This paper considers improving the confidentiality of visible light communication (VLC) links within the framework of physical-layer security. We study a VLC scenario with one transmitter, one legitimate receiver, and one eavesdropper. The transmitter has multiple light sources, while the legitimate and unauthorized receivers have a single photodetector, each. We characterize secrecy rates achievable via transmit beamforming over the multiple-input, single-output (MISO) VLC wiretap channel. For VLC systems, intensity modulation (IM) via light-emitting diodes (LEDs) is the most practical transmission scheme. Because of the limited dynamic range of typical LEDs, the modulating signal must satisfy certain amplitude constraints. Hence, we begin with deriving lower and upper bounds on the secrecy capacity of the scalar Gaussian wiretap channel subject to amplitude constraints. Then, we utilize beamforming to obtain a closed-form secrecy rate expression for the MISO wiretap channel. Finally, we propose a robust beamforming scheme to consider the scenario wherein information about the eavesdropper's channel is imperfect due to location uncertainty. A typical application of the proposed scheme is to secure the communication link when the eavesdropper is expected to exist within a specified area. The performance is measured in terms of the worst-case secrecy rate guaranteed under all admissible realizations of the eavesdropper's channel.
This paper considers improving the confidentiality of visible light communication (VLC) links within the framework of physical-layer security. We study a VLC scenario with one transmitter, one legitimate receiver, and one eavesdropper. The transmitter has multiple light sources, while the legitimate and unauthorized receivers have a single photodetector, each. We characterize secrecy rates achievable via transmit beamforming over the multiple-input, single-output (MISO) VLC wiretap channel. For VLC systems, intensity modulation (IM) via light-emitting diodes (LEDs) is the most practical transmission scheme. Because of the limited dynamic range of typical LEDs, the modulating signal must satisfy certain amplitude constraints. Hence, we begin with deriving lower and upper bounds on the secrecy capacity of the scalar Gaussian wiretap channel subject to amplitude constraints. Then, we utilize beamforming to obtain a closed-form secrecy rate expression for the MISO wiretap channel. Finally, we propose a robust beamforming scheme to consider the scenario wherein information about the eavesdropper's channel is imperfect due to location uncertainty. A typical application of the proposed scheme is to secure the communication link when the eavesdropper is expected to exist within a specified area. The performance is measured in terms of the worst-case secrecy rate guaranteed under all admissible realizations of the eavesdropper's channel.
This paper considers secure transmission over the visible light communication (VLC) channel by the means of physical-layer security techniques. In particular, we consider achievable secrecy rates of the multiple-input, single-output (MISO) wiretap VLC channel. The VLC channel is modeled as a deterministic and real-valued Gaussian channel subject to amplitude constraints. We utilize null-steering and artificial noise strategies to achieve positive secrecy rates when the eavesdropper's channel state information (CSI) is perfectly known and entirely unknown to the transmitter, respectively. In both scenarios, the legitimate receiver's CSI is available to the transmitter. We numerically evaluate achievable secrecy rates under typical VLC scenarios and show that simple precoding techniques can significantly improve the confidentiality of VLC links.
We study the secrecy capacity of the multiple- input single-output (MISO) Gaussian wiretap visible light communication (VLC) channel. We study a typical VLC scenario with one transmitter, one legitimate receiver, and one eavesdropper. Specifically, we compute the achievable secrecy rate for various input signaling distributions, including the truncated generalized normal (TGN) and uniform distributions. The transmitter is equipped with multiple light sources, while the legitimate and unauthorized receivers are each equipped with a single photodetector. We analyze the achievable secrecy rates via transmit beamforming and artificial noise. In addition, both zero-forcing beamforming and robust beamforming are considered. In the former case, the location of the eavesdropper is assumed to be known, whereas in the latter case, the location of the eavesdropper is unknown. Our numerical results show that the secrecy rate achieved by the TGN distribution is significantly improved as compared to those achieved by the truncated Gaussian and uniform distributions, for both zero-forcing beamforming and robust beamforming. We also derive an upper bound on the achievable secrecy capacity that we used to assess the closeness of the achievable secrecy rates to the derived bound.
Visible-light communication (VLC) is an enabling technology that exploits the lighting infrastructure to provide ubiquitous indoor broadband coverage via high-speed short-range wireless communication links. On the other hand, physical-layer security has the potential to supplement conventional encryption methods with an additional secrecy measure that is provably unbreakable regardless of the computational power of the eavesdropper. The lack of wave-guiding transmission media in VLC channels makes the communication link inherently susceptible to eavesdropping by unauthorized users existing in areas illuminated by the data transmitters. In this thesis, we study transmission techniques that enhance the secrecy of VLC links within the framework of physical-layer security. Due to linearity limitations of typical light-emitting diodes (LEDs), the VLC channel is more accurately modelled with amplitude constraints on the channel input, rather than the conventional average power constraint. Such amplitude constraints render the prevalent Gaussian input distribution infeasible for VLC channels, making it difficult to obtain closed-form secrecy capacity expressions. Thus, we begin with deriving lower bounds on the secrecy capacity of the Gaussian wiretap channel subject to amplitude constraints. We then consider the design of optimal beamformers for secrecy rate maximization in the multiple-input single-output (MISO) wiretap channel under amplitude constraints. We show that the design problem is nonconvex and difficult to solve, however it can be recast as a solvable quasiconvex line search problem. We also consider the design of robust beamformers for worst-case secrecy rate maximization when channel uncertainty is taken into account. Finally, we study the design of linear precoders for the two-user MISO broadcast channel with confidential messages. We consider not only amplitude constraints, but also total and per-antenna average power constraints. We formulate the design problem as a nonconvex weighted secrecy sum rate maximization problem, and provide an efficient search algorithm to obtain a solution for such a nonconvex problem. We extend our approach to handle uncertainty in channel information. The design techniques developed throughout the thesis provide valuable tools for tackling real-world problems in which channel uncertainty is almost always inevitable and amplitude constraints are often necessary to accurately model hardware limitations.
Despite offering higher security than radio frequency (RF) channels, the broadcast nature of the visible light communication (VLC) channel makes VLC links inherently susceptible to eavesdropping by unauthorized users. In this work, we consider the physical-layer security of VLC links aided by friendly jamming. The jammer has multiple light sources, but does not have access to the data transmitted. The eavesdropper's reception is degraded by a jamming signal that causes no interference to the legitimate receiver. Due to the limited dynamic range of typical light-emitting diodes (LEDs), both the data and jamming signals are subject to amplitude constraints. Therefore, we begin with deriving a closed-form secrecy rate expression for the corresponding wiretap channel, and adopt secrecy rate as the performance measure. Then, we formulate a linear programming problem to maximize the secrecy rate when the eavesdropper's channel is accurately known to the jammer. Finally, we consider robust beamforming to maximize the worst-case secrecy rate when information about the eavesdropper's channel is uncertain due to location uncertainty. The robust scheme makes use of simple linear programming, making real-time implementation feasible in a variety of real-world scenarios.
This work considers secure downlink transmission in indoor multiple-input, single-output visible-light communication (VLC) links. In particular, we study the design of transmit beamformers that maximize the achievable secrecy rate subject to amplitude constraints imposed by the limited dynamic range of the light-emitting diodes (LEDs). Such constraints render the design problem nonconvex and difficult to solve. We show, however, that this nonconvex problem can be transformed into a solvable quasiconvex line search problem. We also consider the more realistic case of imperfect channel information regarding the receiver's and eavesdropper's links. We tackle the worst-case secrecy rate maximization problem, again subject to amplitude constraints. In our treatment, uncertainty in the receiver's channel is due to limited feedback, and is modeled by spherical sets. On the other hand, there is no feedback from the eavesdropper, and the transmitter shall utilize the line-of-sight channel gain equation to map the eavesdropper's nominal location and orientation into an estimate of the channel gain. Thus, we derive uncertainty sets based on inaccurate information regarding the eavesdropper's location and orientation, as well as the emission pattern of the LEDs. We also consider channel mismatches caused by the uncertain non-line-of-sight components. We provide numerical examples to demonstrate the performance gain of the optimal beamformer compared with the suboptimal schemes, and the robust beamformer compared with its nonrobust counterparts. We also evaluate the worst-case secrecy rate performance of the robust beamformer in a typical VLC scenario along with the aforementioned uncertainty sources.
We study in this paper the achievable secrecy rate of the Gaussian multiple-input single-output (MISO) visible light communication (VLC) in the presence of randomly located eavesdroppers. We consider a system model comprising a transmitter (Alice) equipped with multiple fixtures of LEDs, one legitimate receiver (Bob) equipped with a single photo-diode (PD) and a group of randomly located eavesdroppers, each equipped with a single PD. The channel is modeled as deterministic, real- valued and subject to an amplitude constraint, through which Alice wants to communicate privately with Bob. We consider the case where the eavesdroppers are colluding together, i.e., they act jointly in eavesdropping on the communication between Alice and Bob. We adopt the truncated generalized normal (TGN) as input signaling and beamforming as transmission strategy. At first, we derive a closed-form expression of the average achievable secrecy rate as a function of the density of eavesdroppers using stochastic geometry. Then, we investigate the optimal beamformer that maximizes the average achievable secrecy rate of the system. Finally, the analysis is verified by Monte Carlo simulations.