Physical Layer Security for Visible Light Communication Systems:A Survey

Due to the dramatic increase in high data rate services and in order to meet the demands of the fifth-generation (5G) networks, researchers from both academia and industry are exploring advanced transmission techniques, new network architectures and new frequency spectrum such as the visible light spectra. Visible light communication (VLC) particularly is an emerging technology that has been introduced as a promising solution for 5G and beyond. Although VLC systems are more immune against interference and less susceptible to security vulnerabilities since light does not penetrate through walls, security issues arise naturally in VLC channels due to their open and broadcasting nature, compared to fiber-optic systems. In addition, since VLC is considered to be an enabling technology for 5G, and security is one of the 5G fundamental requirements, security issues should be carefully addressed and resolved in the VLC context. On the other hand, due to the success of physical layer security (PLS) in improving the security of radio-frequency (RF) wireless networks, extending such PLS techniques to VLC systems has been of great interest. Only two survey papers on security in VLC have been published in the literature. However, a comparative and unified survey on PLS for VLC from information theoretic and signal processing point of views is still missing. This paper covers almost all aspects of PLS for VLC, including different channel models, input distributions, network configurations, precoding/signaling strategies, and secrecy capacity and information rates. Furthermore, we propose a number of timely and open research directions for PLS-VLC systems, including the application of measurement-based indoor and outdoor channel models, incorporating user mobility and device orientation into the channel model, and combining VLC and RF systems to realize the potential of such technologies

Visible Light Communication Cyber Security Vulnerabilities For Indoor And Outdoor Vehicle-To-Vehicle Communication

Light fidelity (Li-Fi), developed from the approach of Visible Light Communication (VLC), is a great replacement or complement to existing radio frequency-based (RF) networks. Li-Fi is expected to be deployed in various environments were, due to Wi-Fi congestion and health limitations, RF should not be used. Moreover, VLC can provide the future fifth generation (5G) wireless technology with higher data rates for device connectivity which will alleviate the traffic demand. 5G is playing a vital role in encouraging the modern applications. In 2023, the deployment of all the cellular networks will reach more than 5 billion users globally. As a result, the security and privacy of 5G wireless networks is an essential problem as those modern applications are in people\u27s life everywhere. VLC security is as one of the core physical-layer security (PLS) solutions for 5G networks. Due to the fact that light does not penetrate through solid objects or walls, VLC naturally has higher security and privacy for indoor wireless networks compared to RF networks. However, the broadcasting nature of VLC caused concerns, e.g., eavesdropping, have created serious attention as it is a crucial step to validate the success of VLC in wild. The aim of this thesis is to properly address the security issues of VLC and further enhance the VLC nature security. We analyzed the secrecy performance of a VLC model by studying the characteristics of the transmitter, receiver and the visible light channel. Moreover, we mitigated the security threats in the VLC model for the legitimate user, by 1) implementing more access points (APs) in a multiuser VLC network that are cooperated, 2) reducing the semi-angle of LED to help improve the directivity and secrecy and, 3) using the protected zone strategy around the AP where eavesdroppers are restricted. According to the model\u27s parameters, the results showed that the secrecy performance in the proposed indoor VLC model and the vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) VLC outdoor model using a combination of multiple PLS techniques as beamforming, secure communication zones, and friendly jamming is enhanced. The proposed model security performance was measured with respect to the signal to noise ratio (SNR), received optical power, and bit error rate (BER) Matlab simulation results

Optical wireless communications for cyber-secure ubiquitous wireless networks

Wireless connectivity is no longer limited to facilitating communications between individuals, but is also required to support diverse and heterogeneous applications, services and infrastructures. Internet of things (IoT) systems will dominate future technologies, allowing any and all devices to create, share and process data. If artificial intelligence resembles the brain of IoT, then high-speed connectivity forms the nervous system that connects the devices. For IoT to safely operate autonomously, it requires highly secure and reliable wireless links. In this article, we shed light on the potential of optical wireless communications to provide high-speed secure and reliable ubiquitous access as an enabler for fifth generation and beyond wireless networks

On the Secrecy Performance of Random VLC Networks with Imperfect CSI and Protected Zone

This paper investigates the physical-layer security for a random indoor visible light communication (VLC) network with imperfect channel state information (CSI) and a protected zone. The VLC network consists of three nodes, i.e., a transmitter (Alice), a legitimate receiver (Bob), and an eavesdropper (Eve). Alice is fixed in the center of the ceiling, and the emitted signal at Alice satisfies the non-negativity and the dimmable average optical intensity constraint. Bob and Eve are randomly deployed on the receiver plane. By employing the protected zone and considering the imperfect CSI, the stochastic characteristics of the channel gains for both the main and the eavesdropping channels is first analyzed. After that, the closed-form expressions of the average secrecy capacity and the lower bound of secrecy outage probability are derived, respectively. Finally, Monte-Carlo simulations are provided to verify the accuracy of the derived theoretical expressions. Moreover, the impacts of the nominal optical intensity, the dimming target, the protected zone and the imperfect CSI on secrecy performance are discussed, respectively.Comment: Accepted by IEEE Systems Joutna