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Emerging Imaging and Sensing Technologies for Security and Defence; and Advanced Manufacturing Technologies for Micro- and Nanosystems in Security and Defence

Secrecy capacity of LiFi systems

Hanaa Abumarshoud, Mohammad S. Dehghani, Majid Safari, Harald Haas

Published Sep 18, 2020• 4 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Radio frequency (RF) signals propagate through most materials that we are surrounded by while light is blocked by many of these materials. This feature makes wireless networks based on light (which are also referred to as LiFi networks) inherently more secure. However, it can also lead to sudden link failure if the legitimate data link is blocked because of user movements or changes in device orientation. In this paper, the secrecy capacity has been analysed with the consideration of imperfect channel state information, random device orientation and probability of link blockage for the case of a single eavesdropper. It has been found that the secrecy capacity almost doubles in a standing activity as opposed to a sitting activity and that the density of blocking objects degrades the secrecy capacity in single access point networks. It is evident that environmental factors and user behaviour have a significant impact on the secrecy performance and, thus, need to be considered for robust physical layer security (PLS) design in LiFi networks.

DOI
10.1117/12.2575810

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Radio frequency (RF) signals propagate through most materials that we are surrounded by while light is blocked by many of these materials. This feature makes wireless networks based on light (which are also referred to as LiFi networks) inherently more secure. However, it can also lead to sudden link failure if the legitimate data link is blocked because of user movements or changes in device orientation. In this paper, the secrecy capacity has been analysed with the consideration of imperfect channel state information, random device orientation and probability of link blockage for the case of a single eavesdropper. It has been found that the secrecy capacity almost doubles in a standing activity as opposed to a sitting activity and that the density of blocking objects degrades the secrecy capacity in single access point networks. It is evident that environmental factors and user behaviour have a significant impact on the secrecy performance and, thus, need to be considered for robust physical layer security (PLS) design in LiFi networks.
This paper studies the secrecy performance of light-fidelity (LiFi) networks under the consideration of random device orientation and partial knowledge of the eavesdroppers’ channel state information. Particularly, the secrecy capacity and secrecy outage probability are analysed for the case of a single eavesdropper, as well as for the case of multiple eavesdroppers. Moreover, a machine learning based access point (AP) selection algorithm is presented with the objective of maximising the secrecy capacity of legitimate users. Our results show that optimising the AP selection while taking into account the random behaviour of the optical channel results in a significant enhancement in the achievable secrecy performance. In fact, using the derived realistic secrecy expressions as the basis for AP selection results in up to 30% secrecy capacity enhancement compared to the limited assumption of fixed orientation.
Light-fidelity (LiFi) is a light-based wireless communication technology which can complement radio-frequency (RF) communication technologies for indoor applications. Although LiFi signals are spatially more contained than RF signals, the broadcasting nature of LiFi also makes it susceptible to eavesdropping. Therefore, it is important to secure the transmitted data against potential eavesdroppers. In this paper, an overview of the recent developments pertaining to LiFi physical layer security (PLS) is provided, and the main differences between LiFi PLS and RF PLS are explained. LiFi achievable secrecy rates and upper bounds are then investigated under practical channel models and transmission schemes. Beamforming and jamming, which received significant research attention recently as a means to achieve PLS in LiFi, are also investigated under indoor illumination constraints. Finally, future research directions of interest in LiFi PLS are identified and discussed. This article is part of the theme issue 'Optical wireless communication'.
The broadcast nature of wireless networks makes them vulnerable to eavesdropping attacks; therefore, physical layer security (PLS) becomes essential to protect the signal at the physical layer. In this paper, we investigate PLS aspects in terms of the secrecy capacity (SC) in hybrid radio frequency (RF)/visible light communication (VLC) networks. First, we design RF-and VLC-based beamforming vectors to maximize the achievable SC. Moreover, using these vectors, we solve the power minimization problem satisfying the required SC. The results provide useful insights into how the eavesdropper's location affects the power consumption profile. Finally, the results reveal that the performance of the VLC network in terms of the consumed power per bits/s/Hz is more efficient than the RF one.
In this paper, the secrecy performance of the physical layer security (PLS) of the hybrid free-space optical/radio frequency (FSO/RF) communication system is analyzed. The transmission protocol of the considered system is performed under the eavesdropper's attempt to overhear the RF link between the transmitter and legitimate receiver of the hybrid system. The FSO link is characterized by Málaga-M distribution while the RF links are modeled by Nakagami-m distribution. The two practical eavesdropping modes considered in this paper include: colluding and non-colluding. Exact closed-form expressions for the system's secrecy outage probability (SOP), the asymptotic of the SOP (SOP∞), the probability of strictly positive secrecy capacity (SPSC), the average secrecy capacity (ASC), and the asymptotic of the ASC (ASC∞), are specifically derived under the influence of both eavesdropper modes. Our derived analytical expressions present an efficient tool to investigate the impact of some channel parameters on the secrecy performance, namely the fading severity of the RF links, atmospheric turbulence severity, pointing error of the FSO link, number of eavesdroppers, and the power of the eavesdropper links. The results show that the increase of the eavesdroppers' number under both modes profoundly degrades the considered system secrecy performance. The accuracy of the numerical results obtained is validated by Monte-Carlo simulations.
Integrating visible light communication (VLC) and radio-frequency (RF) networks can improve the performance of communication systems in terms of coverage and data rates. However, adding RF links to VLC networks weakens the secrecy performance due to the broadcast and ubiquitous nature of RF links. This paper studies the physical layer security (PLS) in cooperative non-orthogonal multiple access (CoNOMA) hybrid VLC/RF systems. Consider a VLC system, where two entrusted users close to a VLC access point (AP) help an out-of-coverage legitimate user using RF signals in the presence of an eavesdropper. The AP transmits data to both entrusted users and the legitimate user using the principle of NOMA, where the entrusted users harvest energy from the received light intensity, decode the legitimate user's message, forward it using a RF link, and then decode their messages. It is required to maximize the secrecy rate at the legitimate user under quality-of-service (QoS) constraints using beamforming and DC-bias and power allocation. Different solutions are proposed for both active and passive eavesdropper cases, using semidefinite relaxation, zero-forcing, beamforming, and jamming. Numerical results compare between the different proposed approaches and show how the proposed approaches contribute in improving the secrecy performance of the proposed model.
We investigate the problem of wireless physical-layer security in the presence of blockages, which is a key propagation effect in millimeter wave bands. We obtain analytical expressions for the strictly positive secrecy capacity and outage probability of secrecy capacity in a scenario in which the legitimate peers have a direct LOS path with a certain blockage probability, whereas the eavesdropper observes the communication from a NLOS link. We also analyze the effect of using a blocking-aware adaptive transmission method to overcome the LOS blockage, which significantly improves the secrecy performance.