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Journal of Lightwave Technology

Superposition Modulation for Physical Layer Security in Water-to-Air Visible Light Communication Systems

Qingqing Hu, Nuo Huang, Chen Gong

Published Jan 27, 2023• 4 citations
Publisher

Abstract

In this paper, we propose a physical layer security (PLS) scheme based on superposition modulation for water-to-air (W2A) visible light communication (VLC). We characterize the high correlation between W2A and air-to-water (A2W) link gains from ray tracing simulation and experiments. The proposed scheme selects the modulation order and superposition parameter based on the high correlation between the W2A and A2W link gains. The scheme performance is studied by exploring its immunity against different types of attacks. Based on the link gains from real measurements, it is shown that under random attack Eve's SER exceeds 0.77 when Eve's signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) varies from 5 dB to 30 dB, and under correlated attack Eve's SER decreases only for a high correlation coefficient when Eve is close enough to Bob, which is unrealistic for eavesdropping. In addition, the entropy of potential set under post-processing attack is derived. For intelligent attack, two unsupervised algorithms, namely K-means clustering and expectation maximization (EM) algorithm, are adopted for modulation identification. The distributions of Eve' SER under all four attacks are investigated based on the measured link gains in the laboratory environment, which demonstrates that intelligent attack with K-means clustering possesses the highest eavesdropping capability. However, more numerical results show that for intelligent attack with K-means clustering under wavy water surface, the proportion of the case where Eve has a higher SER than Bob is lower than 0.5 only when Eve lies between Alice and Bob with small horizontal distance, which is unrealistic for eavesdropping operation.

DOI
10.1109/jlt.2023.3240180

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International Conference on Wireless Communications and Signal Processing (WCSP)•Oct 1, 2019•1 citation
In this paper, we propose a physical layer security (PLS) scheme based on superposition modulation for water-to-air (W2A) visible light communication (VLC). We characterize the high correlation between W2A and air-to-water (A2W) link gains from ray tracing simulation and experiments. The proposed scheme selects the modulation order and superposition parameter based on the high correlation between the W2A and A2W link gains. The scheme performance is studied by exploring its immunity against different types of attacks. Based on the link gains from real measurements, it is shown that under random attack Eve's SER exceeds 0.77 when Eve's signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) varies from 5 dB to 30 dB, and under correlated attack Eve's SER decreases only for a high correlation coefficient when Eve is close enough to Bob, which is unrealistic for eavesdropping. In addition, the entropy of potential set under post-processing attack is derived. For intelligent attack, two unsupervised algorithms, namely K-means clustering and expectation maximization (EM) algorithm, are adopted for modulation identification. The distributions of Eve' SER under all four attacks are investigated based on the measured link gains in the laboratory environment, which demonstrates that intelligent attack with K-means clustering possesses the highest eavesdropping capability. However, more numerical results show that for intelligent attack with K-means clustering under wavy water surface, the proportion of the case where Eve has a higher SER than Bob is lower than 0.5 only when Eve lies between Alice and Bob with small horizontal distance, which is unrealistic for eavesdropping operation.
This paper investigates the physical-layer security for water-to-air (W2A) visible light communication (VLC). The impacts of surface fluctuation and underwater scattering on the channel gain are theoretically analyzed, which is verified in a laboratory W2A-VLC link. The statistical properties of wave slope under experimental conditions are measured by image processing and the probability density function of the slope can be approximated by a logistic distribution. We observe that dynamic waves can cause information leakage and experimental results indicate that the probability of secure communication increases from 90.39% to 96.18% as the eavesdropper’s elevation increases from 1.15 m to 1.42 m, which are approximately consistent with the numerical results. To investigate the parameters affecting the secrecy performance, several secrecy performance metrics are numerically calculated under different wave intensities, eavesdropper’s locations, divergence angles of LED, underwater scattering coefficients and wavelengths of transmitted beam. It is seen that the secrecy performance is degraded as the wave intensity increases, while random scattering can mitigate the water surface fluctuations and reduce the probability of information leakage.
This study introduces a comprehensive physical layer security (PLS) scheme in visible light communication (VLC) systems using non-Lambertian beamforming and intelligent reflecting surfaces (IRSs). It withstands eavesdropping and attacks to secure indoor VLCs, even with imperfect channel state information (CSI). In conventional VLC systems, the required illuminance maintaining normal communication is about 80 lux. The proposed scheme reduces the illuminance in a potential eavesdropping area to 5.2 lux by manipulating the direction and intensity of the optical signals, which leads to eavesdropping failure. Meanwhile, the proposed scheme is jamming-resistant. Simulations demonstrate that the system adopting the proposed security scheme has a SINR of 40.32 dB with jamming attacks, compared to 26.13 dB in typical VLC systems, so the resisting interference ability is improved by 54%. Eavesdropping resistance and attack resilience make VLC security in sensitive contexts more robust.
Optical wireless communications (OWC) and its potential to solve physical layer security (PLS) issues are becoming important research areas in 6G communications systems. In this paper, an overview of PLS in visible light communications (VLC), is presented. Then, two new PLS techniques based on generalized space shift keying (GSSK) modulation with spatial constellation design (SCD) and non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) cooperative relaying are introduced. In the first technique, the PLS of the system is enhanced by the appropriate selection of a precoding matrix for randomly activated light emitting diodes (LEDs). With the aid of a legitimate user's (Bob's) channel state information (CSI) at the transmitter (CSIT), the bit error ratio (BER) of Bob is minimized while the BER performance of the potential eavesdroppers (Eves) is significantly degraded. In the second technique, superposition coding with uniform signaling is used at the transmitter and relays. The design of secure beamforming vectors at the relay nodes along with NOMA techniques is used to enhance PLS in a VLC system. Insights gained from the improved security levels of the proposed techniques are used to discuss how PLS can be further improved in future generation communication systems by using VLC.
Visible light communication (VLC) is a new enabling communication technology that exploits illumination devices, mostly high-brightness light-emitting diodes (LEDs), to establish high-speed short-range wireless communication links. VLC is a promising technology that has gained significant interest in the last decade due to its high data rates and low cost of deployment. Although VLC systems are less susceptible to eavesdropping than RF systems since light does not penetrate through walls, they become as vulnerable as their radio-frequency (RF) counterparts when their nodes are deployed in public areas and/or when there are large windows. Thus, security for VLC systems is as important as it is for RF systems. Security in wireless communication systems may be enhanced by introducing physical layer security (PLS) techniques. In fact, PLS has been applied to a wide range of RF applications in an effort to improve the overall security by complementing existing cryptography-based security techniques. The potential of PLS stems from its ability of leveraging features of the surrounding environments via sophisticated encoding techniques at the physical layer. Indeed, PLS schemes can be applied in the same spirit to VLC systems. \n \nThere exist many specificities that characterize VLC systems, leading to major differences compared to RF systems. Specifically, VLC channels are quasi-static and real valued channels, which seemingly simplify the application of PLS techniques. However, due to the limited dynamic range of the LEDs, VLC systems impose an amplitude constraint on the channel input, which makes unbounded inputs not admissible. As a result, the performance of PLS schemes must be revised in the VLC context due to its different operating constraints. \n \nWe propose in this thesis enhancing the secrecy performance of VLC systems through PLS techniques. Firstly, we consider the degraded single-input single-output (SISO) VLC system. We derive achievable secrecy rates using continuous and discrete input distributions and we demonstrate the substantial improvement in the secrecy performance by using discrete distributions. Secondly, we consider the multiple-input single-output (MISO) VLC systems. We consider at first the case of randomly located eavesdroppers, in which we develop an associated achievable secrecy rate and we develop a beamforming-based precoding scheme that enhances the secrecy performance of this class of systems. In the second part, we consider the multi-user (MU) MISO broadcast system with confidential messages and we develop linear precoding schemes that enhance typical secrecy performance measures, including the max-min fairness and the weighted fairness. Finally, we consider the multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) VLC system. We derive achievable secrecy rates using continuous and discrete distributions and we develop linear precoding schemes that improve its secrecy performance.
Physical layer security (PLS) offers a unique approach to protecting information confidentiality against eavesdropping by malicious users. This paper studies a joint design of adaptive M−ary pulse amplitude modulation (PAM) and precoding for performance improvement of PLS in visible light communications (VLC). It is known that higher-order modulation results in a better secrecy capacity at the expense of a higher bit-error rate (BER). On the other hand, a proper precoding design can also enhance secrecy performance. The proposed design, therefore, aims at the optimal PAM modulation order and precoder to maximize a utility function that takes into account the secrecy capacity and BERs of the legitimate user (Bob)’s and the eavesdropper (Eve)’s channel. Due to the lack of a closed-form expression for the utility function, a Q-learning-based design is proposed and evaluated. Compared to the non-adaptive approach under all different settings of Bob’s and Eve’s positions, simulation results verify that the proposed joint adaptive design achieves a good balance between the secrecy capacity and BER of Bob’s channel while maintaining a sufficiently high BER of Eve’s channel.
Superposition modulation(SM) separates the transmitters and the bits to be sent into two parts, respectively, and aims that the low-order symbols modulated by different bit sequences reach the legitimate receiver (Bob) synchronously. Then the receiver receives a high-order superposition symbol superimposed by the low-order symbols. Its diversity makes a great fluctuation of communicating channels, which is a great feature for the physical-layer security. So the potential security of SM is deserved to be discussed. This paper investigates the security performance of SM scheme in a wiretap system, and its symbol error rete (SER) at the eavesdropper (Eve) is much higher compared with the traditional QAM scheme. Furthermore, we discuss the effect of channel estimation errors. It shows that SM scheme is as sensitive to estimation error as traditional QAM scheme for Eve, such that SM is still have a better secrecy performance. The results show agreement with computer simulations.