Encrypted-OFDM: A secured wireless waveform

Abstract

Wireless communication has been a broadcast system since its inception, which violates security and privacy issues at the physical layer between the intended transmit and receive pairs. Consequently, it is essential to secure the wireless signal such that only the intended receiver can realize the signal properties. In this paper, we propose Encrypted-OFDM, a new waveform, where the signal structure is altered to encrypt the waveform with a shared secret key. We achieve the signal level security by modifying the OFDM signal in time-domain, thus erasing the OFDM properties and obfuscating the signal properties to an eavesdropper. We present a two-stage encryption algorithm to increase the robustness of the transmitted waveform and achieve a high level of secrecy, even when low entropy keys are used. We also introduce a novel channel estimation algorithm by removing the pilots, so that only the intended receiver can estimate the channel correctly. Furthermore, we perform both secrecy and error analysis for the transmitted and received Encrypted-OFDM waveform. Extensive simulation and over-the-air experiments show that the performance of Encrypted-OFDM is comparable to legacy OFDM, and the SNR penalty due to the secured waveform varies between $\approx$ 1–4 dB. In all these scenarios, Encrypted-OFDM remains unrecognized at the eavesdropper.