We consider secret key agreement for multiple terminals based on radio propagation characteristics in a wireless relaying system where more than two terminals communicate with each other via a relay. In this system, the multiple terminals share a common secret key generated from their radio propagation characteristics with the help of the relay in the presence of an eavesdropper. In this paper, we present three secret key agreement schemes: an amplify-and-forward (AF) scheme, a signal-combining amplify-and-forward (SC-AF) scheme, and a multiple-access amplify-and-forward (MA-AF) scheme. The key idea of these schemes is that each terminal shares the fading coefficients between all terminals and the relay, and use them as the source of a secret key. The AF scheme is based on a conventional amplify-and-forward two-way relaying method, whereas in the SC-AF scheme and the MA-AF scheme, we apply the idea of analog network coding to secret key agreement. We analyze eavesdropping strategies and show that the AF scheme is not secure if the eavesdropper is located near the relay and can receive signals from the relay without multipath fading and noise. Simulation results show that the SC-AF and MA-AF schemes are effective.
We consider secret key agreement for multiple terminals based on radio propagation characteristics in a wireless relaying system where more than two terminals communicate with each other via a relay. In this system, the multiple terminals share a common secret key generated from their radio propagation characteristics with the help of the relay in the presence of an eavesdropper. In this paper, we present three secret key agreement schemes: an amplify-and-forward (AF) scheme, a signal-combining amplify-and-forward (SC-AF) scheme, and a multiple-access amplify-and-forward (MA-AF) scheme. The key idea of these schemes is that each terminal shares the fading coefficients between all terminals and the relay, and use them as the source of a secret key. The AF scheme is based on a conventional amplify-and-forward two-way relaying method, whereas in the SC-AF scheme and the MA-AF scheme, we apply the idea of analog network coding to secret key agreement. We analyze eavesdropping strategies and show that the AF scheme is not secure if the eavesdropper is located near the relay and can receive signals from the relay without multipath fading and noise. Simulation results show that the SC-AF and MA-AF schemes are effective.
We consider secret key agreement based on radio propagation characteristics in two-way relaying system where two legitimate parties named Alice and Bob communicate with each other via a relay. In this system, Alice and Bob share secret keys generated from their radio propagation characteristics by the help of the relay. In this paper, we present two secret key agreement schemes: an amplify-and-forward (AF) scheme and a multiple-access amplify-and-forward (MA-AF) scheme. In both of the schemes, the basic idea is to share the effective fading coefficient between Alice and Bob and use it as the source of secret keys. The AF scheme is based on a conventional amplify-and-forward two-way relaying method, while the MA-AF scheme utilizes the inherent combining of signals provided by simultaneous transmissions over a multiple-access channel in order to share the secret keys more securely efficiently. We analyze eavesdropping strategy in terms of eavesdropper's location and show that if the eavesdropper is located near the relay and can receive signals from the relay without multipath fading and noise, the AF scheme is not secure. Simulation results show that the MA-AF scheme is more secure and efficient than the AF scheme.
We consider secret key agreement based on radio propagation characteristics in a two-way relaying system where two legitimate parties named Alice and Bob communicate with each other via a trusted relay. In this system, Alice and Bob share secret keys generated from measured radio propagation characteristics with the help of the relay in the presence of an eavesdropper. We present four secret key agreement schemes: an amplify-and-forward (AF) scheme, a signal-combining amplify-and-forward (SC-AF) scheme, a multiple-access amplify-and-forward (MA-AF) scheme, and an amplify-and-forward with artificial noise (AF with AN) scheme. In these schemes, the basic idea is to share the effective fading coefficients between Alice and Bob and use them as the source of the secret keys. The AF scheme is based on a conventional amplify-and-forward two-way relaying method, whereas in the SC-AF scheme and the MA-AF scheme, we apply the idea of physical-layer network coding to the secret key agreement. In the AF with AN scheme, the relay transmits artificially generated noise, as well as channel information signal, in order to conceal the latter. Simulation results show that the MA-AF scheme outperforms the other schemes in Rayleigh fading channels, whereas the AF with AN scheme is suitable for Rician fading channels.
In this paper, we investigate security issues in a collaborative wireless network in the presence of eavesdropping attacks, where multiple amplify-and-forward (AF) relays are exploited to secure the message transmission between legitimate users. We first consider the multiple AF relays all participating in assisting the transmission from source to destination, which is called all-relay based collaborative transmission scheme as denoted by all-relay scheme for notational convenience. We also propose the best-relay transmission scheme in which only the single “best” relay is selected to help the source transmit messages to destination. We then analyze the intercept behavior in wireless networks and evaluate intercept probabilities of the proposed all-relay and best-relay schemes as well as the conventional direct transmission without relay in a Rayleigh fading environment. Numerical results show that the best-relay transmission scheme always outperforms the all-relay and direct transmission schemes in terms of intercept probability. It is also shown that as the number of eavesdroppers increases, the intercept probabilities of both all-relay and best-relay schemes increase. Moreover, the intercept probability performance of all-relay and best-relay schemes significantly improves with an increasing number of relays, implying the advantage of exploiting multiple relays against eavesdropping attacks.
In this work, information security of a cooperative wireless communication system over three-phase amplify-and-forward (AF) two-way relaying channels is investigated. A relay power allocation scheme is proposed to improve secrecy capacity of the system. We first derive the secrecy rate expression for the basic scenario which consists of one source, one destination, one single relay, and an eavesdropper. A relay power allocation scheme which maximizes the overall secrecy rate of the single-relay system is studied accordingly. Then the power allocation coefficients are calculated under the assumption of perfect channel state information (CSI). This design framework is then extended to a cooperative wireless system having multiple relays. In the numerical example, secrecy rate performance of the proposed scheme is compared with the classic three-phase two-way AF scheme and it is concluded that conducting power allocation at the relay can achieve the goal of improving the secrecy capacity. It is also observed that the best performing scenario of the relay power allocation scheme is when the relay locates right in the middle of the two legitimate communicants.
Physical (PHY) layer security approaches for wireless communications can prevent eavesdropping without upper layer data encryption. However, they are hampered by wireless channel conditions: absent feedback, they are typically feasible only when the source-destination channel is better than the source-eavesdropper channel. Node cooperation is a means to overcome this challenge and improve the performance of secure wireless communications. This paper addresses secure communications of one source-destination pair with the help of multiple cooperating relays in the presence of one or more eavesdroppers. Three cooperative schemes are considered: decode-and-forward (DF), amplify-and-forward (AF), and cooperative jamming (CJ). For these schemes, the relays transmit a weighted version of a reencoded noise-free message signal (for DF), a received noisy source signal (for AF), or a common jamming signal (for CJ). Novel system designs are proposed, consisting of the determination of relay weights and the allocation of transmit power, that maximize the achievable secrecy rate subject to a transmit power constraint, or, minimize the transmit power subject to a secrecy rate constraint. For DF in the presence of one eavesdropper, closed-form optimal solutions are derived for the relay weights. For other problems, since the optimal relay weights are difficult to obtain, several criteria are considered leading to suboptimal but simple solutions, i.e., the complete nulling of the message signals at all eavesdroppers (for DF and AF), or the complete nulling of jamming signal at the destination (for CJ). Based on the designed relay weights, for DF in the presence of multiple eavesdroppers, and for CJ in the presence of one eavesdropper, the optimal power allocation is obtained in closed-form; in all other cases the optimal power allocation is obtained via iterative algorithms. Numerical evaluation of the obtained secrecy rate and transmit power results show that the proposed design can significantly improve the performance of secure wireless communications.
The problem of secure unicast communication over multihop wireless relay networks with directed links in the presence of an eavesdropper is considered. In the existing literature this problem has been considered in one or both of the following two scenarios: (A) relay nodes employ relaying schemes, such as Decode-and-Forward (DF), (B) the source communicates with the destination over a two-hop relay network. We argue that computationally complex relaying schemes such as DF render end-to-end performance characterization intractable, without providing any performance guarantee in general channel and network scenarios. Therefore, we consider one of the simplest relaying scheme: Amplify-and-Forward (AF) that allows us to provide guarantees on the optimal performance over a wide range of channel conditions. A node performing AF-relaying scales and forwards the signal received at its input. Further, with AF-relaying the end-to-end performance characterization problem remains tractable for much larger class of networks than those that can be considered with other relaying schemes. The key contribution of this work is twofold. We first provide the optimal vector of scaling factors that maximizes the achievable AF secrecy rate, no matter which relay the eavesdropper listens to. Further, we prove that in high-SNR regime, the optimal AF secrecy rate thus achieved is within a constant gap from the cutset upper bound on the secrecy capacity.