Demonstrating Physical Layer Security Via Weighted Fractional Fourier Transform

Abstract

Recently, there has been significant enthusiasms in exploiting physical (PHY-) layer characteristics for secure wireless communication. However, most existing PHY-layer security paradigms are information theoretical methodologies, which are infeasible to real and practical systems. In this paper, we propose a weighted fractional Fourier transform (WFRFT) pre-coding scheme to enhance the security of wireless transmissions against eavesdropping. By leveraging the concept of WFRFT, the proposed scheme can easily change the characteristics of the underlying radio signals to complement and secure upper-layer cryptographic protocols. We demonstrate a running prototype based on the LTE-framework. First, the compatibility between the WFRFT pre-coding scheme and the conversational LTE architecture is presented. Then, the security mechanism of the WFRFT pre-coding scheme is demonstrated. Experimental results validate the practicability and security performance superiority of the proposed scheme.