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

Full-Duplex Relay with Jamming Protocol for Improving Physical-Layer Security

This paper proposes a jointly cooperative relay and jamming protocol based on full-duplex (FD) capable relay to increase the source-destination secrecy rate in the presence of different types of eavesdroppers. In this so called \textit{FD-Relay with jamming (FDJ)} protocol, the FD-Relay, first, simultaneously receives data and sends jamming to the eavesdropper, and, then, forwards the data, while the source jams the eavesdropper. Achievable secrecy rates of the proposed FDJ in presence of different eavesdropper types and self-interference (SI) are derived and compared with those of the traditional half-duplex (HD) relay. The adaptive power allocation for secrecy rate maximization in a multi-carrier scenario for both proposed FDJ and HD-Relay is formulated as a non-convex optimization problem and corresponding iterative solution algorithm is developed using the difference-of-two-concave-functions (DC) programming technique. The simulation results confirm that FDJ offers significant improvements in the secrecy rate over the HD-Relay.Comment: PIMRC 201

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

Exploiting Full-duplex Receivers for Achieving Secret Communications in Multiuser MISO Networks

We consider a broadcast channel, in which a multi-antenna transmitter (Alice) sends $K$ confidential information signals to $K$ legitimate users (Bobs) in the presence of $L$ eavesdroppers (Eves). Alice uses MIMO precoding to generate the information signals along with her own (Tx-based) friendly jamming. Interference at each Bob is removed by MIMO zero-forcing. This, however, leaves a "vulnerability region" around each Bob, which can be exploited by a nearby Eve. We address this problem by augmenting Tx-based friendly jamming (TxFJ) with Rx-based friendly jamming (RxFJ), generated by each Bob. Specifically, each Bob uses self-interference suppression (SIS) to transmit a friendly jamming signal while simultaneously receiving an information signal over the same channel. We minimize the powers allocated to the information, TxFJ, and RxFJ signals under given guarantees on the individual secrecy rate for each Bob. The problem is solved for the cases when the eavesdropper's channel state information is known/unknown. Simulations show the effectiveness of the proposed solution. Furthermore, we discuss how to schedule transmissions when the rate requirements need to be satisfied on average rather than instantaneously. Under special cases, a scheduling algorithm that serves only the strongest receivers is shown to outperform the one that schedules all receivers.Comment: IEEE Transactions on Communication

Jamming Games in the MIMO Wiretap Channel With an Active Eavesdropper

This paper investigates reliable and covert transmission strategies in a multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) wiretap channel with a transmitter, receiver and an adversarial wiretapper, each equipped with multiple antennas. In a departure from existing work, the wiretapper possesses a novel capability to act either as a passive eavesdropper or as an active jammer, under a half-duplex constraint. The transmitter therefore faces a choice between allocating all of its power for data, or broadcasting artificial interference along with the information signal in an attempt to jam the eavesdropper (assuming its instantaneous channel state is unknown). To examine the resulting trade-offs for the legitimate transmitter and the adversary, we model their interactions as a two-person zero-sum game with the ergodic MIMO secrecy rate as the payoff function. We first examine conditions for the existence of pure-strategy Nash equilibria (NE) and the structure of mixed-strategy NE for the strategic form of the game.We then derive equilibrium strategies for the extensive form of the game where players move sequentially under scenarios of perfect and imperfect information. Finally, numerical simulations are presented to examine the equilibrium outcomes of the various scenarios considered.Comment: 27 pages, 8 figures. To appear, IEEE Transactions on Signal Processin

Resource Allocation for Secure Gaussian Parallel Relay Channels with Finite-Length Coding and Discrete Constellations

We investigate the transmission of a secret message from Alice to Bob in the presence of an eavesdropper (Eve) and many of decode-and-forward relay nodes. Each link comprises a set of parallel channels, modeling for example an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing transmission. We consider the impact of discrete constellations and finite-length coding, defining an achievable secrecy rate under a constraint on the equivocation rate at Eve. Then we propose a power and channel allocation algorithm that maximizes the achievable secrecy rate by resorting to two coupled Gale-Shapley algorithms for stable matching problem. We consider the scenarios of both full and partial channel state information at Alice. In the latter case, we only guarantee an outage secrecy rate, i.e., the rate of a message that remains secret with a given probability. Numerical results are provided for Rayleigh fading channels in terms of average outage secrecy rate, showing that practical schemes achieve a performance quite close to that of ideal ones