Physical layer security encompasses information theoretic approaches that could guarantee perfect secrecy in wireless communication systems. In this framework, helping interferer strategies rely on intentionally creating confusion at a potential eavesdropper by injecting a jamming signal. In cases where the information signal has a Gaussian probability density function (pdf) it has been demonstrated that the optimal jamming signal, under an overall power constraint, should also be Gaussian. However, in practical communication systems where data symbols are typically drawn from discrete uniform probability mass functions (pmf), commonly M-ary Quadrature Amplitude and M-ary Phase Shift Keying modulation schemes, the structure of the optimal jamming signal is still an open question. In the present work we aim at shedding light into this question. Our approach is based on formulating a secrecy capacity maximization problem by expressing the optimal arbitrary helping interferer pdf as a mixture of unknown Gaussians. The proposed approximation is well-suited for jamming signals of practical interest, i.e. Gaussian or M-QAM interferers and reveals that in certain scenarios it is advantageous to use jamming signals whose statistical structure resembles the data rather than the noise.
Physical layer security encompasses information theoretic approaches that could guarantee perfect secrecy in wireless communication systems. In this framework, helping interferer strategies rely on intentionally creating confusion at a potential eavesdropper by injecting a jamming signal. In cases where the information signal has a Gaussian probability density function (pdf) it has been demonstrated that the optimal jamming signal, under an overall power constraint, should also be Gaussian. However, in practical communication systems where data symbols are typically drawn from discrete uniform probability mass functions (pmf), commonly M-ary Quadrature Amplitude and M-ary Phase Shift Keying modulation schemes, the structure of the optimal jamming signal is still an open question. In the present work we aim at shedding light into this question. Our approach is based on formulating a secrecy capacity maximization problem by expressing the optimal arbitrary helping interferer pdf as a mixture of unknown Gaussians. The proposed approximation is well-suited for jamming signals of practical interest, i.e. Gaussian or M-QAM interferers and reveals that in certain scenarios it is advantageous to use jamming signals whose statistical structure resembles the data rather than the noise.
Various physical-layer techniques have so far been proposed to achieve perfect secrecy in wireless communication systems. In this framework, an approach is investigated to enhance secrecy using a helping interferer transmitted by a friendly node in the network, aiming at confusing a passive eavesdropper. Commonly, such physical layer security approaches rely on the injection of a noise-like signal to intentionally degrade the eavesdropper capacity. Instead, the use of a jamming signal with the same probability mass function as that of the actual data is proposed here. The gains of this approach are investigated via extensive symbol error rate measurements and evaluations of the achievable secrecy rates.
Physical-layer security based on pseudo-noise (PN) superposition is a promising approach for mitigating eavesdropping in future wireless systems. However, under Shannon's capacity formulation with Gaussian signaling, achieving secrecy typically requires allocating substantial transmit power to PN, resulting in a significant reduction in achievable information rate and limiting practical applicability. This limitation is alleviated when finite-alphabet modulation schemes, such as M-ary Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (M-QAM), are employed, as expected in practical 6G transceivers. In this work, we analyze the information rate performance of PN-assisted systems under M-QAM signaling using mutual information and derive the corresponding achievable secrecy rate. The impact of PN power allocation on both the legitimate user and the eavesdropper is investigated across different modulation orders and channel conditions. Monte Carlo simulations are conducted to evaluate system behavior under varying user and eavesdropper channel conditions and to examine how PN power allocation influences secrecy performance. The results show that, at sufficiently high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), the information rate becomes largely insensitive to PN power allocation, enabling near-perfect secrecy with M-QAM modulation-highlighting a key departure from Shannon-capacity-based secrecy analyses and underscoring the practicality of finite-alphabet security mechanisms for 6G wireless systems.
Jamming emits white Gaussian noise that causes interference to both the legitimate receiver and eavesdropper. It has been an effective method for improving physical-layer security in wireless communication. In this paper, cautious jamming strategy based on optimal jammer selection method is proposed. More specifically, by using perfect channel state information, cautious jamming strategy selects an optimal jammer to improve the secrecy performance. For the purpose of comparison, we consider the direct jamming strategy and the adaptive jamming strategy as benchmark schemes. Closed-form expressions of the exact intercept probability for three jamming strategies are derived over Rayleigh fading channels and the theoretical analysis is validated by Monte-Carlo simulation. Both the analytical and the simulation results show that: 1) increasing the power of jammer is an effective approach to mitigate the intercept probability; 2) the intercept probability can be decreased and the wiretapped range of eavesdropper can be reduced by increasing the number of jammer; 3) by using perfect CSI and selecting optimal jammer, cautious jamming strategy outperforms direct jamming strategy and adaptive jamming strategy.
Physical-layer security could efficiently prevent wiretapping for wireless communication from the information-theoretic perspective. However, most related works in this area are based on the assumption of Gaussian inputs, which are impractical for a practical communication system. In this paper, we study the physical-layer security with finite-alphabet inputs, wherein amplitude phase shift keying (APSK) constellation is considered to improve the achievable secrecy rate performance. It is concluded that the secrecy rate can be improved by using APSK, comparing to its quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) counterpart, which is verified by both the minimum mean square error (MMSE) theoretic derivation and simulation results. A specific strategy of selecting constellation orders for secure communication is also presented.
Cooperative jamming approach has been commonly used in the field of physical layer security to achieve a good secrecy rate of wireless networks. In this approach, the Gaussian noise signal sent by a friendly jammer can disrupt the reception of the eavesdropper, however, it may also interfere with the legitimate receiver. In this paper, we propose a novel approach, namely, information jamming, to go beyond the secrecy rate achieved by the traditional cooperative jamming approach in a multiple-input single-output (MISO) wiretap channel. We propose that a multi-antenna friendly jammer transmits the source message rather than Gaussian noise signal for simultaneously enhancing the signal strength at the legitimate receiver and canceling the received signal at the eavesdropper. In particular, we aim to maximize the achievable secrecy rate by optimizing the information jammer's beamforming vector. Though the optimization problem is non-convex, we successfully solve it optimally via a two-stage based numerical approach. To gain more useful analytical results, we also propose two suboptimal jamming schemes with low computation, by targeting at improving the legitimate reception and avoiding the eavesdropping, respectively. Finally, numerical results show that the proposed information jamming approach significantly helps go beyond the secrecy rate of the existing cooperative jamming approach, especially when the transmit power of the jammer is large enough.
Cooperative communications is obviously an evolution in wireless networks due to its noticeable advantages such as increasing the coverage as well as combating fading and shadowing effects. However, the broadcast characteristic of a wireless medium which is exploited in cooperative communications leads to a variety of security vulnerabilities. As cooperative communication networks are globally expanded, they expose to security attacks and threats more than ever. Primarily, researchers have focused on upper layers of network architectures to meet the requirements for secure cooperative transmission while the upper-layer security solutions are incapable of combating a number of security threats, e.g., jamming attacks. To address this issue, physical-layer security has been recommended as a complementary solution in the literature. In this thesis, physical layer attacks of the cooperative communication systems are studied, and corresponding security techniques including cooperative jamming, beamforming and diversity approaches are investigated. In addition, a novel security solution for a two-hop decode-and-forward relaying system is presented where the transmitters insert a random phase shift to the modulated data of each hop. The random phase shift is created based on a shared secret among communicating entities. Thus, the injected phase shift confuses the eavesdropper and secrecy capacity improves. Furthermore, a cooperative jamming strategy for multi-hop decode-and-forward relaying systems is presented where multiple non-colluding illegitimate nodes can overhear the communication. The jamming signal is created by the transmitter of each hop while being sent with the primary signal. The jamming signal is known at the intended receiver as it is according to a secret common knowledge between the communicating entities. Hence, artificial noise misleads the eavesdroppers, and decreases their signal-to-noise-ratio. As a result, secrecy capacity of the system is improved. Finally, power allocation among friendly jamming and main signal is proposed to ensure that suggested scheme enhances secrecy.