Challenges
Datasets
Workspaces
Papers
Discussions
Leaderboard
Log inSign up
Challenges
Datasets
Workspaces
Papers
Discussions
Leaderboard
Blog
Job Board
Q3AS

© 2026 Aqora Quantum S.A.S.

TermsPrivacyLegal Notice

IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology

UAV-Aided Secure Communication With Imperfect Eavesdropper Location: Robust Design for Jamming Power and Trajectory

Zhixin Liu, B.X. Zhu, Yuan-ai Xie, Kai Ma, Xinping Guan

Published Dec 28, 2023• 36 citations
Publisher

Abstract

This paper exploits the mobility of an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) to improve the physical layer (PLS) security against potential eavesdropping scenarios, where the sensitive data transmitted from a ground base station (GBS) to multiple information receivers (IRs) is easily eavesdropped by multiple non-colluding eavesdroppers (Eves). Specifically, the UAV is employed as a friendly jammer to transmit artificial noise to degrade the wiretap channels. By leveraging the UAV's mobility and the possibility of establishing line-of-sight links, the UAV can move close to the Eves and opportunistically jam them. Especially, two practical factors, namely, the imperfect location information of Eves and the existence of no-fly zones are considered. Since only the partial position information of the Eves can be known, as the worst case, the minimum average secrecy rate of IRs is robustly optimized by jointly designing the trajectory and jamming power of the UAV, and the transmission power of the GBS to ensure the security of all IRs. However, the formulated problem with coupled variables is non-convex and intractable. As such, an efficient alternative iterative suboptimal algorithm is proposed to solve this problem by applying the block coordinate descent, successive convex approximation, slack variables, and$\mathcal {S}$-Procedure. Numerical results reveal that the proposed robust algorithm can substantially improve the max-min average secrecy rate, and the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm is further verified by comparing it with three benchmark schemes.

DOI
10.1109/tvt.2023.3347769

Related papers

Cooperative Jamming for Secure UAV Communications With Partial Eavesdropper Information

Yupeng Li, Rongqing Zhang, Jianhua Zhang +2 more

The broadcast nature of air-to-ground line-of-sight (LoS) wireless channel imposes a great challenge in secure unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) communications. To address this issue, this paper investigates UAV-ground communications from the physical-layer security perspective. Specifically, the investigated scenario includes a UAV serving as the base station (BS) that transmits confidential signals to a legitimate ground user, and there are multiple eavesdroppers on the ground with unknown position information. To further enhance the secrecy performance of the UAV-ground communications, an idle UAV can be employed to serve as a friendly jammer, which can transmit jamming signals to confuse the eavesdroppers. In our proposed strategy, the flying trajectory and the transmit power for both the UAVs are jointly optimized by maximizing the worst-case secrecy rate (WCSR) of the system. Considering the intractability of the formulated non-convex problem, we further provide a block coordinate descent-based iterative optimization method. Simulations verify that our proposed algorithm can significantly improve the average WCSR in comparison with the existing works.

IEEE Access•Jan 1, 2019•84 citations

Robust Secure UAV Communication Systems with Full-Duplex Jamming

Tianyu Yang, Omid Taghizadeh, Yulin Hu +2 more

In this paper, we study the robust secure unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) communication system, where a UAV with full-duplex (FD) capability simultaneously receives the information signal from a ground unit (GU) and transmits jamming signal to degrade the wiretap capability of potential multiple ground eavesdroppers (Eves). With the consideration of estimation error of Eves' locations, we aim to maximize the average worst secrecy rate inside a certain flight period of the UAV by jointly optimizing the transmit power of the GU and UAV as well as the trajectory of the UAV. The resulting problem is intractable due to its non-convex nature and strongly coupled variables. Furthermore, the estimation error of Eves' locations results in an infinite number of constraints, which makes the problem even more difficult. To tackle this difficulty, we first propose an iterative algorithm based on the Schur complement lemma and successive inner approximation method to efficiently solve the problem suboptimally under the estimated Eves' locations. Then, in order to cope with the of Eves' location errors, we develop a cutting-set method, which solves the problem by alternating between optimal power-trajectory design and worst-case Eves' locations analysis. Via simulation, we show the improvement of the proposed algorithm compared to other benchmark algorithms under high FD self-interference cancellation levels.

IEEE Wireless Communications and Networking Conference•Mar 29, 2021•4 citations

UAV-Enabled Cooperative Jamming for Improving Secrecy of Ground Wiretap Channel

An Li, Qingqing Wu, Rui Zhang

This letter proposes a novel unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)-enabled mobile jamming scheme to improve the secrecy rate of ground wiretap channel. Specifically, a UAV is employed to transmit jamming signals to combat against eavesdropping. Such a mobile jamming scheme is particularly appealing since the UAV-enabled jammer can fly close to the eavesdropper and opportunistically jam it by leveraging the UAV's mobility. We aim to maximize the average secrecy rate by jointly optimizing the UAV's trajectory and jamming power over a given flight period. To make the problem more tractable, we drive a closed-form lower bound for the achievable secrecy rate, based on which the UAV's trajectory and transmit power are optimized alternately by an efficient iterative algorithm applying the block coordinate descent and successive convex optimization techniques. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed joint design can significantly enhance the secrecy rate of the considered wiretap system as compared to benchmark schemes.

arXiv:1801.06841•IEEE Wireless Communications Letters•Aug 16, 2018•263 citations

Secure UAV Communication With Cooperative Jamming and Trajectory Control

Canhui Zhong, Jianping Yao, Jie Xu

This letter presents a new cooperative jamming approach to secure the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) communication by leveraging jamming from other nearby UAVs to defend against the eavesdropping. In particular, we consider a two-UAV scenario when one UAV transmitter delivers the confidential information to a ground node (GN), and the other UAV jammer cooperatively sends the artificial noise to confuse the ground eavesdropper for protecting the confidentiality of the data transmission. By exploiting the fully controllable mobility, the two UAVs can adaptively adjust their locations over time (a.k.a. trajectories) to facilitate the secure communication and cooperative jamming. We assume that the two UAVs perfectly know the GN's location and partially know the eavesdropper's location a priori. Under this setup, we maximize the average secrecy rate from the UAV transmitter to the GN over one particular time period, by optimizing the UAVs' trajectories, jointly with their communicating/jamming power allocations. Although the formulated problem is non-convex, we propose an efficient solution by applying the techniques of alternating optimization and successive convex approximation.

arXiv:1812.06813•IEEE Communications Letters•Dec 25, 2018•266 citations

Joint Trajectory and Power Design in Probabilistic LoS Channel for UAV-Enabled Cooperative Jamming

Bin Duo, Hao Hu, Yilian Li +1 more

This paper proposes a mobile unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) jamming scheme under the probabilistic line-ofsight channel model (PLCM) to improve the secrecy of ground wiretap channels, in which a friendly UAV is deployed to cooperatively transmit jamming signals to confuse the suspicious eavesdropper. Our goal is to maximize the average (expected) secrecy rate by jointly optimizing the source transmit power, UAV jamming power and trajectory for a given flight time. Since the expected secrecy rate is highly complicated with respect to the UAV trajectory, we derive a more tractable lower bound for it. Nevertheless, the resulting optimization problem remains a non-convex problem, which is difficult to solve optimally. Therefore, we propose an efficient iterative algorithm to obtain a suboptimal solution to it by applying the block coordinate descent (BCD) and successive convex approximation (SCA) techniques. Simulation results show that the joint power and trajectory optimization scheme under the PLCM significantly outperforms various benchmark schemes.

International Conference on Communications•Jun 1, 2021•6 citations

Joint Trajectory Optimization and Power Control for Cognitive UAV-Assisted Secure Communications

Can Wang, Helin Yang, Liang Xiao +2 more

Cognitive unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) communication systems combine benefits of both the cognitive radio and UAV, which improves the spectral efficiency and communication coverage area. However, high-quality air-ground channel links maybe more vulnerable to potential eavesdropping or jamming attacks. Thus, this paper proposes a secure transmission approach assisted by deploying a cooperative UAV to transmit artificial noise to jam an active eavesdropper, in order to maximize the system secrecy rate under the quality of service (QoS) requirement of a primary device. Specifically, we jointly optimize the flight trajectory and transmission power of the cooperative jammer to maximize the system's secrecy rate under strict constraints. To achieve this, we convert the non-convex problem into an approximately convex problem using the block coordinate descent algorithm and successive convex approximation method. Simulation results show that compared to existing algorithms, the proposed algorithm in this study can significantly improve the system's secrecy rate.

Globecom•Dec 4, 2023•3 citations
This paper exploits the mobility of an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) to improve the physical layer (PLS) security against potential eavesdropping scenarios, where the sensitive data transmitted from a ground base station (GBS) to multiple information receivers (IRs) is easily eavesdropped by multiple non-colluding eavesdroppers (Eves). Specifically, the UAV is employed as a friendly jammer to transmit artificial noise to degrade the wiretap channels. By leveraging the UAV's mobility and the possibility of establishing line-of-sight links, the UAV can move close to the Eves and opportunistically jam them. Especially, two practical factors, namely, the imperfect location information of Eves and the existence of no-fly zones are considered. Since only the partial position information of the Eves can be known, as the worst case, the minimum average secrecy rate of IRs is robustly optimized by jointly designing the trajectory and jamming power of the UAV, and the transmission power of the GBS to ensure the security of all IRs. However, the formulated problem with coupled variables is non-convex and intractable. As such, an efficient alternative iterative suboptimal algorithm is proposed to solve this problem by applying the block coordinate descent, successive convex approximation, slack variables, andS\mathcal {S}S-Procedure. Numerical results reveal that the proposed robust algorithm can substantially improve the max-min average secrecy rate, and the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm is further verified by comparing it with three benchmark schemes.
The broadcast nature of air-to-ground line-of-sight (LoS) wireless channel imposes a great challenge in secure unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) communications. To address this issue, this paper investigates UAV-ground communications from the physical-layer security perspective. Specifically, the investigated scenario includes a UAV serving as the base station (BS) that transmits confidential signals to a legitimate ground user, and there are multiple eavesdroppers on the ground with unknown position information. To further enhance the secrecy performance of the UAV-ground communications, an idle UAV can be employed to serve as a friendly jammer, which can transmit jamming signals to confuse the eavesdroppers. In our proposed strategy, the flying trajectory and the transmit power for both the UAVs are jointly optimized by maximizing the worst-case secrecy rate (WCSR) of the system. Considering the intractability of the formulated non-convex problem, we further provide a block coordinate descent-based iterative optimization method. Simulations verify that our proposed algorithm can significantly improve the average WCSR in comparison with the existing works.
In this paper, we study the robust secure unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) communication system, where a UAV with full-duplex (FD) capability simultaneously receives the information signal from a ground unit (GU) and transmits jamming signal to degrade the wiretap capability of potential multiple ground eavesdroppers (Eves). With the consideration of estimation error of Eves' locations, we aim to maximize the average worst secrecy rate inside a certain flight period of the UAV by jointly optimizing the transmit power of the GU and UAV as well as the trajectory of the UAV. The resulting problem is intractable due to its non-convex nature and strongly coupled variables. Furthermore, the estimation error of Eves' locations results in an infinite number of constraints, which makes the problem even more difficult. To tackle this difficulty, we first propose an iterative algorithm based on the Schur complement lemma and successive inner approximation method to efficiently solve the problem suboptimally under the estimated Eves' locations. Then, in order to cope with the of Eves' location errors, we develop a cutting-set method, which solves the problem by alternating between optimal power-trajectory design and worst-case Eves' locations analysis. Via simulation, we show the improvement of the proposed algorithm compared to other benchmark algorithms under high FD self-interference cancellation levels.
This letter proposes a novel unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)-enabled mobile jamming scheme to improve the secrecy rate of ground wiretap channel. Specifically, a UAV is employed to transmit jamming signals to combat against eavesdropping. Such a mobile jamming scheme is particularly appealing since the UAV-enabled jammer can fly close to the eavesdropper and opportunistically jam it by leveraging the UAV's mobility. We aim to maximize the average secrecy rate by jointly optimizing the UAV's trajectory and jamming power over a given flight period. To make the problem more tractable, we drive a closed-form lower bound for the achievable secrecy rate, based on which the UAV's trajectory and transmit power are optimized alternately by an efficient iterative algorithm applying the block coordinate descent and successive convex optimization techniques. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed joint design can significantly enhance the secrecy rate of the considered wiretap system as compared to benchmark schemes.
This letter presents a new cooperative jamming approach to secure the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) communication by leveraging jamming from other nearby UAVs to defend against the eavesdropping. In particular, we consider a two-UAV scenario when one UAV transmitter delivers the confidential information to a ground node (GN), and the other UAV jammer cooperatively sends the artificial noise to confuse the ground eavesdropper for protecting the confidentiality of the data transmission. By exploiting the fully controllable mobility, the two UAVs can adaptively adjust their locations over time (a.k.a. trajectories) to facilitate the secure communication and cooperative jamming. We assume that the two UAVs perfectly know the GN's location and partially know the eavesdropper's location a priori. Under this setup, we maximize the average secrecy rate from the UAV transmitter to the GN over one particular time period, by optimizing the UAVs' trajectories, jointly with their communicating/jamming power allocations. Although the formulated problem is non-convex, we propose an efficient solution by applying the techniques of alternating optimization and successive convex approximation.
This paper proposes a mobile unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) jamming scheme under the probabilistic line-ofsight channel model (PLCM) to improve the secrecy of ground wiretap channels, in which a friendly UAV is deployed to cooperatively transmit jamming signals to confuse the suspicious eavesdropper. Our goal is to maximize the average (expected) secrecy rate by jointly optimizing the source transmit power, UAV jamming power and trajectory for a given flight time. Since the expected secrecy rate is highly complicated with respect to the UAV trajectory, we derive a more tractable lower bound for it. Nevertheless, the resulting optimization problem remains a non-convex problem, which is difficult to solve optimally. Therefore, we propose an efficient iterative algorithm to obtain a suboptimal solution to it by applying the block coordinate descent (BCD) and successive convex approximation (SCA) techniques. Simulation results show that the joint power and trajectory optimization scheme under the PLCM significantly outperforms various benchmark schemes.
Cognitive unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) communication systems combine benefits of both the cognitive radio and UAV, which improves the spectral efficiency and communication coverage area. However, high-quality air-ground channel links maybe more vulnerable to potential eavesdropping or jamming attacks. Thus, this paper proposes a secure transmission approach assisted by deploying a cooperative UAV to transmit artificial noise to jam an active eavesdropper, in order to maximize the system secrecy rate under the quality of service (QoS) requirement of a primary device. Specifically, we jointly optimize the flight trajectory and transmission power of the cooperative jammer to maximize the system's secrecy rate under strict constraints. To achieve this, we convert the non-convex problem into an approximately convex problem using the block coordinate descent algorithm and successive convex approximation method. Simulation results show that compared to existing algorithms, the proposed algorithm in this study can significantly improve the system's secrecy rate.