Physical Layer Authentication for Massive MIMO Systems with Hardware Impairments

We study transmitter authentication in massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems with non-ideal hardware for the fifth generation (5G) and beyond networks. A new channel-based authentication scheme is proposed by taking hardware impairments into account. Based on signal processing theory, we first formulate channel estimation under hardware impairments and determine error covariance matrix to assess the quantity caused by hardware impairments on authentication performance. With the help of hypothesis testing and matrix transformation theories, we are then able to derive exact expressions for the probabilities of false alarm and detection under different channel covariance matrix models. Extensive simulations are carried out to validate theoretical results and illustrate the efficiency of the proposed scheme. Impacts of system parameters on performance are revealed as well.