Secure Transmission in Linear Multihop Relaying Networks

This paper studies the design and secrecy performance of linear multihop networks, in the presence of randomly distributed eavesdroppers in a large-scale two-dimensional space. Depending on whether there is feedback from the receiver to the transmitter, we study two transmission schemes: on-off transmission (OFT) and non-on-off transmission (NOFT). In the OFT scheme, transmission is suspended if the instantaneous received signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) falls below a given threshold, whereas there is no suspension of transmission in the NOFT scheme. We investigate the optimal design of the linear multiple network in terms of the optimal rate parameters of the wiretap code as well as the optimal number of hops. These design parameters are highly interrelated since more hops reduces the distance of per-hop communication which completely changes the optimal design of the wiretap coding rates. Despite the analytical difficulty, we are able to characterize the optimal designs and the resulting secure transmission throughput in mathematically tractable forms in the high SNR regime. Our numerical results demonstrate that our analytical results obtained in the high SNR regime are accurate at practical SNR values. Hence, these results provide useful guidelines for designing linear multihop networks with targeted physical layer security performance.This work was supported in part by the Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant 61401159 and Grant 61771203, in part by the Pearl River Science and Technology Nova Program of Guangzhou under Grant 201710010111, and in part by the Guangdong Science and Technology Plan under Grant 2016A010101009. The work of X. Zhou was supported by the Australian Research Council Discovery Projects under Grant DP150103905ARC Discovery Projects Grant DP150103905

Secrecy performance of TAS/SC-based multi-hop harvest-to-transmit cognitive WSNs under joint constraint of interference and hardware imperfection

In this paper, we evaluate the secrecy performance of multi-hop cognitive wireless sensor networks (WSNs). In the secondary network, a source transmits its data to a destination via the multi-hop relaying model using the transmit antenna selection (TAS)/selection combining (SC) technique at each hop, in the presence of an eavesdropper who wants to receive the data illegally. The secondary transmitters, including the source and intermediate relays, have to harvest energy from radio-frequency signals of a power beacon for transmitting the source data. Moreover, their transmit power must be adjusted to satisfy the quality of service (QoS) of the primary network. Under the joint impact of hardware imperfection and interference constraint, expressions for the transmit power for the secondary transmitters are derived. We also derive exact and asymptotic expressions of secrecy outage probability (SOP) and probability of non-zero secrecy capacity (PNSC) for the proposed protocol over Rayleigh fading channel. The derivations are then verified by Monte Carlo simulations.Web of Science195art. no. 116

Performance of cluster-based cognitive multihop networks under joint impact of hardware noises and non-identical primary co-channel interference

In this paper, we evaluate outage probability (OP) of a cluster-based multi-hop protocol operating on an underlay cognitive radio (CR) mode. The primary network consists of multiple independent transmit/receive pairs, and the primary transmitters seriously cause co-channel interference (CCI) to the secondary receivers. To improve the outage performance for the secondary network under the joint impact of the CCI and hardware imperfection, we employ the best relay selection at each hop. Moreover, the destination is equipped with multiple antennas and uses the selection combining (SC) technique to enhance the reliability of the data transmission at the last hop. For performance evaluation, we first derive an exact formula of OP for the primary network which is used to calculate the transmit power of the secondary transmitters. Next, an exact closed-form expression of the end-to-end OP for the secondary network is derived over Rayleigh fading channels. We then perform Monte-Carlo simulations to validate the derivations. The results present that the CCI caused by the primary operations significantly impacts on the outage performance of the secondary network

Relaying in the Internet of Things (IoT): A Survey

The deployment of relays between Internet of Things (IoT) end devices and gateways can improve link quality. In cellular-based IoT, relays have the potential to reduce base station overload. The energy expended in single-hop long-range communication can be reduced if relays listen to transmissions of end devices and forward these observations to gateways. However, incorporating relays into IoT networks faces some challenges. IoT end devices are designed primarily for uplink communication of small-sized observations toward the network; hence, opportunistically using end devices as relays needs a redesign of both the medium access control (MAC) layer protocol of such end devices and possible addition of new communication interfaces. Additionally, the wake-up time of IoT end devices needs to be synchronized with that of the relays. For cellular-based IoT, the possibility of using infrastructure relays exists, and noncellular IoT networks can leverage the presence of mobile devices for relaying, for example, in remote healthcare. However, the latter presents problems of incentivizing relay participation and managing the mobility of relays. Furthermore, although relays can increase the lifetime of IoT networks, deploying relays implies the need for additional batteries to power them. This can erode the energy efficiency gain that relays offer. Therefore, designing relay-assisted IoT networks that provide acceptable trade-offs is key, and this goes beyond adding an extra transmit RF chain to a relay-enabled IoT end device. There has been increasing research interest in IoT relaying, as demonstrated in the available literature. Works that consider these issues are surveyed in this paper to provide insight into the state of the art, provide design insights for network designers and motivate future research directions

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

Secrecy performance enhancement for underlay cognitive radio networks employing cooperative multi-hop transmission with and without presence of hardware impairments

In this paper, we consider a cooperative multi-hop secured transmission protocol to underlay cognitive radio networks. In the proposed protocol, a secondary source attempts to transmit its data to a secondary destination with the assistance of multiple secondary relays. In addition, there exists a secondary eavesdropper who tries to overhear the source data. Under a maximum interference level required by a primary user, the secondary source and relay nodes must adjust their transmit power. We first formulate effective signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) as well as secrecy capacity under the constraints of the maximum transmit power, the interference threshold and the hardware impairment level. Furthermore, when the hardware impairment level is relaxed, we derive exact and asymptotic expressions of end-to-end secrecy outage probability over Rayleigh fading channels by using the recursive method. The derived expressions were verified by simulations, in which the proposed scheme outperformed the conventional multi-hop direct transmission protocol.Web of Science212art. no. 21