Reconfigurable intelligent surface-aided secret key generation using an autoencoder and K-means quantization

Abstract

In quasi-static wireless channel scenarios, the generation of physical layer keys faces the challenge of invariant spatial and temporal channel characteristics, resulting in a high key disagreement rate (KDR) and low key generation rate (KGR). To address these issues, we propose a novel reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS)-aided secret key generation approach using an autoencoder and K-means quantization algorithm. The proposed method uses channel state information (CSI) for channel estimation and dynamically adjusts the reflection coefficients of the RIS to create a rapidly fluctuating channel. This strategy enables the extraction of dynamic channel parameters, thereby enhancing channel randomness. Additionally, by integrating the autoencoder with the K-means clustering quantization algorithm, the method efficiently extracts random bits from complex, ambiguous, and high-dimensional channel parameters, significantly reducing KDR. Simulations demonstrate that, under various signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs), the proposed method performs excellently in terms of KGR and KDR. Furthermore, the randomness of the generated keys is validated through the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) test suite.

Keywords

Reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) / Physical layer key generation / Quantization / Autoencoder

RIGHTS & PERMISSIONS

Zhejiang University Press