The ability to exchange secret information is critical to many commercial,
governmental, and military networks. The intrinsically secure communications
graph (iS-graph) is a random graph which describes the connections that can be
securely established over a large-scale network, by exploiting the physical
properties of the wireless medium. This paper provides an overview of the main
properties of this new class of random graphs. We first analyze the local
properties of the iS-graph, namely the degree distributions and their
dependence on fading, target secrecy rate, and eavesdropper collusion. To
mitigate the effect of the eavesdroppers, we propose two techniques that
improve secure connectivity. Then, we analyze the global properties of the
iS-graph, namely percolation on the infinite plane, and full connectivity on a
finite region. These results help clarify how the presence of eavesdroppers can
compromise secure communication in a large-scale network.Comment: To appear: Proc. IEEE Information Theory and Applications Workshop
(ITA'11), San Diego, CA, Feb. 2011, pp. 1-10, Invited Pape