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

Secure Transmission in NOMA-enabled Industrial IoT with Resource-Constrained Untrusted Devices

The security of confidential information associated with devices in the industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) network is a serious concern. This article focuses on achieving a nonorthogonal multiple access (NOMA)-enabled secure IIoT network in the presence of untrusted devices by jointly optimizing the resources, such as decoding order and power allocated to devices. Assuming that the devices are resource-constrained for performing perfect successive interference cancellation (SIC), we characterize the residual interference at receivers with the linear model. Firstly, considering all possible decoding orders in an untrusted scenario, we obtain secure decoding orders that are feasible to obtain a positive secrecy rate for each device. Then, under the secrecy fairness criterion, we formulate a joint optimization problem of maximizing the minimum secrecy rate among devices. Since the formulated problem is non-convex and combinatorial, we first obtain the optimal secure decoding order and then solve it for power allocation by analyzing Karush-Kuhn-Tucker points. Thus, we provide the closed-form global-optimal solution of the formulated optimization problem. Numerical results validate the analytical claims and demonstrate an interesting observation that the conventional decoding order and assigning more power allocation to the weak device, as presumed in many works on NOMA, is not an optimal strategy from the secrecy fairness viewpoint. Also, the average percentage gain of about 22.75%, 50.58%, 94.59%, and 98.16%, respectively, is achieved by jointly optimized solution over benchmarks ODEP (optimal decoding order, equal power allocation), ODFP (optimal decoding order, fixed power allocation), FDEP (fixed decoding order, equal power allocation), and FDFP (fixed decoding order, fixed power allocation).Comment: 10 pages and 6 figure

Determination of optically stimulated luminescence dosimetric characteristics and suitability for entrance surface dose assessement in diagnostic x-ray examinations

The availability of Optically Stimulated Luminescence (OSL) dosimeter system developed by Landauer Inc. (Glenwood IL) has greatly improved radiation dosimetry application in the medical field. Recent studies with OSL dosimeters (nanoDots) gave much emphases to patient radiation exposure in radiotherapy but ignoring the potential risks from radiographic examinations. This study focused on the measurement of entrance surface dose (ESD) resulting from radiographic examination. Monitoring procedures have been developed by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to estimate ESD, while considering exposure parameters and patient’s characteristics. However, dosimetric properties of the OSL system must be characterized to ascertain its suitability for ESD measurements in medical radiography due to energy dependence and over-response factors of the Al2O3 material. This thesis consists of three phases: 1) evaluating stability of the new OSL dosimetry system, 2) characterizing the nanoDots in radiographic energy range from 40 kV to 150 kV with typical doses ranging from 0 to 20 mGy, and 3) assessing suitability of the nanoDots for ESD measurement in routine X-ray examinations. The dosimetric characteristics of the nanoDots in the above energy range are presented in this study, including repeatability, reproducibility, signal depletion, element correction factor, linearity, angular and energy dependence, and dose measurement accuracy. Experimental results showed repeatability of below 5% and reproducibility of less than 2%. OSL signals after sequential readouts were reduced by approximately 0.5% per readout and having good linearity for doses between 5 – 20 mGy. The nanoDots OSL dosimeter showed significant angular and energy dependence in this energy range, and corresponding energy correction factors were determined in the range of 0.76 – 1.12. ESDs were determined in common diagnostic X-ray examinations using three different methods including direct (measured on phantom/patient) and indirect (without phantom) measurements with nanoDots OSL dosimeters, and CALDose_X 5.0 software calculations. Results from direct and indirect ESD measurements showed good agreement within relative uncertainties of 5.9% and 12%, respectively, in accordance with the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) 61674 specifications. However, the measured results were below ESDs calculated with CALDose_X 5.0 software. Measured eye and gonad doses were found to be significant compared to ESDs during anterior-posterior (AP) abdomen and AP skull examinations, respectively. The results obtained in this research work indicate the suitability of utilizing nanoDots OSL dosimeter for entrance surface dose assessment during diagnostic X-ray examinations

Beamforming and non-orthogonal multiple access for rate and secrecy enhancement of fifth generation communication system

The fifth-generation (5G) communication systems have many anticipated functionalities and requirements such as high data rate, massive connectivity, wide coverage area, low latency and enhanced secrecy performance. In order to meet these criteria, communication schemes that combine 5G key enabling technologies need to be investigated. In this thesis, a novel communication system that merges non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA), energy harvesting, beamforming, and full-duplex (FD) techniques in order to enhance both capacity and secrecy of 5G system is introduced. In the capacity improving scheme, NOMA is first combined with beamforming to serve more than one user in each beamforming vector. Next, simultaneous wireless information and power transfer (SWIPT) technique is exploited to encourage the strong user (user with better channel condition) to relay the information messages of the weak user (user with poor channel condition) in FD manner. The total sum rate maximisation problem is formulated and solved by means of convex-concave procedure. The system performance is also analysed by deriving the outage probability of both users. Additionally, the model is extended to a more general case wherein the users are moving, and the outage probability of this dynamic topology is provided by means of the stochastic geometry framework. Novel secure schemes are also introduced to safeguard legitimate users’ information from internal and external eavesdroppers. In the internal eavesdropper’s case, artificial signal concept is adopted to protect NOMA’s weak user’s information from being intercepted by the strong user. The secrecy outage probability of theweak user is derived and validated. In addition, game theory discipline is exploited to provide an efficient eavesdropping avoidance algorithm. Null-steering beamforming is adopted in the external eavesdropper’s case in two different schemes namely self and nonself-cooperative jamming. In self-cooperative strategy, the base station applies the null-steering jamming to impair the eavesdropper channel, while sending the information-bearing signals to the intended legitimate users. Whereas in the nonself-cooperative jamming scheme, the base station provides the helpers with the required information and power by means of SWIPT technique in the first phase. The helpers deploy null-steering beamforming to jam the eavesdropper during the information exchange between the base station and the intended users in the second phase. The secrecy outage probability of the legitimate users is derived in both jamming schemes. Game theory is also introduced to the nonself-cooperative jamming scheme for further improvements on the secrecy outage behaviour and the economic revenue of the system. The proposed capacity enhancing scheme demonstrates about 200% higher sum rate when compared with the non-cooperative and half-duplex cooperative NOMA systems. In addition, the novel secure scheme in the internal eavesdropper case is proven to enhance the information security of the weak user without compromising the functionalities of the strong user or NOMA superiority over orthogonal multiple access systems. Null-steering based jamming system also illustrates improved secrecy performance in the external eavesdropper case when compared to the conventional jamming schemes. Numerical simulations are carried out in order to validate the derived closed-form expressions and to illustrate the performance enhancement achieved by the proposed schemes where the rate is increased by 200% and the secrecy outage probability is decreased by 33% when compared to the baseline systems

New Approaches Using Cognitive Radio in Green Networking

The green networks are energy-efficient network architectures and we consider them as the basis of the wireless communication optimizing energy usage. Indeed, future communication technologies are moving in this direction, meaning that they will be less energy-intensive and, in some cases, even energy self-sufficient. Specifically, cognitive radio (CR) networks, cooperative relay networks, and non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) techniques have been considered as effective means to facilitate energy harvesting (EH) and a power spectrum allocation for the minimization of total transmit power, hence, making the wireless communication greener. The dissertation consists of three research sections corresponding to the aims. The first aim deals with an radio frequency (RF) wireless energy transfer model for D2D systems. In order to harvest more energy, a multiple-antenna base station and a power beacon are adopted for the D2D transmission network. We derive expressions outage probability in closed-forms. Further, independent simulations are used to validate the exactness of the theoretical expressions. In the second aim, new cooperative system models are proposed and studied. To reach the second aim, the secondary source acts as a relay and employs Amplify and Forward (AF) mode to serve distant NOMA users under a given interference constraint. To provide a detailed examination of the system performance metrics, we derived closed-form formulas for the outage probability and average throughput of the multi-users in the presence of interference constraints. In the last aim of the dissertation, we designed a new system model for a hybrid satellite-terrestrial cognitive network (HSTCN) relying on NOMA interconnecting a satellite and multiple terrestrial nodes. Reliability and security of transmission were studied to minimize the total transmit power. To reach the third aim, we examined the following performance factors: outage probability, hardware impairment, intercept probability, and average throughput. The novel closed-forms expressions of these performance factors are derived. The last but not at least, we simulated the new HSTCN system model. The achieved results figured that the new proposed approaches make it possible to take into account service quality requirements and are applicable in future green networking.Zelené sítě jsou energeticky efektivní síťové architektury a považujeme je za základ bezdrátové komunikace optimalizující spotřebu energie. Tímto směrem se ubírají budoucí komunikační technologie, což znamená, že budou méně energeticky náročné a v některých případech dokonce energeticky soběstačné. Kognitivní rádiové (CR) sítě, kooperativní relay sítě a neortogonální vícenásobné přístupové (NOMA) techniky jsou považovány za účinný prostředek k usnadnění získávání energie (EH) a přidělování výkonového spektra pro minimalizaci celkového vysílacího výkonu, díky čemuž je bezdrátová komunikace zelenější. Disertační práce se skládá ze tří výzkumných částí odpovídajících cílům. První cíl se zabývá modelem bezdrátového přenosu radiofrekvenční (RF) energie pro systémy D2D. Aby bylo možné získat více energie, jsou pro přenosovou D2D síť použity základnové stanice s více anténami a napájecím radiomajákem. Pro navržený model jsou odvozeny pravděpodobnosti výpadků, kdy tyto výrazy jsou v uzavřené formě. Dále jsou k ověření platnosti získaných teoretických výrazů použity nezávislé simulace. Ve druhém cíli jsou navrženy a zkoumány nové modely kooperativního systému. Aby bylo dosaženo druhého cíle, sekundární zdroj funguje jako relay uzel a využívá režim AF (Amplify and Forward), který slouží vzdáleným NOMA uživatelům za specifických interferenčních podmínek. Abychom poskytli podrobné zhodnocení výkonnostních metrik systému, odvodili jsme vztahy v uzavřené formě pro pravděpodobnost výpadků a průměrnou propustnost více uživatelů za přítomnosti interferenčních omezení. V posledním cíli disertační práce jsme navrhli nový systémový model pro hybridní satelitně-terestrickou kognitivní síť (HSTCN) založenou na neortogonálním vícenásobném přístupu (NOMA) propojující satelit a více terestrických uzlů. Zkoumána byla spolehlivost a zabezpečení přenosu s důrazem na minimalizaci celkového vysílacího výkonu. Pro dosažení třetího cíle jsme zkoumali následující výkonnostní faktory: pravděpodobnost výpadku, poškození hardwaru, pravděpodobnost zachycení a průměrnou propustnost. Pro tyto výkonnostní faktory jsou odvozeny v uzavřených formách nové výrazy. V neposlední řadě jsme rovněž simulovali nový systémový HSTCN model. Dosažené výsledky potvrdily, že nově navržené přístupy umožňují zohledňovat požadavky na kvalitu služeb a jsou použitelné v budoucích zelených sítích.440 - Katedra telekomunikační technikyvyhově

Reconfigurable Receiver Front-Ends for Advanced Telecommunication Technologies

The exponential growth of converging technologies, including augmented reality, autonomous vehicles, machine-to-machine and machine-to-human interactions, biomedical and environmental sensory systems, and artificial intelligence, is driving the need for robust infrastructural systems capable of handling vast data volumes between end users and service providers. This demand has prompted a significant evolution in wireless communication, with 5G and subsequent generations requiring exponentially improved spectral and energy efficiency compared to their predecessors. Achieving this entails intricate strategies such as advanced digital modulations, broader channel bandwidths, complex spectrum sharing, and carrier aggregation scenarios. A particularly challenging aspect arises in the form of non-contiguous aggregation of up to six carrier components across the frequency range 1 (FR1). This necessitates receiver front-ends to effectively reject out-of-band (OOB) interferences while maintaining high-performance in-band (IB) operation. Reconfigurability becomes pivotal in such dynamic environments, where frequency resource allocation, signal strength, and interference levels continuously change. Software-defined radios (SDRs) and cognitive radios (CRs) emerge as solutions, with direct RF-sampling receivers offering a suitable architecture in which the frequency translation is entirely performed in digital domain to avoid analog mixing issues. Moreover, direct RF- sampling receivers facilitate spectrum observation, which is crucial to identify free zones, and detect interferences. Acoustic and distributed filters offer impressive dynamic range and sharp roll off characteristics, but their bulkiness and lack of electronic adjustment capabilities limit their practicality. Active filters, on the other hand, present opportunities for integration in advanced CMOS technology, addressing size constraints and providing versatile programmability. However, concerns about power consumption, noise generation, and linearity in active filters require careful consideration.This thesis primarily focuses on the design and implementation of a low-voltage, low-power RFFE tailored for direct sampling receivers in 5G FR1 applications. The RFFE consists of a balun low-noise amplifier (LNA), a Q-enhanced filter, and a programmable gain amplifier (PGA). The balun-LNA employs noise cancellation, current reuse, and gm boosting for wideband gain and input impedance matching. Leveraging FD-SOI technology allows for programmable gain and linearity via body biasing. The LNA's operational state ranges between high-performance and high-tolerance modes, which are apt for sensitivityand blocking tests, respectively. The Q-enhanced filter adopts noise-cancelling, current-reuse, and programmable Gm-cells to realize a fourth-order response using two resonators. The fourth-order filter response is achieved by subtracting the individual response of these resonators. Compared to cascaded and magnetically coupled fourth-order filters, this technique maintains the large dynamic range of second-order resonators. Fabricated in 22-nm FD-SOI technology, the RFFE achieves 1%-40% fractional bandwidth (FBW) adjustability from 1.7 GHz to 6.4 GHz, 4.6 dB noise figure (NF) and an OOB third-order intermodulation intercept point (IIP3) of 22 dBm. Furthermore, concerning the implementation uncertainties and potential variations of temperature and supply voltage, design margins have been considered and a hybrid calibration scheme is introduced. A combination of on-chip and off-chip calibration based on noise response is employed to effectively adjust the quality factors, Gm-cells, and resonance frequencies, ensuring desired bandpass response. To optimize and accelerate the calibration process, a reinforcement learning (RL) agent is used.Anticipating future trends, the concept of the Q-enhanced filter extends to a multiple-mode filter for 6G upper mid-band applications. Covering the frequency range from 8 to 20 GHz, this RFFE can be configured as a fourth-order dual-band filter, two bandpass filters (BPFs) with an OOB notch, or a BPF with an IB notch. In cognitive radios, the filter’s transmission zeros can be positioned with respect to the carrier frequencies of interfering signals to yield over 50 dB blocker rejection

Optical Communication System for Remote Monitoring and Adaptive Control of Distributed Ground Sensors Exhibiting Collective Intelligence

Comprehensive management of the battle-space has created new requirements in information management, communication, and interoperability as they effect surveillance and situational awareness. The objective of this proposal is to expand intelligent controls theory to produce a uniquely powerful implementation of distributed ground-based measurement incorporating both local collective behavior, and interoperative global optimization for sensor fusion and mission oversight. By using a layered hierarchal control architecture to orchestrate adaptive reconfiguration of autonomous robotic agents, we can improve overall robustness and functionality in dynamic tactical environments without information bottlenecks. In this concept, each sensor is equipped with a miniaturized optical reflectance modulator which is interactively monitored as a remote transponder using a covert laser communication protocol from a remote mothership or operative. Robot data-sharing at the ground level can be leveraged with global evaluation criteria, including terrain overlays and remote imaging data. Information sharing and distributed intelli- gence opens up a new class of remote-sensing applications in which small single-function autono- mous observers at the local level can collectively optimize and measure large scale ground-level signals. AS the need for coverage and the number of agents grows to improve spatial resolution, cooperative behavior orchestrated by a global situational awareness umbrella will be an essential ingredient to offset increasing bandwidth requirements within the net. A system of the type described in this proposal will be capable of sensitively detecting, tracking, and mapping spatial distributions of measurement signatures which are non-stationary or obscured by clutter and inter- fering obstacles by virtue of adaptive reconfiguration. This methodology could be used, for example, to field an adaptive ground-penetrating radar for detection of underground structures in urban environments and to detect chemical species concentrations in migrating plumes. Given is our research in these areas and a status report of our progress

Code-division multiplexing

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 2004.Includes bibliographical references (p. 395-404).(cont.) counterpart. Among intra-cell orthogonal schemes, we show that the most efficient broadcast signal is a linear superposition of many binary orthogonal waveforms. The information set is also binary. Each orthogonal waveform is generated by modulating a periodic stream of finite-length chip pulses with a receiver-specific signature code that is derived from a special class of binary antipodal, superimposed recursive orthogonal code sequences. With the imposition of practical pulse shapes for carrier modulation, we show that multi-carrier format using cosine functions has higher bandwidth efficiency than the single-carrier format, even in an ideal Gaussian channel model. Each pulse is shaped via a prototype baseband filter such that when the demodulated signal is detected through a baseband matched filter, the resulting output samples satisfy the Generalized Nyquist criterion. Specifically, we propose finite-length, time overlapping orthogonal pulse shapes that are g-Nyquist. They are derived from extended and modulated lapped transforms by proving the equivalence between Perfect Reconstruction and Generalized Nyquist criteria. Using binary data modulation format, we measure and analyze the accuracy of various Gaussian approximation methods for spread-spectrum modulated (SSM) signalling ...We study forward link performance of a multi-user cellular wireless network. In our proposed cellular broadcast model, the receiver population is partitioned into smaller mutually exclusive subsets called cells. In each cell an autonomous transmitter with average transmit power constraint communicates to all receivers in its cell by broadcasting. The broadcast signal is a multiplex of independent information from many remotely located sources. Each receiver extracts its desired information from the composite signal, which consists of a distorted version of the desired signal, interference from neighboring cells and additive white Gaussian noise. Waveform distortion is caused by time and frequency selective linear time-variant channel that exists between every transmitter-receiver pair. Under such system and design constraints, and a fixed bandwidth for the entire network, we show that the most efficient resource allocation policy for each transmitter based on information theoretic measures such as channel capacity, simultaneously achievable rate regions and sum-rate is superposition coding with successive interference cancellation. The optimal policy dominates over its sub-optimal alternatives at the boundaries of the capacity region. By taking into account practical constraints such as finite constellation sets, frequency translation via carrier modulation, pulse shaping and real-time signal processing and decoding of finite-length waveforms and fairness in rate distribution, we argue that sub-optimal orthogonal policies are preferred. For intra-cell multiplexing, all orthogonal schemes based on frequency, time and code division are equivalent. For inter-cell multiplexing, non-orthogonal code-division has a larger capacity than its orthogonalby Ceilidh Hoffmann.Ph.D