Nanotrust: Physical-Layer Identity Authentication for Nanoscale Communication Networks In Critical Infrastructure

Abstract

Jovita T. Nsoh

Nanoscale communication networks are rapidly emerging as sensing and actuation substrates in critical infrastructure — embedded within energy grids, industrial control systems, and environmental monitoring arrays. However, the identity and authentication primitives governing these nano-node networks remain architecturally immature, leaving physical- layer attack surfaces unaddressed. This paper proposes NanoTrust, a Zero Trust identity authentication framework that anchors device identity in physical-layer nano-channel characteristics. Specifically, NanoTrust harvests terahertz (THz) channel impulse response (CIR) fingerprints as Nano Physical Unclonable Functions (Nano-PUFs), integrating these unclonable identity anchors into a Zero Trust enforcement plane equipped with a JEPA-based inference engine for continuous, anomaly-sensitive re-authentication. Evaluated against a Monte Carlo simulation of 1,000 nano-node deployments under spoofing, replay, and Sybil attack scenarios in THz nanonetworks modeled on NERC CIP-compliant energy environments, NanoTrust achieves a 97.3% authentication accuracy, reduces mean authentication latency to 1.2 ms, and maintains fail-safe identity revocation under adversarial channel manipulation. The framework extends NIST SP 800-207 Zero Trust Architecture to the nanoscale, proposing formal governance guarantees for nanoIoT deployments in safety-critical systems.

PDF