4
Enhanced
Wireless Cellular Packet Transmission Security via Spatial Diversity--Physical
Optics Corporation, Electro-Optics & Holog. Div., 20600 Gramercy
Place, Building 100, Torrance, CA 90501-1821;
310-320-3088
Dr.
Stephen Kupiec, Principal Investigator,
Mr.
Gordon Drew, Business Official, gdrew@poc.com
DOE
Grant No. DE-FG03-00ER83072
Amount:
$749,992
Wireless
communications sometimes require not only secure two-way communications but also
mutual and continuous authentication of the identity and position of mobile
units and cellular network control stations. This is particularly important for treaty verification, for
the transport of munitions, fissile material and currency, and for vehicle
control and tracking within both government and commercial facilities.
This project will develop the Spatial Diversity Encryption Chaffing
Interface system, which splits a secure communication into a stream of packets
and distributes transmission across all cells within range of the mobile unit.
The spatial distribution of the cell sites then implicitly encodes the
identity of each packet by direction of propagation, time of flight, and spatial
modulation. In Phase I, a
prototype wireless cellular packet network implementing spatial diversity as an
entirely novel security feature was successfully implemented, incorporating both
spatially diverse transceiver hardware and complementary sequenced chaffing and
winnowing software within a small wireless local area network.
Operation of larger cellular networks with multiple mobile units and a
large number of cell site concentrators was verified via simulation.
In Phase II, a comprehensive system for secure communications and
continuous mutual authentication of identity and position of mobile units on a
cellular packet network will be developed.
Also, a comprehensive secure packet transmission protocol and interactive
network management interface will be demonstrated.
Commercial
Applications and Other Benefits as described by the awardee:
The proposed
system should bring secure authenticated communication to cellular handsets and
mobile stations as well as to armored car fleets and other carriers of valuable
or sensitive materials. By
constantly verifying the position and route of mobile units, the system will
safeguard against hijacking, theft, ambush, and diversion while maintaining a
reliable positive control link for secure transport fleets.