One of the critical requirements of the future wireless networks is the provision of secure communication against wide range of attacks. Contrary to the conventional cryptography-based security, physical layer security (PLS), in the broadest sense, intends to exploit different features of the wireless channel to secure not only the information being communicated but the whole communication process from myriad types of attacks. Future generations of the wireless networks will be built on various new technologies such as massive multiple input multiple output (mMIMO), reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (RIS), and sensing, and are expected to accommodate some newly emerging use-cases that never existed in the legacy networks. Both, the new technologies and the use-cases are accompanied with some new and unique channel characteristics which can be leveraged by the channel-based PLS concept. This chapter explores these newly revealed channel features to highlight their potential advantages and challenges if exploited for PLS. Specifically, the chapter provides a ground work on the critical qualities that define the eligibility of a certain channel feature for the PLS application. Afterward, channel features unique to different scenarios (such as high mobility in vehicle-to-vehicle and high speed train communication) or technologies (such as mMIMO and communication at higher frequency bands) in 5G and beyond networks are discussed form the PLS perspective. The chapter also touches upon the evolving class of security attack that intend to disrupt the channel-based PLS concept by attacking the channel characteristics/features rather than the communication itself. The chapter is then concluded by summarizing some possible research directions for the channel-based PLS concept.
One of the critical requirements of the future wireless networks is the provision of secure communication against wide range of attacks. Contrary to the conventional cryptography-based security, physical layer security (PLS), in the broadest sense, intends to exploit different features of the wireless channel to secure not only the information being communicated but the whole communication process from myriad types of attacks. Future generations of the wireless networks will be built on various new technologies such as massive multiple input multiple output (mMIMO), reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (RIS), and sensing, and are expected to accommodate some newly emerging use-cases that never existed in the legacy networks. Both, the new technologies and the use-cases are accompanied with some new and unique channel characteristics which can be leveraged by the channel-based PLS concept. This chapter explores these newly revealed channel features to highlight their potential advantages and challenges if exploited for PLS. Specifically, the chapter provides a ground work on the critical qualities that define the eligibility of a certain channel feature for the PLS application. Afterward, channel features unique to different scenarios (such as high mobility in vehicle-to-vehicle and high speed train communication) or technologies (such as mMIMO and communication at higher frequency bands) in 5G and beyond networks are discussed form the PLS perspective. The chapter also touches upon the evolving class of security attack that intend to disrupt the channel-based PLS concept by attacking the channel characteristics/features rather than the communication itself. The chapter is then concluded by summarizing some possible research directions for the channel-based PLS concept.
Security has emerged as one of the critical requirements in future wireless networks. Unlike traditional cryptography-based security, physical layer security (PLS) exploits various features of the random wireless channel to secure not only the information being communicated but the whole communication process from any type of attack. Future wireless networks are envisioned to feature new technologies such as re-configurable intelligent surfaces, massive multiple input multiple output, and sensing, to accommodate the emerging use-cases. Both, the new technologies and the new use-cases have been found to enrich the channel characteristics by unveiling some new channel features which can be readily exploited to facilitate PLS. This article surveys these new channel features to reveal their potential for PLS implementation. In the course of the article, the assessments of important qualities while selecting a certain channel feature for the PLS application are discussed. The importance of the channel control concept and sensing technologies that facilitate the accessibility of certain channel features are highlighted from the PLS perspective. Security attacks aimed at channel characteristics, rather than the communication itself, in order to disrupt PLS implementations are also discussed. Finally, the article summarizes the possible research direction for channel-based PLS.
Security has emerged as one of the critical requirements of future wireless networks. Unlike traditional cryptography-based security, physical layer security (PLS) tends to exploit various features of the random wireless channel to secure not only the information being communicated but the whole communication process from any type of attack. Due to the limited capability of the legacy wireless networks, only a few channel features could be effectively exploited for PLS. Future wireless networks are envisioned to feature advanced transceiver technologies, signal processing techniques, channel control, and sensing capabilities which will allow them to easily access and extract additional channel features that can be readily exploited for PLS. The novel use cases to be accommodated in future networks are also found to experience some peculiar channel characteristics which enrich the list of channel features that can be exploited for PLS. This article, thus, tends to highlight the opportunities and potential challenges of these new channel features from the PLS perspective. In the course of the article, the assessment of important qualities while selecting a certain channel feature for the PLS application is discussed. The importance of the channel control concept and sensing technologies for PLS is highlighted. Finally, the article discusses the challenges and vulnerabilities of the channel-based PLS concept from which future research directions are derived.
The open nature of radio propagation enables ubiquitous wireless communication. This allows for seamless data transmission. However, unauthorized users may pose a threat to the security of the data being transmitted to authorized users. This gives rise to network vulnerabilities such as hacking, eavesdropping, and jamming of the transmitted information. Physical layer security (PLS) has been identified as one of the promising security approaches to safeguard the transmission from eavesdroppers in a wireless network. It is an alternative to the computationally demanding and complex cryptographic algorithms and techniques. PLS has continually received exponential research interest owing to the possibility of exploiting the characteristics of the wireless channel. One of the main characteristics includes the random nature of the transmission channel. The aforesaid nature makes it possible for confidential and authentic signal transmission between the sender and the receiver in the physical layer. We start by introducing the basic theories of PLS, including the wiretap channel, information-theoretic security, and a brief discussion of the cryptography security technique. Furthermore, an overview of multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) communication is provided. The main focus of our review is based on the existing key-less PLS optimization techniques, their limitations, and challenges. The paper also looks into the promising key research areas in addressing these shortfalls. Lastly, a comprehensive overview of some of the recent PLS research in 5G and 6G technologies of wireless communication networks is provided.
Physical-layer security is emerging approach that can benefit conventional encryption methods. The main idea of physical layer security is to take advantage of the features of the wireless channel and its impairments in order to ensure secure communication in the physical layer. This paper provides a comprehensive review of information-theoretic measures of the secrecy performance in physical layer security. In addition, our work survey research about physical layer security over several enabling 5G technologies, such as massive multiple-input multiple-output, millimeter wave communications, heterogeneous networks, and full-duplex, including the key concepts of each of the aforementioned technologies. Finally, future research directions and technical challenges of physical layer security are identified.
Physical-layer security is emerging approach that can benefit conventional encryption methods. The main idea of physical layer security is to take advantage of the features of the wireless channel and its impairments in order to ensure secure communication in the physical layer. This paper provides a comprehensive review of information-theoretic measures of the secrecy performance in physical layer security. In addition, our work survey research about physical layer security over several enabling 5G technologies, such as massive multiple-input multiple-output, millimeter wave communications, heterogeneous networks, and full-duplex, including the key concepts of each of the aforementioned technologies. Finally, future research directions and technical challenges of physical layer security are identified.
Physical layer security (PLS) has emerged as a new concept and powerful alternative that can complement and may even replace encryption-based approaches, which entail many hurdles and practical problems for future wireless systems. The basic idea of PLS is to exploit the characteristics of the wireless channel and its impairments including noise, fading, interference, dispersion, diversity, etc. in order to ensure the ability of the intended user to successfully perform data decoding while preventing eavesdroppers from doing so. Thus, the main design goal of PLS is to increase the performance difference between the link of the legitimate receiver and that of the eavesdropper by using well-designed transmission schemes. In this survey, we propose a conceptual, generic, and expandable framework for classifying the existing PLS techniques against wireless passive eavesdropping. In this flexible framework, the security techniques that we comprehensively review in this treatise are divided into two primary approaches: signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio-based approach and complexity-based approach. The first approach is classified into three major categories: first, secrecy channel codes-based schemes; second, security techniques based on channel adaptation; third, schemes based on injecting interfering artificial (noise/jamming) signals along with the transmitted information signals. The second approach (complexity-based), which is associated with the mechanisms of extracting secret sequences from the shared channel, is classified into two main categories based on which layer the secret sequence obtained by channel quantization is applied on. The techniques belonging to each one of these categories are divided and classified into three main signal domains: time, frequency and space. For each one of these domains, several examples are given and illustrated along with the review of the state-of-the-art security advances in each domain. Moreover, the advantages and disadvantages of each approach alongside the lessons learned from existing research works are stated and discussed. The recent applications of PLS techniques to different emerging communication systems such as visible light communication, body area network, power line communication, Internet of Things, smart grid, mm-Wave, cognitive radio, vehicular ad-hoc network, unmanned aerial vehicle, ultra-wideband, device-to-device, radio-frequency identification, index modulation, and 5G non-orthogonal multiple access based-systems, are also reviewed and discussed. The paper is concluded with recommendations and future research directions for designing robust, efficient and strong security methods for current and future wireless systems.