Multi-layer architectures for secure communication: information theoretic perspectives

May 15, 2008
Ashish Khisti | MIT

In the traditional network hierarchy, reliability and security are handled in different protocol layers. In particular, information is encrypted at the application layer, while lower layers provide an error-free transmission link. Likewise compression is also addressed separately. However, many emerging applications such as wireless ad hoc networks, sensor networks and pay TV systems are vulnerable to new attacks that are not addressed by such separation. In this talk, I will present new architectures in which encryption and source/channel coding are performed jointly, and analyze them within an information theoretic framework. Among other results, we will develop 1) fundamental limits and insights into the role of multiple antennas for protecting confidentiality of information; and 2) source coding techniques for secret key generation and their application to privacy-preserving biometric systems. As will be apparent, good solutions to such problems bring together techniques not only from information theory, but from convex optimization, random matrix theory, signal processing, and graphical models as well. As time permits some recent extensions to joint source and channel coding problems with secrecy constrains will also be discussed.

Speaker Details

Ashish Khisti received the B.A.Sc degree in Engineering Sciences (Electrical Engineering option) from University of Toronto in 2002 and S.M degree in Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 2004, where he is currently a PhD candidate. His research interests are in the area of information theory and its applications to wireless and multimedia systems. He is a recipient of the Harold L. Hazen Teaching Award and the Joseph Levin Masterworks award from the EECS department at MIT. He is also a recipient of the Hewlett-Packard PhD fellowship, NSERC fellowship for post-graduate studies, and the Lucent global science scholar award. He has been a visiting student at EPFL-Lausanne, ETH-Zurich, and HP Labs, and a summer intern at Mitsubishi Electrical Research Labs (MERL).