Analyses of Environmental Effects on Secret Key Exchange in UAVs using Experimental Data

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) play a significant role in modern applications ranging from surveillance to enabling communication in disastrous and remote areas, especially in Non-Terrestrail Networks (NTNs). Secure communications between UAVs and ground users are requisite, with secret key exchange being an important candidate for the physical layer security of such security protocols. This paper investigates the environmental factors influencing the efficacy and reliability of secret key exchange in UAVs, utilizing experimental data to draw insights. Through a series of field experiments, we analyze the effects of UAV structure and antenna location on the robustness of key exchange mechanisms. Our results indicate that certain environmental conditions, particularly adverse weather and noise introduced by the UAV body structure and propellers, do not impair the key exchange process. This research contributes to developing more security-resilient UAV communication systems, ensuring the reliability of communications links across diverse environments.