Wireless Security and IoT Device Identification using RF Fingerprinting and Deep Learning

Enhancing the security of wireless networks involves implementing a user authentication method when the fingerprint of a network device is unknown or considered a potential threat. This technique is known as radio frequency (RF) fingerprinting. This paper presents a novel method for RF fingerprinting of Internet of Things (IoT) devices, addressing the challenges of the radio frequency spectrum. The proposed architecture integrates a feature generator module that transforms time-series I/Q samples into a multi-dimensional matrix and a deep learning module inspired by the ResNet-50-1D model. We assess the effectiveness of our approach by analyzing a real-world dataset of BT emissions obtained from 10 commercial IoT devices in two challenging indoor environments. The datasets, made publicly accessible on IEEE Dataport, were gathered using a USRP X300 software-defined radio (SDR) in both line-of-sight (LoS) and rich multipath propagation scenarios. Our method showcases excellent results in the TTS scenario and shows promise in the challenging TTD scenario, considering the complex nature of frequency hopping. The evaluation results emphasize the significance of evaluating RF fingerprinting models in various scenarios and offer valuable insights into the strengths and limitations of our approach in handling radio frequency waveforms.