IEEE Transactions on Information Theory

Common randomness and secret key generation with a helper

Imre Csiszár, Prakash Narayan

Published Mar 1, 2000• 302 citations

Abstract

We consider the generation of common randomness (CR), secret or not secret, by two user terminals with aid from a "helper" terminal. Each terminal observes a different component of a discrete memoryless multiple source. The helper aids the users by transmitting information to them over a noiseless public channel subject to a rate constraint. Furthermore, one of the users is allowed to transmit to the other user over a public channel under a similar rate constraint. We study the maximum rate of CR which can be thus generated, including under additional secrecy conditions when it must be concealed from a wiretapper. Lower bounds for the corresponding capacities are provided, and single-letter capacity formulas are obtained for several special cases of interest.

DOI: 10.1109/18.825796

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