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International Conference on Advances in Computational Tools for Engineering Applications

Massive Planar Antenna Arrays for Physical Layer Security

Mahdi M. Chehimi, Rofaida Al Ahmad Matar, Elias E. Yaacoub, Ali Chehab, Hassan Noura

Published Jul 1, 2019• 2 citations
Publisher

Abstract

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.

DOI
10.1109/actea.2019.8851112

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IEEE Communications Letters•Mar 8, 2019•13 citations
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.
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 exploration of the physical layer characteristics of the wireless channel is currently the object of intensive research in order to develop advanced secrecy schemes that can protect information against eavesdropping attacks. Following this line of work, in this manuscript we consider a massive MIMO system and jointly design the channel precoder and security scheme. By doing that we ensure that the precoding operation does not reduce the degree of secrecy provided by the security scheme. The fundamental working principle of the proposed technique is to apply selective random rotations in the transmitted signal at the antenna level in order to achieve a compromise between legitimate and eavesdropper channel capacities. These rotations use the phase of the reciprocal wireless channel as a common random source between the transmitter and the intended receiver. To assess the security performance, the proposed joint scheme is compared with a recently proposed approach for massive MIMO systems. The results show that, with the proposed joint design, the number of antenna elements does not influence the eavesdropper channel capacity, which is proved to be equal to zero, in contrast to previous approaches.
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.
Physical layer security (PLS) has grown in popularity as it guarantees secure and reliable communication between wireless devices without restricting the ability of data analysts to eavesdrop. PLS benefits from the randomization property of the wireless channel, which improves immunity and protects against many dangers of information breaches from eavesdroppers. MIMO and Massive MIMO, which use numerous antennas at the transmitter and receiver ends, are fundamental technologies for improving efficiency in 5G and future network systems. The PLS still requires a significant amount of work before it can be employed in practical systems. The interception of eavesdroppers can be made difficult by adding artificial noise. This paper focuses on the physical layer security considering maximal ratio combining, and artificial noise with beamforming techniques to further enhance the secrecy rate. The proposed work demonstrates that the use of transmitter beamforming with artificial noise can significantly improve the degree of confidentiality of information being transmitted between a transmitter and an intended receiver while making it more difficult for eavesdroppers to intercept. The simulation results in terms of bit error rate show that the proposed method has a significant impact on the error rate performance of the 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.