UWB impulse radio based distance bounding

Abstract

Today's communication systems are often vulnerable to wormhole or relaying attacks, leading to severe security problems. Distance Bounding (DB) protocols are authentication protocols designed to protect against these attacks. They determine an upper bound on the physical distance between two communication parties-the verifier V (e.g. a door requiring an access key) and the prover P (e.g. a wireless key device). UWB technology promises an innovative wireless implementation of DB protocols, using low cost components. A crucial aspect for DB algorithms, besides a high temporal resolution, is the processing delay of P between receiving a challenge from V and transmitting the answer to V. Even current UWB transceivers may add a considerable processing delay, which decreases the provided security. We propose and analyze a novel analog UWB transceiver architecture which is able to both detect incoming UWB pulses and transmit answers with minimal delay.