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

Wireless Information and Power Transfer in Communication Networks: Performance Analysis and Optimal Resource Allocation

Energy harvesting is considered as a prominent solution to supply the energy demand for low-power consuming devices and sensor nodes. This approach relinquishes the requirements of wired connections and regular battery replacements. This thesis analyzes the performance of energy harvesting communication networks under various operation protocols and multiple access schemes. Furthermore, since the radio frequency signal has energy, in addition to conveying information, it is also possible to power energy harvesting component while establishing data connectivity with information-decoding component. This leads to the concept of simultaneous wireless information and power transfer. The central goal of this thesis is to conduct a performance analysis in terms of throughput and energy efficiency, and determine optimal resource allocation strategies for wireless information and power transfer. In the first part of the thesis, simultaneous transfer of information and power through wireless links to energy harvesting and information decoding components is studied considering finite alphabet inputs. The concept of non-uniform probability distribution is introduced for an arbitrary input, and mathematical formulations that relate probability distribution to the required harvested energy level are provided. In addition, impact of statistical quality of service (QoS) constraints on the overall performance is studied, and power control algorithms are provided. Next, power allocation strategies that maximize the system energy efficiency subject to peak power constraints are determined for fading multiple access channels. The impact of channel characteristics, circuit power consumption and peak power level on the node selection, i.e., activation of user equipment, and the corresponding optimal transmit power level are addressed. Initially, wireless information transfer only is considered and subsequently wireless power transfer is taken into account. Assuming energy harvesting components, two scenarios are addressed based on the receiver architecture, i.e, having separated antenna or common antenna for the information decoding and energy harvesting components. In both cases, optimal SWIPT power control policies are identified, and impact of the required harvested energy is analyzed. The second line of research in this thesis focuses on wireless-powered communication devices that operate based on harvest-then-transmit protocol. Optimal time allocation for the downlink and uplink operation interval are identified formulating throughput maximization and energy-efficiency maximization problems. In addition, the performance gain among various types of downlink-uplink operation protocols is analyzed taking into account statistical QoS constraints. Furthermore, the performance analysis of energy harvesting user equipment is extended to full-duplex wireless information and power transfer as well as cellular networks. In full-duplex operation, optimal power control policies are identified, and the significance of introducing non-zero mean component on the information-bearing signal is analyzed. Meanwhile, SINR coverage probabilities, average throughput and energy efficiency are explicitly characterized for wireless-powered cellular networks, and the impact of downlink SWIPT and uplink mmWave schemes are addressed. In the final part of the thesis, energy efficiency is considered as the performance metric, and time allocation strategies that maximize energy efficiency for wireless powered communication networks with non-orthogonal multiple access scheme are determined. Low complex algorithms are proposed based on Dinkelbach’s method. In addition, the impact of statistical QoS constraints imposed as limitations on the buffer violation probabilities is addressed

D11.2 Consolidated results on the performance limits of wireless communications

Deliverable D11.2 del projecte europeu NEWCOM#The report presents the Intermediate Results of N# JRAs on Performance Limits of Wireless Communications and highlights the fundamental issues that have been investigated by the WP1.1. The report illustrates the Joint Research Activities (JRAs) already identified during the first year of the project which are currently ongoing. For each activity there is a description, an illustration of the adherence and relevance with the identified fundamental open issues, a short presentation of the preliminary results, and a roadmap for the joint research work in the next year. Appendices for each JRA give technical details on the scientific activity in each JRA.Peer ReviewedPreprin

Symbol-level and Multicast Precoding for Multiuser Multiantenna Downlink: A State-of-the-art, Classification and Challenges

Precoding has been conventionally considered as an effective means of mitigating or exploiting the interference in the multiantenna downlink channel, where multiple users are simultaneously served with independent information over the same channel resources. The early works in this area were focused on transmitting an individual information stream to each user by constructing weighted linear combinations of symbol blocks (codewords). However, more recent works have moved beyond this traditional view by: i) transmitting distinct data streams to groups of users and ii) applying precoding on a symbol-per-symbol basis. In this context, the current survey presents a unified view and classification of precoding techniques with respect to two main axes: i) the switching rate of the precoding weights, leading to the classes of block-level and symbol-level precoding, ii) the number of users that each stream is addressed to, hence unicast, multicast, and broadcast precoding. Furthermore, the classified techniques are compared through representative numerical results to demonstrate their relative performance and uncover fundamental insights. Finally, a list of open theoretical problems and practical challenges are presented to inspire further research in this area