Weakly Secure Symmetric Multilevel Diversity Coding

Multilevel diversity coding is a classical coding model where multiple mutually independent information messages are encoded, such that different reliability requirements can be afforded to different messages. It is well known that {\em superposition coding}, namely separately encoding the independent messages, is optimal for symmetric multilevel diversity coding (SMDC) (Yeung-Zhang 1999). In the current paper, we consider weakly secure SMDC where security constraints are injected on each individual message, and provide a complete characterization of the conditions under which superposition coding is sum-rate optimal. Two joint coding strategies, which lead to rate savings compared to superposition coding, are proposed, where some coding components for one message can be used as the encryption key for another. By applying different variants of Han's inequality, we show that the lack of opportunity to apply these two coding strategies directly implies the optimality of superposition coding. It is further shown that under a set of particular security constraints, one of the proposed joint coding strategies can be used to construct a code that achieves the optimal rate region.Comment: The paper has been accepted by IEEE Transactions on Information Theor

Symmetrical Multilevel Diversity Coding and Subset Entropy Inequalities

Symmetrical multilevel diversity coding (SMDC) is a classical model for coding over distributed storage. In this setting, a simple separate encoding strategy known as superposition coding was shown to be optimal in terms of achieving the minimum sum rate and the entire admissible rate region of the problem in the literature. The proofs utilized carefully constructed induction arguments, for which the classical subset entropy inequality of Han played a key role. This thesis includes two parts. In the first part the existing optimality proofs for classical SMDC are revisited, with a focus on their connections to subset entropy inequalities. First, a new sliding-window subset entropy inequality is introduced and then used to establish the optimality of superposition coding for achieving the minimum sum rate under a weaker source-reconstruction requirement. Second, a subset entropy inequality recently proved by Madiman and Tetali is used to develop a new structural understanding to the proof of Yeung and Zhang on the optimality of superposition coding for achieving the entire admissible rate region. Building on the connections between classical SMDC and the subset entropy inequalities developed in the first part, in the second part the optimality of superposition coding is further extended to the cases where there is an additional all-access encoder, an additional secrecy constraint or an encoder hierarchy

Physical layer security in cognitive radio networks using improper gaussian signaling

Orientador: Prof. Dr. Evelio Martin Garcia FernandezCoorientador: Prof. Dr. Samuel Baraldi MafraTese (doutorado) - Universidade Federal do Paraná, Setor de Tecnologia, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Engenharia Elétrica. Defesa : Curitiba, 25/10/2018Inclui referências: p.55-60Resumo: Em redes de comunicação sem fio que possuem restrições de interferência, a adoção de sinais assimétricos ou impróprios pode atingir taxas de transmissão mais altas do que as obtidas com sinais próprios, devido a maior entropia diferencial destes. Portanto, uma vez que o desempenho de segurança de uma rede está diretamente relacionado a taxa de transmissão de seus usuários, esta tese propõe o emprego de sinais impróprios para melhorar o desempenho do sigilo em redes de Radio Cognitivo. Ate onde sabemos, este e o primeiro trabalho que aborda a Segurança da Camada Física deste tipo de sistema usando sinais assimétricos. Os resultados foram obtidos para dois cenários diferentes em um mesmo modelo de sistema: uma rede cognitiva underlay com uma ligacao direta entre o transmissor secundário e seu receptor, cuja comunicação está sendo espionada. Usuários primários e secundários causam interferência entre si. Em ambos os cenários, apenas a informação estatística do estado do canal foi considerada disponível para os usuários cognitivos. Para o primeiro cenário, em que a localização dos nós do sistema foi definida arbitrariamente, derivamos uma expressao analótica para a Probabilidade de Falha de Sigilo, a principal métrica de desempenho analisada, e foi mostrado que a adoção de sinalização impropria pode ser benéfica tanto para os usuários que causam quanto para os que recebem interferência. Em um segundo cenário, em que a localização dos nos foi distribuída uniformemente sobre uma célula circular, encontramos valores ótimos ou sub-ótimos para a potencia de transmissão e grau de impropriedade dos sinais dos usuários secundários simultaneamente, a fim de otimizar o desempenho de segurança da rede. A otimização foi feita com o auxílio de Algoritmos Genéticos. Em seguida, os benefícios do esquema de transmissão em termos da probabilidade de falha de sigilo e da vazão de dados segura do sistema, bem como o custo de eficiência energética foram avaliados. Os resultados indicam que, para sistemas limitados por interferência, ao buscar por baixas probabilidades de falha de sigilo, e sempre uma estratégia melhor para os usuários secundários adotar algum grau de impropriedade em suas transmissões. Além disso, a adoção de sinais impróprios também pode melhorar as taxas seguras atingíveis no lado dos usuários cognitivos em redes underlay. No entanto, em termos de eficiência energética do sistema, otimizar apenas a potencia de transmissão secundaria e adotar sinais próprios obtém o melhor desempenho. Os resultados apresentados nesta pesquisa são promissores, uma vez que em muitas redes sem fio, inclusive cognitivas, existem restrições de interferência e sinais assimétricos poderiam alcançar um desempenho melhor do que os próprios, o paradigma atual. Palavras-chave: Radio Cognitivo, Segurança na Camada Física, SinaisAbstract: In interference constrained wireless communication networks, adopting asymmetric or improper signals may attain higher transmission rates than those achieved by proper ones, due to the higher differential entropy of the latter. Therefore, since the secrecy performance of a network is directly related to the transmission rate of its users, this thesis proposes employing improper signals in order to enhance the secrecy performance of Cognitive Radio networks. As far as we know, this is the first work that addresses the Physical Layer Security of these type of system by using asymmetric signals. The results were obtained for two different scenarios in the same system model: an underlay cognitive network with a direct link between secondary transmitter and receiver, whose communication is being eavesdropped. Both primary and secondary users cause interference at each other. In both scenarios only Statistical Channel State Information was considered available at the cognitive users. For the first scenario, in which nodes locations were defined arbitrarily, we derived an analytical expression for the Secrecy Outage Probability, the main performance metric analyzed, and it was shown that adopting improper signaling can be beneficial for users either causing or receiving interference. In a second scenario, in which nodes locations were uniformly distributed over a circular cell, we found optimal or suboptimal values of the secondary users transmit power and degree of impropriety, concurrently, in order to optimize the secrecy performance, with the aid of Genetic Algorithms. Then, the benefits of the transmission scheme in terms of the Secrecy Outage Probability and the Secure Throughput of the system, as well as the Secure Energy Efficiency cost were assessed. Results indicate that, for systems with interference constraints, when searching for lower Secrecy Outage Probabilities, it is always a better strategy for the Secondary Users to adopt some degree of impropriety in their transmissions. In addition, adopting improper signals can also improve the achievable secure rates at the cognitive users side in underlay networks. However, in terms of the energy efficiency of the system, optimizing only the secondary transmit power while employing proper signals achieves the best performance. The results presented in this research are promising, since in many wireless channels, including Cognitive Networks, there are interference constraints and asymmetric signals could attain better performance than proper ones, the current paradigm. Keywords: Cognitive Radio Networks, Physical Layer Security, Improper Gaussian Signaling, Secrecy Outage Probability

Secure key design approaches using entropy harvesting in wireless sensor network: A survey

Physical layer based security design in wireless sensor networks have gained much importance since the past decade. The various constraints associated with such networks coupled with other factors such as their deployment mainly in remote areas, nature of communication etc. are responsible for development of research works where the focus is secured key generation, extraction, and sharing. Keeping the importance of such works in mind, this survey is undertaken that provides a vivid description of the different mechanisms adopted for securely generating the key as well its randomness extraction and also sharing. This survey work not only concentrates on the more common methods, like received signal strength based but also goes on to describe other uncommon strategies such as accelerometer based. We first discuss the three fundamental steps viz. randomness extraction, key generation and sharing and their importance in physical layer based security design. We then review existing secure key generation, extraction, and sharing mechanisms and also discuss their pros and cons. In addition, we present a comprehensive comparative study of the recent advancements in secure key generation, sharing, and randomness extraction approaches on the basis of adversary, secret bit generation rate, energy efficiency etc. Finally, the survey wraps up with some promising future research directions in this area