Reconfigurable Intelligent Surface Assisted Secret Key Generation in Quasi-Static Environments

Abstract

We propose a key generation protocol with the aid of a reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) to boost secret key rate (SKR) in quasi-static environments. Considering a passive eavesdropper, we derive the closed-form expression of the lower and upper bounds of the SKR. Our findings indicate the SKR is determined by the number of RIS elements, the correlation coefficient, the pilot length and the quality of the reflecting channel. Our protocol fully exploits the randomness from the direct channel and the reflecting channel. Monte Carlo simulations validate the analytical expression of the SKR and demonstrate our protocol outperforms existing work.