Principles of Physical Layer Security in Multiuser Wireless Networks: A Survey

This paper provides a comprehensive review of the domain of physical layer security in multiuser wireless networks. The essential premise of physical-layer security is to enable the exchange of confidential messages over a wireless medium in the presence of unauthorized eavesdroppers without relying on higher-layer encryption. This can be achieved primarily in two ways: without the need for a secret key by intelligently designing transmit coding strategies, or by exploiting the wireless communication medium to develop secret keys over public channels. The survey begins with an overview of the foundations dating back to the pioneering work of Shannon and Wyner on information-theoretic security. We then describe the evolution of secure transmission strategies from point-to-point channels to multiple-antenna systems, followed by generalizations to multiuser broadcast, multiple-access, interference, and relay networks. Secret-key generation and establishment protocols based on physical layer mechanisms are subsequently covered. Approaches for secrecy based on channel coding design are then examined, along with a description of inter-disciplinary approaches based on game theory and stochastic geometry. The associated problem of physical-layer message authentication is also introduced briefly. The survey concludes with observations on potential research directions in this area.Comment: 23 pages, 10 figures, 303 refs. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1303.1609 by other authors. IEEE Communications Surveys and Tutorials, 201

Uplink User Capacity in a CDMA System with Hotspot Microcells: Effects of Finite Transmit Power and Dispersion

This paper examines the uplink user capacity in a two-tier code division multiple access (CDMA) system with hotspot microcells when user terminal power is limited and the wireless channel is finitely-dispersive. A finitely-dispersive channel causes variable fading of the signal power at the output of the RAKE receiver. First, a two-cell system composed of one macrocell and one embedded microcell is studied and analytical methods are developed to estimate the user capacity as a function of a dimensionless parameter that depends on the transmit power constraint and cell radius. Next, novel analytical methods are developed to study the effect of variable fading, both with and without transmit power constraints. Finally, the analytical methods are extended to estimate uplink user capacity for multicell CDMA systems, composed of multiple macrocells and multiple embedded microcells. In all cases, the analysis-based estimates are compared with and confirmed by simulation results.Comment: To appear in IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communication

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

Beamforming Design for Joint Localization and Data Transmission in Distributed Antenna System

A distributed antenna system is studied whose goal is to provide data communication and positioning functionalities to Mobile Stations (MSs). Each MS receives data from a number of Base Stations (BSs), and uses the received signal not only to extract the information but also to determine its location. This is done based on Time of Arrival (TOA) or Time Difference of Arrival (TDOA) measurements, depending on the assumed synchronization conditions. The problem of minimizing the overall power expenditure of the BSs under data throughput and localization accuracy requirements is formulated with respect to the beamforming vectors used at the BSs. The analysis covers both frequency-flat and frequency-selective channels, and accounts also for robustness constraints in the presence of parameter uncertainty. The proposed algorithmic solutions are based on rank-relaxation and Difference-of-Convex (DC) programming.Comment: 15 pages, 9 figures, and 1 table, accepted in IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technolog