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How to leverage double-structured sparsity of RIS channels to boost physical-layer authentication

How to leverage double-structured sparsity of RIS channels to boost physical-layer authentication
How to leverage double-structured sparsity of RIS channels to boost physical-layer authentication

Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces (RIS)-assisted systems are promising technology in next-generation wireless networks, but are susceptible to spoofing attacks due to their broadcast nature. This letter reveals the unique characteristics of RIS-aided multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems, that improve channel entropy compared to conventional MIMO. By capitalizing on the additional paths introduced by the cascaded channel and the distinctive double-structured sparsity inherent in its virtual representation, we develop a novel channel-based physical layer authentication (PLA) approach. In particular, we construct a robust signature for authentication purposes by extracting the intrinsic RIS features of the virtual angle of arrivals and departures indices. Furthermore, the distribution of the digital signature is analyzed to derive analytical expressions for the false alarm and detection probabilities of the proposed scheme. Simulation results show that the proposed approach surpasses the limitations of previous works, with 14.89% and 72% authentication performance improvements in detection and false alarm rates, respectively.

channel sparsity, physical layer authentication, RIS, security, spoofing attack
2162-2337
2260-2264
Bendaimi, Amira
62b9d8e5-9325-4c29-a946-f87debc7d878
Abdallah, Asmaa
86b80268-48be-4bc8-9577-c989e496e459
Celik, Abdulkadir
f8e72266-763c-4849-b38e-2ea2f50a69d0
Eltawil, Ahmed M.
5eb9e965-5ec8-4da1-baee-c3cab0fb2a72
Arslan, Huseyin
e933fd32-5003-4d12-9e4a-ac8906588f4c
Bendaimi, Amira
62b9d8e5-9325-4c29-a946-f87debc7d878
Abdallah, Asmaa
86b80268-48be-4bc8-9577-c989e496e459
Celik, Abdulkadir
f8e72266-763c-4849-b38e-2ea2f50a69d0
Eltawil, Ahmed M.
5eb9e965-5ec8-4da1-baee-c3cab0fb2a72
Arslan, Huseyin
e933fd32-5003-4d12-9e4a-ac8906588f4c

Bendaimi, Amira, Abdallah, Asmaa, Celik, Abdulkadir, Eltawil, Ahmed M. and Arslan, Huseyin (2024) How to leverage double-structured sparsity of RIS channels to boost physical-layer authentication. IEEE Wireless Communications Letters, 13 (8), 2260-2264. (doi:10.1109/LWC.2024.3411108).

Record type: Article

Abstract

Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces (RIS)-assisted systems are promising technology in next-generation wireless networks, but are susceptible to spoofing attacks due to their broadcast nature. This letter reveals the unique characteristics of RIS-aided multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems, that improve channel entropy compared to conventional MIMO. By capitalizing on the additional paths introduced by the cascaded channel and the distinctive double-structured sparsity inherent in its virtual representation, we develop a novel channel-based physical layer authentication (PLA) approach. In particular, we construct a robust signature for authentication purposes by extracting the intrinsic RIS features of the virtual angle of arrivals and departures indices. Furthermore, the distribution of the digital signature is analyzed to derive analytical expressions for the false alarm and detection probabilities of the proposed scheme. Simulation results show that the proposed approach surpasses the limitations of previous works, with 14.89% and 72% authentication performance improvements in detection and false alarm rates, respectively.

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More information

Accepted/In Press date: 30 April 2024
e-pub ahead of print date: 7 June 2024
Published date: August 2024
Keywords: channel sparsity, physical layer authentication, RIS, security, spoofing attack

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 505800
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/505800
ISSN: 2162-2337
PURE UUID: 92d8f746-8d43-4836-9a93-60b5d051546a
ORCID for Abdulkadir Celik: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0001-9007-9979

Catalogue record

Date deposited: 20 Oct 2025 16:34
Last modified: 21 Oct 2025 02:15

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Contributors

Author: Amira Bendaimi
Author: Asmaa Abdallah
Author: Abdulkadir Celik ORCID iD
Author: Ahmed M. Eltawil
Author: Huseyin Arslan

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