A Survey of Physical Layer Security Techniques for 5G Wireless Networks and Challenges Ahead

Physical layer security which safeguards data confidentiality based on the information-theoretic approaches has received significant research interest recently. The key idea behind physical layer security is to utilize the intrinsic randomness of the transmission channel to guarantee the security in physical layer. The evolution towards 5G wireless communications poses new challenges for physical layer security research. This paper provides a latest survey of the physical layer security research on various promising 5G technologies, including physical layer security coding, massive multiple-input multiple-output, millimeter wave communications, heterogeneous networks, non-orthogonal multiple access, full duplex technology, etc. Technical challenges which remain unresolved at the time of writing are summarized and the future trends of physical layer security in 5G and beyond are discussed.Comment: To appear in IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communication

Joint Wireless Information and Energy Transfer with Reduced Feedback in MIMO Interference Channels

To determine the transmission strategy for joint wireless information and energy transfer (JWIET) in the MIMO interference channel (IFC), the information access point (IAP) and energy access point (EAP) require the channel state information (CSI) of their associated links to both the information-decoding (ID) mobile stations (MSs) and energy-harvesting (EH) MSs (so-called local CSI). In this paper, to reduce th e feedback overhead of MSs for the JWIET in two-user MIMO IFC, we propose a Geodesic energy beamforming scheme that requires partial CSI at the EAP. Furthermore, in the two-user MIMO IFC, it is proved that the Geodesic energy beamforming is the optimal strategy. By adding a rank-one constraint on the transmit signal covariance of IAP, we can further reduce the feedback overhead to IAP by exploiting Geodesic information beamforming. Under the rank-one constraint of IAP's transmit signal, we prove that Geodesic information/energy beamforming approach is the optimal strategy for JWIET in the two-user MIMO IFC. We also discuss the extension of the proposed rank-one Geodesic information/energy beamforming strategies to general K-user MIMO IFC. Finally, by analyzing the achievable rate-energy performance statistically under imperfect partial CSIT, we propose an adaptive bit allocation strategy for both EH MS and ID MS.Comment: accepted to IEEE Journal of Selected Areas in Communications (IEEE JSAC), Special Issue on Wireless Communications Powered by Energy Harvesting and Wireless Energy Transfe

The Practical Challenges of Interference Alignment

Interference alignment (IA) is a revolutionary wireless transmission strategy that reduces the impact of interference. The idea of interference alignment is to coordinate multiple transmitters so that their mutual interference aligns at the receivers, facilitating simple interference cancellation techniques. Since IA's inception, researchers have investigated its performance and proposed improvements, verifying IA's ability to achieve the maximum degrees of freedom (an approximation of sum capacity) in a variety of settings, developing algorithms for determining alignment solutions, and generalizing transmission strategies that relax the need for perfect alignment but yield better performance. This article provides an overview of the concept of interference alignment as well as an assessment of practical issues including performance in realistic propagation environments, the role of channel state information at the transmitter, and the practicality of interference alignment in large networks.Comment: submitted to IEEE Wireless Communications Magazin

Code designs for MIMO broadcast channels

Recent information-theoretic results show the optimality of dirty-paper coding (DPC) in achieving the full capacity region of the Gaussian multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) broadcast channel (BC). This paper presents a DPC based code design for BCs. We consider the case in which there is an individual rate/signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) constraint for each user. For a fixed transmitter power, we choose the linear transmit precoding matrix such that the SINRs at users are uniformly maximized, thus ensuring the best bit-error rate performance. We start with Cover's simplest two-user Gaussian BC and present a coding scheme that operates 1.44 dB from the boundary of the capacity region at the rate of one bit per real sample (b/s) for each user. We then extend the coding strategy to a two-user MIMO Gaussian BC with two transmit antennas at the base-station and develop the first limit-approaching code design using nested turbo codes for DPC. At the rate of 1 b/s for each user, our design operates 1.48 dB from the capacity region boundary. We also consider the performance of our scheme over a slow fading BC. For two transmit antennas, simulation results indicate a performance loss of only 1.4 dB, 1.64 dB and 1.99 dB from the theoretical limit in terms of the total transmission power for the two, three and four user case, respectively

Physical Layer Service Integration in 5G: Potentials and Challenges

High transmission rate and secure communication have been identified as the key targets that need to be effectively addressed by fifth generation (5G) wireless systems. In this context, the concept of physical-layer security becomes attractive, as it can establish perfect security using only the characteristics of wireless medium. Nonetheless, to further increase the spectral efficiency, an emerging concept, termed physical-layer service integration (PHY-SI), has been recognized as an effective means. Its basic idea is to combine multiple coexisting services, i.e., multicast/broadcast service and confidential service, into one integral service for one-time transmission at the transmitter side. This article first provides a tutorial on typical PHY-SI models. Furthermore, we propose some state-of-the-art solutions to improve the overall performance of PHY-SI in certain important communication scenarios. In particular, we highlight the extension of several concepts borrowed from conventional single-service communications, such as artificial noise (AN), eigenmode transmission etc., to the scenario of PHY-SI. These techniques are shown to be effective in the design of reliable and robust PHY-SI schemes. Finally, several potential research directions are identified for future work.Comment: 12 pages, 7 figure

Rate Splitting for MIMO Wireless Networks: A Promising PHY-Layer Strategy for LTE Evolution

MIMO processing plays a central part towards the recent increase in spectral and energy efficiencies of wireless networks. MIMO has grown beyond the original point-to-point channel and nowadays refers to a diverse range of centralized and distributed deployments. The fundamental bottleneck towards enormous spectral and energy efficiency benefits in multiuser MIMO networks lies in a huge demand for accurate channel state information at the transmitter (CSIT). This has become increasingly difficult to satisfy due to the increasing number of antennas and access points in next generation wireless networks relying on dense heterogeneous networks and transmitters equipped with a large number of antennas. CSIT inaccuracy results in a multi-user interference problem that is the primary bottleneck of MIMO wireless networks. Looking backward, the problem has been to strive to apply techniques designed for perfect CSIT to scenarios with imperfect CSIT. In this paper, we depart from this conventional approach and introduce the readers to a promising strategy based on rate-splitting. Rate-splitting relies on the transmission of common and private messages and is shown to provide significant benefits in terms of spectral and energy efficiencies, reliability and CSI feedback overhead reduction over conventional strategies used in LTE-A and exclusively relying on private message transmissions. Open problems, impact on standard specifications and operational challenges are also discussed.Comment: accepted to IEEE Communication Magazine, special issue on LTE Evolutio