Course Description

Musics Doctoral School is pleased to announce a course on

Experimental Evaluation of Propagation-Based Encryption Key Establishment based on Parasitically-Coupled Reconfigurable Antennas

given by Michael A. Jensen (Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Brigham Young University, Provo, UT 84602, USA, jensen@byu.edu)

Venue :

December 11th from 10:30 to 11:30, Shannon room, Maxwell building, Place du Levant 3, 1348 Louvain-la-Neuve

Abstract :

Because of the inherent vulnerabilities associated with wireless data transmission, recent attention has focused on increasing communication security using techniques at the physical layer. As an example, bi-directional estimation of the reciprocal electromagnetic propagation channel can be used to establish secret encryption keys that are used for secure data encryption and decryption. While the number of key bits that can be generated for a static or slowly-varying propagation environment is limited, this performance can be enhanced by randomly changing the radiation properties of a reconfigurable antenna at one or both of the radios. This study uses simulations and experimental channel measurements to characterize the impact of reconfigurable antenna complexity on the performance of key establishment in different static propagation environments and in the presence of a multi-antenna eavesdropper. The results demonstrate that reconfigurable antennas can significantly enhance the security, even when the eavesdropper antennas are adjacent to or surround one of the legitimate nodes. The results further demonstrate that increasing the number of reconfigurable parasitic elements notably increases the achieved performance.

Biography :

Prof. Michael Jensen received the B.S. and M.S. degrees in Electrical Engineering from Brigham Young University in 1990 and 1991, respectively, and the Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering at the University of California, Los Angeles in 1994. Since 1994, he has been at the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at BYU where he is currently a Professor and Department Chair. He teaches courses in electromagnetics, high-frequency circuit design, and signal processing for communications. 

Dr. Jensen's research focuses on characterizing propagation channels and designing antennas for wireless communications as well as the development of advanced signal processing techniques for robust and secure communications. His publications in these areas include 3 book chapters, 67 journal articles, and over 170 conference articles. As a result of his work, he has been awarded the H. A. Wheeler paper award in the IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation in 2002 and the best student paper award at the 1994 IEEE International Symposium on Antennas and Propagation. He was elevated to the grade of IEEE Fellow in 2008.

Michael Jensen has been the Editor-in-Chief and an Associate Editor of the IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation as well as an Associate Editor for the IEEE Antennas and Wireless Propagation Letters and the IEEE Antennas and Propagation Magazine. He is the co-founder of two companies that continue to do business in Utah County.

Registration :

Free but mandatory on Musics website