Distributed MAC Protocol Supporting Physical-Layer Network Coding

Physical-layer network coding (PNC) is a promising approach for wireless networks. It allows nodes to transmit simultaneously. Due to the difficulties of scheduling simultaneous transmissions, existing works on PNC are based on simplified medium access control (MAC) protocols, which are not applicable to general multi-hop wireless networks, to the best of our knowledge. In this paper, we propose a distributed MAC protocol that supports PNC in multi-hop wireless networks. The proposed MAC protocol is based on the carrier sense multiple access (CSMA) strategy and can be regarded as an extension to the IEEE 802.11 MAC protocol. In the proposed protocol, each node collects information on the queue status of its neighboring nodes. When a node finds that there is an opportunity for some of its neighbors to perform PNC, it notifies its corresponding neighboring nodes and initiates the process of packet exchange using PNC, with the node itself as a relay. During the packet exchange process, the relay also works as a coordinator which coordinates the transmission of source nodes. Meanwhile, the proposed protocol is compatible with conventional network coding and conventional transmission schemes. Simulation results show that the proposed protocol is advantageous in various scenarios of wireless applications.Comment: Final versio

Relay Selection with Network Coding in Two-Way Relay Channels

In this paper, we consider the design of joint network coding (NC)and relay selection (RS) in two-way relay channels. In the proposed schemes, two users first sequentially broadcast their respective information to all the relays. We propose two RS schemes, a single relay selection with NC and a dual relay selection with NC. For both schemes, the selected relay(s) perform NC on the received signals sent from the two users and forward them to both users. The proposed schemes are analyzed and the exact bit error rate (BER) expressions are derived and verified through Monte Carlo simulations. It is shown that the dual relay selection with NC outperforms other considered relay selection schemes in two-way relay channels. The results also reveal that the proposed NC relay selection schemes provide a selection gain compared to a NC scheme with no relay selection, and a network coding gain relative to a conventional relay selection scheme with no NC.Comment: 11 pages, 5 figure

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