Secure Key Generation and Agreement in UWB Communication

A secret key generation algorithm from UWB channel measurements is proposed. The security of the technique is based on the reciprocity and spatial correlation properties of UWB radio channel measurements. The channel reciprocity property allows two communicating radio receivers to measure the state of their common radio channel to a high degree of agreement. The spatial correlation property of the UWB radio channel means that eavesdroppers cannot get accurate measurements of this common channel unless they are within a short distance of one the communicating transceivers. The most important point about the generated key is that it is specific to the location and time of the communications session. In this work, the results of experimental measurements are reported which validate the theoretical assumptions made about the UWB radio channel for secure key generation in previous papers. In addition, the effectiveness of proposed algorithms for generating secret keys from UWB channel measurements are validated on actual channel measurements.