On Physically Secure and Stable Slotted ALOHA System

In this paper, we consider the standard discrete-time slotted ALOHA with a finite number of terminals with infinite size buffers. In our study, we jointly consider the stability of this system together with the physical layer security. We conduct our studies on both dominant and original systems, where in a dominant system each terminal always has a packet in its buffer unlike in the original system. For N = 2, we obtain the secrecy-stability regions for both dominant and original systems. Furthermore, we obtain the transmission probabilities, which optimize system throughput. Lastly, this paper proposes a new methodology in terms of obtaining the joint stability and secrecy regions.Comment: 7 Pages, 8 Figures, Allerton 200

Enhancing wireless security via optimal cooperative jamming

In this work, we analyze the secrecy rate in a cooperative network, where a source node is assisted by relay nodes via cooperative jamming for delivering a secret message to the destination in the presence of an eavesdropper node. We consider the availability of both full and partial channel state information (CSI), and we take into account average power limitation at the relays as we formulate the rate maximization problem as a primal-dual problem. We derive the closed form solution for the full CSI case, and we show that the optimal solution allows the transmission of only one relay. For the partial CSI case, we define the concept of secrecy outage, where some of packets are intercepted by the eavesdropper, and we derive the secrecy outage probability and throughput in terms of average channel statistics. Due to the high nonlinearity of the secrecy throughput term, we propose a gradient update algorithm for obtaining the optimal power solutions for the partial CSI case. Our simulations demonstrate the gains of cooperative jamming over direct transmission for both full and partial CSI cases, where it is shown that the secrecy rate of the direct transmission is increased significantly, by %20−%80, when CJ is employed with our optimal power assignment algorithm

Wireless Network Control with Privacy Using Hybrid ARQ

We consider the problem of resource allocation in a wireless cellular network, in which nodes have both open and private information to be transmitted to the base station over block fading uplink channels. We develop a cross-layer solution, based on hybrid ARQ transmission with incremental redundancy. We provide a scheme that combines power control, flow control, and scheduling in order to maximize a global utility function, subject to the stability of the data queues, an average power constraint, and a constraint on the privacy outage probability. Our scheme is based on the assumption that each node has an estimate of its uplink channel gain at each block, while only the distribution of the cross channel gains is available. We prove that our scheme achieves a utility, arbitrarily close to the maximum achievable utility given the available channel state information

Throughput Optimal Scheduling with Dynamic Channel Feedback

It is well known that opportunistic scheduling algorithms are throughput optimal under full knowledge of channel and network conditions. However, these algorithms achieve a hypothetical achievable rate region which does not take into account the overhead associated with channel probing and feedback required to obtain the full channel state information at every slot. We adopt a channel probing model where $\beta$ fraction of time slot is consumed for acquiring the channel state information (CSI) of a single channel. In this work, we design a joint scheduling and channel probing algorithm named SDF by considering the overhead of obtaining the channel state information. We first analytically prove SDF algorithm can support $1+\epsilon$ fraction of of the full rate region achieved when all users are probed where $\epsilon$ depends on the expected number of users which are not probed. Then, for homogenous channel, we show that when the number of users in the network is greater than 3, $\epsilon > 0$, i.e., we guarantee to expand the rate region. In addition, for heterogenous channels, we prove the conditions under which SDF guarantees to increase the rate region. We also demonstrate numerically in a realistic simulation setting that this rate region can be achieved by probing only less than 50% of all channels in a CDMA based cellular network utilizing high data rate protocol under normal channel conditions.Comment: submitte

Dynamic control of wireless networks with confidential communications

Future wireless communication systems are rapidly transforming to satisfy everincreasing and varying mobile user demands. Cross-layer networking protocols have the potential to play a crucial role in this transformation by jointly addressing the requirements of user applications together with the time-varying nature of wireless networking. As wireless communications becoming an integral and crucial part of our daily lives with many of our personal data is being shared via wireless transmissions, the issue of keeping personal transactions confidential is at the forefront of any network design. Wireless communications is especially prone to attacks due to its broadcast nature. The conventional cryptographical methods can only guarantee secrecy with the assumption that it is computationally prohibitive for the eavesdroppers to decode the messages. On the other hand, information-theoretical secrecy as defined by Shannon in his seminal work has the potential to provide perfect secrecy regardless of the computational power of the eavesdropper. Recent studies has shown that information-theoretical secrecy is possible over noisy wireless channels. In this thesis, we aim to design simple yet provably optimal cross-layer algorithms taking into account information-theoretical secrecy as a Quality of Service (QoS) requirement. Our work has the potential to improve our understanding the interplay between the secrecy and networking protocols. In most of this thesis, we consider a wireless cellular architecture, where all nodes participate in communication with a base station. When a node is transmitting a confidential messages, other legitimate nodes are considered as eavesdroppers, i.e., all eavesdroppers are internal. We characterize the region of achievable open and confidential data rate pairs for a single and then a multi-node scenario. We define the notion of confidential opportunistic scheduler, which schedules a node that has the largest instantaneous confidential information rate, with respect to the best eavesdropper node, which has the largest mean cross-channel rate. Having defined the operational limits of the system, we then develop dynamic joint scheduling and flow control algorithms when perfect and imperfect channel state information (CSI) is available. The developed algorithms are simple index policies, in which scheduling and flow control decisions are given in each time instant independently. In real networks, instantaneous CSI is usually unavailable due to computational and communication overheads associated with obtaining this information. Hence, we generalize our model for the case where only the distributions of direct- and crosschannel CSI are available at the transmitter. In order to provide end-to-end reliability, Hybrid Automatic Retransmission reQuest (HARQ) is employed. The challenge of using HARQ is that the dynamic control policies proposed in the preceding chapter are no longer optimal, since the decisions at each time instant are no longer independent. This is mainly due to the potential of re-transmitting a variant of the same message successively until it is decoded at the base station. We solve this critical issue by proposing a novel queuing model, in which the messages transmitted the same number of times previously are stored in the same queue with scheduler selecting a head-of-line message from these queues. We prove that with this novel queuing model, the dynamic control algorithms can still be optimal. We then shift our attention to providing confidentiality in multi-hop wireless networks, where there are multiple source-destination pairs communicating confidential messages, to be kept confidential from the intermediate nodes. For this case, we propose a novel end-to-end encoding scheme, where the confidential information is encoded into one very long message. The encoded message is then divided into multiple packets, to be combined at the ultimate destination for recovery, and being sent over different paths so that each intermediate node only has partial view of the whole message. Based on the proposed end-to-end encoding scheme, we develop two different dynamic policies when the encoded message is finite and asymptotically large, respectively. When the encoded message has finite length, our proposed policy chooses the encoding rates for each message, based on the instantaneous channel state information, queue states and secrecy requirements. Also, the nodes keep account of the information leaked to intermediate nodes as well the information reaching the destination in order to provide confidentiality and reliability. We demonstrate via simulations that our policy has a performance asymptotically approaching that of the optimal policy with increasing length of the encoded message. All preceding work assumes that the nodes are altruistic and/or well-behaved, i.e., they cooperatively participate into the communication of the confidential messages. In the final chapter of the thesis, we investigate the case with non-altruistic nodes, where non-altruistic nodes provide a jamming service to nodes with confidential communication needs and receiving in turn the right to access to the channel. We develop optimal resource allocation and power control algorithms maximizing the aggregate utility of both nodes with confidential communication needs as well as the nodes providing jamming service

On-line residual capacity estimation for resource allocation in wireless mesh networks

Contention-based multi access scheme of 802.11 based wireless mesh networks imposes difficulties in achieving predictable service quality in multi-hop networks. In order to offer effective advanced network services such as flow admission control or load balancing, the residual capacity of the wireless links should be accurately estimated. In this work, we propose and validate an algorithm for the residual bandwidth of wireless mesh network. By collecting transmission statistics from the nearby nodes that are one and two hops away and by using a basic collision detection mechanism, the packet delivery failure probability for a given link is estimated. The packet failure probability is used in an analytical model to calculate the maximum allowable traffic level for this link in saturation condition. We evaluate the efficacy of the method via OPNET simulations, and show that the percent estimation error is significantly lower than a recent prominent estimation method; i.e. error is between 0.5-1.5%. We demonstrate that flow admission control is successfully achieved in a realistic WMN scenario based on accurate link residual bandwidth estimates. A flow control algorithm based on residual bandwidth keeps the unsatisfied traffic demand bounded and at a negligibly low level. We also propose a routing metric that uses residual bandwidth as link metric and we show that this routing algorithm results in a significant increase in network throughput compared to other popular metrics

Accurate non-intrusive residual bandwidth estimation in WMNs

The multi-access scheme of 802.11 wireless networks imposes difficulties in achieving predictable service quality in multi-hop networks. In such networks, the residual capacity of wireless links should be estimated for resource allocation services such as flow admission control. In this paper, we propose an accurate and non-intrusive method to estimate the residual bandwidth of an 802.11 link. Inputs from neighboring network activity measurements and from a basic collision detection mechanism are fed to the analytical model so that the proposed algorithm calculates the maximum allowable traffic level for this link. We evaluate the efficiency of the method via OPNET simulations, and show that the percent estimation error is significantly lower than two other prominent estimation methods, bounded only between 2.5-7.5%. We also demonstrate that flow admission control is successfully achieved in a realistic WMN scenario. Flow control through our proposed algorithm keeps the unsatisfied traffic demand bounded and at a negligibly low level, which is less than an order of magnitude of the other two methods