New McEliece Cryptosystem Based on Polar-LDPC Concatenated Codes as a Post-quantum Cryptography

Both polar code and Low-Density Parity-Check (LDPC) code have been adopted in 3GPP eMBB scenario. Some scholars have proposed a serial concatenation structure combining these two codes. However, the inner code needs to add redundant bits to protect the redundant bits of the outer code in the serial concatenation. In this paper, we propose a parallel concatenation code combining polar code and LDPC code on the AWGN channel, which does not distinguish the inner code from the outer code. In the proposed concatenated structure, the BP algorithm is used to decode polar code, and the output soft information of BP decoder is logarithmically processed before LDPC decoding. According to the simulation results, compared with the serial concatenated code with the same code rate and code length, the parallel concatenated code has better BER(Bit-Error-Rate) performance.

This letter gives a random construction for Low Density Parity Check (LDPC) codes, which uses an iterative algorithm to avoid short cycles in the Tanner graph. The construction method has great flexible choice in LDPC code’s parameters including codelength, code rate, the least girth of the graph, the weight of column and row in the parity check matrix. The method can be applied to the irregular LDPC codes and strict regular LDPC codes. Systemic codes have many applications in digital communication, so this letter proposes a construction of the generator matrix of systemic LDPC codes from the parity check matrix. Simulations show that the method performs well with iterative decoding.

The Internet of Things (IoT) now underpins critical systems like healthcare monitors, smart home, smart grids, automotive V2V & V2X networks, and industrial controls but it still relies on classical cryptography, whose security assumptions are vulnerable to quantum computers. A large quantum computer could run Shor’s algorithm to break RSA/ECC and use Grover’s algorithm to accelerate brute-forcing of symmetric keys, undermining the confidentiality and authentication of data in these IoT applications. Researchers have proposed quantum cryptographic solutions. Quantum key distribution (QKD) and quantum random number generators (QRNGs) exploit quantum mechanics to detect eavesdropping and deliver provably secure key material. For example, chip-scale QRNGs can be embedded in IoT sensors to generate true random keys, boosting resistance to brute-force attacks. These quantum techniques provide information-theoretic secrecy, for instance, QKD-generated keys have been used to authenticate smart-grid SCADA. However, most IoT devices are resource-constrained, making direct deployment of conventional QKD hardware challenging. Post-quantum cryptography (PQC) complements quantum methods by providing algorithms such as lattice-based, hash-based that resist quantum attacks on existing hardware. Standardized PQC can be deployed via software updates on legacy IoT nodes, enabling scalable and quantum-safe security within current constraints. Researchers are exploring lightweight PQC for connected cars and e-health sensors. Hybrid approaches combining QKD/QRNG with PQC offer a layered defense. Since QKD protocols are regarded as ‘future-proof’ and PQC standards mature, their combined use will be essential for robust, quantum-safe IoT security. Miniaturizing quantum components such as integrated QKD/QRNG modules and optimizing lightweight PQC schemes for low-power IoT devices are future research directions to secure IoT networks.

Several combinatorial properties of low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes, such as minimum distance, diameter, stopping number, girth and cycle-length distribution of the corresponding Tanner graph, are known to influence their performance under iterative decoding. Recently, a new class of combinatorial configurations, termed trapping sets, was shown to be of significant importance in determining the properties of LDPC codes in the error-floor region. Very little is known both about the existence/parameters of trapping sets in structured LDPC codes and about possible techniques for reducing their negative influence on the code's performance. In this paper, we address both these problems from an algorithmic and combinatorial perspective. We first provide a numerical study of the trapping phenomena for the Margulis code, which exhibits a fairly high error-floor. Based on this analysis, conducted for two different implementations of iterative belief propagation, we propose a novel decoding process, termed averaged decoding. Averaged decoding provides for a significant reduction in the number of incorrectly decoded frames in the error-floor region of the Margulis code. Furthermore, based on the results of the algorithmic approach, we suggest a novel combinatorial characterizations of trapping sets in the class of LDPC codes based on finite geometries. Projective geometry LDPC codes are suspected to have extremely low error-floors, which is a property that we may attribute to the non-existence of certain small trapping sets in the code graph.

Polar codes [1] are a class of provably capacity-achieving error correcting codes (ECC) for memoryless symmetric channels with low-complexity code structures; they have been shown to enjoy better decoding performance over LDPC and Turbo codes under certain scenarios. In this work, we study the application of polar codes for NAND-based SSDs, and mainly focus on the joint source channel coding (JSCC) aspect of polar codes for flash data protection. In a practical SSD system, in addition to the host data, both flash translation layer (FTL) and host side will write on NAND a small amount of non-host data (a.k.a. metadata) for system managing purposes. We demonstrate that the metadata information can be readily and efficiently utilized by polar codes, whereas such property is lacking in LDPC-based systems. With the help of the side information provided by metadata, the decoding capability of polar codes can be further enhanced with little or no modifications on the decoder side. Simulation results verify the performance improvement of metadata-based JSCC scheme, and indicate that polar codes have competitive advantages over LDPC codes on flash memories.

Turbo Codes and Tail Biting Convolutional Codes are used for channel coding in LTE, but these codes are not pertinent in 5G. For Channel coding, advanced error correction techniques are required for the 5G. Polar codes are adopted for control information and LDPC codes are required for Data information for the 5G. Various coding techniques such as LDPC codes, Quasi Cyclic (QC)-LDPC codes, Non-Binary (NB)-LDPC codes, Spatially Coupled (SC)-LDPC codes, Irregular Repeat Accumulate (IRA) codes, Polar codes, Distributed CRC Aided (DCA) codes, and Fountain codes are illustrated. For Decoding Min-Sum Algorithm and Belief Propagation are used for LDPC codes. Min-Sum, OMS, NMS, BP methods are applied in QC-LDPC codes. SC, SCL, FSCL, CASCL, BP algorithms implemented for Polar codes. Simulation of QC-LDPC codes, Polar codes, and LDPC codes are generated by using MATLAB Software. The performance of all channel coding techniques with consideration to BER and BLER is mentioned.

This paper reveals that the current LDPC codes in DVB-S2 are not good, since they have the codes of minimum weight of 5, which leads to their BER can not satisfy the requirements of DVB-S2. This paper develops an algorithm to estimate the minimum weight of LDPC codes based on generator matrices. Using it, we can find the minimum weight problem of the current LDPC codes in DVB-S2. To enhance the minimum weight problem of the LDPC codes, we propose a new approach to construct the encodable irregular QC codes, which can not produce new short girths and can have much larger minimum weight and minimum distance of the codes. Simulations verify the construction of alternative QC LDPC codes for DVB-S2 to be valid, since better BER performance than that of existing irregular LDPC codes of DVB-S2 is obtained.

In this paper, polar codes, low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes and convolutional codes in the status of high-performance wireless (WirelessHP) are discussed. Those classic code schemes are compared in terms of their encoding and decoding complexity and the error-correcting performance. Results show that, polar codes with successive cancellation list (SCL) decoding is superior to the LDPC codes and the convolutional codes in the condition of WirelessHP. The result has certain significance for the development of next generation communication technology.

There is a security threat to the traditional cryptography because of the emergence of quantum computation. Quantum computers can break through many cryptosystems based on mathematical puzzles. The post-cryptography has been established for the sake of the security. It has been proved that McEliece public-key cryptosystem based on error-correcting codes can resist quantum attacks. In this paper, several new generating algorithms of the quantum Bose-Chaudhuri-Hocquenghem (BCH) codes have been proposed, and the quantum BCH codes can correct the errors including bit-flip and phase-flip. At the same time, the quantum McEliece public-key cryptosystem and quantum Niederreiter public key cryptosystem have been designed by us on the basis of quantum BCH codes in this paper, and their encryption and decryption procedures are created in detail. Our cryptosystem not only retains the advantages of postquantum computation, but also can encrypt or decrypt in quantum state. From the perspective of computational complexity theory, both cryptosystems can resist the attacks of Shor algorithm and Grover algorithm very well. The Niederreiter classical digital signature is designed by us according to the structure characteristics of quantum BCH codes.

Perfect decryption has been always assumed in the research of public key encryption, however, this is not true all the time. For some public key encryption primitives, like NTRU [9] or Ajtai-Dwork [1], the decryption process may not obtain the corresponding message even the encryption and decryption are run correctly. Furthermore, such a kind of decryption errors will lead to some dangerous attacks against the underlying primitive. Another interesting point is that, those primitives are not based on the factoring, nor the discrete log problem which are subject to the Shor’s algorithm [18] with quantum computers. This kind of primitives may be promising in the post-quantum cryptography. Therefore, the decryption errors deserve much attention and should be coped with carefully. In this paper, our main technique is not to use any error-correcting codes to eliminate the errors, but to use some padding (transform) to hide “bad” errors from attacker’s control. We 1) efficiently enhance these error-prone public key encryption primitives to the chosen ciphertext security, even in the presence of the decryption errors, and 2) show that the solution is more generic, rather than some specific padding methods previously presented, to thwart the decryption errors based attacks successfully.

Polar codes were shown to be weak at finite block lengths even under maximum-likelihood (ML) decoding. To enhance polar codes, CRC-aided polar codes were proposed. It has been shown that CRC-aided polar codes under the successive cancellation list (SCL) decoder outperform LDPC codes and turbo codes. Recently, interleaved polar (i-polar) codes were proposed. By using a new bit channel selection algorithm, i-polar codes without CRC were shown to outperform the 5G LDPC codes. However, most research on polar codes focuses on the binary case. In this paper, a new family of nonbinary i-polar codes with random constellation mapping is proposed. A recursive form for calculating the average weight enumerating function (WEF) of the nonbinary i-polar code is derived. With the random constellation mapping, the upper bound on the BLER under ML decoding depends on the WEF of the nonbinary i-polar code. Then a new channel selection algorithm is proposed based on the polarization effect and the BLER upper bound. The algorithm generates a sequence, termed the i-polar sequence (IPS). Simulation results show that the nonbinary i-polar codes with the IPS outperform the 5G LDPC codes.

Modern cryptography pushed forward the need of having provable security. Whereas ancient cryptography was only relying on heuristic assumptions and the secrecy of the designs, nowadays researchers try to make the security of schemes to rely on mathematical problems which are believed hard to solve. When doing these proofs, the capabilities of potential adversaries are modeled formally. For instance, the black-box model assumes that an adversary does not learn anything from the inner-state of a construction. While this assumption makes sense in some practical scenarios, it was shown that one can sometimes learn some information by other means, e.g., by timing how long the computation take. In this thesis, we focus on two different areas of cryptography. In both parts, we take first a theoretical point of view to obtain a result. We try then to adapt our results so that they are easily usable for implementers and for researchers working in practical cryptography. In the first part of this thesis, we take a look at post-quantum cryptography, i.e., at cryptographic primitives that are believed secure even in the case (reasonably big) quantum computers are built. We introduce HELEN, a new public-key cryptosystem based on the hardness of the learning from parity with noise problem (LPN). To make our results more concrete, we suggest some practical instances which make the system easily implementable. As stated above, the design of cryptographic primitives usually relies on some well-studied hard problems. However, to suggest concrete parameters for these primitives, one needs to know the precise complexity of algorithms solving the underlying hard problem. In this thesis, we focus on two recent hard-problems that became very popular in post-quantum cryptography: the learning with error (LWE) and the learning with rounding problem (LWR). We introduce a new algorithm that solves both problems and provide a careful complexity analysis so that these problems can be used to construct practical cryptographic primitives. In the second part, we look at leakage-resilient cryptography which studies adversaries able to get some side-channel information from a cryptographic primitive. In the past, two main disjoint models were considered. The first one, the threshold probing model, assumes that the adversary can put a limited number of probes in a circuit. He then learns all the values going through these probes. This model was used mostly by theoreticians as it allows very elegant and convenient proofs. The second model, the noisy-leakage model, assumes that every component of the circuit leaks but that the observed signal is noisy. Typically, some Gaussian noise is added to it. According to experiments, this model depicts closely the real behaviour of circuits. Hence, this model is cherished by the practical cryptographic community. In this thesis, we show that making a proof in the first model implies a proof in the second model which unifies the two models and reconciles both communities. We then look at this result with a more practical point-of-view. We show how it can help in the process of evaluating the security of a chip based solely on the more standard mutual information metric.

Low-Density Parity-Check (LDPC) Code has become one of the best coding technologies at present because of its low complexity iterative decoding algorithm and its performance with further close to the Shannon limit. Non-binary LDPC codes designed in high order Galois fields have shown better potential than binary LDPC codes with the same code length and code rate, therefore it was applied for the navigation message encoding in BeiDou satellite navigation system (BDS). The navigation message contains time information, ephemeris parameters, clock correction terms and so forth, which is necessary for navigation solution. As the synchronization head was not encoded, it is hard to deal with data synchronization and navigation data decoding when the navigation receiver works at a low Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR). Aiming at this problem, we present a synchronization scheme for BDS B2a signal by utilizing the information from the process of decoding. The synchronizer is based on syndrome checks using the decoding result of the Extended Min-Sum (EMS) algorithm. Ratios of satisfaction of all check restrictions are computed firstly, and then the boundary value is obtained through MonteCarlo method. Simulation results show that the proposed algorithm performs well at relatively low SNR compared with traditional method.

Efficient coding techniques algorithm for cluster-heads communication in wireless sensor networks

In this paper, we propose a concatenated code by combining a Recursive Systematic Convolutional (RSC) code with a Low-Density Parity-Check (LDPC) code. The proposed concatenated code is encoded in parallel by an RSC encoder and an LDPC encoder without interleavers between them. When decoding the proposed concatenated code, the information bits are decoded by two decoding algorithms, and soft information is exchanged between the RSC decoder and the LDPC decoder. This allows for the elimination of wrong codewords output by each decoder. The use of an LDPC code allows us to halt the decoding process when the valid codeword is obtained. We evaluate the error rate performance of the proposed concatenated code by computer simulations. We show that the proposed concatenated code does not have a high error floor, and achieves better BLock Error Rate (BLER) performance than either conventional LDPC codes or conventional turbo codes in the high Eb/No region. We also show that since the proposed concatenated code can correct wrong codewords output by each decoder, it achieves better BLER than the regular LDPC code at the same Bit Error Rate (BER).