Exploiting Multiple-Antenna Diversity for Shared Secret Key Generation in Wireless Networks

—Generating a secret key between two parties by extracting the shared randomness in the wireless fading channel is an emerging area of research. Previous works focus mainly on single-antenna systems. Multiple-antenna devices have the potential to provide more randomness for key generation than single-antenna ones. However, the performance of key generation using multiple-antenna devices in a real environment remains unknown. Different from the previous theoretical work on multiple-antenna key generation, we propose and implement a shared secret key generation protocol, Multiple-Antenna KEy generator (MAKE) using off-the-shelf 802.11n multiple-antenna devices. We also conduct extensive experiments and analysis in real indoor and outdoor mobile environments. Using the shared randomness extracted from measured Received Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI) to generate keys, our experimental results show that using laptops with three antennas, MAKE can increase the bit generation rate by more...

• Type: Journal
• Year: 2010
• Where: INFOCOM
• Authors: Kai Zeng, Daniel Wu, An Chan, Prasant Mohapatra
• Keywords: Bit Generation Rate, Communications, INFOCOM 2010, Key Generation, Multiple-antenna Devices