We study the arbitrarily varying wiretap channel (AVWC) under average error criterion when external common randomness (CR) can be used between the legitimate parties. We consider three scenarios: In the first one the CR is known to the eavesdropper, in the second it is not known to her and in the third there is no CR available. For the second scenario, we prove a complete coding theorem. For the third scenario it is known that the capacity function is discontinuous. We prove that it is nonetheless stable in the sense of being continuous around its positivity points. We characterize the points of discontinuity in terms of continuous functions. We then give a complete characterization of those pairs of AVWCs whose capacity can be super-activated in the unassisted third case - in terms of the capacity function describing the first case.
We study the arbitrarily varying wiretap channel (AVWC) under average error criterion when external common randomness (CR) can be used between the legitimate parties. We consider three scenarios: In the first one the CR is known to the eavesdropper, in the second it is not known to her and in the third there is no CR available. For the second scenario, we prove a complete coding theorem. For the third scenario it is known that the capacity function is discontinuous. We prove that it is nonetheless stable in the sense of being continuous around its positivity points. We characterize the points of discontinuity in terms of continuous functions. We then give a complete characterization of those pairs of AVWCs whose capacity can be super-activated in the unassisted third case - in terms of the capacity function describing the first case.
We define the common randomness-assisted capacity of an arbitrarily varying wiretap channel (AVWC) when the eavesdropper is kept ignorant about the common randomness. We prove a multi-letter capacity formula for this model. We prove that, if enough common randomness is used, the capacity formula can be given a single-shot form again. We then consider the opposite extremal case, where no common randomness is available, and derive the capacity. It is known that the capacity of the system can be discontinuous under these circumstances. We prove here that it is still stable in the sense that it is continuous around its positivity points. We further prove that discontinuities can only arise if the legal link is symmetrizable and characterize the points where it is positive. These results shed new light on the design principles of communication systems with embedded security features. At last, we investigate the effect of super-activation of the message transmission capacity of AVWCs under the average error criterion. We give a complete characterization of those AVWCs that may be super-activated. The effect is thereby also related to the (conjectured) super-activation of the common randomness assisted capacity of AVWCs with an eavesdropper that gets to know the common randomness. Super-activation is based on the idea of wasting a few bits of non-secret messages in order to enable provably secret transmission of a large bulk of data, a concept that may prove to be of further importance in the design of communication systems. In this paper, we provide further insight into this phenomenon by providing a class of codes that is capacity achieving and does not convey any information to the eavesdropper.
We define the common randomness assisted capacity of an arbitrarily varying channel (AVWC) when the Eavesdropper is kept ignorant about the common randomness. We prove a multi-letter capacity formula for this model. We prove that, if enough common randomness is used, the capacity formula can be given a single-shot form again. We then consider the opposite extremal case, where no common randomness is available. It is known that the capacity of the system can be discontinuous under these circumstances. We prove here that it is still stable in the sense that it is continuous around its positivity points. We further prove that discontinuities can only arise if the legal link is symmetrizable and characterize the points where it is positive. These results shed new light on the design principles of communication systems with embedded security features. At last we investigate the effect of super-activation of the message transmission capacity of AVWCs under the average error criterion. We give a complete characterization of those AVWCs that may be super-activated. The effect is thereby also related to the (conjectured) super-activation of the common randomness assisted capacity of AVWCs with an eavesdropper that gets to know the common randomness. Super-activation is based on the idea of "wasting" a few bits of non-secret messages in order to enable provably secret transmission of a large bulk of data, a concept that may prove to be of further importance in the design of communication systems. In this work we provide further insight into this phenomenon by providing a class of codes that is capacity-achieving and does not convey any information to the Eavesdropper.
The classical wiretap channel models secure communication in the presence of a nonlegitimate wiretapper who has to be kept ignorant. Traditionally, the wiretapper is passive in the sense that he only tries to eavesdrop the communication using his received channel output. In this paper, more powerful active wiretappers are studied. In addition to eavesdropping, these wiretappers are able to influence the communication conditions of all users by controlling the corresponding channel states. Since legitimate transmitters and receivers do not know the actual channel realization or the wiretapper's strategy of influencing the channel states, they are confronted with arbitrarily varying channel (AVC) conditions. The corresponding secure communication scenario is, therefore, given by the arbitrarily varying wiretap channel (AVWC). In the context of AVCs, common randomness (CR) has been shown to be an important resource for establishing reliable communication, in particular, if the AVC is symmetrizable. But availability of CR also affects the strategy space of an active wiretapper as he may or may not exploit the common randomness for selecting the channel states. Several secrecy capacity results are derived for the AVWC. In particular, the CR-assisted secrecy capacity of the AVWC with an active wiretapper exploiting CR is established and analyzed in detail. Finally, it is demonstrated for active wiretappers how two orthogonal AVWCs, each useless for transmission of secure messages, can be super-activated to a useful channel allowing for secure communication at nonzero secrecy rates. To the best of our knowledge, this is not possible for passive wiretappers and, further, provides the first example of such super-activation, which has been expected to appear only in the area of quantum communication. Such knowledge is particularly important as it provides valuable insights for the design and the medium access control of future wireless communication systems.
We give a complete characterization of the secrecy capacity of arbitrarily varying wiretap channels (AVWCs) with correlated random coding under a strong secrecy criterion where the eavesdropper may also know the correlated randomness. We obtain that the correlated random coding secrecy capacity is continuous as a function of the AVWC. We show that the deterministic coding secrecy capacity of the AVWC either equals 0 or the correlated random coding secrecy capacity. For the case that only a weak secrecy criterion is applied, a complete characterization of the corresponding secrecy capacity for deterministic codes is possible. In the proof of the secrecy capacity formula for correlated random codes, we apply an auxiliary channel which is compound from the sender to the intended receiver and varies arbitrarily from the sender to the eavesdropper. We discuss the relation between the usual mutual information secrecy criterion and a criterion formulated in terms of total variation distance, and investigate the robustness of the AVWC model.
The question of additivity of the capacity of a channel goes back to Shannon who asked this for the zero error capacity function. Despite the common sense that the capacity is usually additive, there is surprisingly little known for non-trivial channels. This paper addresses this question for the arbitrarily varying wiretap channel (AVWC) which models secure communication in the presence of arbitrarily varying channel (AVC) conditions. For orthogonal AVWCs it has been shown that the non-additivity phenomenon of super-activation occurs; that is, there are orthogonal AVWCs, each having zero secrecy capacity, which allow for transmission with positive secrecy rate if they are used together. It is shown that for such orthogonal AVWCs super-activation is generic in the sense that whenever super-activation is possible, it is possible for all AVWCs in a certain neighborhood as well. Moreover, it is shown that the issue of super-activation and the continuity of the secrecy capacity solely depend on the legitimate link. Accordingly, the single-user AVC is studied and it is shown that in this case, super-activation for non-secure message transmission is not possible, making it a unique feature of secure communication over AVWCs. However, the capacity for message transmission of the single-user AVC is shown to be super-additive including a complete characterization.
The wiretap channel models secure communication in the presence of a non-legitimate eavesdropper who has to be kept ignorant. In this paper, the arbitrarily varying wiretap channel (AVWC) is studied, in which the channel to both legitimate receiver and eavesdropper may vary in an unknown and arbitrary manner from channel use to channel use. It has been shown that for AVCs coordination between the transmitter and legitimate receiver based on common randomness (CR) is indispensable for reliable communication. Approaches taken so far yield CR-assisted strategies where the needed amount of CR increases unbounded with the block length. In this paper, it is shown that if we allow for a small but non-vanishing average probability of error and information leakage (in terms of weak secrecy), the amount of CR is always finite and independent of the block length. The corresponding secrecy capacity equals the one with asymptotically vanishing performance requirements. Furthermore, it is shown that the average decoding error at the eavesdropper can be made arbitrarily close to 1 regardless of the applied decoding strategy.