Physical-layer security

Ivan B. Djordjević

Marcus de Ree, Γεώργιος Μαντάς, Jonathan Rodrı́guez

Communications, wired and wireless, have integrated various cryptographic techniques to ensure privacy and counter surveillance. These techniques have been integrated in most of the network layers, except for the physical layer. This physical layer has, thus far, dealt with schemes such as source coding, channel coding, and (de)modulation, to enable the transmission of data in a reliable and efficient manner. The emergence of physical layer security extends the functionalities at the physical layer to include secure communication, aiming at the transmission of a signal that can only be correctly retrieved by the intended receiver. Therefore, the goals of physical layer security align with cryptographic schemes utilized at the other network layers. From the extensive study of physical layer security schemes, we have observed that there is a knowledge gap regarding certain security principles practiced by cryptographers and the experts within physical layer security, causing many physical layer security schemes to be impractical for standardization and the wide-scale integration into information and communication technologies. This paper describes a variety of security principles and concepts, practiced by cryptographers, and of importance to physical layer security experts. We aim to raise the awareness of these security principles and concepts to experts within the field of physical layer security to improve the practicality, standardization, and integration potential of the design of future physical layer security schemes.

Ivan B. Djordjević

Lorenzo Mucchi, Francesca Nizzi, Tommaso Pecorella +2 more

Physical-layer security (PLS) has raised the attention of the research community in recent years, particularly for Internet of things (IoT) applications. Despite the use of classical cryptography, PLS provides security at physical layer, regardless of the computational power owned by the attacker. The investigations on PLS are numerous in the literature, but one main issue seems to be kept apart: how to measure the benefit that PLS can bring to cryptography? This paper tries to answer this question with an initial performance analysis of PLS in conjunction with typical cryptography of wireless communication protocols. Our results indicate that PLS can help cryptography to harden the attacker job in real operative scenario: PLS can increase the detection errors at the attacker's receiver, leading to inability to recover the cipher key, even if the plaintext is known.

Nina Zhang, Yuxin Ai, Dehua Zhang +2 more

Physical layer security (PLS) has emerged as a promising approach to enhance the security of wireless communication systems. This paper provides a comprehensive review of PLS, including its basic concepts, key techniques, and recent developments. We begin by introducing the basic principles of PLS, including the concept of secrecy capacity and the key assumptions underlying PLS. We then discuss various techniques that have been proposed to enhance PLS, such as artificial noise, cooperative jamming, and beamforming. Next, we review recent research on PLS in different scenarios, including multi-user systems, cognitive radio networks, and wireless sensor networks. Finally, we conclude by discussing future research directions and open challenges in PLS.

Phuong T. Tran, Tan Nhat Nguyen, Lam‐Thanh Tu