Secure OFDM Waveform Design for ISAC: Artificial Phase-Doppler Shifts Against Passive Sensing

TL;DR

This paper introduces a new OFDM waveform design for integrated sensing and communication that uses artificial phase-Doppler shifts to enhance security against passive sensing, without affecting legitimate system performance.

Contribution

It proposes a novel low probability of intercept waveform design using artificial phase and Doppler shifts to disrupt passive sensing while maintaining communication and sensing functions.

Findings

Effective disruption of passive radar by artificial shifts

No impact on legitimate system performance

Successful compensation at legitimate receivers

Abstract

This paper proposes a novel low probability of intercept (LPI) waveform design approach for orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM)-based integrated sensing and communication systems by introducing artificial phase and Doppler shifts. These controlled impairments, unknown to eavesdroppers, effectively disrupt passive radar processing and intercept attempts. At legitimate receivers, they can be fully compensated, so that standard OFDM communication and sensing performance are preserved. To support the effectiveness of the proposed LPI waveform design for OFDM-based ISAC, measurement results with 1 GHz bandwidth at 27 GHz are presented considering different impairment introduction approaches, all with no impact on cooperative system performance, and compensation capabilities at the eavesdropper.