The Ill-posed security theoretical framework for guaranteeing wireless physical-layer security is proposed in the paper, by introducing the concept of ill-posed.Firstly,the ill-posed security transforms non-unique and instability of solutions into information redundancy,which transforms the original problem into two randomized problems with redundancy combining the theory of perturbation. The framework includes the first kind ill-posed secure theory based on non-unique solutions and the second kind ill-posed secure theory based on instable solutions of an ill-posed problem.The first one utilizes the non-uniqueness of ill-posed problem to introduce redundancy for the transmitted precoding parameters,which is used to randomize transmitted signals for guaranteeing physical-layer security.The second one utilizes the instability of ill-posed problem to introduce redundancy for the transmitted precoding parameters,which can be used to guarantee physical-layer security at a little cost of legitimate users' performance.Secondly,the security of the proposed framework is measured by using secrecy capacity with imperfect channel statement information.At last,some typical examples are researched under the theoretical framework of ill-posed security.The results reveal that the existing signal processing based physical-layer security methods are all the special cases of the framework.
The Ill-posed security theoretical framework for guaranteeing wireless physical-layer security is proposed in the paper, by introducing the concept of ill-posed.Firstly,the ill-posed security transforms non-unique and instability of solutions into information redundancy,which transforms the original problem into two randomized problems with redundancy combining the theory of perturbation. The framework includes the first kind ill-posed secure theory based on non-unique solutions and the second kind ill-posed secure theory based on instable solutions of an ill-posed problem.The first one utilizes the non-uniqueness of ill-posed problem to introduce redundancy for the transmitted precoding parameters,which is used to randomize transmitted signals for guaranteeing physical-layer security.The second one utilizes the instability of ill-posed problem to introduce redundancy for the transmitted precoding parameters,which can be used to guarantee physical-layer security at a little cost of legitimate users' performance.Secondly,the security of the proposed framework is measured by using secrecy capacity with imperfect channel statement information.At last,some typical examples are researched under the theoretical framework of ill-posed security.The results reveal that the existing signal processing based physical-layer security methods are all the special cases of the framework.
The unstable characteristic of ill-conditioned system is used to guarantee wireless security in this paper. The use of ill-conditioned theory to protect wireless transmissions is proposed as a way to secure wireless networks at physical layer. Firstly, the problem of randomized transmission is converted to that of solving ill-conditioned equation to guarantee wireless transmissions with inherent low-probability-of interception (LPI). Secondly, a conditional ill-conditioned optimization function is constructed. The function of legitimate node is stable because of its matched channel. But the function of eavesdropper is randomized because that she has not the legitimate conditions, which relate to the wireless medium contains domain-specific information. In this context, we propose a security scheme for wireless security in time-variant channels. In this scheme, the variable part of channels is converted to additional conditions, which can be solved by optimizing parameters. In contrast to conventional physical-layer security techniques, the scheme exploits the redundancy of ill-conditioned problem's solutions instead of array redundancy for deliberate signal randomization, which effectively randomizes the eavesdropper's received signals but not the authorized receiver's signals. Extensive simulations and analysis results show that our proposed scheme is useful for securing wireless transmissions.
The current research on physical layer security is far from implementations in practical networks, arguably due to impractical assumptions in the literature and the limited applicability of physical layer security. Aiming to reduce the gap between theory and practice, this thesis focuses on wireless physical layer security towards practical assumptions and requirements. In the first half of the thesis, we reduce the dependence of physical layer security on impractical assumptions. The secrecy enhancements and analysis based on impractical assumptions cannot lead to any true guarantee of secrecy in practical networks. The current study of physical layer security was often based on the idealized assumption of perfect channel knowledge on both legitimate users and eavesdroppers. We study the impact of channel estimation errors on secure transmission designs. We investigate the practical scenarios where both the transmitter and the receiver have imperfect channel state information (CSI). Our results show how the optimal transmission design and the achievable throughput vary with the amount of knowledge on the eavesdropper's channel. Apart from the assumption of perfect CSI, the analysis of physical layer security often ideally assumed the number of eavesdropper antennas to be known. We develop an innovative approach to study secure communication systems without knowing the number of eavesdropper antennas by introducing the concept of spatial constraint into physical layer security. That is, the eavesdropper is assumed to have a limited spatial region to place (possibly an infinite number of) antennas. We show that a non-zero secrecy rate is achievable with the help of a friendly jammer, even if the eavesdropper places an infinite number of antennas in its spatial region. In the second half of the thesis, we improve the applicability of physical layer security. The current physical layer security techniques to achieve confidential broadcasting were limited to application in single-cell systems. The primary challenge to achieve confidential broadcasting in the multi-cell network is to deal with not only the inter-cell but also the intra-cell information leakage and interference. To tackle this challenge, we design linear precoders performing confidential broadcasting in multi-cell networks. We optimize the precoder designs to maximize the secrecy sum rate with based on the large-system analysis. Finally, we improve the applicability of physical layer security from a fundamental aspect. The analysis of physical layer security based on the existing secrecy metric was often not applicable in practical networks. We propose new metrics for evaluating the secrecy of transmissions over fading channels to address the practical limitations of using existing secrecy metrics for such evaluations. The first metric establishes a link between the concept of secrecy outage and the eavesdropper's ability to decode confidential messages. The second metric provides an error-probability-based secrecy metric which is often used for the practical implementation of secure wireless systems. The third metric characterizes how much or how fast the confidential information is leaked to the eavesdropper. We show that the proposed secrecy metrics enable one to appropriately design secure communication systems with different views on how secrecy is measured.
Wireless communications are naturally exposed to important security risks due to their broadcast nature. In contrast with wired communications, no physical medium is isolating the transmission surroundings to a specific path. Traditional methods to reach the goals of communications security rely on algorithms at protocol stack level, which are based on mathematically derived cryptographic protocols. With the tremendous proliferation of wireless devices, and the increase in computational power available for decryption, traditional cryptographic measures may be compromised. To protect communications at the lowest level, physical layer (PHY) security methods have been proposed recently. These techniques aim to ensure secure communications by exploiting the unique characteristics of the physical medium between communicating nodes, effectively reducing the decryption capabilities of an eavesdropper to intercept transmissions. This thesis explains within a general framework the most important PHY layer security schemes. First we explore approaches which utilize the knowledge of the unique channel between communicating nodes to distort a transmitted signal with various kinds of randomizations, in such a way that the intended receivers are unaffected by the distortion, but any other observer will be exposed to it. These techniques, however, introduce several trade-offs between transmission resources and the effectiveness in achieving secrecy. Of particular interest for this investigation is a class of methods which can be referred to as "security enhancing techniques", in which minimal priors about the potential eavesdroppers locations and capabilities are assumed. In this thesis, a wave-based approach to the communication secrecy problem is introduced. An interesting perspective is provided by studying the relation between electromagnetic theory and information theory, the so-called electromagnetic information theory. This allows to properly identify the unavoidable limitations imposed by the laws of electromagnetics to our ability to communicate securely. The proposed model can be extended to the analysis of different signal distortion methodologies and different channel conditions. The resulting approach is highly relevant to the study of PHY layer security methods since it is physically fundamental as well as architecture independent, which leads to a consolidating point of view of the secrecy problem. In addition, the thesis presents computer simulation results which shed insight on the security possibilities and limitations of three different security scenarios, which are termed MISO (multiple-input, single-output) (with single eavesdropper), MISOME (multiple-input, single-output, multiple eavesdropper), and MIMOME (multiple-input, multiple-output, multiple-eavesdropper).
The open nature of radio propagation enables ubiquitous wireless communication. This allows for seamless data transmission. However, unauthorized users may pose a threat to the security of the data being transmitted to authorized users. This gives rise to network vulnerabilities such as hacking, eavesdropping, and jamming of the transmitted information. Physical layer security (PLS) has been identified as one of the promising security approaches to safeguard the transmission from eavesdroppers in a wireless network. It is an alternative to the computationally demanding and complex cryptographic algorithms and techniques. PLS has continually received exponential research interest owing to the possibility of exploiting the characteristics of the wireless channel. One of the main characteristics includes the random nature of the transmission channel. The aforesaid nature makes it possible for confidential and authentic signal transmission between the sender and the receiver in the physical layer. We start by introducing the basic theories of PLS, including the wiretap channel, information-theoretic security, and a brief discussion of the cryptography security technique. Furthermore, an overview of multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) communication is provided. The main focus of our review is based on the existing key-less PLS optimization techniques, their limitations, and challenges. The paper also looks into the promising key research areas in addressing these shortfalls. Lastly, a comprehensive overview of some of the recent PLS research in 5G and 6G technologies of wireless communication networks is provided.
Security capacity improvement is always the implementation goal of physical layer security, which can be achieved by deliberate randomization based on differentia and uniqueness of wireless channels through signal processing method. An information-guided randomization secure transmission scheme is proposed combined with a spatial modulation system in which information can be carried by receiving antennas index but actually by channel differentia. Randomization is generated along with channel modulation procedure realized by corresponding preprocessing to transmitting signals. We provide three approaches for designing preprocessing weights under different constraint conditions. The former two can only be used when the number of receiving antennas is less than transmitting and have a tradeoff with varying degrees between receiving performance and security. The third one then relaxes the limits via generalized spatial modulation and can be used for arbitrary antennas configuration but with a receiving performance compromise. Lastly, results of performance analysis and numerical evaluation show that the proposed secure scheme is effective to prohibit the eavesdropper from intercepting information.
Due to the malicious attacks in wireless networks, physical layer security has attracted increasing concerns from both academia and industry. The research on physical layer security mainly focuses either on the secrecy capacity/achievable secrecy rate/capacity-equivocation region from the perspective of information theory, or on the security designs from the viewpoints of optimization and signal processing. Because of its importance in security designs, the latter research direction is surveyed in a comprehensive way in this paper. The survey begins with typical wiretap channel models to cover common scenarios and systems. The topics on physical-layer security designs are then summarized from resource allocation, beamforming/precoding, and antenna/node selection and cooperation. Based on the aforementioned schemes, the performance metrics and fundamental optimization problems are discussed, which are generally adopted in security designs. Thereafter, the state of the art of optimization approaches on each research topic of physical layer security is reviewed from four categories of optimization problems, such as secrecy rate maximization, secrecy outrage probability minimization, power consumption minimization, and secure energy efficiency maximization. Furthermore, the impacts of channel state information on optimization and design are discussed. Finally, the survey concludes with the observations on potential future directions and open challenges.