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European Conference on Antennas and Propagation

Achieving physical layer security with massive MIMO beamforming

Elias E. Yaacoub, Mohammed Al‐Husseini

Published Mar 1, 2017• 25 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Physical layer security allows secure communications between a source and destination without the need to resort to key-based encryption techniques. Its increasing importance stems from the difficulty of implementing advanced encryption techniques in certain networks, such as the internet of things (IoT). In this paper, physical layer security is implemented by using massive multiple input multiple output (MIMO) techniques. Specifically, beamforming with large cylindrical antenna arrays is investigated. These arrays allow the transmission of both the useful signal to the destination and the jamming signal to the eavesdropper without resorting to the help of other nodes for relaying the signal and/or jamming the eavesdropper. Simulation results show that high levels of secrecy capacity can be achieved with the proposed approach.

DOI
10.23919/eucap.2017.7928045

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Physical layer security allows secure communications between a source and destination without the need to resort to key-based encryption techniques. Its increasing importance stems from the difficulty of implementing advanced encryption techniques in certain networks, such as the internet of things (IoT). In this paper, physical layer security is implemented by using massive multiple input multiple output (MIMO) techniques. Specifically, beamforming with large cylindrical antenna arrays is investigated. These arrays allow the transmission of both the useful signal to the destination and the jamming signal to the eavesdropper without resorting to the help of other nodes for relaying the signal and/or jamming the eavesdropper. Simulation results show that high levels of secrecy capacity can be achieved with the proposed approach.
The need for physical layer security techniques is increasing with the deployments of machine to machine (M2M), internet of things (IoT), and device to device (D2D) communications. An important aspect of physical layer security is to perform covert communications of a possibly unencrypted signal without allowing an eavesdropper to detect the signal. In this paper, cylindrical antenna arrays with a large number of elements are proposed in order to reach this objective. These arrays allow the transmission of both the useful signal to the destination and the jamming signal to the eavesdropper without resorting to the help of other nodes for relaying the signal and/or jamming the eavesdropper. In addition, these arrays can be used at the destination for enhancing the received signal level and/or jamming the eavesdropper simultaneously with the transmitter. Monte Carlo simulation results show that high levels of secrecy capacity can be achieved with the proposed approach.
The need for physical layer security techniques is increasing rapidly with the significant rise in the number of devices connected to the internet. In this paper, physical layer security using massive planar antenna arrays is investigated to secure the communication between two parties in the presence of an eavesdropper. Different scenarios are studied assuming the presence of a passive eavesdropper at a known location. Some of the subarrays of the massive planar antenna arrays at both the transmitter and receiver are used to send jamming signals towards the eavesdropper to improve security. To measure the system secrecy, the secrecy capacity between the transmitter and receiver is derived and different schemes are studied considering their effect on the secrecy capacity. The simulation results show that when jamming signals are sent to the eavesdropper, the secrecy capacity improves significantly, and the eavesdropper is unable to obtain considerable useful information. Therefore, the use of massive MIMO for joint transmission and jamming is an important physical layer security technique to combat a passive eavesdropper.
In this letter, a novel approach for physical layer security is implemented using massive cylindrical antenna arrays. A part of the arrays is used for transmitting a signal reliably from source to destination using highly directive beams. At the same time, the remaining part can be used to mitigate eavesdropping by transmitting a jamming signal through another directive beam toward the eavesdropper. In addition, the cylindrical arrays can mitigate the impact of malicious jamming by placing a null in the array pattern at the destination in the direction of the jammer. The results show that the proposed approach can lead to good jamming mitigation and high secrecy capacity in both 2D and 3D, even when there are errors in determining the location of the eavesdropper.
Massive Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) has become a crucial enabling technology for 5G and beyond, providing previously unheard-of increases in energy and spectrum efficiency. It is still difficult to guarantee secure communication in these systems, particularly when it comes to passive eavesdroppers whose base station is unaware of their channel state information. By taking advantage of the inherent randomness of wireless channels, Physical Layer Security (PLS) offers a promising paradigm; however, its efficacy in massive MIMO is heavily reliant on resource allocation and transmission strategies. In this work, the performance of secure transmission schemes, such as Maximum Ratio Transmission (MRT), Zero-Forcing (ZF), and Artificial Noise (AN)-aided beamforming, is examined when passive eavesdroppers are present. This work will use extensive Monte Carlo simulations to assess important performance metrics such as energy efficiency, secrecy outage probability, and secrecy sum rate under different system parameters (e.g., number of antennas, Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR), power allocation). The results aim to provide comparative insight into the strengths and limitations of different PLS strategies and to highlight open research directions to design scalable, energy-efficient, and robust secure transmission techniques in future 6G networks.
In this paper, a secure communication system model for massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) relay networks is investigated. Specifically, physical layer secure transmission is provisioned in multi-user relay networks by employing massive MIMO, linear precoder/detectors and artificial noise generation in the presence of a passive multi-antenna eavesdropper. In particular, the achievable asymptotic secrecy rate for infinitely many relay antennas is derived. The use of random artificial noise shaping matrices is advocated for massive MIMO relays for the sake of reducing the system implementation complexity. The effects of the numbers of antennas at the relay and the eavesdropper in achieving secure communication are investigated by comparing the corresponding achievable secrecy rates.
Kerchoff's principle states that the security of encryption should be based on the key. Thus, increasing the encryption key length has been an essential approach in generating unbreakable ciphers. Recently, physical layer security has gained significant research attention. It allows secure communications between a source and destination without the need to resort to key-based encryption techniques. In this paper, secret key generation using massive multiple input multiple output (MIMO) techniques is investigated. The large number of subcarriers used in orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) systems is also used to increase the key length. Several scenarios are investigated and corresponding key lengths are calculated. The combination of massive MIMO and OFDMA also allows to simultaneously implement physical layer security techniques while generating large keys for traditional key-based cryptography.