Communication Security via Temporal Dependency

2026-07-27

AI Summary

This work proposes a novel security paradigm grounded in temporal dependency, treating time coupling as a fundamental security resource—a perspective unprecedented in prior literature. Traditional communication security relies on shared secrets or channel advantages, which are often infeasible in infrastructure-less, emergency, or highly dynamic wireless networks. The proposed approach leverages state-chained Random Linear Network Coding (RLNC), integrated with synchronized state embedding, adaptive power control, and optimized intentional interference, to ensure that even if an eavesdropper successfully decodes transmitted symbols, it cannot correctly interpret the underlying data. Operating under a strong security model—requiring no pre-shared keys, no channel advantage, and assuming the adversary possesses full knowledge of the protocol—the scheme induces persistent desynchronization in the eavesdropper within sub-second timescales, rendering its decoding irrecoverably erroneous over the long term.

Abstract

Communication security has traditionally been built upon one of two external resources: shared secret keys or a communication advantage over the eavesdropper. However, many practical wireless scenarios, including infrastructure-less, emergency, and highly dynamic networks, cannot guarantee either resource, motivating the need for a new communication security principle. This paper introduces a new communication security paradigm that exploits temporal dependency as a security resource. Unlike conventional secrecy techniques that prevent an eavesdropper from recovering transmitted bits, the proposed paradigm allows packet decoding but prevents correct interpretation by making original and dummy packets computationally indistinguishable. Rather than protecting individual transmissions, successive transmissions are intentionally coupled so that future communication depends on correctly interpreting previous ones. As one realization, we develop a state-chained random linear network coding (RLNC) framework in which the synchronization state required to interpret each transmission block is embedded in the previous block. Therefore, synchronization failures propagate across future transmissions, resulting in persistent eavesdropper asynchronization. We analytically characterize the probability and persistence of eavesdropper asynchronization, together with the computational complexity of resynchronization, and develop transmission strategies based on transmit power and intentional-interference optimization. Numerical results demonstrate sub-second eavesdropper asynchronization under a worst- case adversarial model with no channel advantage, no secret assumptions, complete protocol knowledge, and an arbitrarily stronger eavesdropper.

Problem

• communication security
• temporal dependency
• eavesdropper asynchronization
• wireless networks
• security without secrets

Innovation

• temporal dependency
• state-chained RLNC
• eavesdropper asynchronization
• communication security
• random linear network coding