Enhancing Physical Layer Security in Wireless Powered Communication Networks

K. Gunaseelan, R. Dhanusuya, A. R. Abdul Rajak +1 more

Jie Tang, Hong Wen, Kai Zeng +3 more

Due to the broadcast nature of wireless radio propagation channels, 5G wireless networks face serious security threats. Security mechanisms that leverage physical layer characteristics have been considered as potential complements to enhance 5G wireless network security. This article proposes physical layer security enhancements to defend against security attacks from the three most significant aspects: wireless secure communication, physical layer assisted authentication and secret key distribution. By integrating physical layer security with novel techniques and application scenarios in 5G communication, we elaborate several promising strategies, including massive MIMO beamforming with security code communication, self-adaptive mobile and cooperative secure communication with dynamic channel prediction, physical layer assisted authentication, malicious node detection and key generation of massive MIMO millimeter wave system. Research opportunities and future challenges are further discussed.

Rana Shaaban, Saleh Faruque

Summary Visible light communication (VLC) is considered to be a great replacement or complement to existing radio frequency networks to provide the future fifth‐generation (5G) wireless technology with higher data rates for indoor connectivity, which alleviates the traffic demand. Therefore, many issues emerged regarding the security in 5G networks as human safety is at risk. This work presents a comprehensive study on the physical‐layer security (PLS) and solutions in 5G networks, specifically, the security of VLC technology as one of the core PLS solutions for 5G future wireless networks. Furthermore, VLC threats and PLS solutions are extensively investigated. Based on our study, we propose a new indoor VLC secure model to enhance the secrecy performance in VLC networks using a combination of multiple PLS techniques to achieve this aim as beamforming, secure communication zones, and friendly jamming. The simulation results with respect to the received optical power and signal‐to‐noise ratio (SNR) prove that the proposed indoor VLC model can improve the secrecy performance. As the user's SNR exceeded 100 dB and optical received power reached 15 mW, the malicious user's SNR barely reached 30 dB with a 4‐μW received power outside the target zone increasing his interference level. Finally, future research directions in VLC security are outlined to encourage future research.

Ding Xu

Mohamed F. Marzban, Mohamed Kashef, Mohamed M. Abdallah +1 more

Visible light communication (VLC) has emerged as a promising candidate to complement and enhance the performance of the existing radio frequency (RF) networks in indoor environments. Due to the broadcast nature of both RF and VLC channels, improving the transmission confidentiality is a requirement in practical wireless networks. Physical-layer security has emerged to provide a first line of defense against eavesdropping attacks. In this paper, we study the physical layer security problem of a hybrid RF/VLC system. First, we formulate the minimization problem of the consumed electrical power in the hybrid RF/VLC network while satisfying the user's required secrecy rate. Then, we propose a zero forcing beamforming strategy and a minimum power allocation algorithm. Simulations results show that the proposed power allocation and beamforming algorithms outperform the benchmark algorithms in terms of the average consumed electrical power in various indoor scenarios.

Jennifer Chakravarty