Ambient Internet-of-Things (AIoT) form a new class of emerging technology that promises to deliver pervasive wireless connectivity to previously disconnected devices and products, assisting dependent industries (for example, supply chain, clothing, remote surveillance, climate monitoring, and sensors) to obtain granular real-time service visibility. Such ultra-low complexity and power consumption devices, that are either battery-less or have the capability for limited energy storage, can provide data feeds about the condition of any aspect (e.g., an environment or an item) that is being monitored, enabling proactive or reactive control by any application server. Although the security of data involving AIoT devices is critical for key decisions of any dependent operational system, the implementation of resource intensive cryptographic algorithms and other security mechanisms becomes nearly infeasible, or very challenging, due to the device energy and computational limitations. In this article, we present a lightweight security solution that enables confidentiality, integrity, and privacy protection in wireless links including AIoT. We consider, as a case study, an ambient-powered Reconfigurable Intelligent Surface (RIS) that harvests energy from its incident radio waves to realize programmable reflective beamforming, enabling the communication between a Base Station (BS) and end-user terminals. The proposed lightweight security solution is applied to the control channel between the BS and the RIS controller which is responsible for the metasurface's dynamic management and phase configuration optimization.

翻译：环境物联网（AIoT）作为一类新兴技术，有望为先前断连的设备与产品提供普适的无线连接，协助相关产业（如供应链、服装、远程监控、气候监测与传感器）获取细粒度实时服务可见性。此类超低复杂度与功耗设备（或为无电池设计，或具备有限储能能力）可提供被监测对象（如环境或物品）任何方面的数据流，使应用服务器能够实施主动或被动控制。尽管涉及AIoT设备的数据安全对于任何依赖型运营系统的关键决策至关重要，但由于设备能量与算力限制，实施资源密集型加密算法及其他安全机制几乎不可行或极具挑战性。本文提出一种轻量级安全方案，可在包含AIoT的无线链路中实现机密性、完整性与隐私保护。我们以环境供能可重构智能表面（RIS）为案例进行研究：该RIS从入射无线电波中采集能量，实现可编程反射波束成形，从而建立基站（BS）与终端用户设备间的通信。所提出的轻量级安全方案应用于BS与RIS控制器间的控制信道，该控制器负责超表面的动态管理与相位配置优化。