On the Physical Layer Security of Backscatter Wireless Systems

Speaker:  Walid Saad (VT ECE faculty)

Host: MICS

Date: December 5 (Friday), 2014
Time: 3 PM - 4 PM
Location: Whittemore 654 (6th Floor Conference Room)

Abstract:

Backscatter wireless communication lies at the heart of many practical low-cost, low-power, distributed systems such as the Internet of Things (IoT) and RFID-based systems. The inherent cost restrictions coupled with the modest computational and storage capabilities of passive sensors, such as RFID tags, render the adoption of classical security techniques challenging; which motivates the introduction of physical layer security approaches. Despite their promising potential, little has been done to study the prospective benefits of such physical layer techniques in backscatter systems.

In this talk, we study and analyze the physical layer security of wireless backscatter systems. First, we study the secrecy rate of a basic single-reader, single-tag model. Then, we investigate how the unique features of the backscatter channel are exploited to maximize this secrecy rate. In particular, we show how one can achieve perfect secrecy by allowing backscatter system’s reader to inject a noise-like signal, added to the conventional continuous wave signal, in order to interfere with eavesdropper’s reception of the tag’s information signal. The benefits of this approach are studied for a variety of scenarios while assessing the impact of key factors, such as antenna gains and location of the eavesdropper, on the overall secrecy of the backscatter transmission. The studied model is then extended to the multi-reader, multi-tag scenario. For this scenario, the use of game-theoretic techniques will be discussed. We conclude this talk an overview on our research portofolio in the areas of wireless and social networks, cybersecurity, and game theory.

Speaker:

Walid Saad received his B.E. degree in Computer and Communications Engineering from the Lebanese University, in 2004, his M.E. in Computer and Communications Engineering from the American University of Beirut (AUB) in 2007, and his Ph.D degree from the University of Oslo in 2010. Currently, he is an Assistant Professor at the Bradley Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Virginia Tech, where he leads the Network Science, Wireless, and Security (NetSciWiS) laboratory, within the Wireless@VT research group. Prior to joining VT, he was a faculty at the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at the University of Miami and he has held several research positions at institutions such as Princeton University and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

His research interests include wireless and small cell networks, game theory, cybersecurity, smart grid, cognitive radio, and self-organizing networks. He has published one textbook and over 100 papers in these areas. Dr. Saad is the recipient of the NSF CAREER award in 2013. He was the author/co-author of three conference best paper awards at WiOpt in 2009, ICIMP in 2010, and IEEE WCNC in 2012. He currently serves as an editor for the IEEE Transactions on Communications and the IEEE Communication Tutorials & Surveys.