Hiding the RF Signal Signature in Tactical 5G

Abstract

Many security enhancements need to be considered in order to leverage 5G technologies for tactical networks. One important security area is the RF signal signature itself. Tactical communication waveforms rely on Transmission Security (TRANSEC) techniques in order to combat the impact of the enemy's eavesdropping and jamming capabilities. Adapting 5G for tactical communications may consider TRANSEC enhancements to include frequency hopping, orthogonality hopping, beamforming and other techniques to make the 5G RF signal have Low Probability of Detection (LPD) and Low Probability of Intercept (LPI) characteristics. This paper focuses on an approach for making it more difficult for an adversary to locate a 5G transmitting node: utilizing the 5G Multiple-Input-Multiple-output (MIMO) antenna to effectively randomize the RF signal footprint where only the Transmit/Receive (Tx/Rx) node pairs can synchronize to this randomization, thus making it harder for the enemy to make sense of the 5G RF signal.