Rand-OFDM: A Secured Wireless Signal

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. As we move towards advanced spectrum sharing methodologies involving billions of devices connected over wireless networks, it is essential to secure the wireless signal such that only the intended receiver can realize the properties of the signal. In this paper, we propose Rand-OFDM, a new waveform, secured with a shared secret key, where the signal properties can be recovered only at the expected receiver. We achieve the signal level security by modifying the OFDM signal in time-domain, thus erasing the OFDM properties and in turn obfuscating the signal properties to an eavesdropper. We introduce a key-based secured training signal for channel estimation, which can be used only at the intended receiver with prior knowledge of the key. As a final step for the recovery of the signal, we use a clustering-based technique to correct the phase of the received signal. Our cryptanalysis shows that Rand-OFDM is especially useful in future wideband signals. Extensive simulation and over-the-air experiments show that the performance of Rand-OFDM is comparable to legacy OFDM and SNR penalty due to the secured waveform varies between 1-4dB. In all these scenarios, Rand-OFDM remains unrecognized by the adversary even at the highest possible SNR.