Deep Learning Based RF Fingerprint Identification Using Differential Constellation Trace Figure

This paper proposes a novel deep learning-based radio frequency fingerprint (RFF) identification method for internet of things (IoT) terminal authentications. Differential constellation trace figure (DCTF), a two-dimensional (2D) representation of differential relationship of signal time series, is utilized to extract RFF features without requiring any synchronization. A convolutional neural network (CNN) is then designed to identify different devices using DCTF features. Compared to the existing CNN-based RFF identification methods, the proposed DCTF-CNN possesses the merits of high identification accuracy, zero prior information and low complexity. Experimental results have demonstrated that the proposed DCTF-CNN can achieve an identification accuracy as high as 99.1% and 93.8% under SNR levels of 30 dB and 15 dB, respectively, when classifying 54 target ZigBee devices, which significantly outperforms the existing RFF identification methods.