Abstract
This article studies security aspects of data transmission in on-body
Internet of Things (IoT) devices through the use of Directional
Modulation (DM) from a smart watch integrated antenna. DM is a
beamsteering-based Physical Layer Security (PLS) method used to transmit
baseband constellations to known secure locations, while simultaneously
scrambling them in other directions. However, in the state-of-the-art DM
is implemented using large arrays, which are out-sized for many on-body
IoT devices. To overcome this challenge, this study proposes multimodal
ultra-thin compact antennas suitable for integration into smart watches.
These antennas present advanced beamsteering capabilities that allow the
implementation of DM from a low-thickness structure of up to 0.57 mm or
1/100th of wavelength at the center operating frequency. Two different
DM implementations
(simultaneous multiport transmission and an energy-efficient single-port
transmission) are tested using a multi-layer phantom. Overall, secure
steerable transmissions are realized, and experimental verifications are
carried out to validate the proposed concept. Ultimately, this article
demonstrates the feasibility of applying new energy-efficient and
low-cost security techniques to enhance the privacy of
resource-constrained IoT devices.Â