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Toward Secure Reflection: A Survey on Physical Layer Security in Backscatter Communications
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DOI：10.1109/COMST.2026.3706426.png)
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Abstract
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Backscatter communication (BC) has emerged as a promising technology for low-cost and ultra-low-power wireless applications. However, the inherent openness of wireless channels, the passive reflection characteristics of BC systems, and stringent resource constraints introduce significant security vulnerabilities. Conventional cryptographic solutions are often impractical due to their high computational complexity, while physical layer security (PLS) offers lightweight and cost-effective security guarantees. Despite the growing interest, a comprehensive survey on PLS techniques for BC systems remains lacking. This paper presents the first comprehensive survey on PLS techniques for BC systems, encompassing Physical Layer Authentication (PLA), Physical Layer Key Generation (PLKG), Physical Layer Secure Transmission (PLST), and Physical Layer Anti-Jamming Transmission (PLAJT), along with the integration of emerging technologies such as Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces (RIS) and autonomous aerial vehicles (AAVs). Structured around the unique constraints and security implications of BC systems, this survey contributes three distinctive perspectives: a BC-specific threat model grounded in intrinsic security characteristics, a practical evaluation framework, and a cross-paradigm analysis revealing complementarities and performance differences of different PLS paradigms. Specifically, this paper first introduces the fundamental principles of BC systems. It identifies the impact of system characteristics on security performance and summarizes existing potential security threats. It also elaborates on the core principles and basic concepts of PLS, RIS and AAV technologies. This paper further establishes a classification framework of PLS systems suitable for BC scenarios and constructs a complete evaluation criterion system to support systematic qualitative and quantitative analysis of existing research works. With the established classification framework and evaluation criterion system, this paper conducts a systematic review on state of the art PLS solutions for BC systems published in recent years. This review clarifies the mainstream prerequisite assumptions and essential performance trade-offs widely adopted in the design of PLS for BC systems. This paper also outlines the design principles of PLS for BC systems. It provides system designers with a comprehensive analytical perspective to further promote research on BC system oriented PLS technologies. This paper finally summarizes a set of important open challenges and presents targeted future research directions.
Keywords:
Backscatter communication
physical layer security
physical layer authentication
physical layer key generation
physical layer secure transmission
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