Date of Award
8-2024
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Department
Electrical and Computer Engineering (Holcomb Dept. of)
Committee Chair/Advisor
Linke Guo
Committee Member
Kuang-Ching Wang
Committee Member
Yongqiang Wang
Committee Member
Long Cheng
Abstract
The widespread deployment of wireless devices facilitates the Internet of everything, greatly enhancing communication efficiency and improving people’s daily experiences. The interconnectivity of wireless devices relies on wireless communication technologies. With the development of various emerging communication technologies, wireless networks have become increasingly vast and complex, giving rise to numerous new challenges such as efficiency and security concerns.
In wireless networks, different devices may utilize different communication protocols, resulting in heterogeneous wireless networks. Communication among heterogeneous devices is challenging, often leading to conflicts and low communication efficiency when utilizing limited communication resources (e.g., spectrum resources). Moreover, the coexistence of heterogeneous devices may make them potential attackers against each other. Therefore, improving communication efficiency in heterogeneous networks and detecting attacks from heterogeneous devices have become pressing issues.
In this dissertation, we addressed the communication efficiency and security issues in emerging heterogeneous wireless networks. Specifically, the advent of Cross-Technology Communication (CTC) enables direct communication between heterogeneous devices. As a crucial aspect of communication, identity authentication among heterogeneous devices has become an urgent issue in need of resolution. Although it has been addressed among homogeneous devices, such methods are challenging to directly apply to heterogeneous devices. To overcome this obstacle, we proposed an identity authentication mechanism to verify the legitimacy of senders in heterogeneous networks.
However, even with identity authentication mechanisms, intentional attacks from heterogeneous devices, such as jamming attacks, remain difficult to mitigate. In such scenarios, even if we can identify the other party as an unauthorized device, we still inevitably encounter interference from it. To address this, we proposed a hybrid approach employing frequency hopping and power control mechanisms to defend against jamming attacks among heterogeneous devices.
After resolving the above security issues, we observed that communication efficiency among heterogeneous devices remains low. When communicating parties have different data rates (referred to as higher-end device and lower-end device), they need to adhere to the principle of downward compatibility, meaning the data rate cannot exceed that of the lower-end device. This results in significant waste of communication capabilities for the higher-end device. To fully utilize the communication capabilities of higher-end devices, we proposed a parallel inclusive communication scheme, which allows a higher-end device to communicate with a lower-end device (in CTC mode) and another higher-end device (in original mode) simultaneously. This achieves parallel communication in a one-to-many scenario, greatly enhancing the utilization of communication resources.
Thereafter, we found that low communication efficiency is prevalent in various communication scenarios, especially in scenarios where standardized communication protocols cannot be adopted, such as covert communication. Covert communication often utilizes hardware not specifically designed for communication, making it challenging to follow specific communication protocols. Among numerous covert communication methods, utilizing memory Electromagnetic Radiation (EMR) for data transmission is a high-data-rate method. However, it still suffers from issues such as weak signals, low channel utilization, and impracticality. To address these, we proposed a 2D symbol-based communication method to enhance signal recognizability and support multi-to-one parallel communication, thereby significantly improving covert communication efficiency and channel utilization.
Recommended Citation
Yu, Sihan, "Efficient and Secure Data Transmissions in Emerging Heterogeneous Wireless Networks" (2024). All Dissertations. 3756.
https://open.clemson.edu/all_dissertations/3756
Author ORCID Identifier
0000-0001-8798-3051