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IEEE Wireless Communications and Networking Conference

Impact of multipath reflections on secrecy in VLC systems with randomly located eavesdroppers

Sung Hwan Cho, Gaojie Chen, Hyunchae Chun, Justin P. Coon, Dominic C. O'Brien

Published Apr 1, 2018• 24 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Considering reflected light in physical layer security (PLS) is very important because a small portion of reflected light enables an eavesdropper (ED) to acquire legitimate information. Moreover, it would be a practical strategy for an ED to be located at an outer area of the room, where the reflection light is strong, in order to escape the vigilance of a legitimate user. Therefore, in this paper, we investigate the impact of multipath reflections on PLS in visible light communication in the presence of randomly located eavesdroppers. We apply spatial point processes to characterize randomly distributed EDs. The generalized error in signal-to-noise ratio that occurs when reflections are ignored is defined as a function of the distance between the receiver and the wall. We use this error for quantifying the domain of interest that needs to be considered from the secrecy viewpoint. Furthermore, we investigate how the reflection affects the secrecy outage probability (SOP). It is shown that the effect of the reflection on the SOP can be removed by adjusting the light emitting diode configuration. Monte Carlo simulations and numerical results are given to verify our analysis.

DOI
10.1109/wcnc.2018.8377184

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Considering reflected light in physical layer security (PLS) is very important because a small portion of reflected light enables an eavesdropper (ED) to acquire legitimate information. Moreover, it would be a practical strategy for an ED to be located at an outer area of the room, where the reflection light is strong, in order to escape the vigilance of a legitimate user. Therefore, in this paper, we investigate the impact of multipath reflections on PLS in visible light communication in the presence of randomly located eavesdroppers. We apply spatial point processes to characterize randomly distributed EDs. The generalized error in signal-to-noise ratio that occurs when reflections are ignored is defined as a function of the distance between the receiver and the wall. We use this error for quantifying the domain of interest that needs to be considered from the secrecy viewpoint. Furthermore, we investigate how the reflection affects the secrecy outage probability (SOP). It is shown that the effect of the reflection on the SOP can be removed by adjusting the light emitting diode configuration. Monte Carlo simulations and numerical results are given to verify our analysis.
This letter investigates the secrecy performance in visible light communication (VLC) in the presence of randomly located colluding eavesdroppers (EDs). Colluding EDs can combine their observations and degrade the secrecy performance of the VLC systems. Utilizing the numerical inversion of a characteristic function, the probability distribution of the combined signal-to-noise ratio of colluding EDs is analyzed. The closed-form expression of the secrecy outage probability is derived and verified by Monte Carlo simulations.
Over recent years, visible light communications (VLC) has gained prominence as a promising alternative to traditional RF communication, offering advantages in terms of bandwidth and security. This paper investigates the physical-layer security for a practical indoor VLC system where the positions of a legitimate receiver (Bob) and an eavesdropper (Eve) are considered to be random within their circular receiving planes. For this system model, the statistics of the VLC channel gains are obtained using which, closed-form expressions for the secrecy outage probability are derived. The analytical results, validated through Monte Carlo simulations, demonstrate the impact of key system parameters, namely signal-to-noise ratio, Bob and Eve relative positions, and the target secrecy rate on the SOP performance.
Abstract This paper investigates the physical layer security of indoor visible light communication (VLC) systems in the presence of randomly located eavesdroppers using a stochastic geometry framework. Unlike traditional LOS-only or perfect-CSI assumptions, this work incorporates a more realistic setting where the eavesdropper’s channel state information (CSI) is unknown, and both line-of-sight (LOS) and first-order non-line-of-sight (NLOS) reflections are accounted for in the channel modelling. The analysis further integrates device orientation randomness and evaluates security under eavesdroppers employing selection combining (SC) and maximum ratio combining (MRC). Closed-form expressions for the channel gain, SNR distribution, and secrecy outage probability (SOP) are derived by exploiting the spatial statistics of a bounded Poisson point process (PPP). Results show that incorporating NLOS components significantly enhances legitimate SNR and improves secrecy performance, while eavesdropper collaboration using maximum ratio combining presents the worst-case security threat. Monte Carlo simulations validate the analytical derivations, demonstrating close agreement across various system parameters. The study offers an accurate and practical secrecy analysis framework for next-generation VLC deployments in realistic indoor environments.
In order to improve the security performance of multiuser visible light communication (VLC) and facilitate the secure application of optical wireless communication technology in Internet-of-Things, we investigate the physical-layer security in a multiuser VLC system with non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA). When the light-emitting diode (LED) transmitter communicates with multiple legitimate users by downlink NOMA, both single eavesdropper and multi-eavesdropper scenarios are considered. In the presence of single eavesdropper, based on transmission characteristics of the optical wireless channel, with known instantaneous channel state information (CSI) of the NOMA legitimate channels and statistical CSI of the eavesdropper channel, an exact expression of secrecy outage probability (SOP) is derived, which acts as a benchmark of the security performance to guide selecting or optimizing parameters of the LED transmitter and the photodiode receiver of NOMA legitimate users. In the multi-eavesdropper case, based on the spatial distribution of legitimate users and eavesdroppers, the SOP is obtained via a stochastic geometry theory, so as to guide the NOMA legitimate users to keep away from the area with high eavesdropper density. For typical parameters of the indoor LED transmitter and the PD receiver, simulation results show that the SOP performance improves with the increasing of LED transmission power or transmission signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) in both scenarios. Specifically, in the single eavesdropper case, enlarging the channel condition difference of user groups or deviating the eavesdropper from the given user group can improve the SOP performance, and for a given NOMA legitimate user, the SOP eventually settles around 0.2 while the semiangle at half illuminance of the LED varies between 15° to 60°. In the multi-eavesdropper case, we can get a better SOP performance when reducing the eavesdropper density or the semi-angle at half illuminance of the LED for a given eavesdropper density.
We investigate the secrecy connectivity in visible light communication in the presence of randomly located eavesdroppers. We apply spatial point processes to characterize the unknown eavesdropper locations. The closed-form of the secrecy outage probability is derived as a function of the density of eavesdroppers. The analysis is verified by Monte Carlo simulations. Furthermore, we suggest an LED transmitter selection scheme based on the location of a legitimate user. It is verified that the proposed transmission scheme can significantly improve the secrecy performance as a function of the number of LED transmitters.
This letter investigates the secrecy performance of a visible light communication (VLC) system with a legitimate receiver and a group of eavesdroppers. Considering the randomness of the locations of the legitimate receiver and the eavesdroppers, the statistical characteristics of the signal-to-noise ratio over the VLC downlinks are characterized; then, we derive the closed-form analytical expressions for secrecy outage probability and the average secrecy capacity by using stochastic geometry method. Finally, simulations are carried on to verify our proposed analytical models.