Threshold-Based Physical Layer Authentication for Space Information Networks

Space information networks (SINs) have been proposed to improve terrestrial network coverage and reliability for worldwide access to internet-based services. SINs rely on low-earth orbit (LEO) satellites to provide these services. However, the SIN architecture poses greater authentication concerns, such as spoofing attacks, than traditional networks. Hence, an adaptive physical layer authentication (PLA) scheme is proposed in this paper to provide effective authentication for LEO satellites. This scheme employs hypothesis testing with a threshold to dis-tinguish between legitimate and illegitimate satellites using the Doppler frequency spread (DS) and received power (RP) as characteristics. The proposed approach is evaluated for on-the-move satellite communication (OTMSC) systems. The results obtained show that using the RP and DS as characteristics provides high authentication performance.