Unshared Secret Key Cryptography

Abstract: Current security techniques can be implemented with either secret key exchange or physical layer wiretap codes. In this work, we investigate an alternative solution for MIMO wiretap channels. Inspired by the artificial noise (AN) technique, we propose the unshared secret key (USK) cryptosystem, where the AN is redesigned as a one-time pad secret key aligned within the null space between transmitter and legitimate receiver. The proposed USK cryptosystem is a new physical layer cryptographic scheme, obtained by combining traditional network layer cryptography and physical layer security. Unlike previously studied artificial noise techniques, rather than ensuring non-zero secrecy capacity, the USK is valid for an infinite lattice input alphabet and guarantees Shannon's ideal secrecy and perfect secrecy, without the need of secret key exchange. We then show how ideal secrecy can be obtained for finite lattice constellations with an arbitrarily small outage.