THE COLLEGE OF ELECTRONIC TECHNOLOGY / BANI-WALID

COMMUNICATIONS NETWORK SECURITY TECHNIQUE BASED ON

RADIO FREQUENCY FINGERPRINTING AND VARIATIONAL MODE
DECOMPOSITION

SUBMITTED BY:
HAJER ALSSNOSY AGHNAYAH

A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE STUDIES

DEPARTMENT
IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE
DEGREE OF MASTER OF SCIENCE
IN COMMUNICATION ENGINEERING

SUPERVISED BY:
DR. ALGHANNAI AGHNAIYA

NOV, 2023
THE COLLEGE OF ELECTRONIC TECHNOLOGY / BANI-WALID

COMMUNICATIONS NETWORK SECURITY TECHNIQUE BASED ON

RADIO FREQUENCY FINGERPRINTING AND VARIATIONAL MODE
DECOMPOSITION

SUBMITTED BY:
HAJER ALSSNOSY AGHNAYAH

A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE STUDIES

DEPARTMENT
IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE
DEGREE OF MASTER OF SCIENCE
IN COMMUNICATION ENGINEERING

SUPERVISED BY:
DR. ALGHANNAI AGHNAIYA

NOV, 2023
 Approval of the Graduate Studies Department, College of Electronic Technology /Bani-Walid

Dr. Alghannai Aghnaiya.

Director

This is to certify that we have read the thesis COMMUNICATIONS NETWORK SECURITY
TECHNIQUE BASED ON RADIO FREQUENCY FINGERPRINTING AND VARIATIONAL
MODE DECOMPOSITION
Submitted by HAJER ALSSNOSY AGHNAYAH
and that in our opinion it is fully adequate, in scope and quality, as a thesis for the degree of
Master of Engineering Science.

Dr. Alghannai Aghnaiya.

Supervisor

Date:
I hereby declare that all information in this document has been obtained and presented in
accordance with academic rules and ethical conduct. I also declare that, as required by these rules
and conduct, I have fully cited and referenced all material and results that are not original to this
work.

HAJER ALSSNOSY AGHNAYAH

Signature:
 ABSTRACT

Radio frequency fingerprinting (RFF) is promising method for physical layer security
in wireless networks. RFF is one of the communication network’s security techniques
based on the identification of the unique features of RF transient signals. In this thesis,
we evaluated the performance of RFF technique based on variational mode decomposition
(VMD). Radio frequency fingerprinting (RFF) is based on identification of unique features
of RF transient signals emitted by Bluetooth (BT) devices. RF transient signals of BT
devices are short in duration, non-stationary and nonlinear time series. For this purpose,
VMD is used to decompose Bluetooth (BT) transient signals into a series of band-limited
modes, and then, the transient signal is reconstructed from the modes. Higher order
statistical (HOS) features are extracted from the complex form of VMD-reconstructed
transients. Then, Linear Support Vector Machine (LVM) classifier is used to identify the
BT devices. The technique has been tested experimentally with BT devices of different
mobile brands, and models. For the same dataset the classification performance
demonstrates that (RFF with VMD) technique achieves better performance (~2.3 % higher)
than (RFF without VMD) technique. Finally, it has been shown that the use of variational
mode decomposition (VMD) in extracting features from Bluetooth (BT) transient signals
offers an efficient way to improve the classification accuracy.

Keywords: Variational mode decomposition, Bluetooth signals, Specific emitter

identification, Feature extraction, Classification.

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 ‫الملخص بالعربي‬

‫تعد بصمات التردد الالسلكي )‪ (RFF‬طريقة واعدة ألمن الطبقة المادية في الشبكات الالسلكية )‪. (RFF‬هي إحدى تقنيات أمان‬
‫شبكة االتصاالت القائمة على تحديد الميزات الفريدة لإلشارات العابرة للترددات الراديوية‪ .‬في هذه األطروحة‪ ،‬قمنا بتقييم أداء‬
‫تقنية )‪(RFF‬بناء على تحلل الوضع المتغير ‪ (VMD).‬تعتمد بصمات التردد الالسلكي )‪ (RFF‬على تحديد الميزات الفريدة‬
‫إلشارات التردد الالسلكي العابرة المنبعثة من أجهزة ‪ Bluetooth (BT).‬إشارات ‪ RF‬العابرة ألجهزة )‪ (BT‬قصيرة المدة‪،‬‬
‫سالسل زمنية غير ثابتة وغير خطية‪ .‬لهذا الغرض‪ ،‬يتم استخدام )‪(VMD‬لتحليل إشارات )‪ Bluetooth (BT‬العابرة إلى سلسلة‬
‫من األوضاع محدودة النطاق‪ ،‬وبعد ذلك‪ ،‬يتم إعادة بناء اإلشارة العابرة من األوضاع‪ .‬يتم استخراج الميزات اإلحصائية ذات‬
‫الترتيب األعلى )‪ (HOS‬من الشكل المعقد للعابرين المعاد بناؤهم ‪ (VMD).‬بعد ذلك‪ ،‬يتم استخدام مصنف آلة ناقالت الدعم‬
‫الخطي )‪ (LVM‬لتحديد أجهزة )‪. (BT‬تم اختبار هذه التقنية تجريبيا مع أجهزة )‪ (BT‬من ماركات ونماذج هواتف محمولة‬
‫مختلفة‪ .‬بالنسبة لمجموعة البيانات نفسها‪ ،‬يوضح أداء التصنيف أن تقنية )‪(RFF‬مع )‪(VMD‬تحقق أداء أفضل (~ ‪ ٪2‬أعلى)‬
‫من تقنية )‪(RFF‬بدون )‪. (VMD‬أخيرا‪ ،‬ثبت أن استخدام تحلل الوضع المتغير )‪ (VMD‬في استخراج الميزات من إشارات‬
‫)‪Bluetooth (BT‬العابرة يوفر طريقة فعالة لتحسين دقة التصنيف‪.‬‬

‫‪v‬‬
 DEDICATION

I want to dedicate this work to those who have passed away before witnessing its completion.
Your presence may be missed, but your memory lives on in my heart. I hope this achievement
brings you a sense of pride and serves as a tribute to your unwavering belief in me.

vi
 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I would like to express my sincere gratitude to several individuals who have contributed to the
completion of this Thesis.

Firstly, I would like to thank my supervisor, [DR. ALGHANNAI AGHNAIYA], for his guidance,
support, and valuable insights throughout the entire research process. His expertise and feedback
have been instrumental in shaping this study.
Your expertise in [Teaching and supervision] has been instrumental in shaping my research
direction and methodology. Your patience and willingness to answer my countless questions have
fostered a deep understanding of the subject matter. I am truly grateful for your dedication and the
time you have invested in my academic growth

Finally, To my family and friends, thank you for your unwavering support and encouragement
throughout this journey. Your belief in my abilities and continuous words of motivation have been
instrumental in keeping me inspired and motivated. I dedicate this work to my loved ones who
passed away before seeing it completed, especially to my uncles and grandmother who always had
high hopes for its completion. This achievement is a testament to their unwavering belief in me,
and I hope it brings them a sense of pride wherever they are.

Overall, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to everyone who has contributed to the
completion of this Thesis. Your guidance, support, and encouragement have been invaluable, and
I am truly humbled and grateful for the opportunity to have worked with you all. Thank you for
being a part of my journey and for helping me reach this important milestone.

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 TABLE OF CONTENTS

ABSTRACT .............................................................................................................. iii

‫ الملخص بالعربي‬...............................................................................................................v
DEDICATION .......................................................................................................... vi
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ...................................................................................... vii
TABLE OF CONTENTS ............................................................................... ......viii
LIST OF TABLES ..................................................................................................... x
LIST OF FIGURES ................................................................................................. xi
LIST OF SYMBOLS/ABBREVIATIONS ............................................................. xii

CHAPTER
1. INTRODUCTION.........................................................................................1
1.1 Background ............................................................................................1
1.2 Organization ......................................................................................2
1.3 Related Works ..................................................................................3
1.4 Problem statement ..................................................................................8
1.5 Research goal ....................................................................................8
2. RADIO FREQUENCY FINGERPRINTING ............................................9
2.1 Radio Frequencies ..................................................................................9
2.2 Radio Frequency Fingerprints ....................................................10
2.3 Traditional RFF Approaches................................................................10
2.3.1 Steady-state Analysis....................................................... 10

2.3.2 Transient Analysis...................................................... .....12

2.4 Security through Radio Frequency Fingerprinting ..............................13

2.5 Applications .........................................................................................13

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 3. VARIATIONAL MODE DECOMPOSITION (VMD) ...........................15
3.1 Theoretical Basics of VMD .................................................................15
3.1.1 Construction and solution of optimization problem ................... 15
3.1.2 Evaluation criteria for denoising algorithm ................................ 18
3.1.3 Advantages and disadvantages of VMD ................................... 21
3.2 Implementation of VMD ...................................................................... 22
3.2.1 Noise Robustness ........................................................................ 22
3.2.2 Decomposition of Complex Multimode Signal .......................... 24
3.2.2.1 Decomposition of Piecewise Stationary Signal .................... 24
3.2.2.2 Decomposition of Chirp signal ............................................. 24
3.2.2.3 Decomposition of General linear Trend with Two Harmonics
................................................................................................. 27
3.2.2.4 Decomposition of General Quadratic Trend with Chirp Signal
and Piecewise Harmonics ........................................................ 27

4. RADIO FREQUENCY FINGERPRINTING IMPLEMENTATION ... 30

4.1 Data Collection (Signal Capturing) ........................................................ 31
4.2 Transient detection and features ............................................................. 32
5. FEATURES AND CLASSIFICATION RESULTS ................................. 37
5.1 Features extraction .................................................................................. 37
5.2 Classification results ............................................................................... 40

6. CONCLUSIONS ......................................................................................... 44
REFERENCES ....................................................................................................... 45

ix
 LIST OF TABLES

TABLES
Table 3.1 VMD main parameters and their functions ............................................. 18
Table 4.1. Brands and models of mobile phones ...................................................... 35

x
 LIST OF FIGURES

FIGURES

Figure 2.1: Visual demonstration of how different modulation techniques convey

bits...................................................................................................................... 9
Figure 2.2: Visual demonstration of bad and good SNR...........................................11
Figure 2.3: Steady state and transient region of signal ……...……………........…..12
Figure 3.1 Flow chart of VMD algorithm………………………………………......20
Figure 3.2: Decomposition of noisy signal………………………………………....23
Figure 3.3. VMD decomposition of f(t)....................................................................25
Figure 3.4. VMD decomposition of f(t)....................................................................26
Figure 3.5. VMD decomposition of f(t)....................................................................28
Figure 3.6. VMD decomposition of f(t)....................................................................29
Figure 4.1 VMD based RF fingerprinting system......................................................30
Figure 4.2 Signal acquisition systems........................................................................31
Figure 4.3: The Transient Signal of Bluetooth signal................................................32
Figure 4.4 Box plot criteria........................................................................................36
Figure 5.1 Box plot of transient features....................................................................38
Figure 5.2 Conventional plot of transient features.....................................................39
Figure 5.3 Confusion matrix based on 40% of train data...........................................42
Figure 5.4 Scatter plot of data features (VAR)..........................................................42
Figure 5.5 Testing confusion matrix..........................................................................43

xi
 LIST OF SYMBOLS/ABBREVIATIONS

RFF Radio Frequency Fingerprinting

VMD Variational Mode Decomposition
CNN Convolutional Neural Network
WVD Wigner-Vile Distribution
EMD Empirical Mode Decomposition
BT Bluetooth
RFFID Radio Frequency Fingerprinting Identification
MEC Mobile Edge Computing
SNR Signal to Noise Ratio
GNSS Global Navigation Satellite System
DL Deep Learning
SIGINT Signal intelligence
HHT Hilbert-Huang transform
ROC Receiver Operating Characteristics
AUC Areas Under Curves
SVM Support Vector Machine
NN Neural Network
ICS Industrial Control Systems
RTU Remote Terminal Unit
DVMD-LSTM Dual Variational Modal Decomposition Long Short-Term Memory
EL Ensemble Learning
DAS Distributed Acoustic Sensing
LSVM Linear Support Vector Machine
HOS Higher Order Statistical
TFED Time-Frequency-Energy Distribution

xii
PUF Physical Unclonable Function
ASK Amplitude-Shift Keying
PSK Phase-Shift Keying
KNN K-Nearest Neighbors
BSCD Bayesian Step Change Detection
PD Phase Detection
WPA Wi-Fi Protected Access
TKIP Temporal Key Integrity Protocol
MAC Media Access Control
FT Fourier Transform
VAR Variance
KURT Kurtosis

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