Visible Light Communication Cyber Security Vulnerabilities For Indoor And Outdoor Vehicle-To-Vehicle Communication

Light fidelity (Li-Fi), developed from the approach of Visible Light Communication (VLC), is a great replacement or complement to existing radio frequency-based (RF) networks. Li-Fi is expected to be deployed in various environments were, due to Wi-Fi congestion and health limitations, RF should not be used. Moreover, VLC can provide the future fifth generation (5G) wireless technology with higher data rates for device connectivity which will alleviate the traffic demand. 5G is playing a vital role in encouraging the modern applications. In 2023, the deployment of all the cellular networks will reach more than 5 billion users globally. As a result, the security and privacy of 5G wireless networks is an essential problem as those modern applications are in people\u27s life everywhere. VLC security is as one of the core physical-layer security (PLS) solutions for 5G networks. Due to the fact that light does not penetrate through solid objects or walls, VLC naturally has higher security and privacy for indoor wireless networks compared to RF networks. However, the broadcasting nature of VLC caused concerns, e.g., eavesdropping, have created serious attention as it is a crucial step to validate the success of VLC in wild. The aim of this thesis is to properly address the security issues of VLC and further enhance the VLC nature security. We analyzed the secrecy performance of a VLC model by studying the characteristics of the transmitter, receiver and the visible light channel. Moreover, we mitigated the security threats in the VLC model for the legitimate user, by 1) implementing more access points (APs) in a multiuser VLC network that are cooperated, 2) reducing the semi-angle of LED to help improve the directivity and secrecy and, 3) using the protected zone strategy around the AP where eavesdroppers are restricted. According to the model\u27s parameters, the results showed that the secrecy performance in the proposed indoor VLC model and the vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) VLC outdoor model using a combination of multiple PLS techniques as beamforming, secure communication zones, and friendly jamming is enhanced. The proposed model security performance was measured with respect to the signal to noise ratio (SNR), received optical power, and bit error rate (BER) Matlab simulation results

Physical Layer Security for Visible Light Communication Systems:A Survey

Due to the dramatic increase in high data rate services and in order to meet the demands of the fifth-generation (5G) networks, researchers from both academia and industry are exploring advanced transmission techniques, new network architectures and new frequency spectrum such as the visible light spectra. Visible light communication (VLC) particularly is an emerging technology that has been introduced as a promising solution for 5G and beyond. Although VLC systems are more immune against interference and less susceptible to security vulnerabilities since light does not penetrate through walls, security issues arise naturally in VLC channels due to their open and broadcasting nature, compared to fiber-optic systems. In addition, since VLC is considered to be an enabling technology for 5G, and security is one of the 5G fundamental requirements, security issues should be carefully addressed and resolved in the VLC context. On the other hand, due to the success of physical layer security (PLS) in improving the security of radio-frequency (RF) wireless networks, extending such PLS techniques to VLC systems has been of great interest. Only two survey papers on security in VLC have been published in the literature. However, a comparative and unified survey on PLS for VLC from information theoretic and signal processing point of views is still missing. This paper covers almost all aspects of PLS for VLC, including different channel models, input distributions, network configurations, precoding/signaling strategies, and secrecy capacity and information rates. Furthermore, we propose a number of timely and open research directions for PLS-VLC systems, including the application of measurement-based indoor and outdoor channel models, incorporating user mobility and device orientation into the channel model, and combining VLC and RF systems to realize the potential of such technologies

Reconfigurable Intelligent Surface for Physical Layer Security in 6G-IoT: Designs, Issues, and Advances

Sixth-generation (6G) networks pose substantial security risks because confidential information is transmitted over wireless channels with a broadcast nature, and various attack vectors emerge. Physical layer security (PLS) exploits the dynamic characteristics of wireless environments to provide secure communications, while reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (RISs) can facilitate PLS by controlling wireless transmissions. With RIS-aided PLS, a lightweight security solution can be designed for low-end Internet of Things (IoT) devices, depending on the design scenario and communication objective. This article discusses RIS-aided PLS designs for 6G-IoT networks against eavesdropping and jamming attacks. The theoretical background and literature review of RIS-aided PLS are discussed, and design solutions related to resource allocation, beamforming, artificial noise, and cooperative communication are presented. We provide simulation results to show the effectiveness of RIS in terms of PLS. In addition, we examine the research issues and possible solutions for RIS modeling, channel modeling and estimation, optimization, and machine learning. Finally, we discuss recent advances, including STAR-RIS and malicious RIS.Comment: Accepted for IEEE Internet of Things Journa

Intelligent-Reflecting-Surface-Assisted UAV Communications for 6G Networks

In 6th-Generation (6G) mobile networks, Intelligent Reflective Surfaces (IRSs) and Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) have emerged as promising technologies to address the coverage difficulties and resource constraints faced by terrestrial networks. UAVs, with their mobility and low costs, offer diverse connectivity options for mobile users and a novel deployment paradigm for 6G networks. However, the limited battery capacity of UAVs, dynamic and unpredictable channel environments, and communication resource constraints result in poor performance of traditional UAV-based networks. IRSs can not only reconstruct the wireless environment in a unique way, but also achieve wireless network relay in a cost-effective manner. Hence, it receives significant attention as a promising solution to solve the above challenges. In this article, we conduct a comprehensive survey on IRS-assisted UAV communications for 6G networks. First, primary issues, key technologies, and application scenarios of IRS-assisted UAV communications for 6G networks are introduced. Then, we put forward specific solutions to the issues of IRS-assisted UAV communications. Finally, we discuss some open issues and future research directions to guide researchers in related fields

A Prospective Look: Key Enabling Technologies, Applications and Open Research Topics in 6G Networks

The fifth generation (5G) mobile networks are envisaged to enable a plethora of breakthrough advancements in wireless technologies, providing support of a diverse set of services over a single platform. While the deployment of 5G systems is scaling up globally, it is time to look ahead for beyond 5G systems. This is driven by the emerging societal trends, calling for fully automated systems and intelligent services supported by extended reality and haptics communications. To accommodate the stringent requirements of their prospective applications, which are data-driven and defined by extremely low-latency, ultra-reliable, fast and seamless wireless connectivity, research initiatives are currently focusing on a progressive roadmap towards the sixth generation (6G) networks. In this article, we shed light on some of the major enabling technologies for 6G, which are expected to revolutionize the fundamental architectures of cellular networks and provide multiple homogeneous artificial intelligence-empowered services, including distributed communications, control, computing, sensing, and energy, from its core to its end nodes. Particularly, this paper aims to answer several 6G framework related questions: What are the driving forces for the development of 6G? How will the enabling technologies of 6G differ from those in 5G? What kind of applications and interactions will they support which would not be supported by 5G? We address these questions by presenting a profound study of the 6G vision and outlining five of its disruptive technologies, i.e., terahertz communications, programmable metasurfaces, drone-based communications, backscatter communications and tactile internet, as well as their potential applications. Then, by leveraging the state-of-the-art literature surveyed for each technology, we discuss their requirements, key challenges, and open research problems

A prospective look: key enabling technologies, applications and open research topics in 6G networks

The fifth generation (5G) mobile networks are envisaged to enable a plethora of breakthrough advancements in wireless technologies, providing support of a diverse set of services over a single platform. While the deployment of 5G systems is scaling up globally, it is time to look ahead for beyond 5G systems. This is mainly driven by the emerging societal trends, calling for fully automated systems and intelligent services supported by extended reality and haptics communications. To accommodate the stringent requirements of their prospective applications, which are data-driven and defined by extremely low-latency, ultra-reliable, fast and seamless wireless connectivity, research initiatives are currently focusing on a progressive roadmap towards the sixth generation (6G) networks, which are expected to bring transformative changes to this premise. In this article, we shed light on some of the major enabling technologies for 6G, which are expected to revolutionize the fundamental architectures of cellular networks and provide multiple homogeneous artificial intelligence-empowered services, including distributed communications, control, computing, sensing, and energy, from its core to its end nodes. In particular, the present paper aims to answer several 6G framework related questions: What are the driving forces for the development of 6G? How will the enabling technologies of 6G differ from those in 5G? What kind of applications and interactions will they support which would not be supported by 5G? We address these questions by presenting a comprehensive study of the 6G vision and outlining seven of its disruptive technologies, i.e., mmWave communications, terahertz communications, optical wireless communications, programmable metasurfaces, drone-based communications, backscatter communications and tactile internet, as well as their potential applications. Then, by leveraging the state-of-the-art literature surveyed for each technology, we discuss the associated requirements, key challenges, and open research problems. These discussions are thereafter used to open up the horizon for future research directions

Design of Energy-Efficient Artificial Noise for Physical Layer Security in Visible Light Communications

This paper studies the design of energy-efficient artificial noise (AN) schemes in the context of physical layer security in visible light communications (VLC). Two different transmission schemes termed $\textit{selective AN-aided single-input single-output (SISO)}$ and $\textit{AN-aided multiple-input single-output (MISO)}$ are examined and compared in terms of secrecy energy efficiency (SEE). In the former, the closest LED luminaire to the legitimate user (Bob) is the information-bearing signal's transmitter. At the same time, the rest of the luminaries act as jammers transmitting AN to degrade the channels of eavesdroppers (Eves). In the latter, the information-bearing signal and AN are combined and transmitted by all luminaries. When Eves' CSI is unknown, an indirect design to improve the SEE is formulated by maximizing Bob's channel's energy efficiency. A low-complexity design based on the zero-forcing criterion is also proposed. In the case of known Eves' CSI, we study the design that maximizes the minimum SEE among those corresponding to all eavesdroppers. At their respective optimal SEEs, simulation results reveal that when Eves' CSI is unknown, the selective AN-aided SISO transmission can archive twice better SEE as the AN-aided MISO does. In contrast, when Eves' CSI is known, the AN-aided MISO outperforms by 30%