An information theoretic approach to RF fingerprinting

RF fingerprinting exploits the variations in the RF chain of radios to uniquely identify transmitters, and distinguish adversarial transmissions from legitimate nodes. We provide a systematic approach rooted from information theory to understand basic performance limits of RF fingerprinting. We develop a novel channel model to cover RF fingerprinting systems, where the imperfections in the RF chain are modeled as a fingerprint channel, cascaded to the physical channel. We analyze authentication problem in the presence of an adversary, where both the legitimate transmitter and the adversary are equipped with unique fingerprint channels. We provide bounds for the error exponents of the legitimate nodes, and the success exponent of the adversary, as a function of their fingerprints. We illustrate that concepts analogous to Maurer's simulatability are necessary to guarantee authentication via RF fingerprints.