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Lightweight Security for Ambient-Powered Programmable Reflections with Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces

Andreas Kunz, Sheeba Backia Mary Baskaran, George C. Alexandropoulos

TL;DR

This work addresses the security of control communications for ambient-powered RIS in AIoT, where energy constraints rule out traditional USIM-based cryptography. It proposes a lightweight protocol that derives a confidentiality key $K$ and a Temporary ID from a nonce and a shared RIS device ID, leveraging hash-based generation and HMAC for integrity, and integrates with 3GPP AIoT stack elements. Evaluation indicates substantial latency and energy savings over USIM-based schemes, supporting secure, confidential, and private RIS control with ultra-low-power devices. The approach enables secure RIS-enabled ambient wireless environments and points to future directions for scalable, group-based RIS security in 6G contexts.

Abstract

Ambient Internet-of-Things (AIoT) form a new class of emerging technology that promises to deliver pervasive wireless connectivity to previously disconnected devices and products, assisting dependent industries (for example, supply chain, clothing, remote surveillance, climate monitoring, and sensors) to obtain granular real-time service visibility. Such ultra-low complexity and power consumption devices, that are either battery-less or have the capability for limited energy storage, can provide data feeds about the condition of any aspect (e.g., an environment or an item) that is being monitored, enabling proactive or reactive control by any application server. Although the security of data involving AIoT devices is critical for key decisions of any dependent operational system, the implementation of resource intensive cryptographic algorithms and other security mechanisms becomes nearly infeasible, or very challenging, due to the device energy and computational limitations. In this article, we present a lightweight security solution that enables confidentiality, integrity, and privacy protection in wireless links including AIoT. We consider, as a case study, an ambient-powered Reconfigurable Intelligent Surface (RIS) that harvests energy from its incident radio waves to realize programmable reflective beamforming, enabling the communication between a Base Station (BS) and end-user terminals. The proposed lightweight security solution is applied to the control channel between the BS and the RIS controller which is responsible for the metasurface's dynamic management and phase configuration optimization.

Lightweight Security for Ambient-Powered Programmable Reflections with Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces

TL;DR

This work addresses the security of control communications for ambient-powered RIS in AIoT, where energy constraints rule out traditional USIM-based cryptography. It proposes a lightweight protocol that derives a confidentiality key and a Temporary ID from a nonce and a shared RIS device ID, leveraging hash-based generation and HMAC for integrity, and integrates with 3GPP AIoT stack elements. Evaluation indicates substantial latency and energy savings over USIM-based schemes, supporting secure, confidential, and private RIS control with ultra-low-power devices. The approach enables secure RIS-enabled ambient wireless environments and points to future directions for scalable, group-based RIS security in 6G contexts.

Abstract

Ambient Internet-of-Things (AIoT) form a new class of emerging technology that promises to deliver pervasive wireless connectivity to previously disconnected devices and products, assisting dependent industries (for example, supply chain, clothing, remote surveillance, climate monitoring, and sensors) to obtain granular real-time service visibility. Such ultra-low complexity and power consumption devices, that are either battery-less or have the capability for limited energy storage, can provide data feeds about the condition of any aspect (e.g., an environment or an item) that is being monitored, enabling proactive or reactive control by any application server. Although the security of data involving AIoT devices is critical for key decisions of any dependent operational system, the implementation of resource intensive cryptographic algorithms and other security mechanisms becomes nearly infeasible, or very challenging, due to the device energy and computational limitations. In this article, we present a lightweight security solution that enables confidentiality, integrity, and privacy protection in wireless links including AIoT. We consider, as a case study, an ambient-powered Reconfigurable Intelligent Surface (RIS) that harvests energy from its incident radio waves to realize programmable reflective beamforming, enabling the communication between a Base Station (BS) and end-user terminals. The proposed lightweight security solution is applied to the control channel between the BS and the RIS controller which is responsible for the metasurface's dynamic management and phase configuration optimization.
Paper Structure (6 sections, 3 figures)

This paper contains 6 sections, 3 figures.

Table of Contents

  1. Introduction
  2. Ambient-Powered RIS Devices
  3. Secured Control of Ambient-Powered RISs
  4. Proposed Lightweight Security Protocol
  5. Evaluation of Security Protocols for AIoT
  6. $6$G Outlook and Conclusion

Figures (3)

  • Figure 1: Wireless communications between a Base Station (BS) and a User Equipment (UE) via an ambient-powered Reconfigurable Intelligent Surface (RIS). The RIS is controlled by the BS which shares the optimum phase configuration with the RIS controller via a dedicated secure control channel.
  • Figure 2: The AIoT protocol stack as described in 3GPP TR 23.700-13 3gppTR2370013.
  • Figure 3: The proposed lightweight security protocol for managing and operating an ambient-powered RIS device/controller through a BS that utilizes it to enable/boost its wireless connectivity with one or more UEs.