MIMO-assisted channel-based authentication in wireless networks

Multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) techniques allow for multiplexing and/or diversity gain, and will be widely deployed in future wireless systems. In this paper, we propose a MIMO-assisted channel-based authentication scheme, exploiting current channel estimation mechanisms in MIMO systems to detect spoofing attacks with very low overhead. In this scheme, the use of multiple antennas provides extra dimensions of channel estimation data, and thus leads to a "security gain" over single-input single-output (SISO) systems. We investigate the security gain of MIMO systems in several system configurations via simulations for a specific real indoor environment using ray-tracing software. We also discuss the effect of increasing the number of transmit and receive antennas on the security gain and contrast that to the diversity/multiplexing gain.