Optic Fingerprint: Enhancing Security in Visible Light Communication Networks

In addressing physical layer security issues, hardware fingerprinting has been proven to be a reliable method. Additionally, Visible Light Communication (VLC) technology offers a solution to the spectrum congestion in next-generation wireless communications and is noteworthy for its high security. However, there is currently a lack of a comprehensive and systematic description of the hardware fingerprints and their extraction mechanisms for VLC devices. This study aims to bridge this gap by thoroughly analyzing the hardware finger-prints of VLC devices and proposing an innovative extraction mechanism, thereby enhancing the security and reliability of the physical layer. An Optic Fingerprint (OF) model is proposed based on the LED's inherent circuit characteristics, capable of extracting and processing unique feature vectors with high precision. Through extensive experiments, we demonstrate the model's efficacy, achieving up to 99.3 % accuracy in identifying the same manufactured white LEDs under variable conditions, marking a significant improvement in authentication robustness and interference resistance.