A Survey of Physical Layer Authentication for Millimeter-Wave MIMO Systems

Xu Zhao

¹School of Systems Information Science, Future University Hakodate, 116-2 Kamedanakano-cho, Hakodate, Hokkaido, 041-8655, Japan

Millimeter-wave (mmWave) communication, leveraging its advantages of large bandwidth and high data rate, has become a key technology for the fifth-generation (5G) wireless networks. However, its highly directional beam transmission characteristics also bring unprecedented physical layer security challenges, especially impersonation attacks. Physical layer authentication (PLA), as an emerging security paradigm, verifies the transmitter identity by exploiting unique physical features of channels or device, providing an effective approach to enhance the security of mmWave systems. This paper summarizes the research status of PLA schemes in mmWave scenarios, systematically classifies existing authentication schemes into three categories: channel feature-based authentication, device impairment-based authentication, and hybrid multi-feature authentication. It introduces the latest works in each category and finally discusses the challenges and future research directions.

Physical Layer Authentication, Millimeter-Wave (mmWave), Wireless Networks

Xu Zhao (2025). A Survey of Physical Layer Authentication for Millimeter-Wave MIMO Systems. Journal of Networking and Network Applications, Volume 5, Issue 3, pp. 137–147. https://doi.org/10.33969/J-NaNA.2025.050304.

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