On the Secrecy Performance of Random VLC Networks with Imperfect CSI and Protected Zone

This paper investigates the physical-layer security for a random indoor visible light communication (VLC) network with imperfect channel state information (CSI) and a protected zone. The VLC network consists of three nodes, i.e., a transmitter (Alice), a legitimate receiver (Bob), and an eavesdropper (Eve). Alice is fixed in the center of the ceiling, and the emitted signal at Alice satisfies the non-negativity and the dimmable average optical intensity constraint. Bob and Eve are randomly deployed on the receiver plane. By employing the protected zone and considering the imperfect CSI, the stochastic characteristics of the channel gains for both the main and the eavesdropping channels is first analyzed. After that, the closed-form expressions of the average secrecy capacity and the lower bound of secrecy outage probability are derived, respectively. Finally, Monte-Carlo simulations are provided to verify the accuracy of the derived theoretical expressions. Moreover, the impacts of the nominal optical intensity, the dimming target, the protected zone and the imperfect CSI on secrecy performance are discussed, respectively.Comment: Accepted by IEEE Systems Joutna

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

Design and performance analysis of optical attocell networks

The exponentially increasing demand for high-speed wireless communications will no longer be satisfied by the traditional radio frequency (RF) in the near future due to its limited spectrum and overutilization. To resolve this imminent issue, industrial and research communities have been looking into alternative technologies for communication. Among them, visible light communication (VLC) has attracted much attention because it utilizes the unlicensed, free and safe spectrum, whose bandwidth is thousand times larger than the entire RF spectrum. Moreover, VLC can be integrated into existing lighting systems to offer a dual-purpose, cost-effective and energy-efficient solution for next-generation small-cell networks (SCNs), giving birth to the concept of optical attocell networks. Most relevant works in the literature rely on system simulations to quantify the performance of attocell networks, which suffer from high computational complexity and provide limited insights about the network. Mathematical tools, on the other hand, are more tractable and scalable and are shown to closely approximate practical systems. The presented work utilizes stochastic geometry for downlink evaluation of optical attocell networks, where the co-channel interference (CCI) surpasses noise and becomes the limiting factor of the link throughput. By studying the moment generating function (MGF) of the aggregate interference, a theoretical framework for modeling the distribution of signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) is presented, which allows important performance metrics such as the coverage probability and link throughput to be derived. Depending on the source of interference, CCI can be classified into two categories: inter-cell interference (ICI) and intra-cell interference. In this work, both types of interference are characterized, based on which effective interference mitigation techniques such as the coordinated multipoint (CoMP), power-domain multiplexing and successive interference cancellation (SIC) are devised. The proposed mathematical framework is applicable to attocell networks with and without such interference mitigation techniques. Compared to RF networks, optical attocell networks are inherently more secure in the physical layer because visible light does not penetrate through opaque walls. This work analytically quantifies the physical-layer security of attocell networks from an information-theoretic point of view. Secrecy enhancement techniques such as AP cooperation and eavesdropper-free protected zones are also discussed. It is shown that compared to AP cooperation, implementing secrecy protected zones is more effective and it can contribute significantly to the network security

Optical wireless communications for cyber-secure ubiquitous wireless networks

Wireless connectivity is no longer limited to facilitating communications between individuals, but is also required to support diverse and heterogeneous applications, services and infrastructures. Internet of things (IoT) systems will dominate future technologies, allowing any and all devices to create, share and process data. If artificial intelligence resembles the brain of IoT, then high-speed connectivity forms the nervous system that connects the devices. For IoT to safely operate autonomously, it requires highly secure and reliable wireless links. In this article, we shed light on the potential of optical wireless communications to provide high-speed secure and reliable ubiquitous access as an enabler for fifth generation and beyond wireless networks

Security and Privacy for Modern Wireless Communication Systems

The aim of this reprint focuses on the latest protocol research, software/hardware development and implementation, and system architecture design in addressing emerging security and privacy issues for modern wireless communication networks. Relevant topics include, but are not limited to, the following: deep-learning-based security and privacy design; covert communications; information-theoretical foundations for advanced security and privacy techniques; lightweight cryptography for power constrained networks; physical layer key generation; prototypes and testbeds for security and privacy solutions; encryption and decryption algorithm for low-latency constrained networks; security protocols for modern wireless communication networks; network intrusion detection; physical layer design with security consideration; anonymity in data transmission; vulnerabilities in security and privacy in modern wireless communication networks; challenges of security and privacy in node–edge–cloud computation; security and privacy design for low-power wide-area IoT networks; security and privacy design for vehicle networks; security and privacy design for underwater communications networks

Impact of Vehicle Headlights Radiation Pattern on Dynamic Vehicular VLC Channel

This article develops a statistical large-scale fading (path loss) model of a dynamic vehicular visible light communication (VVLC) system. The proposed model combines the impact of inter-vehicle spacing and the radiation intensity distribution as a function of the irradiance angle which changes with the traffic conditions. Three models (Lambertian, Gaussian, and empirical) are utilized to examine the impact of vehicles headlights radiation pattern on the statistical path loss of VVLC system. The analytical model of channel path loss is validated by Monte Carlo simulation with the headlight model simulated with a raytracing software. The path loss values of the Gaussian model differ by 2 dB compared to the Lambertian model, irrespective of the traffic conditions while it differs by 24.6 dB during late night and 8.15 dB during rush hours compared to the empirical model of a Toyota Altis headlight. This variation shows that the radiation intensity distribution should be modelled for each vehicle's headlights from each manufacturer to ensure accurate VVLC channel model. The proposed Gaussian model provides a close approximation to describe such radiation pattern and can easily be adapted to model for different manufacturers' headlights

Enhancing physical layer security in wireless networks with cooperative approaches

Motivated by recent developments in wireless communication, this thesis aims to characterize the secrecy performance in several types of typical wireless networks. Advanced techniques are designed and evaluated to enhance physical layer security in these networks with realistic assumptions, such as signal propagation loss, random node distribution and non-instantaneous channel state information (CSI). The first part of the thesis investigates secret communication through relay-assisted cognitive interference channel. The primary and secondary base stations (PBS and SBS) communicate with the primary and secondary receivers (PR and SR) respectively in the presence of multiple eavesdroppers. The SBS is allowed to transmit simultaneously with the PBS over the same spectrum instead of waiting for an idle channel. To improve security, cognitive relays transmit cooperative jamming (CJ) signals to create additional interferences in the direction of the eavesdroppers. Two CJ schemes are proposed to improve the secrecy rate of cognitive interference channels depending on the structure of cooperative relays. In the scheme where the multiple-antenna relay transmits weighted jamming signals, the combined approach of CJ and beamforming is investigated. In the scheme with multiple relays transmitting weighted jamming signals, the combined approach of CJ and relay selection is analyzed. Numerical results show that both these two schemes are effective in improving physical layer security of cognitive interference channel. In the second part, the focus is shifted to physical layer security in a random wireless network where both legitimate and eavesdropping nodes are randomly distributed. Three scenarios are analyzed to investigate the impact of various factors on security. In scenario one, the basic scheme is studied without a protected zone and interference. The probability distribution function (PDF) of channel gain with both fading and path loss has been derived and further applied to derive secrecy connectivity and ergodic secrecy capacity. In the second scenario, we studied using a protected zone surrounding the source node to enhance security where interference is absent. Both the cases that eavesdroppers are aware and unaware of the protected zone boundary are investigated. Based on the above scenarios, further deployment of the protected zones at legitimate receivers is designed to convert detrimental interference into a beneficial factor. Numerical results are investigated to check the reliability of the PDF for reciprocal of channel gain and to analyze the impact of protected zones on secrecy performance. In the third part, physical layer security in the downlink transmission of cellular network is studied. To model the repulsive property of the cellular network planning, we assume that the base stations (BSs) follow the Mat´ern hard-core point process (HCPP), while the eavesdroppers are deployed as an independent Poisson point process (PPP). The distribution function of the distances from a typical point to the nodes of the HCPP is derived. The noise-limited and interference-limited cellular networks are investigated by applying the fractional frequency reuse (FFR) in the system. For the noise-limited network, we derive the secrecy outage probability with two different strategies, i.e. the best BS serve and the nearest BS serve, by analyzing the statistics of channel gains. For the interference-limited network with the nearest BS serve, two transmission schemes are analyzed, i.e., transmission with and without the FFR. Numerical results reveal that both the schemes of transmitting with the best BS and the application of the FFR are beneficial for physical layer security in the downlink cellular networks, while the improvement du