Enhanced wireless channel authentication using time-synched link signature

Wireless link signature is a physical layer authentication mechanism, which uses the unique wireless channel characteristics between a transmitter and a receiver to provide authentication of wireless channels. A vulnerability of existing link signature schemes has been identified by introducing a new attack, called mimicry attack. To defend against the mimicry attack, we propose a novel construction for wireless link signature, called time-synched link signature, by integrating cryptographic protection and time factor into traditional wireless link signatures. We also evaluate the mimicry attacks and the time-synched link signature scheme on the USRP2 platform running GNURadio. The experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of time-synched link signature.