitigation will pave the way to more efficient and secure mmWave massive MIMO communication under active attacks. The proposed detection scheme does not require protocol change or extra signal processing at end user devices. This feature is very appealing in many IoT applications with resource constrained devices and make the solution compatible with existing protocol standard. The study of the virtual channel characteristics on mmWave massive MIMO systems could also lead to more efficient detection schemes against other types of attacks, such as identity-based attacks. The investigation of the impact of mobility on physical layer security will provide a better understanding on what mobility models achieve better performance as well as performance improvement brought by mobility. The study will also provide foundations for designing mobility-assisted and mobility-aware algorithms that can further improve the networking and security performance of 5G networks. The study of secure and efficient user association scheme under mobility will promote the understanding of the impact of unique mmWave communication characteristics on communication performance and security. The proposed research is transformative in nature and can be applied to a wide range of wireless networks, including WLAN, cellular, mobile ad hoc networks, etc. It has a great potential to enhance the security strength of the battlefield mobile communication related to Army. The proposed techniques will essentially enhance the 5G wireless network security by enabling strong protection at physical layer.
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Jun 25, 2021
- Source ID
- W911NF2110187
Entities
People
- Kai Zeng
Organizations
- Army Contracting Command
- George Mason University
- United States Army