Physical Layer Key Generation in 5G Wireless Networks

The bloom of 5G communication and beyond serves as a catalyst for physical layer key generation techniques. In 5G communications systems, many challenges in traditional physical layer key generation schemes, such as co-located eavesdroppers, the high bit disagreement ratio, and high temporal correlation, could be overcome. This article lists the key enabling techniques in 5G wireless networks, which offer opportunities to address existing issues in physical layer key generation. We survey the existing key generation methods and introduce possible solutions for the existing issues. The new solutions include applying the high signal directionality in beamforming to resist co-located eavesdroppers, utilizing the sparsity of millimeter-wave channel to achieve a low bit disagreement ratio under low signal-to-noise ratio, and exploiting hybrid precoding to reduce the temporal correlation among measured samples. Finally, the future trends of physical layer key generation in 5G and beyond communications are discussed.