Nonorthogonal multiple access (NOMA) has been viewed as a potential candidate for the upcoming generation of wireless communication systems. Comparing to traditional orthogonal multiple access (OMA), multiplexing users in the same time-frequency resource block can increase the number of served users and improve the efficiency of the systems in terms of spectral efficiency. Nevertheless, from a security viewpoint, when multiple users are utilizing the same time-frequency resource, there may be concerns regarding keeping information confidential. In this context, physical layer security (PLS) has been introduced as a supplement of protection to conventional encryption techniques by making use of the random nature of wireless transmission media for ensuring communication secrecy. The recent years have seen significant interests in PLS being applied to NOMA networks. Numerous scenarios have been investigated to assess the security of NOMA systems, including when active and passive eavesdroppers are present, as well as when these systems, are combined with relay and reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (RISs). Additionally, the security of the ambient backscatter (AmB)-NOMA systems are other issues that have lately drawn a lot of attention. In this article, a thorough analysis of the PLS-assisted NOMA systems research state-of-the-art is presented. In this regard, we begin by outlining the foundations of NOMA and PLS, respectively. Following that, we discuss the PLS performances for NOMA systems in four categories depending on the type of the eavesdropper, the existence of relay, RIS, and AmB systems in different conditions. Finally, a thorough explanation of the most recent PLS-assisted NOMA systems is given.
Nonorthogonal multiple access (NOMA) has been viewed as a potential candidate for the upcoming generation of wireless communication systems. Comparing to traditional orthogonal multiple access (OMA), multiplexing users in the same time-frequency resource block can increase the number of served users and improve the efficiency of the systems in terms of spectral efficiency. Nevertheless, from a security viewpoint, when multiple users are utilizing the same time-frequency resource, there may be concerns regarding keeping information confidential. In this context, physical layer security (PLS) has been introduced as a supplement of protection to conventional encryption techniques by making use of the random nature of wireless transmission media for ensuring communication secrecy. The recent years have seen significant interests in PLS being applied to NOMA networks. Numerous scenarios have been investigated to assess the security of NOMA systems, including when active and passive eavesdroppers are present, as well as when these systems, are combined with relay and reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (RISs). Additionally, the security of the ambient backscatter (AmB)-NOMA systems are other issues that have lately drawn a lot of attention. In this article, a thorough analysis of the PLS-assisted NOMA systems research state-of-the-art is presented. In this regard, we begin by outlining the foundations of NOMA and PLS, respectively. Following that, we discuss the PLS performances for NOMA systems in four categories depending on the type of the eavesdropper, the existence of relay, RIS, and AmB systems in different conditions. Finally, a thorough explanation of the most recent PLS-assisted NOMA systems is given.
NOMA (Non-Orthogonal Multiple Access) has been recognized as new multiple access technology for wireless communication networks of the fifth generation and beyond, owing to its ability to improve spectral efficiency, support massive connectivity, and provide user fairness. However, it has been observed that the superposition-based transmission principle of NOMA is highly susceptible to eavesdropping attacks, especially in an open wireless network where all wireless communications are inherently broadcast in nature. Hence, ensuring secure wireless communications for NOMA systems has now become an important area of research. This research aims to improve the secrecy level of wireless communications for NOMA systems by employing Physical Layer Security (PLS) techniques. Specifically, two prominent PLS techniques, Artificial Noise (AN) and Cooperative Jamming (CJ), have been employed to provide security against passive eavesdropping attacks. The cooperative NOMA system architecture is considered, and the secrecy enhancement is analyzed for two possible scenarios when the eavesdropper is close to the relay node and when the eavesdropper is close to the base station. The secrecy performance of the proposed system is analyzed through various parameters, namely, Secrecy Outage Probability (SOP), Secrecy Capacity (SC), Secrecy Rate (SR), and Secrecy Energy Efficiency (SEE) in terms of the Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR). The numerical results for the secrecy metrics are obtained through MATLAB-based simulations, whereas the system-level model is developed using the Simulink platform to verify the suggested system's functionality in the presence of AN and CJ for the legitimate NOMA users and the eavesdropper. The results show that the secrecy performance is significantly enhanced with the introduction of AN and CJ, and the system shows robust performance in terms of energy efficiency. This paper provides significant insights into the design of the NOMA system from the secrecy perspective and validates the potential of PLS techniques for the design of the future wireless system.
In order to improve the Physical Layer Security (PLS) perspective, this paper aims to empower function of PLS by considering a backhaul Non-Orthogonal Multiple Access (NOMA) system in two practical situations. In the proposed schemes, the untrusted user intercepts information transmitted to the far user, or the external eavesdropper overhears confidential information sent to the far user in the context of NOMA technique. Unlike the conventional NOMA systems, this paper emphasizes the actual situations of the existence of actual illegal users and legitimate users, especially the reasonable use of relay selection architecture to improve the confidentiality performance. To evaluate the security properties of the proposed scheme, a comprehensive analysis of the Security Outage Probability (SOP) performance is first performed, and then the corresponding SOP asymptotic expressions are derived for real scenarios related to eavesdroppers and untrusted users. Numerical results are performed to verify the analysis in terms of the secure performance metric.
This article clarifies pivotal security issues in the context of non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) technology and presents potential methodologies to address them at the physical layer. Specifically, we first clarify the channel conditions for an external eavesdropper to use successive interference cancellation (SIC) for cancelling interference, which has recently been considered in the literature of physical layer security for NOMA. We then explicitly demonstrate the advantages and drawbacks of using NOMA to achieve wireless communication security; that is, NOMA improves the security of a strong user, but reduces the security of a weak user. Finally, we discuss a strategy to protect the confidentiality of a weak user's information from a strong user, while still allowing the latter to seek SIC for harnessing the benefits of NOMA. Research challenges and future works along the aforementioned three different aspects of security issues in NOMA are presented in this article.
Physical layer security (PLS) has emerged as a new concept and powerful alternative that can complement and may even replace encryption-based approaches, which entail many hurdles and practical problems for future wireless systems. The basic idea of PLS is to exploit the characteristics of the wireless channel and its impairments including noise, fading, interference, dispersion, diversity, etc. in order to ensure the ability of the intended user to successfully perform data decoding while preventing eavesdroppers from doing so. Thus, the main design goal of PLS is to increase the performance difference between the link of the legitimate receiver and that of the eavesdropper by using well-designed transmission schemes. In this survey, we propose a conceptual, generic, and expandable framework for classifying the existing PLS techniques against wireless passive eavesdropping. In this flexible framework, the security techniques that we comprehensively review in this treatise are divided into two primary approaches: signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio-based approach and complexity-based approach. The first approach is classified into three major categories: first, secrecy channel codes-based schemes; second, security techniques based on channel adaptation; third, schemes based on injecting interfering artificial (noise/jamming) signals along with the transmitted information signals. The second approach (complexity-based), which is associated with the mechanisms of extracting secret sequences from the shared channel, is classified into two main categories based on which layer the secret sequence obtained by channel quantization is applied on. The techniques belonging to each one of these categories are divided and classified into three main signal domains: time, frequency and space. For each one of these domains, several examples are given and illustrated along with the review of the state-of-the-art security advances in each domain. Moreover, the advantages and disadvantages of each approach alongside the lessons learned from existing research works are stated and discussed. The recent applications of PLS techniques to different emerging communication systems such as visible light communication, body area network, power line communication, Internet of Things, smart grid, mm-Wave, cognitive radio, vehicular ad-hoc network, unmanned aerial vehicle, ultra-wideband, device-to-device, radio-frequency identification, index modulation, and 5G non-orthogonal multiple access based-systems, are also reviewed and discussed. The paper is concluded with recommendations and future research directions for designing robust, efficient and strong security methods for current and future wireless systems.
This paper investigates physical layer security (PLS) in hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ)-assisted non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) networks, where a security-required user is paired with a quality of service (QoS)-required user to perform NOMA in presence of an eavesdropper (Eve). We derive the closed-form expressions for connection outage probability (COP) of security-required and QoS-required users. In addition, the closed-form expressions for secrecy outage probability (SOP) secrecy transmission probability (RSP), and effective secrecy throughput (EST) of security-required user are also derived. Although the expression of SOP demonstrates that HARQ increases the risk of leaking confidential message to eavesdropper (Eve), however, from the perspective of Eve and security-required user, secrecy performance improves significantly, in terms of EST and RSP, when applying HARQ.
Driven by the ever-increasing requirements of ultrahigh spectral efficiency, ultralow latency, and massive connectivity, the forefront of wireless research calls for the design of advanced next-generation multiple access schemes to facilitate the provisioning of these stringent demands. This inspires the embrace of nonorthogonal multiple access (NOMA) in future wireless communication networks. Nevertheless, the support of massive access via NOMA leads to additional security threats due to the open nature of the air interface, the broadcast characteristic of radio propagation, and the intertwined relationship among paired NOMA users. To address this specific challenge, the superimposed transmission of NOMA can be explored as new opportunities for security-aware design; for example, multiuser interference inherent in NOMA can be constructively engineered to benefit communication secrecy and privacy. The purpose of this tutorial is to provide a comprehensive overview of the state-of-the-art physical layer security techniques that guarantee wireless security and privacy for NOMA networks, along with the opportunities, technical challenges, and future research trends.