OTFS Communication Link Construction and Three-Dimensional Constellation Encryption Design

MA Yingjie; LIU Yueheng; ZHAO Geng; ZHAO Mingjing; WANG Dan

doi:10.11999/JEIT250181

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MA Yingjie, LIU Yueheng, ZHAO Geng, ZHAO Mingjing, WANG Dan. OTFS Communication Link Construction and Three-Dimensional Constellation Encryption Design[J]. Journal of Electronics & Information Technology. doi: 10.11999/JEIT250181

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MA Yingjie, LIU Yueheng, ZHAO Geng, ZHAO Mingjing, WANG Dan. OTFS Communication Link Construction and Three-Dimensional Constellation Encryption Design[J]. Journal of Electronics & Information Technology. doi: 10.11999/JEIT250181

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OTFS Communication Link Construction and Three-Dimensional Constellation Encryption Design

doi: 10.11999/JEIT250181 cstr: 32379.14.JEIT250181

1.
Department of Electronic and Communication Engineering, Beijing Electronic Science and Technology Institute, Beijing 100070, China
2.
Department of Cyberspace Security, Beijing Electronic Science and Technology Institute, Beijing 100070, China

Funds: The National Natural Science Foundation of China (62441208), The Fundamental Research for the Central Universities (3282024060, 3282025011)

Received Date: 2025-03-19
Rev Recd Date: 2025-07-10

Available Online: 2025-07-26

Abstract

Abstract

Objective With the advancement of Sixth-Generation (6G) communication technologies, the demand for highly reliable and secure transmission in high-speed mobile scenarios has grown significantly. Orthogonal Time Frequency Space (OTFS) modulation has emerged as a promising solution due to its superior transmission reliability in high-mobility environments. However, research on the security aspects of OTFS systems remains limited. To address this challenge, this study proposes a Three-Dimensional (3D) constellation encryption scheme for OTFS communication links. The objective is to enhance the security of OTFS systems while preserving communication performance by designing a novel 3D constellation structure and implementing physical-layer dynamic encryption based on a Coupled Map Lattice (CML) spatiotemporal chaotic system. This research provides a secure and efficient transmission strategy for future wireless communication systems. Methods The integration of 3D constellation encryption with OTFS modulation enhances the security of OTFS systems. First, a novel 3D constellation is designed, where 16 constellation points are uniformly distributed on the surface of a sphere centered at the origin. By optimizing the spatial distribution of constellation points, the minimum Euclidean Distance (MED) is increased and the average transmission power is reduced, thereby improving Bit Error Rate (BER) performance. Second, a dynamic encryption scheme for the 3D constellation over the OTFS link is proposed. In this scheme, pseudo-random sequences are generated using the CML system, quantized into 16-bit binary sequences, and employed to control both the selection of mapping rules and the rotational encryption of the 3D constellation. The encryption process operates as follows: first, the mapping rules are dynamically selected based on the quantized chaotic sequences; second, the rotation angles of the constellation points around the X, Y, and Z axes are determined by the same chaotic sequences. This dual encryption mechanism enhances the system’s security while maintaining reliable communication performance. Results and Discussions The performance of the proposed scheme is evaluated through extensive simulations. The results show that the optimized 3D constellation achieves a 22% improvement in MED compared with traditional 2D 16-quadrature amplitude modulation (16QAM). Compared with existing 3D constellations, the proposed design increases the MED by 5%, reduces average transmission power by 11%, and improves the Constellation Figure of Merit (CMF) by 10% (Table 2, Table 3). Superior communication performance is also demonstrated, with a BER improvement of approximately 0.6 dB over existing methods (Fig. 5, Fig. 6). In terms of security, the encryption scheme provides a key space of 10¹²⁰, effectively resisting brute-force attacks. Key sensitivity tests confirm that even minor changes to the initial key result in completely different decrypted images (Fig. 7), verifying the robustness of the encryption mechanism. The encrypted images exhibit uniform histogram distributions (Fig. 8) and correlation coefficients near zero (Table 6), indicating strong resistance to statistical attacks. Additionally, the scheme maintains reliable performance under noisy conditions, with decrypted images preserving high quality even at low Signal-to-Noise Ratios (SNR) (Fig. 9). Conclusions This study combines OTFS communication links with 3D constellation encryption to realize physical-layer security for OTFS systems, enhancing both communication performance and transmission security. The proposed 3D constellation improves the MED by 5%, reduces average power by 11%, and increases the CMF by 10%, thereby enhancing BER performance. The dual dynamic encryption mechanism based on a CML system offers strong security. Simulation results show that the proposed scheme achieves a favorable balance between communication performance and security. BER performance improves by approximately 0.6 dB, while the large key space, high key sensitivity, strong resistance to statistical attacks, and good robustness collectively ensure enhanced security. The combination of OTFS modulation and 3D constellation encryption not only improves spectrum resource utilization but also strengthens channel confidentiality, enhancing resilience to interference and potential attacks. This scheme improves transmission security without compromising communication performance, offering broad application prospects in fields such as the Internet of Things, unmanned aerial vehicles, satellite communication, and ocean communication. The proposed approach is expected to provide more secure and reliable transmission solutions for future wireless communication systems.
- Orthogonal Time Frequency Space (OTFS),
- Three-dimensional constellation mapping,
- Constellation encryption,
- Physical-layer security

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References(24)

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