An Overview of Physical Layer Security with Finite-Alphabet Signaling

Providing secure communications over the physical layer with the objective of achieving perfect secrecy without requiring a secret key has been receiving growing attention within the past decade. The vast majority of the existing studies in the area of physical layer security focus exclusively on the scenarios where the channel inputs are Gaussian distributed. However, in practice, the signals employed for transmission are drawn from discrete signal constellations such as phase shift keying and quadrature amplitude modulation. Hence, understanding the impact of the finite-alphabet input constraints and designing secure transmission schemes under this assumption is a mandatory step towards a practical implementation of physical layer security. With this motivation, this article reviews recent developments on physical layer security with finite-alphabet inputs. We explore transmit signal design algorithms for single-antenna as well as multi-antenna wiretap channels under different assumptions on the channel state information at the transmitter. Moreover, we present a review of the recent results on secure transmission with discrete signaling for various scenarios including multi-carrier transmission systems, broadcast channels with confidential messages, cognitive multiple access and relay networks. Throughout the article, we stress the important behavioral differences of discrete versus Gaussian inputs in the context of the physical layer security. We also present an overview of practical code construction over Gaussian and fading wiretap channels, and we discuss some open problems and directions for future research.Comment: Submitted to IEEE Communications Surveys & Tutorials (1st Revision

An Overview of Physical Layer Security with Finite Alphabet Signaling

Providing secure communications over the physical layer with the objective of achieving secrecy without requiring a secret key has been receiving growing attention within the past decade. The vast majority of the existing studies in the area of physical layer security focus exclusively on the scenarios where the channel inputs are Gaussian distributed. However, in practice, the signals employed for transmission are drawn from discrete signal constellations such as phase shift keying and quadrature amplitude modulation. Hence, understanding the impact of the finite-alphabet input constraints and designing secure transmission schemes under this assumption is a mandatory step towards a practical implementation of physical layer security. With this motivation, this article reviews recent developments on physical layer security with finite-alphabet inputs. We explore transmit signal design algorithms for single-antenna as well as multi-antenna wiretap channels under different assumptions on the channel state information at the transmitter. Moreover, we present a review of the recent results on secure transmission with discrete signaling for various scenarios including multi-carrier transmission systems, broadcast channels with confidential messages, cognitive multiple access and relay networks. Throughout the article, we stress the important behavioral differences of discrete versus Gaussian inputs in the context of the physical layer security. We also present an overview of practical code construction over Gaussian and fading wiretap channels, and discuss some open problems and directions for future research

Sparse Signal Processing Concepts for Efficient 5G System Design

As it becomes increasingly apparent that 4G will not be able to meet the emerging demands of future mobile communication systems, the question what could make up a 5G system, what are the crucial challenges and what are the key drivers is part of intensive, ongoing discussions. Partly due to the advent of compressive sensing, methods that can optimally exploit sparsity in signals have received tremendous attention in recent years. In this paper we will describe a variety of scenarios in which signal sparsity arises naturally in 5G wireless systems. Signal sparsity and the associated rich collection of tools and algorithms will thus be a viable source for innovation in 5G wireless system design. We will discribe applications of this sparse signal processing paradigm in MIMO random access, cloud radio access networks, compressive channel-source network coding, and embedded security. We will also emphasize important open problem that may arise in 5G system design, for which sparsity will potentially play a key role in their solution.Comment: 18 pages, 5 figures, accepted for publication in IEEE Acces

An Anti-Eavesdropping Strategy for Precoding-Aided Spatial Modulation With Rough CSI of Eve

In this paper, an anti-eavesdropping strategy is proposed for secure precoding-aided spatial modulation networks, under the assumption that the rough channel state information of eavesdropper can be obtained at the transmitter. Traditionally, artificial noise (AN) can be always projected into the null-space of the legitimate channel, however it may lead to some security loss since this strategy dispenses with a holistic consideration for secure transmissions. To reduce the computational complexity of our optimization problem, we derive a closed-form expression that is a loose bound of the approximate rate over the illegitimate channel. Then a concave maximization problem is formulated for optimizing the covariance matrix of AN. Simulation results show that our proposed low-complexity scheme performs closely to the method which directly maximizes the approximate secrecy rate expression, and harvests significant secrecy rate gains compared with the traditional null-space projection benchmark

Physical Layer Security in Integrated Sensing and Communication Systems

The development of integrated sensing and communication (ISAC) systems has been spurred by the growing congestion of the wireless spectrum. The ISAC system detects targets and communicates with downlink cellular users simultaneously. Uniquely for such scenarios, radar targets are regarded as potential eavesdroppers which might surveil the information sent from the base station (BS) to communication users (CUs) via the radar probing signal. To address this issue, we propose security solutions for ISAC systems to prevent confidential information from being intercepted by radar targets. In this thesis, we firstly present a beamformer design algorithm assisted by artificial noise (AN), which aims to minimize the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) at the target while ensuring the quality of service (QoS) of legitimate receivers. Furthermore, to reduce the power consumed by AN, we apply the directional modulation (DM) approach to exploit constructive interference (CI). In this case, the optimization problem is designed to maximize the SINR of the target reflected echoes with CI constraints for each CU, while constraining the received symbols at the target in the destructive region. Apart from the separate functionalities of radar and communication systems above, we investigate sensing-aided physical layer security (PLS), where the ISAC BS first emits an omnidirectional waveform to search for and estimate target directions. Then, we formulate a weighted optimization problem to simultaneously maximize the secrecy rate and minimize the Cram\'er-Rao bound (CRB) with the aid of the AN, designing a beampattern with a wide main beam covering all possible angles of targets. The main beam width of the next iteration depends on the optimal CRB. In this way, the sensing and security functionalities provide mutual benefits, resulting in the improvement of mutual performances with every iteration of the optimization, until convergence. Overall, numerical results show the effectiveness of the ISAC security designs through the deployment of AN-aided secrecy rate maximization and CI techniques. The sensing-assisted PLS scheme offers a new approach for obtaining channel information of eavesdroppers, which is treated as a limitation of conventional PLS studies. This design gains mutual benefits in both single and multi-target scenarios

Physical-Layer Security Enhancement in Wireless Communication Systems

Without any doubt, wireless infrastructures and services have fundamental impacts on every aspect of our lives. Despite of their popularities, wireless communications are vulnerable to various attacks due to the open nature of radio propagation. In fact, communication security in wireless networks is becoming more critical than ever. As a solution, conventional cryptographic techniques are deployed on upper layers of network protocols. Along with direct attacks from lower layer, wireless security challenges come with the rapid evolution of sophisticated decipher techniques. Conventional security mechanisms are not necessarily effective against potential attacks from the open wireless environment anymore. As an alternative, physical-layer(PHY) security, utilizing unique features from lower layer, becomes a new research focus for many wireless communication systems. In this thesis, three mechanisms for PHY security enhancement are investigated. Beginning with a discussion on the security vulnerability in highly standardized infrastructures, the thesis proposed a time domain scrambling scheme of orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) system to improve the PHY security. The method relies on secretly scrambling each OFDM symbol in time domain, resulting in constellation transformation in frequency domain, to hide transmission features. As a complement to existing secrecy capacity maximization based optimal cooperative jamming systems, a security strategy based on the compromised secrecy region (CSR) minimization in cooperative jamming is then proposed when instantaneous channel state information(CSI) is not available. The optimal parameters of the jammer are derived to minimize the CSR which exhibits high secrecy outage probability. At last, security enhancement of OFDM system in cooperative networks is also investigated. The function selection strategies of cooperative nodes are studied. Our approach is capable of enhancing the security of broadband communications by selecting the proper function of each cooperative node. Numerical results demonstrate the feasibility of three proposed physical layer security mechanisms by examining the communication reliability, achievable CSR and secrecy capacity respectively

SECURITY UNDER IMPERFECT CHANNEL KNOWLEDGE IN WIRELESS NETWORKS

This dissertation studies physical layer security in wireless networks using an information theoretic framework. The central theme of this work is exploring the effect of delayed or no channel state information (CSI) on physical layer security in various wireless channel models. We begin with the fast Rayleigh fading wiretap channel, over which a legitimate transmitter wishes to have secure communication with a legitimate receiver in the presence of an eavesdropper. Subject to an average power constraint on the input, and with no CSI at any user, we show that the input distribution that achieves the secrecy capacity for this wiretap channel is discrete with a finite number of mass points. This enables us to evaluate the exact secrecy capacity of this channel numerically. Next, we consider multi-user models, specifically, the wiretap channel with M helpers, the K-user multiple access wiretap channel, and the K-user interference channel with an external eavesdropper, when no eavesdropper's CSI is available at the transmitters. In each case, we establish the optimal sum secure degrees of freedom (s.d.o.f.) by providing achievable schemes and matching converses. We show that the unavailability of the eavesdropper's CSI at the transmitter (CSIT) does not reduce the s.d.o.f. of the wiretap channel with helpers. However, there is loss in s.d.o.f. for both the multiple access wiretap channel and the interference channel with an external eavesdropper. In particular, we show that in the absence of eavesdropper's CSIT, the K-user multiple access wiretap channel reduces to a wiretap channel with (K-1) helpers from a sum s.d.o.f. perspective, and the optimal sum s.d.o.f. reduces from K(K-1)/(K(K-1)+1) to (K-1)/K. For the interference channel with an external eavesdropper, the optimal sum s.d.o.f. decreases from K(K-1)/(2K-1) to (K-1)/2 in the absence of the eavesdropper's CSIT. Our results show that the lack of eavesdropper's CSIT does not have a significant impact on the optimal s.d.o.f. for any of the three channel models, especially when the number of users is large. We, then, study multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) multi-user channels. We begin with the case when full CSIT is available. We consider a two-user MIMO multiple access wiretap channel with N antennas at each transmitter, N antennas at the legitimate receiver, and K antennas at the eavesdropper. We determine the optimal sum s.d.o.f. for this model for all values of N and K. We subdivide our problem into several regimes based on the values of N and K, and provide achievable schemes based on real and vector space alignment techniques for fixed and fading channel gains, respectively. To prove the optimality of the achievable schemes, we provide matching converses for each regime. Our results show how the number of eavesdropper antennas affects the optimal sum s.d.o.f. of the multiple access wiretap channel. In line with the theme of this dissertation, we next consider the MIMO wiretap channel with one helper and the two-user MIMO multiple access channel when no eavesdropper CSIT is available. In each case, the eavesdropper has K antennas while the remaining terminals have N antennas. We determine the optimal sum s.d.o.f. for each channel model for the regime K= N. Finally, we explore the effect of delayed CSIT on physical layer security. In particular, we consider the two user multiple-input single-output (MISO) broadcast channel with confidential messages, in which the nature of CSIT from each user can be of the form I_{i}, i=1,2 where I_{i} belongs to {P, D,N}, and the forms P, D and N correspond to perfect and instantaneous, completely delayed, and no CSIT, respectively. Thus, the overall CSIT can be any of nine possible states corresponding to all possible values of (I_{1},I_{2}). While the optimal sum s.d.o.f. in the homogeneous settings corresponding to I_1=I_2 are already known in the literature, we focus on the heterogeneous settings where I_1 is not equal to I_2 and establish the optimal s.d.o.f. region in each case. We further consider the case where the CSIT state varies with time. Each state (I_1,I_2) can then occur for \lambda_{I_{1}I_{2}} fraction of the total duration. We determine the s.d.o.f. region of the MISO broadcast channel with confidential messages under such an alternating CSIT setting, with a mild symmetry assumption, where \lambda_{I_{1} I_{2}}=\lambda_{I_{2}I_{1}}