Course info

Physical layer security techniques promise information-theoretic security for wireless communication. I.e., these techniques are designed to be provably secure against eavesdroppers.

This course discusses the theory and practice of physical layer security. The underlying theory is introduced and the application of these fundamentals towards practical solutions is discussed. Attacks against (practical) physical layer security techniques are presented. Theoretical and practical exercises, as well as the presentation of selected recent research results by seminar talks of students, further deepen the understanding of the subject matter.

Contents

• Properties of the physical layer
• Fundamentals of information-theoretic security and delineation from cryptography
• Physical layer security techniques (such as cooperative jamming, orthogonal blinding, zero-forcing, interference alignment, key extraction)
• Practical aspects of physical layer security techniques
• Practical implementations of physical layer security techniques using software-defined radios
• Selected current approaches to physical layer security

Prerequisites

This is a challenging and advanced course. We recommend that all students attending PhySec have attended CriCom before. (It is also fine to take CriCom in parallel to this course.) In particular, we strongly recommend the following background knowledge:

• Signal Processing (e.g., signal analysis, Fourier transform, modulation schemes, I/Q components)
• How to program using MATLAB
• Basic knowledge of IT-Security (e.g., security goals)